Epilogue Two
The study reeked of smoke and secrets. Old candle wax dripped in hardened rivers down silver holders, pooling onto the scarred mahogany desk where maps, coded letters, and ancient ledgers of my family lay open, taunting me with their tales.
Shadows bent unnaturally against the walls, crawling across shelves lined with iron-bound tomes and relics stolen from centuries of bloodshed.
The door creaked open. Logan entered, his swagger gone, his shoulders hunched like a beaten dog.
The bandage at his temple was stained, the split in his lip barely clotted.
His boots scuffed against the stone as he dragged himself forward, his limp from the bullet in his leg that he had been rid of weeks ago still prominent.
When he got in front of me finally, he dropped to his knees in a pathetic heap, like I would have sympathy for him if he looked the part.
I let the silence strangle him for several breaths. His shallow gasps filled the space like the rattling of a cornered rat.
“You’ve failed me,” I said, my voice soft enough to force him to lean forward, but sharp enough that each word cut into him like glass. The tap of my nails against the desk seemed to set him even more on edge. Logan’s palms pressed flat to the floor.
“Please, just give me another chance.” His voice shook. “Emersyn—she’s cunning, but I can get her back under control. I swear I can. I’ll finish what Alec started. What you started before him.”
I rose from the chair slowly, letting the weight of my presence speak louder than my words. “Control?”
The edge of my coat dragged across the wood floor as I moved toward him. “You couldn’t control a half-dead girl in a barn. You couldn’t control Alec. And worst of all…” I crouched down until my face hovered close enough that he dared not breathe too loudly. “You couldn’t control yourself.”
He flinched, but his eyes snapped upward, desperate. “It was Alec’s fault! He pumped her with too much hemlock. He—”
“Enough.” The single word cracked like thunder through the room. Logan choked his protest off, his chest heaving as silence slammed down between us. His lips quivered, but he didn’t dare move. I straightened, circling him like a wolf deciding whether its prey was worth the effort of tearing open.
“Do you have the faintest idea what your failure has cost me? Every move I make against the Knights must be exact. Precise. My plans do not have room for incompetence.” I paused, letting the weight of my words drag through the air.
“You’ve been sloppy, predictable. And now the Knights are watching us closer than ever.
They are aware of an enemy on the horizon. ”
Logan lowered himself further until his forehead nearly brushed the floor. His voice cracked. “I can prove myself. Just please don’t cast me aside. I’ve given everything to this cause.”
I bent low, my sharp nail hooking beneath his chin, forcing him to meet my gaze. “That’s the problem. You’ve given everything you are…and it still isn’t enough. You are nothing, Logan. A disposable card in a stacked deck. And you are out of plays.”
His eyes burned, wet and frantic. His lips trembled around words that barely scraped free. “Please don’t kill me.”
I let my smile flicker across my mouth, a thing devoid of warmth. “Kill you? No. Death would be too much of a kindness for you. And you haven’t earned that.”
I released his face with a snap of my wrist, sending him sprawling onto his side.
He stayed there, trembling, as I returned to my desk.
The map of Lovelen sprawling across the surface glowed in the dim candlelight, each territory marked, each Knight stronghold carefully circled.
The greater game was still intact. Logan’s incompetence had delayed my hand, nothing more.
Fingers brushed over the map as I spoke the words that sealed his fate—not his death, but his purpose.
“Let the Spade girl play her little games.” My tone was almost amused now. “We still have the darling under our thumb.”