Forging the Bloodied Blade

After their base is breached, Sevastyan, Rei, and Lisa are hurt and exposed, with Ellisandre the last of them still able to fight and another assault possibly close behind.

Lisa studies the bullet wound along Sevastyan’s ribs and offers a grim bargain: if he intends to destroy their enemies, she will belong to him as a slave and undermine them from within.

Sevastyan will no longer wait or soften his approach, not after Rei was put in harm’s way, and the price of that hardness may be everything he still is.

Ellisandre has to hold him together through what comes next, while Lisa’s decision could mean survival even as it pulls her into darkness.

Rei is bound up in every thread of it, keeping their chosen family from coming apart as Sevastyan squares off against the Merchari.

Whether Sevastyan, Ellisandre, or Rei is truly in command, their dark contemporary polyamorous bond leaves them little time to protect themselves and the people the Merchari are still hunting.