Chapter 25
Thorne
The air reeked of smoke and salt. The fire from the garrison was already taking hold.
It was almost too easy.
From my perch on the cliffside, I watched the sea churn with steel. Dozens of black-hulled warships cut through the waves like blades—ours, Ashton’s, Vael’s—an armada of monsters wrapped in royal silk.
Below, the garrison burned. Flames crawled up the eastern wall, spilling into the sky.
Screams drifted upward like mist.
Farther out, I saw them—the Veilguard.
Their ships closed fast, formation tight. Disciplined. Unafraid.
Shields raised. Banners flying.
At least a hundred vessels, and not one of them ready for the trap waiting in the fog.
Behind me, hidden among the rocks and brush, an army of Sentinels waited—coiled and still. Our ghosts in the grass.
They would let the Veilguard land. Let them breathe.
Then slaughter them.
Some Sentinels had already split off, sprinting toward the shoreline to cut off the first wave. Others aimed for our ships, pushing upriver through the current like teeth closing around a throat.
It wouldn’t be enough.
They would lose.
I felt no pride in it. No fire. Just cold calculation. The rhythm of observation. The hum of the mantra keeping my thoughts tight and my breath steady.
Order before mercy.
Truth before feeling.
Duty before desire.
I repeated it silently. Then again.
Until even the word desire felt meaningless.
A voice cut through the wind behind me.
“She’s on one of those ships.”
Vael.
I didn’t turn. I didn’t need to.
“I can feel her,” he went on, voice low and strangely reverent. His eyes were on the water—gleaming with devotion and madness. “She wouldn’t miss this fight. Not for the world.”
I stayed silent, watching the battlefield stretch out like a blade beneath us.
“You feel it too,” he said. “Don’t lie to yourself, Thorne. You know exactly where she is.”
My jaw locked.
He stepped up beside me, calm as ever. The wind pulled at his cloak, ash clinging to the folds like snow. He stared down at the approaching Veilguard.
“I imagine your friends are down there too,” he added, voice dipped in mockery. “Come to protect their precious little shadow.”
“Friends are a weakness,” I said, fingers curling. “I have no friends.”
He glanced sideways, amused. “I’m expecting you to play your role here, Thorne. She’s coming. And when she does—you will bring her to me. Unharmed. No matter what. No matter who you have to kill to do it.”
My hand slid to the hilt at my side.
“Yes, sir,” I said.
A lie.
A truth.
I no longer knew the difference.
Vael smiled, satisfied. “Tell the ships to fire on the Veilguard.”
I lifted the war horn to my lips.
My fingers paused for half a breath.
And blew.
Somewhere beneath the mantra, I thought I felt her presence. Just for a second. Just a whisper.
A flash of blue eyes in my mind.
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
I kept blowing the horn anyway.