Aziel sucks his cheeks into his mouth and busies himself with something at the far end of the room. If he’s uncomfortable seeing me care for Rexton, that’s his issue to work through. It’s my responsibility to keep Rexton healthy.
His strength directly reflects mine, after all. I don’t want people to think my mate is weak.
Rexton pushes the chair aside, his eyes meeting mine. He lets his side of the bond open, and I wince as I’m bombarded with annoyance, embarrassment, and just a tiny hint of amusement.
Is it because of me? I glance between him and the chair, my lips pursing. I’d be infuriated if he tried making me sit at a table full of standing generals. I would kill him.
I’m just trying to help.
Rexton places a hand on the small of my back, and I hope my reddening cheeks aren’t apparent as I turn toward the table. Rexton stands on my right, and after a few seconds, Aziel joins me on my left.
We don’t acknowledge one another.
Raum storms into the room with a large, rolled-up map underneath his arm.
He’s still covered in evidence of war—blood and other questionable body fluids—and he looks uncharacteristically disheveled as he squeezes between Aziel and me, his broad shoulders bumping into us. It’s a disrespectful action that would earn any other Wrath an immediate dismissal, but Aziel snorts and quietly steps aside.
Raum’s careful to always be respectful, but he’s obviously distracted. He lays the map across the table, then snatches four heavy items to pin down the corners.
“Prince Nolic is a sneaky bastard,” he starts. He points south, toward the lava fields. There’s a small area where our borders touch, but it’s uninhabitable. A large pool of lava separates our kingdoms, and there’s no way across it.
Many have tried, and all have died.
“The fifty thousand troops he was marching toward our mountain borders were a distraction,” Raum says. He jabs his finger against the lava fields. “While we were watching them, Prince Nolic was building a tunnelunderneaththe lava fields. Our scouts found evidence of construction about twenty miles north of the lava field. They must have dug underground, just far enough to cross into Wrath’s borders and teleport.”
Aziel leans forward, resting his palms against the table.
I drag a hand through my hair. Sneaky bastard, indeed. The lava fields are unpredictable, and digging underneath is a risky endeavor. There are a few shallow areas, but if you hit a spotwhere magma funnels up from the deep underground, you and your entire team are as good as dead.
Raum continues. “It appears the tunnels they built didn’t hold up. They collapsed within themselves, which is why the attack seemed to stop so suddenly. Androl took a tally of about seven thousand Greed casualties.”
“How many Wraths?” I ask.
Raum frowns. “Roughly fifteen hundred dead, one thousand injured.”
My heart drops.
That’s high, especially when compared to the number of Greeds we fought. We should’ve crushed them. I hoped the total count of deadandinjured would be below a thousand.
Raum drops a heavy hand onto my shoulder. “This was an ambush, Cassia. You couldn’t have planned for it, and you handled it well.”
Rexton’s fingers curl against my lower back, and Raum briefly makes eye contact with him before dropping his hand from my shoulder. I’m uninterested in Rexton’s dick-measuring contest. Despite what Raum claims, twenty-five hundred injured and dead is a high count.
I clear my throat. “Where’s Prince Nolic?”
Raum shrugs and glances around the table. None of the other generals speaks up. Nobody knows where he disappeared to.Wonderful.
“The hundred soldiers he was traveling with were found deep within Greed’s borders. They retreated shortly after the ambush began,” Raum says. “But there’s been no sighting of the prince. We suspect he snuck into Wrath during the chaos.”
That’s my fear, too.
What could Prince Nolic possibly be doing inside Wrath? Is he after my family? Rexton? I can’t fathom what he’d want if not revenge. That’s what I’d be after. That’s the whole reason I snuckinto Greed in the first place. Mammon murdered my brother, and I was going to murder her.
That privilege was stolen from me, though. At least I now own the man who stole it from me. In a roundabout way, I now also own the privilege of having murdered Mammon.
Aziel looks toward me. He’s waiting for me to speak. The control he’s giving me is dizzying, and I don’t understand where the sudden change is coming from. Just a few weeks ago, he was telling me he didn’t know if he’d ever trust me to lead Wrath.
I clear my throat. “Let’s keep an eye on Greed’s troops, but let’s not make any movements until we know what Prince Nolic’s after.” I turn toward the general across the table from me. He’s the youngest of them, and he’s one of the few I feel comfortable giving direct orders to. “Find Prince Nolic. I want to know where he’s disappeared to, and if he’s within Wrath, I want him brought in alive.”
