I ground my teeth together because he confused me. Why did he put so much effort into saving me?
I have to get you safe first.It was what he said before he promised me he’d go back for my parents. He told me he’d bring them to the cabin and to wait for him. Only he never came back, at least, not in the same way I thought. I couldn’t decipher between what was real and what was a dream anymore.
Everything was a nightmare, and I was losing my mind.
It wasn’t until Sie and the strange girl rescued me that I knew for certain what happened.
Greyland was caught. He saved me, and then he was caught for it. And now he lost his eye. I wasn’t even sure how he was coping with it.
Seeing him in the healer’s cot when I first arrived was seared into my memory. Seeing how badly he was beaten, what he went through. We all lost our parents, but Greyland was forced to watch their deaths firsthand. How many more deaths would we see as a result of this war? What else would we have to go through? I thought things couldn’t get any worse. I thought being sold to our classmates was the lowest we’d be treated, butI was wrong. Now they were murdering us, trying to kill every rank zero in existence.
“What are you two doing?” My brother’s voice snapped me back to reality. He pulled me into a hug before I could squeeze out of it. A large grin was smacked across his face, exposing his dimples as he looked between Grey and I.
Sie, on the other hand, wasn’t smiling. His gaze was settled on his younger brother, on the pen Grey was now holding.
“What are you doing with that?” Sie seethed.
“What it looks like I’m doing. I’m signing up.” Greyland straightened.
“No. You. Aren’t.”
“To hell I’m not. You don’t get to tell me what to do—”
“Yes, I do. I’m your older brother, and you aren’t fighting.”
Grey turned his back to Sie and finally brought the pen to paper. He managed to write out the letter “G” before Sie grabbed it from him.
“What are you doing, Sie? Give that back.”
“Not until you tell me you won’t write your name on that paper.”
Greyland ground his teeth together before he started to turn around to walk away. “Whatever, I’ll just sign it later when you aren’t around.”
I was pretty sure Grey only meant to say it under his breath. He didn’t mean for his brother to hear, but Sie didn’t miss a single word of it. His body flared with golden markings as he let his compulsion wash over him. “You will not write your name on that paper.”
Greyland stilled, turning around slowly to face us, then rolled his shoulders, the only indication that the compulsion went through him. “You promised…” he started, ground his teeth some more, then forced himself to unclench his jaw. “You promised you wouldn’t use your total mind control on me.”
“That promise was made before we were in the middle of awar. You aren’t fighting.” His voice softened as he added, “You’re still recovering, Grey.”
Greyland stared at Sie in shock, anger radiating off of him as he clamped and unclamped his fists. A part of me was happy to see Greyland compelled. Sie was the only person who could do it—he was the only person in our kingdom who could compel a ranked Tennebrisian—and I loved that Greyland now knew how it felt.
I smirked. The Noren boys were too eerily similar and both hot-headed. Most people claimed that Grey was the gentler, softer one, but they didn’t go to school with him. They weren’t on the laughing end of his amusement. They weren’t bought by his friends and forced to serve them—
I gently stepped in front of Sie and pried the pen from his fingers. Greyland watched every second of it. I felt his gaze on me as I signed my name on thefightingpaper.
“You can always sign that one,” I gestured toward the one he told me to sign. The one that saidnon-frontline-fighting.
Then, I sweetly smiled at him before I walked away, knowing I was leaving him seething behind me.
FIFTY-SEVEN
SIE
Savannah wastrue to her word and trained with us every morning. And even though she always complained about needing coffee nonstop or groaned about how the sun wasn’t up yet, she always showed up.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d want, what she’d ask me for that I wouldn’t be able to refuse. I tried to ignore it, but a small pang in my stomach told me I made a huge mistake, a big fucking mistake, and that she wasn’t worth the trouble. I’d regret it as soon as I found out what she’d demand.
But she was helping Vallie. She ran through all the drills we had already taught her, adjusting her form and shifting her positioning in a way Peter and I couldn’t with words alone. And with Savannah helping Vallie, Peter could focus more on Lilia. They were both improving, and Peter was so fucking elated for it that it took some of my edge off.
