Rhen’s attention settled upon the marked route.
“I’ll take point.”
Cole looked at him.
“Are you certain?”
Rhen’s silver gaze lifted.
“They want Leena’s bloodline ended. They want Norse dead.”
The temperature of his voice left no room for further questions.
“They do not get to have him.”
Cole exchanged a look with Malakai.
“We will burn through anything between us and the target.”
“Good.”
Rhen indicated the marked entrance.
“Prepare the weapons and have everyone ready by midnight. Nobody breaks formation, and nobody chases a retreating target unless I give the order.”
Malakai signed,And if Marcella is there?
“Leave her alive until she gives us what she knows.”
Cole’s mouth tightened.
“And afterward?”
Rhen looked toward the red mark indicating the last confirmed heretic sighting.
“Afterward, she becomes unnecessary.”
The brothers began gathering the reports and transmitting instructions to the guards and strike team.
Rhen remained beside the map.
Norse was Leena’s son and Sule’s heir. The child carried her blood, her eyes, and the only future she had been permitted to leave behind.
Leena had been the exception.
Her son and her king were protected by the same absolute loyalty she had once mistaken for humanity.
Anything reaching for them would die.
Chapter 31
Dax said nothing as he escorted Veya away from Rhen’s quarters.
She remained silent beside him, although the silence seemed close to breaking. Her body trembled beneath the oversized linen shift, and the lingering effects of the sedative made each step uncertain. Her pupils remained wide, her skin flushed with unnatural heat, and her balance failed whenever the tether tightened beneath her ribs.
She did not look back at the door.
Dax kept one arm around her lower back without pulling her against him. He guided only as much as her unsteady legs required, allowing Veya to choose the pace even when fury urged him to lift her and remove her from every corridor Rhen occupied.
