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Even Alec smiled from across the fire, his eyes cast to the knife he twirled in his nimble hands. From what I’d learned, he hailed from a village up north, and I hadn’t seen him grin at anything besides a sword. It appeared that Kiara was slowly worming her way under his skin as well.
I tracked Isiah and Carter speaking in hushed tones a decent distance away.
Carter had been stationed on the outskirts of the Mist before, but had never gone deep within. He’d been injured last year when the king sent me into the Mist.
A week before our orders came through, he’d saved a recruit from the salendons—just as Kiara had—and the creature managed to break his right leg. Carter never spoke of the incident, and whenever someone asked, he’d say, “Wouldn’t want to waste good soldiers.”
In truth, I just thought the man had a soft spot for the boys, looking after them like the fathers and mothers they’d been taken from. From the rumors I’d heard about him, Carter once had a child of his own before joining us, but he didn’t speak about his past life.
I often wondered what became of his child, but I had the feeling his story ended in heartbreak, like so many others in this wicked kingdom.
I glanced to Carter now, watching nerves spread across his weathered face. He was raising his hands at Isiah, whose face remained neutral and calm.
Isiah understood what they faced. He’d been the one to take care of me after I’d returned, my mind a torn mess. At the time, I hadn’t known what was real and what wasn’t. Only he had been able to get me to eat and drink, and at night, he’d slept on a pallet beside my bed. For weeks.
I owed Isiah much more than a life debt.
At the memory, something in me snapped. These recruits shouldn’t be laughing and joking around as if this were some game. Were they really so naive not to consider the horrors that awaited them?
I rose abruptly and stormed their way, not stopping until I stood above them. All their chatter ceased.
“Now that you’re all caught up, maybe you’ll be able to focus on the mission to save your kingdom. I expect you all to take this seriously, and if you don’t, I won’t bother burying your body when you eventually die out there.”
Fear. It was a tactic that had been used on me many times, but now, I found it a necessary tool.
“S-sorry, sir,” Patrick stumbled. “We were just happy to see Ki.” He jerked his head timidly her way. Kiara gave me a small grin, clearly unaffected by my speech. I glowered.
“Well, hurry and get…reacquainted. We have much to discuss.” Turning on a booted heel, I passed a brooding Carter and made my way to where Isiah leaned against a tree, overseeing all of the chaos with a gleam in his gray eyes. In his hands was a steaming cup of coffee.
“I take it they’re thrilled,” he remarked dryly once I was in hearing distance.
I grunted and settled against the trunk, my shoulder hitting the abrasive black wood.
The forests surrounding the kingdom were covered in them, the black trees, all the deepest shade of onyx. I hadn’t been alive when there’d been color in the leaves, but from what the elders claimed, it had been a sight to behold.
I fixed Isiah with a menacing glower before turning back to the recruits, the weak fire barely lighting their faces. Clouds had washed across the moon, leaving the shadows of the realm to roam freely.
Even I shivered at the thought of the famed shadow beasts, supposedly creatures crafted by the Moon God. Mortals didn’t see them coming before arms of night wrapped around them, engulfing them whole, bones and all. I was surprised I hadn’t seen any when I’d last been in the Mist. If there was ever a place for them to roam, it’d be there.
Isiah and I watched from the edge of camp as the recruits readied for the day. When Kiara passed us, likely on her way to relieve herself, Isiah waited all of five seconds before hounding me.
“So…” He whistled. “How’sthatgoing?’
I snorted. “How’s what going?”
Isiah rolled his eyes before handing over his cup. I took it, not one to pass up on coffee. “How long have I known you, Maddox?” I didn’t answer. “Then you should know better. I might be the silent type, but I still have eyes.”
“Then close them.”
“Jude,” Isiah warned. “You know better than to start something with a recruit. You could have any woman in the palace. As one of Cirian’s favorites—”
“As one of his assassins, you mean,” I amended.
Isiah ignored that. “What I’m trying to say is, you have to stay away. Not only is it dangerous for you, but it’d be dangerous forher.”
That stopped the retort I’d planned on delivering.
“I know the king has an interest in her,” Isiah said. “I happened upon a letter sent to Harlow, and by ‘happened,’ I mean I read it before I delivered it to him.” I shook my head at his audacity.
