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Wren stayed silent as the whole room watched Landers turn to face me with slow calculated movements.

“Hyacinth. . .” Landers started, struggling to control the anger in his voice. “We can not wake them.”

“We have to, Landers. We no longer have the time to search for other ways around it. If we’re lucky, we have a few short months until the battle has started,” I said as firmly as I could as Asrai gave me an approving smile.

“No,” Landers shot back, every inch of his features hardening.

“Why? If this is an option that could help us, why are you so against it?”

“They have been frozen in time for over a thousand years, Hyacinth. The only thing they will be looking for is bloodshed,” Landers answered, straining to keep his voice calm.

“You don’t know that, and even if retaliation on my grandparents is all they want, they will owe me a debt for waking them.”

“Landers, Cin is right. If they can give us even the smallest chance, we need them,” Pri said cautiously as Wren tightened his arm around her waist.

“And if they kill you the moment you wake them? If they burn the realms to the ground trying to exact vengeance on what your grandparents have done to them? What then, Hyacinth? Can you live with that blood on your hands?” The words were a growl as the questions left his lips and my spine went rigid at the sound.

Andrues cut in, putting a hand on Landers’s shoulder as he spoke. “The realms will burn either way, brother. If this gives us a chance to be the ones wielding the flame, then we must take it.”

No one spoke as Landers and I stared back at each other and I forced myself not to look away.

I was doing this, with or without him.

“I need to get back to the training camps, the students tend to sneak into Nethkar when they are left unsupervised,” Asrai said, cutting into the quiet and pulling the pocket watch from her vest to check the time. “I will prepare to leave for Ithia in the morning.”

Landers finally pulled his eyes from mine as she spoke and I sucked in a sharp breath as nerves flooded my system.

Asrai turned to Landers, her eyes hardening as they locked onto his.

“She may be your partner, but she is also your God. Be the man I know you to be,the KingI know you to be, and tell her the truth.”

My body went wholly still at her words, ice running through every vein beneath my skin as she looked at Landers for a moment longer than tethered from the room.

“Well, there is much to do,” Pri said, clearing her throat. She nudged Wren and gestured her head toward the door as she glanced between me and Landers.“If I do not see you before you leave in the morning,” she started, pulling my hand into hers as she passed by. “I love you; please be safe.” She gave me a nervous smile and herded the rest of the men out of the room.

The space fell quiet as she pulled the door closed behind her and I kept my eyes locked on the wall, counting the stones as I sucked a deep breath in.

Static began buzzing in my ears and I grabbed hold of the table beside me to keep my hands from shaking.

“Hyacinth,” Landers said slowly, my name rolling off his tongue with caution.

I turned my head to see his emerald eyes already fixed on me, his features set in hard lines as he searched my face.

“Hyacinth,” he said again, his tone almost pleading as he took a step toward me.

“What is she talking about?” I asked, willing my voice to steady.

“It was not her place to say anything . . .”

“No,” I hissed, his back straightening as I took a step toward him. “If you can’t be honest with me, it will not be this war that breaks us, it won’t even be death, it’ll be you and the secrets you keep.” I inhaled sharply, trying to contain the power that was begging to be released alongside the emotion flowing out of me.

“I have felt that you were keeping something from me since I came to Locdragoon. I could sense it; I could see it in the way you looked at me. And after we met with the Elders, I knew I was right. What Asrai said just confirms that.” Landers’s eyes darkened at the revelation and he began pacing as I spoke, his jaw flexing with every step he took.

“I haven’t pressed you, I haven’t pushed you because I can feel the guilt and anger that seeps out of you every time someone calls you the Lord of Death, every time someone mentions the Great War or the Fallen Ones.” The words were biting as they left my mouth, the volume of my voice rising with every passing second.

“I have been scared that asking you for the truth would hurt us, would push you away from me, but I can’t be this person anymore. The person—the coward—too scared to ask for the answers I deserve. I need to know, Landers. Idemandto know. I deserve every piece of the truth and I amdonesettling for just bits and pieces.”

I drew in a deep breath, readying myself to ask the question—readying myself for whatever answer was waiting for me.