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Drums beat, and battle cries went up all over a vast field where thousands of soldiers stood opposite of each other. Not elves but dragon shifters, hundreds soared above, the great whooshing of wings beat the air. Thane glanced over and… Hel stood beside him. “You love this, don’t you?” Hel said. He looked different than he had in the tower, lighter, younger, even though the male he’d encountered in the Void didn’t look a day over thirty. “The anticipation of the fight. It’s going to be a bloodbath. You should join in. Stop it before it starts.”

“I’m here to oversee the battle, not pick a side. That’s my role here. Thanks for coming today by the way.”

“You’re my brother. I’ll always come when you ask. But you promised fun, War, and I’m craving a good fight.”

“If the battle gets close, we’ll have to defend ourselves, and it will get close.”

“You know she’s mine, right?” Hel smirked at the change in subject. “I’m going to have her, so don’t get in my way.”

“If you truly care for her, I won’t.”

Muffled chatter brought him out of the memory. It felt real, as if he stood beside him now. His eyes flashed wide then the doors clicked and opened. Thane rubbed his chest at the ache beginning there. How was he supposed to fight someone who called him brother? Someone he felt a bond with at this very moment? More than even with Fennan.

Piper and Leif walked in, side by side, filthy. Leif grinned with delight and Piper looked like she wanted to kill him for it.

“Sire,” Leif boomed, strutting like a gnome who’d just found a stash of his favorite treats. “Guess whose team won the day?”

“How could I ever guess?”

Piper rolled her eyes and stroked the long red braid bouncing against the front of her shoulder. She was in full Raven armor although her winged helmet was tucked under her arm. The metal clanked quietly off the high domed ceiling with each step. “Barely.”

“You know the winning factor, Red?” Leif said, looking over at her as they stopped at the bottom of the steps that led up to Thane’s throne. The dirt on his cheek, in his hair, and all over his armor made Thane question if Piper had tackled him for winning. She was almost as disheveled and filthy as he. “It’s morale. You’re too mean. I’m fun.”

Piper tapped her boot on the ground. “Considering my team won the last three days, I won’t be changing my methods. My team’s morale is plenty high. You’re also a male and they see you as a leader without any effort. I have to earn it. I don’t have the luxury of being their friend.”

That heaviness in Thane’s gut lifted some. His friends were a much-needed distraction.

“And where is Fennan? How did his team do?”

“My team crushed them,” Leif said. “Easy. And he’s making his team train extra because of it. He’s a better loser than Piper though.”

“Shut up or I’ll throw you into the mud pit again.”

“I liked it. It’s not a threat, Red. Especially the part where you fell on top of me.”

Thane slowly shook his head but smiled. “All of them need to be ready by next week. Will they be?” These boys were seventeen and eighteen. The typical minimum age was nineteen and he hated that he even needed to bring them into this so young, but desperate times. They’d lost many soldiers in the civil war against his father and through the attacks the past several months. Thankfully a common enemy brought the Ravens and general Palenor soldiers back together and brought more volunteers than ever.

Piper frowned. “I won’t feel comfortable sending them out by next week.”

“We have a new batch of recruits coming and cities need protection. They need to be ready. You have three days to get them there.” Thane glanced at the double entry doors. He expected the new Lord of Calladira to show up at any moment. He was informed the lord and his group were close to the city. He hadn’t heard the name of the new ruler yet. It felt like they were deliberately keeping it secret, and Thane had too many other things to deal with to worry about it sooner, but Thane’s spies said they were struggling with the attacks just the same. Perhaps a common enemy would bring the woodland and high elves together or it would give Thane one more adversary to worry about.

The doors were opened by the guards and Layala strode through. The snug bodice of her strapless midnight blue dress shimmered like stars and the bunches of her silk skirt flowed around her ankles. Her hair was half pulled back with sprays of tiny white flowers tucked in, and her lips painted a soft berry. His heart beat faster, the way it often did in her presence, and then it sank. She’d been dealing with constant harassment, and he didn’t even know it. Not just from the public eye, which he thought she was sheltered from within these walls.

He hated that things were different between them and that she didn’t feel comfortable telling him everything, but ever since the tower he had a difficult time adjusting to the elf maiden he fell in love with and the mystery that hid somewhere deep down inside her.

He’d seen glimpses of the Valeen in his memories and the present like in the arena against the dragon prince, on the battlefield when she threw a throwing star at Talon. That was something Valeen would do. Then when she demanded he stay his hand rather than save his sister. When he thought back on it, there were other times too, when she was drawn to Hel’s chair in the mage’s tower, when she tore apart the woodland elves to save him from the cage.

One day the goddess would break free of the webs of darkness clouding her memory, and he didn’t know what to expect. Would she still love him? Were the gossips correct and she would go with Hel? Was that where her heart would belong? He couldn’t love her the way he wanted until she remembered—until they both did.

“Well, if it isn’t Fightbringer, gracing us with her presence in the light of day,” Leif said, folding his arms. “Where have you been? We’re coming up on the final days of training and you’ve missed most of it.”

She put on a smile, waved a dismissive hand, and quickened her pace across the glossy gray stone. “I’ve had things to do. Where are Fennan and Siegfried?” The way the sunlight shone down on her through the high windows made her golden skin glow in a way that made him shift slightly. In public they pretended everything was fine between them, though he knew they weren’t fooling his friends.

“Fen is training still,” Piper answered. “And Siegfried is in the south with his family. He was worried about their safety with his father’s injury.”

Leif tugged a small stick out of his unruly fire-orange hair. “Fightbringer, tell me you’ll at least be at the ceremony and the ball afterward. It’s a masked ball this time, celestial themed. Queen Orlandia and Princess Talon wanted to change things up a bit.”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Layala said. “Is it still this weekend?”