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“There has been an uptick in rebel attacks, and they’ve changed their strategy.” He grabs another letter from the other side of the desk, the broken wax seal stamped with an ‘A’ and points at a new sentence. “They’re burning civilians alive. Trapping them in their homes in the late hours of the night and slaughtering entire villages. In the past, we’ve had dragon attacks to contend with. These rebel attacks…they’re precise and planned. But we have no motive, no estimated time of the next attack, no intended targets...nothing.”

“Like Hornwood...” I mutter blankly.

He drops to crouch beside me, tilting his head to make eye contact. “How do you know about Hornwood?”

“I was there…” I recount the events. My lips tremble when I speak of the little girl and her family. How I failed. Yet again.

He shakes his head furiously and swipes a tear off my cheek with a thumb. “You can’t beat yourself up about that. I know you. And I know you did everything you could to save them.”

“But even my mother—” My voice cracks, and I try again. “Even with my mother I couldn’t—”

But I can’t. I can’t get the words out.

He pulls me off the chair into an embrace, rubbing gentle strokes down my hair. “Shhh. I know, I know. I’m so sorry, Kat.”

I pull a strained breath into my lungs, trying to shove all my heavy emotions back into a box to process at a later, more convenient, time.

Cole’s raspy whisper brushes against my ear, “When I was told your house burned down with you in it, you died once. But inmy mind, I experienced your death every day. I suffered every waking breath, knowing I lived in a world without you...”

I pull away to look at him, and his eyes glisten in torment. He understood me.

He bites his lip, shaking his head to keep tears at bay. “I...I couldn’t even escape my longing for you in my dreams.”

I lean my forehead to his, cradling his cheek with my palm. His sadness cracks into a shaky grin.

Perhaps death was crueler to those it left behind. To miss, and wonder, and long for. To hold all of those memories in the palm of your hand, desperate to not let them go, but painful to keep them all the same.

He grabs my hands, raining soft kisses onto them. “I wish I could take your pain away. If it were possible, it would be done. It kills me to see you hurting. But know that I’m here for you. Always. And I’m never leaving.”

The pain in my heart dulls ever so slightly with the way he gazes at me and the delicacy of his lips pressing a tender kiss to my cheek.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

His hand brushes the chicken in my pocket, his gaze diverted down. “We will find a way to get her to the Dragon Lands. I will help you, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

We.Together.

I smile, hope flickering in my heart. “Then what are we going to—”

“Captain!” a shout comes from outside the room, followed by a pounding on the door.

We both freeze.

Cole scrambles up to his feet, and I follow. He opens the door, and outside, Carlisle’s narrowed eyes dig into us.

Blood drains from my face from the one word Carlisle hisses.

“Traitors.”

eighteen

TRAITORS

Cole snatches my hand and shifts his body in front of me. His muscles lock in preparation, his stance rigid and shoulders pinned back. Cole towers at least five inches over Carlisle, and if it came down to fighting, Cole definitely had the advantage. Outside of his naturally skilled hands, Cole’s exceptional stature would intimidate just about anyone.

But we are outnumbered here.

Several other men are lined up behind Carlisle, eyes trained on us.