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“If even one of them escaped, they would have returned with hundreds more.” The words emerge, clinical and precise. “Stonehaven would have been discovered. Everyone inside would have been executed. Including you.”

She shakes her head again, slower now. Shock settling deeper. A drop of blood—not hers, not mine, but one of theirs—marks her cheek like a brand.

“I’ve never seen anyone die before.” Her voice is barely above a whisper. “Not like that. Not murdered.”

I don’t respond. There’s nothing I can say that will change what she saw.

What I did.

What I am.

“Lord Torran,” Tisera breaks the silence. “We need to move. Others will come searching when these men don’t return.”

I translate for Ellie, who sucks in a shuddering breath. She still won’t look directly at me.

“Something needs to be done with the bodies.” Tisera reminds me.

I extend my hands, and darkness responds to my call. It pours from my fingertips, coiling around the dead soldiers. Their bodies rise from the ground, suspended in tendrils of living shadow.

With a flick of my wrist, I send them over the ravine’s edge. They tumble down, the dull impact of their bodies hitting stone echoing back as they strike the rocks below.

Ellie watches this display with fresh horror, her arms wrapping around herself.

“How can you be so calm?”

“This is war. They would kill us without hesitation."

“War?” The word escapes her with a wildness that verges on hysteria, her voice cracking around its edges. “This wasn't war. It was an execution. You didn't even hesitate.”

“'They would have done the same to us.” I keep my voice level. “With far less mercy and far more pleasure.”

“You call that mercy?” Her eyes finally find mine, and the connection hits like a physical blow. There's something new swimming in that gaze. Not the wary distance she’s held until now, but genuine fear. Not of the danger around us. Ofme. And what I can do.

She swallows hard, her throat working visibly. “Is this what you did before? Is this why they locked you away? Because you're a—” She stops, unable or unwilling to finish the thought.

The word she doesn't say hangs between us.

A monster. The truth I've never denied.

The answer would be simple, but the explanation is far more complicated.

“I did what was necessary to protect those who follow me. As I did just now.”

She doesn’t reply, just turns away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“We really need to move,” Tisera says. “Their absence will be noticed, and we should get inside before night falls.”

We return to our original path in silence, Ellie keeping a noticeable distance between us. Three paces. Just enough to put her out of arm’s reach. Her shoulders remain rigid, her gaze fixed on anything but the blood drying on my face and hands.

Stonehaven appears as nothing more than a sheer rock face until Tisera places her palm against what seems to be solid stone. The rock shimmers beneath her touch, and parts, revealing a hidden passage.

The guard stationed just inside stiffens at our approach. His hand instinctively moves to the hilt at his waist as we step through the ward. His expression shifts from caution to recognition when he sees Tisera. The tension in his shoulders eases, but doesn’t vanish entirely.

“We received a coded message from Varam at Ravencross saying you’d be bringing two refugees fleeing the Authority.”

I lower my hood and release my grip on the control keeping my shadows at bay. I know what's happening without needing to see it. I've felt this transformation countless times before. Inky darkness bleeds outward, forming the living tattoos that mark me as what I truly am. Shadows crawl across my face in familiar patterns, a sensation like cool water flowing along my jawline, spiraling acrossmy temples, threading through the hollows beneath my cheekbones.

My vision sharpens as the change completes, the way it always does, shadows enhancing rather than obscuring my sight. I feel the familiar weight of power settle into my eyes, knowing they've deepened to the obsidian pools that have made hardened warriors look away.