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“At least we agree on something,” Dani said with a wink.

Ellie shoved Dani with her leg, their knees knocking together, and Dani smirked.

The log split, and embers shot through the air. The others had already escaped to their tents to sleep.

Ellie pushed herself up from the dirt. “We have a lot of ground to cover in the morning if we want to reach the Frenzian border in two days’ time. Get some rest while you can.”

Leaves rustled nearby, and Dani’s gaze snapped to it. Squinting, she stared past the oak trees surrounding them. After a moment, she shook her head and stirred the fire. Borgania’s forests were filled with creatures of the night. Bears, wolves, and elk were often seen wandering through the woods.

“I’ll take the first watch tonight,” Graeson said.

Dani nodded. “I’ll go do a quick round and then head to bed,” Dani said. She grabbed her bow and arrows that were sitting beside her and headed past the tent before Graeson could argue. Away from the fire’s glow, the forest’s shadows swallowed her.

Neither of them would be getting any sleep tonight.

* * *

Their journeythrough the Borganian lands proved uneventful. Graeson should have been happy about that, for they didn’t need any complications. They had plenty of those already. Yet here he was, hoping for some sort of run-in—as crazy as that sounded.

Maybe it was the restless nights, the long rides, or the constant yammering around him. No matter what it was, he was bored, restless, and angry.

They had been traveling for three and a half days, and nothing had happened. They hadn’t even run into any of the predators that lurked within the forest. The only animals they saw were birds flying through the foliage of maple trees and deer roaming through the brush in the woods.

Nothing was ever this easy, though.

At one point, his paranoia had risen so high that when Dani had burst through the trees after scouting, Graeson had pulled out a throwing knife, ready to strike.

He was on edge.

All of them were. Even if the others did not admit it. He saw it in the way Ellie’s words grew more clipped, in the way Ophelia kept nagging Medenia about her sore neck. Moris’ jokes increased with a shaky jolt. With every hour that ticked by, Armen grew more quiet. Dani’s rides around their camps grew more frequent. They all had their way of distracting themselves. A way to pass the time and avoid thinking about their growing anxieties.

They would infiltrate the kingdom with the largest army in less than a week and steal Kalisandre from their enemy’s grasp. One week until Domitius would have a blade driven through his heart.

If everything went to plan, that is.

And perhaps it was because of that growing paranoia and because Graeson had all but wished for a fight, that the gods gave him one.

Chapter26

KALLIE

“This cannot be right!”Marsinia, the royal seamstress, shouted, snapping the measuring tape at her side.

She was a small, older woman who could strike fear in anyone with her needles and measuring tape. Myra had been working closely with the seamstress for the past couple of weeks to ensure everything was perfect.

“Lux!”

A young girl, no more than sixteen years old, stepped forward. “Yes, Miss Marsi?”

“This measuring tape is all wrong,” Marsinia tossed it at Lux, and the young woman stumbled to catch it.

“Wrong, Miss Marsi?”

“Yes,wrong.”

Stretching the measuring tape between her arms, Lux surveyed it.

In the mirror, Kallie saw Myra release a silent sigh before turning around. A moment later, she returned, a new measuring tape in hand. “Here, Marsinia. Try this one.”