Page 108 of A Court of Thralls and Thorns

My blood turned to ice.

A hush spread through the ranks, heavy and suffocating. No one spoke, but every soldier stood a little straighter, hands flexing near weapons. Murder within castle walls… that wasn’t just an attack—it was a declaration of war.

My gaze flicked to Zander, who stood rigid near his Crownwatch squad. His face was like a statue, but his eyes... his eyes were burning.

“Damn,” Jax muttered beside me. “Looks like we’re heading for a fight after all.”

Major Ledor’s voice cut through the cold morning air. “A warder was stabbed in his bed a few hours ago,” he said, his gaze sweeping the assembled ranks. “A noble-born soldier.”

His pause was deliberate—calculated. The tension tightened like a noose.

“We’ve had new additions to our ranks,” he added, his eyes flicking over the crowd before lingering far too long, on us. “This is a reminder that trust is earned, and blood ties run deeper than oaths.”

Was he insinuating that one ofushad done this?

Several heads turned toward Thrall Squad. I saw the way they looked at us—suspicion written plain as day. We were the odd ones out, the misfits, the commoners. If we didn’t have a target on our backs before, we sure did now.

I clenched my fists at my sides, fighting the heat building under my skin. My eyes sought out Zander—surelyhewouldn’t believe this? But he stood with Crownwatch, his face carved from stone, his gaze locked straight ahead. He wouldn’t even look at me.

Coward.

The sting of betrayal sank deep. He knew us—knewme. Did he honestly think one of us was capable of this?

The major’s voice droned on about unity in war, about setting aside differences for the good of the kingdom, but I barely heard it. The hypocrisy tasted bitter on my tongue. He had just painted a target on us and expected us to believe we were on equal footing.

I almost laughed. If this was their version of unity, we were already doomed.

The horn cut off, the sharp silence ringing louder than the sound itself. Major Ledor’s expression hardened.

“This time, the battle has been averted,” he warned. “But the warders will remain under surveillance and protection until the assassin is found.”

His gaze shifted once more, landing firmly on us. “Fourth Guild… to the dining hall.”

The command didn’t sound like an invitation. It felt like an accusation.

The dining hall was quieter than I had ever heard it. The usual clatter of trays and chatter of voices was gone, replaced by whispered conversations scarcely above a breath. Eyes flicked toward us as we moved through the room, quickly turning away the moment we looked back.

Even the cook, a stout woman who had always been generous with Jax’s portions, had suddenly grown cold.

“Another helping of eggs, please,” Jax said with his usual charming grin.

“You get the same as everyone else,” she snapped, slapping a meager spoonful onto his plate with far more aggression than necessary.

Jax blinked but didn’t argue. He nodded stiffly and moved down the line, his shoulders tenser than usual. I trailed behind him, grabbing my tray and following my squad to an empty table in the corner.

The tension suffocated the air. Conversations throughout the hall were muffled whispers, words spoken too softly for us to decipher—but we didn’t need to. We knew what they were saying.

“They think we did it,” Tae muttered, stabbing his fork into a potato like it had personally offended him.

“I know,” I said quietly, sliding half my eggs onto Jax’s plate.

“But why would anyone kill a warder?” Jax asked, shaking his head. “That’s suicide foreveryone. The warders are the backbone of the castle’s defenses. Killing one is like begging for a war.”

I swallowed, my thoughts flicking back to Solei.

Was she looking for the murderer... or was she the assassin?

The timing was just too perfect—her sudden arrival, her evasive answers, her parting words about loyalty. I’d wanted to believe she was only here to investigate a suspected mole. But doubt began to creep in like smoke through a locked door.