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“When we arrived back in Locdragoon, we handed him over to Wren to extract information.” Pri looked to Wren and he stepped forward to speak, setting his mug on the edge of the table as his other hand slid over her waist.

“He was telling the truth about the Drow being in The Silliands, that much I know for certain,” Wren stated as he leaned against the table.

“He did sell the information Pri gave him about Dukovich. He said it was to a woman in Ammord that was asking about him, but not a member of any House of High. My guess is another spy, we just have to figure out which one. There was no other information of importance that he had.”

“Who has seen your true form?” I asked Dukovich, placing my mug on Landers’s desk beside me.

“No one—not since I learned to glamour myself as a child.” His eyes flashed to Pri for a brief moment. “Well, almost no one.”

“What are you not telling us?” Landers’s voice was a low rumble as he asked the question and I could feel the vibration of it against my back.

“The Silliands new High Priest, Malik, is also aware that I am not dead.”

A small gasp left my lips and I watched a muscle in Dukovich’s jaw feather as he steeled himself for whatever wrath was about to come his way.

“And you are just now telling us?” Wren snarled from across the table.

“I made Prianaan and Ataliia aware of it before we left for Ammord. And before you tear my throat from my body, I will tell you the same thing I told them: I was not going to give up his name—his position—until I could trust that you lot would not get him killed. He helped set my entire plan in motion—helped get me out of The Silliands to help you. He is on our side and ready to assist us should we need it.”

“And you believe him?” Andrues questioned.

“How do you know that helping you wasn’t a ploy to get you out of The Silliands just so he could take your place? Take your power?” Landers added as he stepped from behind me.

“The same way you know Andrues would not undermine you. We concocted this plan as children. We have been laying the foundation for centuries and neither of us want to see it fail. He is the reason you were able to get any of the Drow out of Redelvtum—he created the back door for them, I just showed you how to access it.”

“And what is his plan for this war? Will he not be leading my armies into battle?” Asrai asked, her voice cutting as her eyes pinned on Dukovich.

“Ahh, that part I do not know. I left before any plans for war could be made, but if The Silliands War Council has caught wind that I am alive, they will not do anything they know I would anticipate. So, if we want to find that out, we will need to meet with him.” Silence fell over the room as we contemplated on this new information.

Having the acting High Priest of The Silliands on our side could change the entire trajectory of this war, it could turn the tides in our favor even without the armies that we would need to fight.

“As of now, with no help from other realms, how many men and women do we have to fight with us?” I asked, locking my gaze onto Elric’s.

“Including my men, the Drow refugees, and Asrai’s students that are of fighting age, we have less than twenty thousand,” Elric answered and I could feel the blood drain from my face.

“How is that possible? Locdragoon is the largest of the realms. How is it that we have so few people able to fight?” My questions came out at a rapid pace and I could feel my palms begin to sweat.

“The Laith people were nearly wiped from the face of Nimbria during the Great War. Few have chosen to become Travelers since then, and almost none of them survive the journey getting here,” Andrues answered, his tone heavy as he loosed a weighted sigh.

“What happened in Ithia?” Pri asked from her corner of the room and my eyes flickered to Landers as his fists curled around the edge of his desk.

“They have agreed to our plans and are starting preparations to move all of their people here. They will not force any of the Yaldrin to fight, but they will allow us to use Ithia as our battleground,” Landers said, crossing his arms over his chest as he glanced at Elric.

“With this new information, we need to start moving every soldier we have to Ithia immediately and set up a base camp to begin training any Yaldrin that have decided to stay,” Landers added, as he pushed from his desk and walked to the war table in the center of the room.

He swiped a hand over it and the map swirled into what looked like a map of Ithia.

“Asrai, do you still have relations with Rilius and the High Priestesses?” Landers asked, not pulling his eyes from the map.

“Yes, they are strained but I believe we can set our differences aside for the time being,” Asrai answered, stepping up to the table beside him.

“Good. Gimara is determined to fight alongside us, she will be the strongest ally we have to push the others to give us whatever we need to succeed. I need you to go to Ithia and start making camp and training her people while Elric gets our armies there.” Asrai and Elric both nodded in response and I watched as everyone began to huddle around the table, placing markers on different parts of the map.

My hands began to shake as I pushed a loose curl behind my ear, beads of sweat building on my hairline as I prepared to speak. My tongue felt heavy as I opened my mouth and forced the words out.

“I am going to wake the Fallen Ones.” The room fell silent as the muscles in Landers’s back tensed under his tunic, his knuckles blanching as he clutched the ledge of the table.

Asrai turned to face me with a raised brow. “And when do you plan to do this?” she asked.

“I will leave in the morning.”

My spine straightened as Landers dragged a hand through his hair, but didn’t turn to look at me.

“Dukovich, I will need you to escort me so I can be glamoured.” Dukovich’s eyes flashed between Landers and me before he gave a curt nod.

“And, Wren, I would like for you to come with us. Once I have woken them and crossed back into Ithia safely, I want you and Dukovich to meet with Malik to find out if we can trust him and gather any information about what The Silliands are planning to do and when.”

Wren stayed silent as the whole room watched Landers turn to face me with slow calculated movements.

“Hyacinth. . .” Landers started, struggling to control the anger in his voice. “We can not wake them.”

“We have to, Landers. We no longer have the time to search for other ways around it. If we’re lucky, we have a few short months until the battle has started,” I said as firmly as I could as Asrai gave me an approving smile.

“No,” Landers shot back, every inch of his features hardening.

“Why? If this is an option that could help us, why are you so against it?”

“They have been frozen in time for over a thousand years, Hyacinth. The only thing they will be looking for is bloodshed,” Landers answered, straining to keep his voice calm.

“You don’t know that, and even if retaliation on my grandparents is all they want, they will owe me a debt for waking them.”

“Landers, Cin is right. If they can give us even the smallest chance, we need them,” Pri said cautiously as Wren tightened his arm around her waist.

“And if they kill you the moment you wake them? If they burn the realms to the ground trying to exact vengeance on what your grandparents have done to them? What then, Hyacinth? Can you live with that blood on your hands?” The words were a growl as the questions left his lips and my spine went rigid at the sound.

Andrues cut in, putting a hand on Landers’s shoulder as he spoke. “The realms will burn either way, brother. If this gives us a chance to be the ones wielding the flame, then we must take it.”

No one spoke as Landers and I stared back at each other and I forced myself not to look away.

I was doing this, with or without him.

“I need to get back to the training camps, the students tend to sneak into Nethkar when they are left unsupervised,” Asrai said, cutting into the quiet and pulling the pocket watch from her vest to check the time. “I will prepare to leave for Ithia in the morning.”

Landers finally pulled his eyes from mine as she spoke and I sucked in a sharp breath as nerves flooded my system.

Asrai turned to Landers, her eyes hardening as they locked onto his.

“She may be your partner, but she is also your God. Be the man I know you to be, the King I know you to be, and tell her the truth.”

My body went wholly still at her words, ice running through every vein beneath my skin as she looked at Landers for a moment longer than tethered from the room.

“Well, there is much to do,” Pri said, clearing her throat.

She nudged Wren and gestured her head toward the door as she glanced between me and Landers.

“If I do not see you before you leave in the morning,” she started, pulling my hand into hers as she passed by.

“I love you; please be safe.” She gave me a nervous smile and herded the rest of the men out of the room.

The space fell quiet as she pulled the door closed behind her and I kept my eyes locked on the wall, counting the stones as I sucked a deep breath in.

Static began buzzing in my ears and I grabbed hold of the table beside me to keep my hands from shaking.

“Hyacinth,” Landers said slowly, my name rolling off his tongue with caution.

I turned my head to see his emerald eyes already fixed on me, his features set in hard lines as he searched my face.

“Hyacinth,” he said again, his tone almost pleading as he took a step toward me.

“What is she talking about?” I asked, willing my voice to steady.

“It was not her place to say anything . . .”

“ No ,” I hissed, his back straightening as I took a step toward him.

“If you can’t be honest with me, it will not be this war that breaks us, it won’t even be death, it’ll be you and the secrets you keep.

” I inhaled sharply, trying to contain the power that was begging to be released alongside the emotion flowing out of me.

“I have felt that you were keeping something from me since I came to Locdragoon. I could sense it; I could see it in the way you looked at me. And after we met with the Elders, I knew I was right. What Asrai said just confirms that.” Landers’s eyes darkened at the revelation and he began pacing as I spoke, his jaw flexing with every step he took.

“I haven’t pressed you, I haven’t pushed you because I can feel the guilt and anger that seeps out of you every time someone calls you the Lord of Death, every time someone mentions the Great War or the Fallen Ones.

” The words were biting as they left my mouth, the volume of my voice rising with every passing second.

“I have been scared that asking you for the truth would hurt us, would push you away from me, but I can’t be this person anymore.

The person— the coward —too scared to ask for the answers I deserve.

I need to know, Landers. I demand to know.

I deserve every piece of the truth and I am done settling for just bits and pieces. ”

I drew in a deep breath, readying myself to ask the question—readying myself for whatever answer was waiting for me.

“Who are you, Landers?”

“It is not you that is scared!” Landers shouted, whirling around to face me, his eyes frenzied and wild.

My back straightened but I stood my ground. I had never heard him raise his voice, never heard him yell—not at me.

“ I am the coward, Hyacinth. I am the one that is scared. Scared that when you know—when you truly know what I am, what things I have done to be awarded such names—you will not want me. You will not want the man that is worse than you can imagine.” The edges of his voice wavered as he said the words and my heart cracked at the sound, the echo of its fracturing reverberating between my ears.

We stood there staring at each other and I watched as fear flashed in those beautiful green eyes before the dark veil fell back over them.

“Landers,” I whispered and took a step toward him.

He backed away, running a hand through his hair as his muscles tightened.

“Landers,” I said again, my tone firm—demanding—as I locked my eyes on his. “Don’t you dare back away from me, don’t you dare hide from me.”

Shadows began flowing from my body, dripping out of me and reaching for him, holding him in place.

He didn’t fight against them.

He did not flinch from the power that poured from me as I took another step closer.

“I refuse to let this be who we are, refuse to let us drift apart because you are too scared of your past to let me in.” I took another step forward and his jaw feathered at the movement.

“You think I don’t know that you have killed?

That you’ve had to do unspeakable things in order to stand where you’re standing now?

” Another step. “If you really think you could lose me over the truth of your past, then you don’t know the kind of woman I am.

I will not run from the hell you hold inside of you.

I love the man standing before me and I’m not afraid of the things you’ve had to do to become him. ”

Landers stepped only inches from me, his eyes piercing mine as a low growl escaped his lips.

“The curse that was bestowed upon the bloodlines of the Fallen Ones is a life of misery, a life as a beast in fae form. I know because it is that bloodline that runs through my veins. I am the great grandson of a Fallen One, I am a beast—a monster—to my very core. You want to know what I have done to be called the Lord of death?”

I stood my ground as I lifted my chin and let my shadows pull him even closer.

“I have leveled towns, cities of innocent people. I have breathed fire upon the realms and watched as they burned . Watched as lives have been turned to dust. That is what has given me the name that I wore like a badge of honor when there was not a single ounce of honor to be found in me.”

I tore my eyes from his, watching as the olive skin stretching across his neck began to harden, began to shift into obsidian scales, the emerald hues shimmering in the candle light. I stifled the gasp that clawed at my throat and focused my eyes back on his.

I will not let him see fear flow through my irises.

“You want to know what the tattoo across my body is? It is a map of all the territories I have decimated when I lost control of the monster inside of me. A reminder that no matter how hard I want or try to forget, I will always be the Lord of Death—always be half fae, half dragon.”

“I’m not scared of you,” I whispered up at him.

“You should be.”