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“It’s impossible for me to go that distance in the blink of an eye, Zehemoth.

” I felt a pain in my chest at lying to him, but now wasn’t the time to tell him I was bedding the God of the Underworld.

We were about to enter battle, a fight we wouldn’t be prepared for until we arrived.

“We need to focus on what’s ahead of us right now. ”

Zehemoth let the conversation drop, but I knew he would pick it up again at some point. Are you scared?

“Of course I am.” But you can’t be brave without being scared, right?

I wish I could enter the forest with you. But there are too many trees.

“I know.” It would be an easy fight if it were out in the open.

My father says we’ve been at peace a long time. I wonder who these people are. Where they come from. What they want.

“They want what everyone wants—power. But they aren’t getting it.”

I saw the smoke from the fire long before we arrived. It was a black mass in the sunset sky, ominous and heavy with destruction. Whether it was caused by a trail of fire from a dragon or lit by a torch from an enemy was unclear.

Now that we were close, my heart started to pound.

The battle was near, and I could smell charred flesh on the air.

I’d practiced with my father and some of his other soldiers all my life, but I’d never seen battle.

When I’d fought those men on the ship out at sea, that was the closest I’d ever been to bloodshed.

Zehemoth came in for a landing. You don’t have to do this, Lily. You can stay here with me.

My father told my mother to launch the ships across the sea and come to our aid.

He deployed dragon riders to seek aid from the Northern Kingdoms as well.

But by the time everyone was prepared for war, this battle would already be decided.

We could all be dead or prisoners of war.

Or we could be the victors, and they need not come in the first place.

I hoped it was the latter.

Zehemoth landed outside the forest with such speed I nearly rolled forward over the horn of the saddle. The world spun for a moment before I found my bearings and climbed down to the ground.

Zehemoth dipped his head so he could look at me. Please be careful, Sunieth. He rubbed his snout against me.

“I will.” My gloved hand caressed his scales, and I rested my cheek against him for a moment. “I’ll see you soon.” I turned away from Zehemoth, the other soldiers dismounting from their dragons and heading to where my father was in the lead.

“Follow me,” my father ordered, because not all of the men had been to Riviana Star. “We make haste.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. It was like a boulder that broke past my ribs and plummeted to the bottom of my spine. Without even seeing the enemy, I felt frozen to the spot with fear.

Then Wrath appeared beside me, dressed for a battle he couldn’t participate in, a foot taller with the calmness of a river and the strength of a mountain. He turned his head and looked down at me. “I’m here with you.”

It shouldn’t comfort me, not when he couldn’t raise his sword for me, but for some strange reason, it did. Made me feel safe when it didn’t change my circumstances at all.

My father gave an order from the front. “Valik and Gonro, protect the princess.” He regarded two of his lieutenants. “Only leave her side if death takes you.”

“You don’t have to?—”

Wrath’s hand moved to my wrist. “Don’t undermine the king in front of his men.”

In silence, I watched the lieutenants head to me at the back of the line, powerful men who could cut heads from shoulders, whose main purpose was to keep me alive even if it left them dead.

My father took the lead, and we marched forward into the forest, following the path through the trees, the smoke becoming thicker under the tree canopy. It’d been a long day of travel, and by the time we arrived there, we would all be weary.

At least we had the adrenaline.

Wrath walked at my side the entire way, taller than all the soldiers in line, even taller than my father. He marched to war like the rest of us.

An hour later, we heard the screams.

“Their armor is weak around the neck,” Wrath said before we entered Riviana Star.

The music I used to hear at the heart of the forest was no longer audible. It was either silent, or the sound of battle drowned out the beauty of the song. The smoke grew thicker, and the rise in temperature was sudden.

My father’s voice was audible from the front. “Riviana Star fought for the Southern Isles when we had few allies. Because of them, we found the last free dragons. Because of them, we prevailed in that fight. We are not here to fight someone else’s war. We’re here to fight our own war.”

I could picture my father’s face as he spoke, kingly in his armor, his eyes ferocious with blood lust.

“Fight with me.”

All the soldiers raised their swords, even Wrath.

I did the same.

Then we moved into Riviana Star, the smoke obscuring the place I’d visited often as a child. The air was so harsh on my lungs, it was difficult to breathe without the desire to cough, but I refused to let it bother me.

“They’re in the clearing,” Wrath said from my side.

We moved deeper into the forest, one of the trees to our left engulfed in flames like someone had set it ablaze intentionally. Dead bodies were on the sides of the paths, elves clad in regular clothes like they’d been ambushed quicker than they could flee.

We entered the clearing, the sun almost gone from the sky and the battle illuminated by the flames from the trees that surrounded us.

It was chaos, monsters in heavy armor that I assumed were orcs, past the height of my father with thick muscles and big teeth protruding from their ugly faces.

The men who fought alongside them were different from us—because they hid their faces.

A golden plate covered their features, pronounced cheekbones and jawlines molded into the metal with a ring of spikes along the side.

The rest of their heads and necks were covered by a dark garment, almost like a scarf.

Their armor was black with hints of maroon.

The color and design made it clear they were from a faraway place.

I knew it was the same people who had killed my crew because of the accents of gold they wore.

Even their swords were made of gold. I’d seen gold with my own eyes, but it was a rare element, rarely used for decoration or armor because it was too precious to be squandered. But they had a bounty of it.

I snapped out of my stare when one of the orcs slayed an elf then turned on me.

“ Lily .”

Instinct kicked in, and I caught his blade with my own before I spun it down then kicked him in the knee.

The orc clearly underestimated me because I was a woman.

He probably would have moved faster otherwise.

While he was momentarily distracted by his knee, I stabbed my blade into the small pocket at the front of his armor near his neck.

I inserted it clean inside, severing his spine underneath.

He collapsed, another corpse on the battlefield.

“Your feet.”

“I killed him?—”

“But you could have killed him quicker,” Wrath snapped. “And every drop of energy counts in a battle.”

The two lieutenants stayed with me, but they were too busy fighting their own opponents to notice me speaking to someone who wasn’t there. We remained a trio, our backs facing one another as we felled the orcs and Barbarians who came for us.

When the first Barbarian came for me, I immediately learned he was a more difficult opponent. Smarter. Faster. And he didn’t underestimate me like the orcs did. The fact that I was a woman made no difference to him, and he moved for my throat like he wanted me dead quicker than a roach.

Wrath guided my sight when I needed it. “Block. And block again.” He watched the Barbarian and analyzed his habits quickly before reporting his findings to me. “You won’t be able to find an opening with your sword. You’ll need your dagger at the first opportunity.”

I continued to battle the Barbarian with my sword, the two of us locked in a dance that moved back and forth. When the Barbarian realized my power, he seemed to take my defeat as a challenge and came at me harder and faster, determined to squash me and humiliate me for bothering to fight.

“Wait for him to tire. Block his sword and stab your dagger under his arm when it’s raised.”

The exchange happened the way he said it would, and when that opening came, I continued to block his sword with mine as I quickly reached for my dagger and stabbed it into the opening between his armor and his shoulder. I stabbed deep, sideways toward his heart.

He screamed before he stumbled.

“Finish him.”

I gripped my sword with both hands and sliced it clean through his neck.

“Yes, Xivin .”

When I looked around, I saw that one of the lieutenants had died. He bled out on the grass a few feet away.

“Your side is outnumbered.” Wrath surveyed the battle like he could see beyond our position. “If you don’t kill more of their kind, you’ll be overrun. Your men may have the power of dragons, but there are just too many of them.”

“Is my father okay?”

He stared into the throng again. “He’s felled more enemies than anyone.”

“Of course he has.”

Wrath came back to me. “I know you’re weary, but you need to fight harder. Fight more efficiently.”

“I’m not tired.” I lied through my teeth, lied so well, I believed it to be true.

Wrath didn’t question me. “Then fight on.”

After what felt like an eternity, I felt the fatigue scream in my muscles. I’d defeated orcs and Barbarians, more than I could count, and the other lieutenant who was supposed to protect me had either died or become separated from me.

I lowered my sword to my side because everyone else was engaged in battle. I had a moment of reprieve, and rather than help a comrade, I needed to take it.

Wrath’s gaze was directed elsewhere, looking over the crowd like he could see something.