Page 26 of Steeling Light (Shadowed Debts #3)

We hid the house relics from our children.

“Why?” you ask. Because they each showed flaws that terrified us.

Casimir easily succumbs to fear. Brenna forgets she is more than a shadow walker.

Roderic takes the House of Earth’s distrust of outsiders far beyond reason.

And Gethin… My only son is not a good man.

~Daegon Rahn, personal journals

Rhion

They found it. Kieran and his group found the Burning Brand in a tiny village slightly further inside one of the human kingdoms. I hate that I’m standing in front of the Keep of Steel right now instead of getting ready for another night with Ainslee, but Kieran refused to give it to anyone other than me.

Even my father. There’s no doubting his loyalty.

He’s a good soldier and general. After his son died from his deal with the Shade, he’s devoted everything he is to the House of Steel and to me.

But that means that I had to come back. I have to give it to my father, or word would eventually get around that Kieran was keeping it from him. The last thing I need is for one of my generals to be killed for being overly loyal.

Grimnar, a dwarf that’s probably as old as my father, stands beside the door in a tailored butler uniform and his steel collar.

All the dwarves wear them as a point of pride.

Each of them is bound to the Steel Throne, and they, of all the Immortals, are fully immune to the effect of steel.

Their powers are based around enchanting, and no one can enchant as well as the combination of a Steel Immortal and a dwarf.

Dwarves’ abilities aren’t influenced by the steel tools necessary in many of the more complicated works.

“Prince Rhion,” he says with a bow, his twin braided gray beard touching the ground in front of him. “Your father has requested your presence when you arrive.”

“I need to stop by the barracks first, but then I’ll go directly to him. Thank you, Grimnar.”

The dwarf resumes his position with an approving look on his face, and I go directly to the barracks where Kieran should be waiting for me.

I can’t believe they actually found the Burning Brand.

My heart is torn at the thought of it. With the Burning Brand, Cole and Maeve’s Shadows will be neutralized.

It gives my father the ability to protect our troops, troops I’ve trained and watched over for nearly my entire life.

But it gives him an edge in a war where he’s in the wrong. I want to protect the men and women who serve under me, but I don’t want my father to win. Cole may be an arrogant ass, but the world needs him to win.

There’s no way to do both.

I step into the meeting room of the barracks, and all my generals stand around the table. On the map we’ve used to maintain our progress in the hunt for the Brand lies a wooden stick that seems like the least important item I’ve ever seen.

“Commander Rahn,” Kieran says in his most formal tone, “I present the Burning Brand.”

The rest of the generals don’t look away from it.

They know exactly what that stick can do.

It would give them the ability to wield a second Great House’s power.

If my father is correct, it would allow them to sit on the Throne of Flame and become a Conduit, a King.

That simple stick is the most valuable item within the Keep of Steel.

“Where was it?” I ask without looking at Kieran, my eyes drawn to the relic just as much as everyone else.

As he speaks, I walk straight to it and pick it up. “A village about a hundred miles inside the human kingdom. I believe the village was named Brimholt.” Every word is said in a formal tone, and I can feel his eyes on me as I hold the stick.

I have trained in enchanting nearly as much as I have trained in the arts of war.

I can feel the power flowing through it as I’ve felt it within magic mirrors, speaking bowls, and countless weapons.

Never before have I felt so much power in my life.

Everyone’s eyes are still on the Brand, and when I speak, they all look from it to me. “This is it.”

I turn away from the table toward one of the gray granite walls that the Keep of Steel is made of. I wrap a leash of steel around my emotions, and I think of the moment that I kissed Ainslee. I remember the feeling of fantasies becoming truth. Of pure joy.

But only the slightest touch of it. Flames are fueled by joy and extinguished by sadness just as pride and fear power Steel. The Brand’s enchantment weaves its way into me, into the very fiber of my being, and augments who I am.

Flames ignite around my body, immediately catching the gold-embroidered tunic I’m wearing on fire.

Pain sears through my hands, but pain is nothing new.

I hold the emotion as flames wreath my body, melting the gold thread and burning the velvet.

I reach my hand out and feel the joy extending from my fingertips.

The flames move along my arms and explode from my hand in a stream of fire that scorches the wall.

Immediately, I let my joy fade, and I focus on the fact that I won’t be able to see Ainslee while I’m here—an empty sadness that rips at my heart.

The flames around me are snuffed out in an instant, and I turn to look at my generals.

Their eyes are open wide, shock on each of their faces.

I smirk, and when I try to walk back toward the table, rippling pain rolls through my shoulders and arms. It’s only then that I look down and see the tatters of what had been one of my favorite tunics falling to the ground.

Around my arms and shoulders, melted gold has already solidified within the burns that cover my body, making me look like I ran into a golden spiderweb. Well… a burning, golden spiderweb.

I take a deep breath and visualize myself at the front of a battle, the Burning Brand in one hand and my sword in the other.

I can see the faces of my enemies, all of them terrified, and pride ripples under my skin like a wave, wanting nothing more than to help me become that image.

Powerful, unyielding, and undefeatable. The power of Steel desires to become the thing I need most, and I push it to the burns and melted gold thread.

In an instant, my skin reforms—my wounds healed.

The threads all pop at the same time with a sharp snapping sound before falling to the ground.

“I think that this will take some practice. In the meantime, someone go get me a new shirt, and we can start planning. There are two more relics to find, and you know my father will want us to move even faster in the hunt for those.”

Even though my generals are grinning from ear to ear, my heart only sinks lower. Ainslee will be on that eventual battlefield, and Cole won’t have a chance against my father now.