Page 187 of Children of Fallen Gods

Yet he did not look terribly relieved. I didn’t feel it, either. Instead, I thought of my father — my powerful, ambitious, selfish father.

For the first time, I thought of him and I wasdisgustedby him.

He looked at what had happened to Caduan’s home, and he had seen it as an opportunity to craft his own king and invite his enemy into his homestead, waiting to drive a dagger into their back.

“Never again,” I said. “My father’s time is over. It ismyblood that belongs on that throne. And when I claim my position as Teirness, you have my word that you’ll have the alliance of the Sidnee. As long as I rule, it will be yours.”

Ishqa gave me a strange look, one that I could not decipher.

My eyes were burning. “And I grieve with you, Ishqa, for the lives that you have lost.”

Ishqa finished cutting the meat off of the rabbit, looking down at the food in front of him and showing no interest in eating it. I could relate. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of what my people had done.

Ishqa stood and turned to me.

“I came back because our mission is not done,” he said. “Despite what has happened, Queen Shadya still believes that the humans pose an imminent threat. And I agree with her.”

I nodded. This was unequivocally true. “How long was I asleep? How much time do we have before—”

“The meeting is only four days away. It is a long way for us to travel.”

“We’ll make it,” I said, and willed it into truth, already standing. I was injured, but more powerfully than that, I wasangry. I was tired of giving people chances. I was tired of letting them kill without consequences.

“We strike the leaders,” I said. “I have had enough of half-measures.”

Ishqa’s mouth thinned. “As have I.”

I forced my mind through the cloud of anger and grief, forced myself to be the methodical, calm-headed Blade that Siobhan had always hoped I could become.

There was only two of us. And we knew little about who would be attending this meeting, other than that it would include the humans’ highest-ranked commanders. We could be walking into a slaughter.

But I didn’t even care if I was killed, as long as I got to return the favor.

“Do you have Wyshraj soldiers to spare?” I asked. “Anyone who would be able to fly fast enough to meet us there?”

“Not many,” Ishqa said. “But enough.”

It would have to be.

My muscles clenched so hard they shook.

“Then let’s end one war,” I spat. “And then we will end another.”

I was so furious that I didn’t even notice that Ishqa turned away without answering, his face tilted to the sky.

Chapter Sixty-Three

Tisaanah

Ithought, perhaps, I had dreamed the knock.

My eyelids fluttered open to see nothing but the silent sway of the flowers beneath the moonlight through the window.

I rolled over. Max was already sitting up, face tilted towards the door. His body had taken on a certain rigid stance that I had come to know well — the stance of a soldier.

Max murmured, “No one ever knocks.”

So it hadn’t been a dream.

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