The training yard faded behind me as I slipped into the fortress's corridors, Kael's suspicious gaze burning in my memory. The Blade of Dusk, the whisper in the Chapel, now Kael's early arrival—every step I took seemed to twist the story further from The Fall of Kingdoms. I needed answers, a way to understand how much I'd changed, but the fortress offered only secrets and shadows.
I wandered deeper, my footsteps soft on the polished marble. Valthorne had summoned me to the training yard, but he hadn't shown. Was it another test? His absence felt deliberate, like a predator watching from the dark. I turned a corner, drawn by low voices from a half-open door—a small council chamber, its walls draped in serpent tapestries.
I pressed myself against the wall, my heart pounding. Eavesdropping was risky, but I was desperate. Valthorne's voice carried through the crack, cold and precise. "The Blade is secure, but there are… complications."
Another voice, gruff and unfamiliar, responded. "The girl?"
"Yes," Valthorne said, his tone sharp. "She's proving unpredictable. A loose end we may need to tie."
My blood ran cold. A loose end. Me. He meant me. I gripped the dagger at my thigh, Lira's instincts urging me to run, but I forced myself to stay, to listen.
"She retrieved the blade," the other voice said. "That's loyalty, isn't it?"
"Loyalty?" Valthorne's laugh was a blade's edge. "Or cunning. She knows more than she should. I'll deal with her when the time comes."
My legs trembled, but I couldn't move. He suspected me—not just Lira, but the stranger inside her. The novel had painted him as a betrayer, but hearing it, knowing I was his target, made it real. I'd survived the Blackwood, claimed the Blade, but it wasn't enough. To him, I was a threat, a puzzle he'd rather destroy than solve.
Footsteps approached the door, and I slipped into a side passage, my breath shallow. The story was spiraling out of control, and I was caught in its center. Valthorne's words echoed: A loose end. If I didn't find a way to prove my worth—or outsmart him—I wouldn't survive to see the story's end.