"Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't do it, Jesse." Jack Cole choked on the words, blood bubbling at the corner of his lip as he pressed a heavy hand against his ruptured side.Jesse Grey didn't look up from the edge of the precipice. Below them, the fog of the Whispering Woods swirled like a sea of milk, thick and swallowing. The elite guards stood in a perfect, suffocating semi-circle, their swords drawn, blocking the only path back to the capital."Does it even matter anymore?" Jesse asked, his voice barely carrying over the howling wind. He finally looked at Jack, his knuckles white against the hilt of his own clean, unused blade. "You always had to be the martyr, Jack. You just couldn't let the council have their peace.""Their peace is a lie built on the bones of our men," Jack spat, taking a agonizing step forward. He stumbled, his knee hitting the jagged rock. He looked at his adoptive brother, his mind refusing to process the cold metal of the spears pointed at his ches

"The crown fits perfectly, Commander Grey, but your hands are shaking."Jesse Grey snapped his head toward the voice, his fingers tightening around his golden chalice. The Great Hall was a blinding sea of laughter and clinking crystal, a lavish celebration thrown entirely in his honor. He was the newly anointed Supreme Commander of the Royal Vanguard, a title Jack had worn for nearly a decade. Yet, looking out at the adoring nobles, Jesse felt like a ghost."The wind in the north courtyard is bitter tonight, Lady Cynthia," Jesse replied, forcing a smooth smile. He took a long swallow of wine to hide the tremor in his jaw. "Nothing more.""Of course," Cynthia murmured, her eyes narrowing. "Though some say you look like a man who expects the floor to open up and swallow him. Is the taste of victory too rich?""I am simply exhausted," Jesse said, his tone sharpening. "If you will excuse me, I have matters of state to discuss with the scouts."He didn't wait for her reply. He walked away

"If you tell me to calm down one more time, Vance, I will personally hang you from the palace gates." Jesse Grey slammed his palms onto the mahogany council table, sending inkwells shattering across the pristine strategy maps.The inner council chamber was suffocatingly hot, the air thick with the scent of melted wax and the collective, trembling panic of the kingdom’s highest officials. Standing at the foot of the table, wrapped in a blanket soaked in mud and blood, Private Tobias shivered violently, his eyes completely hollow."He said those exact words?" Lord Chancellor Elian asked, his voice shaking as he leaned forward, ignoring Jesse’s outburst. "He said he was coming back for the crown?""Word for word, my lord," Tobias whispered, his jaw clicking together from the sheer terror still coursing through his veins. "He had monsters with him. Giants. Wolves with eyes like burning coals. He... he spared me just to give the Commander the message.""Silence!" Jesse shrieked, his face t

"I used to think my brother was just a coward, but this is the work of a devil." Jack Cole slammed his blood-slicked blade into its sheath, the echoes scraping against the damp, narrow stone steps leading down into the bowels of the fortress.Behind him, the alpha wolf let out a low, uneasy whine, its massive paws shifting on the slippery rock. The air rising from the depths was thick, carrying a sharp, chemical sting that burned the back of Jack’s throat. It smelled like vinegar, burnt copper, and rotting meat."Don't go down there, Commander," a wounded vanguard soldier rasped from the top of the stairwell, clutching a shattered shoulder. "Please. We didn't know. They told us it was a secure storage vault. They told us the screaming was just wild animals."Jack didn't stop walking. "Who told you that, soldier? Was it Jesse?""The internal ministry," the boy sobbed, his voice fading into the gloom above. "They brought the covered wagons in at night. So many wagons from the lower dist