"Thomas will lock the cabin every night, Dad," Valis whispered, her small voice swallowed by the creak of the wooden carriage wheels as we turned onto the dusty western highway. "He promised he would water the lilies under Mom's tree every morning.""Thomas is a good boy," I said, my hand squeezing the leather reins so tightly my knuckles throbbed. "He'll look after the farm.""You don't have to sound like you're heading to your own execution, Collins," Miller grunted from the seat beside me, adjusting the heavy wool blanket draped over his bad leg. "We're going to scout the border, find out what triggered that flare, and be back before the winter rye needs harvesting.""Don't lie to her, Miller," I snapped, my eyes fixed on the hazy, dust-choked horizon ahead where the sky still held a sickening purple tint. "We both know what that light means. You don't build a trail of violet fire just to turn around and go home.""Dad, stop," Valis begged, leaning forward from the bench seat behin

"Close the door, Miller," I whispered, my thumb tracing the sharp, cold edges of the dragon signet ring as the carriage rattled into the muddy outskirts of Oakhaven. "Close it now.""Harrison, your hands are shaking," Miller said quietly, leaning his heavy forearms against his knees as he watched me. "If Marcus turned on us, if he gave your old journals to Vane...""Marcus didn't turn," I cut him off, though the words tasted like iron and ash in my mouth. "He couldn't have. He bled right beside us in the trenches, Miller! He watched Valerie die! He wouldn't sell out everything we built just for a silver crown!""Then explain the ring!" Miller shouted, his voice cracking with a fierce, terrified anger that made the horses outside nickering in distress. "That ring didn't drop out of the sky, Harrison! It came straight off the finger of a cult leader who had your exact tactical notes!""I can't explain it!" I yelled back, slamming my fist against the wooden carriage wall so hard the timb

"He's breathing, Miller! He's breathing!" Valis's frantic voice cracked through the dark, cold fog clinging to the riverbank."Get his head up!" Miller panted, the wet gravel crunching violently as he dragged his useless, shattered leg across the sharp river stones. "Turn him on his side before he chokes on the river water!"I coughed hard, a terrifying surge of freezing water and black blood erupting from my lungs as I rolled onto my stomach. My chest flared with a blinding, white-hot agony that ripped a raw, ragged scream straight out of my throat."Dad! Stay still! Please, Dad, stay still!" Valis sobbed, her freezing hands cupping my face, her tears splashing hot against my mud-caked cheeks."Valis..." I rasped, my vision swimming in dark purple spots as I tried to force my eyes open. "Miller... did you... are you safe?""We're down in the canyon floor, you idiot," Miller wept openly, his broad shoulders shaking as he collapsed onto the stones beside my head, his fingers digging in

"Get behind that boulder, Valis," I growled, my hand whitening on the leather grip of my shortsword as we crouched in the shadow of a cracked granite ridge."Dad, look at them," Valis whimpered, her voice trembling with a mixture of raw horror and rising fury as she watched a line of exhausted nomadic prisoners shuffling through the purple dust. "They have iron collars chained around their necks! They're forcing them to mine the glass by hand!""They're using them as living batteries for the core," Miller muttered, leaning his shoulder heavily against the rock, his splinted leg propped out at a awkward angle. "The glass drains their breath while they work. Two months of that, and there won't be anything left of those people but dry skin and hollow eyes."A sharp, metallic click rang out directly behind my ear."Don't move, northern dogs," a harsh, raspy voice hissed from the dark brush behind us. "One twitch, and my bone bow sends an arrow straight through your spine."I slowly raised

"Close your mouth, Harrison," Vane mocked, stepping slowly down the iron stairs of the platform, the silver hem of his robes sweeping through the purple ash. "You look like a farmer who just saw his first thunderstorm.""I see a thief holding a dead man's book," I growled, stepping forward, every muscle in my legs coiled like steel springs as I kept my blade leveled at his chest."A dead man's book?" Vane laughed, a sound so soft, cultured, and devoid of warmth that it sent a cold shiver straight down my spine. "This isn't a book, Warlord. This is holy scripture! You mapped the entire human soul on these yellowed pages, and then you threw it into the dirt to plant cabbages!""He didn't write it for you!" Valis screamed from beside me, her hands trembling as white kinetic embers sparked around her knuckles. "He wrote those notes to end the war!""He wrote them because he is a visioned god who lost his nerve!" Vane snapped, his calm facade shattering for a fraction of a second, his viol