One wrong breath and your cold steel cuts my throat, but one wrong choice and my dragon burns us both to ash."Do not move a single muscle," the assassin whispered, the sharp edge of a razor-thin blade pressing so hard against Soren's neck that a thin bead of crimson blood trickled down his collar."I am not moving," Soren said quietly, keeping his voice steady despite the intense cold metal biting into his flesh. "But if you press that steel any harder, you will not live long enough to collect your gold.""You think a half-dead boy scares me?" the assassin hissed, her cold gray eyes flashing with lethal intent from beneath her dark leather hood. "I have killed high lords in their sleep. I have throat-slit grand marshals before they could even draw a dagger. You are nothing to me.""I am the only person on this continent who knows why your guild leader is still bleeding from an unhealable soul curse," Soren replied, his pale gray eyes locking onto hers without a single trace of fear.

Chapter 13: Traitors in the LightThirty-five years ago, I died calling that monster my brother, and he is still breathing with my stolen blood in his veins.Soren stared at the fresh crimson letters smeared across the stone, his breath catching in his throat like a jagged shard of glass. His fingers hovered millimeters above the altar, shaking so violently that his golden royal mark flickered erratically."Soren?" Kaelen whispered, her hand reaching out cautiously toward his shoulder. "What does it mean? Who is Raymond?""He was my sworn shield," Soren said, his voice dropping into an icy, hollow whisper that barely sounded human. "He was the man I shared my bread with. The man I trusted with my life."Varek stepped up beside them, his heavy brow furrowed as he squinted at the dripping blood. "Kid, thirty-five years ago? You are seventeen years old. None of this makes any damn sense.""He executed me," Soren breathed out, ignoring Varek entirely as tears of raw, suffocating rage well

If I drop dead in this dirty ring, do not bother carrying my corpse back to the mountains."Keep walking and do not dare look up at those guards," Kaelen whispered, her fingers tightening around Soren's elbow until her nails nearly bit through his thick wool coat."I am fine," Soren grunted, though every single step across the cobblestone square felt like dragging shattered glass through his chest."You are coughing up blood every twenty minutes," Varek snapped from behind them, pulling his wide-brimmed traveler's hat lower over his eyes. "You look like a walking corpse, kid.""The dragon lotus flower is inside the Citadel vault," Soren said, his voice raspy and thin as he adjusted the heavy fabric bandaging wrapped tightly around his right palm. "It is the only magical herb on this continent that can repair ruptured core channels. If I do not win that tournament prize, my mana channels will permanently rot within a week.""Then you fight like a normal human," Kaelen said, her eyes se

“Look at the beast’s left shoulder, you absolute cowards!”Soren’s voice cracked across the roaring arena like thunder, cutting straight through the bloodthirsty chants of ten thousand spectator nobles. He slammed his broadsword directly into the beast's neck plating, forcing the creature to its knees. Dark violet liquid oozed from the seam of the steel armor, sizzling violently as it ate through the wooden floorboards beneath their feet.“Poison!” a voice screamed from the lower rows. “The Iron Clan poisoned the monster!”Panic rippled through the front lines of the crowd. Soren planted his boot on the war beast’s snout, yanking his blade free as the creature gave a final, wheezing breath. He pointed his blood-soaked steel directly toward the high balcony where Lord Vane sat.“You rigged the match, Vane,” Soren shouted, his chest heaving under his light leather armor. “You wanted an execution, not a fight.”Lord Vane rose from his plush velvet seat, his face turning an unsightly shad

"If this flower kills me, Kaelen, do not let Varek burn my body until you are sure I am truly dead." "Shut up and swallow it," Kaelen commanded, her hands trembling as she held the glowing, velvet-stemmed dragon lotus directly to Soren's pale, bloody lips. Soren did not argue. He opened his mouth and bit into the luminous petals. The taste was sickly sweet, blooming like liquid fire across his tongue before cascading down his throat in a surging wave of raw, restorative energy. "Is it working?" Varek asked, leaning over the wooden table in the dim, stone-walled safehouse deep beneath the Citadel streets. "Is your core repairing itself?" Soren closed his eyes, taking a long, shuddering breath as the lotus's potent energy flooded his shattered mana channels. "The torn pathways... they are stitching together. The fire inside my chest is finally cooling down." "Thank the ancestors," Kaelen breathed out, slumping against the edge of the stone cot, wiping a tear of exhaustion from