The Kingdom of Morrow, its capital at Morrowgate.The Marquis's manor in the eastern district.The autumn winds had just died down, and heavy snow was falling.Gideon Hale stood in the doorway, gazing north.The war was over. The northern clans had surrendered. It was time to lay down his sword."Cough, cough."Gideon coughed twice and pulled the thin blanket tighter around his shoulders. He had won an unprecedented victory at the Battle of Broken Sky Mountain, but the cost was the wellspring of power inside him, shattered beyond repair. His strength had drained away with it, and now even a small cold was more than his body could bear.Looking back on seven years of glory, he had risen high while still a young man. At fifteen, he made his name in the army. At sixteen, he put down a rebellion in the south and wiped out three thousand bandits. At seventeen, he led an army east, crushed a rebel vassal state, and destroyed a hundred thousand enemy soldiers in a single stroke, earning the

Enjoying his twilight years? He was only twenty-two."Cruel."Red flame flared from Wren's head, born of her strange, fiery energy. Thorne's words had rubbed salt straight into a wound that was already raw."Of course, the Champion Marquis is a man of loyalty and honor, and he won't give us the names easily. In that case, I'll have to use my own methods."Thorne's gaze slid slowly over to Wren."Your methods?"Gideon sneered. He wasn't sad anymore. He was filled with anger and hatred. The entire Ashcroft royal family was his enemy now."I'll kill this remarkable Scarlet Wraith in front of you, frame her for treason, and hang her body outside the capital gates. I hear the four Wraiths are close as brothers. With the Champion Marquis brought down and the Scarlet Wraith dead, I doubt the other three will be able to sit still."Evil filled Thorne's eyes, and his words were enough to send a chill down anyone's spine."A fine plan. A fine method."Gideon clapped his hands, mocking him, the

Skyfall Palace sat at the very heart of the royal grounds, the core of the whole capital. It was named after King Cassian Skyfall, and it was where every major event in Morrow was held.Today marked the engagement of the eldest princess to the prodigy of the Starlight Order, and the entire kingdom was celebrating. An occasion this grand had drawn every important figure in Morrow. No one of consequence was missing, from the high nobles of the capital to the kingdom's most powerful ministers.Gideon had shed his old uniform. Dressed in a violet robe, his hair bound beneath a jade crown, he looked up at the sky with the bearing of a much younger man.Dark brows, sharp eyes, a strong jaw set with quiet confidence, sun-bronzed skin carrying an air of iron resolve — every motion he made spoke of quiet authority.He walked with the stride of a warrior, standing out on the crowded streets of the capital like a hawk among sparrows. His bearing, his posture, the sharpness in his eyes, and his s

Every eye in the hall turned to Gideon. The Champion Marquis who had once marched across all of Morrow was still, crippled or not, the one man a room couldn't look away from.Even through the shock on their faces, something like awe still lingered when people looked at him.A name carries its own shadow — even a tiger stripped of its fangs still wears the skin that once made men kneel."Gideon Hale, you crippled my son. I, Holt Voss, will not let you live under the same sky as me."The Minister of War came down the steps with thunder in his stride, his eyes bloodshot. Behind him, Prince Roderick, Prince Tobias, and Edric Cross followed close, all four men blind with fury, forgetting entirely that they stood inside the Grand Hall of Skyfall Palace.It made a kind of sense. For all their noble titles, each of the four had exactly one son, raised like a treasure beyond price.It was one thing for three of the Four Young Masters to walk away with broken legs. But Rutger was different.The

Marcus Thorne's body lay where it had fallen. Everyone in that hall understood exactly what the death of an Awakened Realm master meant in a kingdom like Morrow. How had he died? King Cassian's eyes, cold and sharp as a viper's, fixed on Gideon. "Your wellspring is shattered. There's no way you could match Marcus Thorne in a fight. And even if that girl beside you is a ninth-rank fighter, she couldn't have killed him either." He hadn't seen Thorne's death coming, and that uncertainty only made him more unsure of exactly what Gideon was now capable of. Could Gideon's strength have actually returned somehow? No. Impossible. A shattered wellspring meant a broken foundation, a cripple for life. Not even a god could undo that. "I have my own way of killing men, Cassian Skyfall — the same way I have the power to bring your crown down around your ears, just by standing here." Gideon spoke lightly, taking two more steps forward until he stood even closer to the King. "What's wrong, Yo