2025-09-02 06:53:21
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CHAPTER NINETY: THE SECRET IN HER BLOOD
The letter weighed heavier than any blade. Eden had faced death more times than she could count, yet Carrick’s words sliced deeper than steel. “I know who you are, I know what you were.”She burned the parchment to ash before anyone else could see it but the words clung like smoke to her mind.RESTLESS NIGHTSSleep fled her that night, She stood watch at the edge of camp, eyes scanning the trees, ears tuned to every whisper of wind. But it wasn’t enemies she feared It was the villagers.Every laugh, every trusting glance, every whispered “Eden will lead us” all of it threatened to collapse the moment Carrick revealed the truth.She closed her eyes, her fists tightening. If they knew would they still follow me?A VOICE IN THE DARK“Can’t sleep?” Elias appeared, quiet but steady, as he always was. He carried no torch, yet he moved as if the night itself welcomed him.Eden forced her voice calm. “Too much to think about.”“You carry the weight of all of them,” he said, nodding toward the
CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE: SHADOWS OVER THE FLAME
The celebration in the woods stretched deep into the night, but by dawn, exhaustion dulled the fire of victory. The villagers awoke groggy, shoulders sore, and eyes heavy from fear more than fatigue.Eden moved among them, her voice steady, her presence like steel in flesh. She had to keep them moving, keep them believing because she knew the Blackthorns would come.FEAR TAKES ROOTBy midday, whispers spread. “What if Carrick himself comes?” one woman asked, clutching her child tighter.“They’ll send soldiers,” muttered another man, his knuckles white around a stolen blade. “We’ve stirred the wolf’s den.”Others began murmuring of leaving, of hiding deeper in the mountains, of abandoning the rebellion before it swallowed them all. Eden heard every word. It pressed on her chest like a weight, She couldn’t let the fear rot what they’d built.She gathered the leaders Elias, Lyra, Cael around the dying embers of the campfire.“They’re afraid,” Elias said bluntly. “Some want to slip away b
CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT: BLOOD IN THE ASHES
The river mist clung to Graybrook as dawn broke, pale light spilling across the village. The people were awake before the sun, tension coiling in the air. Bows were strung, pitch-soaked cloth wrapped around arrowheads, crude spears gripped in calloused hands.Today, they would strike not as frightened villagers, but as rebels. Eden stood at the head of them, her hand resting lightly on the hilt of her blade.She looked at the faces gathered: young boys with jaws clenched in forced courage, women with steady gazes that hid trembling hearts, men who bore the marks of labor turned to war. They weren’t soldiers, But they were ready.THE PLANElias unfurled a rough map on a wooden crate. “The convoy passes this road every third day,” he explained. “They’ll be carrying grain, weapons, and if rumor is true gold for Blackthorn coffers. If we cut them off here, at the bend, the trees give us cover.”Cael nodded, tapping the map. “We block the road with felled logs. They’ll be trapped in the b
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN: RALLYING THE SILENT
The forest seemed endless after the battle, a maze of shadows and whispers. Eden walked at the front of the column, her steps heavy but determined.Behind her, Elias limped, Cael nursed a wound at his shoulder, and Lyra kept scanning the treeline as if expecting Carrick himself to step out at any moment. They had survived but survival wasn’t enough.“We can’t keep fighting alone,” Elias said, his voice low but firm. “The Blackthorns will bleed us dry, piece by piece. We need more than just raids we need people.”Eden’s eyes flickered to him, then back to the path ahead. “And where do we find them? Most are too scared the Blackthorns rule with fear for a reason.”“Then we turn fear into fury,” Elias answered. “We show them that the Blackthorns can be beaten, That they have been beaten.”THE VILLAGE OF GRAYBROOKTheir journey took them to Graybrook, a village nestled by the river. Once prosperous, now it wore the scars of Blackthorn cruelty empty barns, burned homes, villagers with holl
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX: CARRICK’S TRAP
The forest lay quiet after the storm of their first strike. The rain had washed away most traces of blood, leaving behind broken wagons, scattered supplies, and the lingering scent of fear but not all traces were gone.Carrick knelt by the churned mud where a Blackthorn guard had fallen, his gloved fingers brushing a footprint half-hidden by water. His eyes narrowed, sharp and calculating.“They move like ghosts,” one soldier muttered.Carrick’s lips curled into a cold smile. “Ghosts leave shadows. And shadows can be followed.”SETTING THE BAITBack at the Blackthorn fortress, Alaric roared with fury, demanding answers, demanding blood. But Carrick remained calm, a predator waiting for the right moment.“We will not chase them blindly,” Carrick said, voice steady, eyes burning with quiet conviction. “No we make them come to us.”He spread a new map across the table. A caravan route, heavily marked. “We send a convoy, Not supplies bait, Just enough guards to look vulnerable. They’ll st
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE: THE FIRST COORDINATED STRIKE
The forest breathed around them, alive with mist, rain, and the whispered rustle of leaves. Eden stood at the edge of a clearing, her new allies gathered behind her, eyes sharp, bodies tense. This was no longer survival, This was war.THE TARGETCael spread the map on a flat rock, tracing his finger along a narrow path. “Here,” he whispered. “A Blackthorn supply convoy. Only a few soldiers, lightly armed Easy to take Aawarning, not a massacre.”Eden nodded. “We show them we’re no longer weak. That we strike with precision, with fire in our veins.”Lyra, the scout, smirked. “And I’ll make sure they remember the bite of our arrows.”Tarin and Fynn readied themselves, weapons in hand, faces lit with grim determination.MOVING INTO POSITIONEden and Elias led the group along a hidden trail, moving silently through mud and underbrush. Each step calculated, each breath measured.The convoy appeared first as shadows in the rain a few wagons, horses snorting, guards laughing carelessly, Eden
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