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Chapter One hundred and sixty-seven
The ridge breathed fire.The serpent’s host poured down its slopes, shields locked, spears bristling like the fangs of some vast beast. Drums thundered through the valley, shaking the marrow of every man who heard them.Adrian sat his horse at the front line, still as stone. The reins pulled against his gloves, but his mount felt his calm, trembling less than the men behind. He had learned long ago that a commander’s silence could steady an army more than any speech.And yet his silence was not peace. His chest carried the weight of every life strung upon this moment — Kael at his right, eager and grim; Roderic at his left, cold and unflinching; the rows of soldiers stretching behind like a taut bowstring.And somewhere in that line, Selene.He did not look for her. To look would be to admit weakness, to give shape to the storm twisting in his chest.The serpent’s drums quickened. Horns blared, shrill as knives.Adrian raised his sword. The steel caught the gray light, a single flas
Chapter One hundred and sixty-eight
The army moved before dawn, torches guttering in the damp wind. Thousands of boots trampled the mud, their rhythm like the slow beat of a funeral drum.The ridge loomed ahead, black against the paling sky, its slopes veined with trenches and jagged barricades.Smoke curled from enemy watchfires along its crown, twisting upward like offerings to a cruel god.No banners flew on Adrian’s side. Only silence and the hollow weight of men who knew too well what awaited them.Selene marched among them, hood pulled low. The ranks parted around her, leaving a subtle gap as though her very shadow scorched the earth. She felt their fear as a living thing, pressing against her back.Whispers crawled up the line.“She’ll turn on us.”“She’ll call the serpent down.”“Better she falls before we reach the ridge.”But none dared speak too loudly, not with Adrian at the head.Adrian rode ahead, his cloak dusted with ash, eyes fixed on the ridge. His silence was a shield, harder than steel. Kael rode be
Chapter One hundred and sixty-seven
The council fire had burned low, its ashes scattering into the cold wind. Soldiers were already busy with preparations, sharpening blades, binding armor, muttering prayers half-remembered. The camp was alive, but the air pulsed with unease — as though a storm crouched just over the horizon.And every pair of eyes Selene passed carried that unease.She walked among them silently, her hood drawn low, cloak heavy around her shoulders. Yet even shrouded, she felt their gazes: sharp, suspicious, laced with something worse than hatred. Fear.Men turned away when she drew near. Some made signs against evil under their breath. One spat openly into the dirt as she passed.“Serpent’s bride,” a voice whispered behind her.“Don’t let her touch the rations,” another muttered.Her hand tightened on the hilt at her side, knuckles white. She could have cut them down — easily, swiftly, as she had once been taught.But that was the Master’s way, and she had sworn she would not be his weapon again.So
Chapter One hundred and sixty-six
The sun rose like a dying ember, veiled in smoke from the distant hills. The air smelled of iron and wet ash, a promise of the blood to come. Adrian stood at the edge of the council fire, cloak drawn tight, his eyes fixed on the horizon.Kael arrived first, still brushing sleep from his eyes but already armored. He sat heavily on a log, muttering, “The men whisper, Adrian. They say the serpent’s curse lingers in her. That she’ll turn when it matters most.”Adrian did not look at him. “The men will march where I lead. Their whispers don’t matter.”Kael’s jaw tightened. “It matters if the whispers turn to panic. Fear kills quicker than steel.”Roderic entered next, his presence cutting through the fog like a blade. His armor gleamed despite the grime of travel, his expression carved from stone. He greeted neither Kael nor Adrian, but dropped a crude map onto the ground, pinning it with a dagger.“The serpent’s host has split,” he said. “One wing fortifies the river crossings. The oth
Chapter One hundred and sixty-five
Dawn had not yet broken, but Adrian was awake. He always was before the light — sleep came to him in fragments, restless and thin. Tonight, it had not come at all.He walked the edge of the camp, cloak pulled against the cold, listening to the low stir of soldiers dreaming. Some muttered names of the dead; others clutched their blades even in slumber. The whole army felt brittle, like glass waiting to shatter.Then he heard it.A sharp cry. Muffled. From Selene’s tent.Adrian’s hand moved instinctively to his sword. He crossed the distance in three silent strides, every muscle tense. He pushed aside the flap — and froze.Selene was there, kneeling, drenched in sweat. Her scar glowed faintly, angry red in the half-dark. Her sword lay across her knees, trembling with the echo of some unseen battle.Her eyes shot up to meet his, wide and raw, as though she had been caught not in shame but in a kind of nakedness.“Adrian…” Her voice broke on his name.He stepped inside, closing the flap
Chapter One hundred and sixty-four
Sleep did not come easily to Selene. It never did. Not since the day the chains bit into her wrists, not since the serpent’s mark burned itself into her flesh.Tonight, the camp was hushed, but she felt no peace. Every ember from the fires outside seemed to glow like an eye, watching her, judging her. The whispers of the soldiers were louder in her head than any chant of battle.Traitor.Serpent’s bride.Her chains still rattle.She pressed a hand against the scar that ran across her face, the cruel gift of her old master. It throbbed faintly, a pulse that was not her own. She closed her eyes, willing it away.But the whisper came anyway.“You are mine, Selene.”Her eyes snapped open. The voice was not Adrian’s, not Roderic’s, not even her own. It slithered like oil through her thoughts, heavy and suffocating.She stood abruptly, sword in hand, scanning the shadows of her tent. Empty. Of course. Always empty.Yet when she closed her eyes again, she was elsewhere.The world around her
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