Chapter 74 ~ Teeth Behind The Smile

{Revna’s POV}

War does not begin with drums.

It begins with logistics.

With numbers scratched into dirt. With routes memorized and erased. With food counted not by abundance, but by how long it can be denied.

It begins when you decide who is meant to bleed first— and who is meant to watch.

By the fifth night after the pact, Gregon believed we were moving together.

That misconception was my first victory.

I never allowed our forces to mingle. No shared camps. No shared scouts. No shared fires. Coordination does not require intimacy— only timing. I made certain our communications were indirect, filtered through messengers who did not know enough to betray me even if they tried.

My rebels moved west and south in overlapping arcs, never lingering long enough to be pinned, never striking without purpose. Each village we passed through was weighed and categorized.

Some were afraid.

Some were angry.

Some were simply tired.

Those were the easiest.

I did not arrive as a conqueror. I arrived a