LOGINTahlia's POV"He's lost too much blood. I need you to step back, Lady Osadebe, so I can actually work."The healer's voice carried sharp urgency as she pushed past me toward Alaric's still form, and I forced myself to release the pressure I'd been maintaining against his wound, blood-slicked hands trembling as I finally allowed someone with actual medical training to take over."Is he going to survive?" My voice cracked on the question, exhaustion and terror combining into something I could barely hold steady."I don't know yet. The arrow struck close enough to significant vessels that the next few hours will determine everything." The healer worked quickly, her hands moving with practiced efficiency despite the grim assessment. "I need him stable enough to transport back to the capital's proper medical facilities. Field treatment can only accomplish so much."I knelt beside him, watching his chest rise and fall with increasingly shallow breaths, his face pale beneath the blood and di
Tahlia's POV"There. The ridge, exactly where the guard said he'd ridden."I pointed toward the smoke rising in the distance, urging my horse faster despite the exhaustion already burning through every muscle from our desperate ride. Behind me, our combined forces stretched across the terrain—Silver Ridge warriors, Ember Crest's eight hundred, and Corin's coalition fighters who'd arrived just in time to join our desperate race toward the ambush."I count Merek's forces surrounding the ridge from three sides," Kastor called out, studying the battlefield's layout with rapid military assessment. "If we charge directly, we simply add our numbers to the same confined space, losing whatever tactical advantage our arrival might otherwise provide.""Then we don't charge directly." I forced my mind past the terror clawing at my chest, focusing instead on the calculation that had carried us through every previous crisis. "Alaric, your forces circle wide to the eastern flank. Corin, take your fi
Ronan's POV"Enough games from a distance. If you want this ended, come face me directly."I shouted the challenge across the battlefield's chaos, watching Merek's expression shift with something that might have been genuine surprise at my defiance. To my shock, he stepped forward from the tree line, moving through his own warriors with the unhurried confidence of a man who feared nothing this battlefield could offer him."Hold your positions," he called to his forces, and the fighting around me paused with unnerving discipline, warriors on both sides stepping back to create space as Merek approached, his own blade drawn now for the first time since his arrival.Reeve moved to flank me, but I raised a hand, stopping him. "Let this happen. If he wants to finish this personally, I won't hide behind guards who've already sacrificed enough."Merek stopped several paces away, studying me with the same careful assessment he'd shown throughout every previous encounter. "You've inherited more
Ronan's POV"Something's wrong. This position should be empty."I reined my horse to a stop at the ridge's edge, scanning terrain that should have shown nothing beyond routine patrol activity, my instincts screaming warning before my eyes fully registered the reason why."My lord." One of my escort guards pointed toward the tree line below, where movement had begun emerging with disciplined, coordinated precision. "Multiple units, converging from three directions.""That's not possible. This inspection was supposed to remain confidential.""Apparently not confidential enough." Captain Reeve drew his blade, positioning himself protectively at my flank. "Orders, my lord?"I calculated our options rapidly, six guards against what appeared to be considerably larger numbers already moving to encircle our position. "We can't outrun them on this terrain. We hold the ridge, force them to come at us through the narrow approach rather than surrounding us on open ground."The first wave hit with
Tahlia's POV"I found her private correspondence hidden inside a false-bottomed drawer in the records office. You need to see this now."Cassian's voice carried none of his usual composure as he burst into the war room, a stack of intercepted letters clutched in his hand. I set down the requisition ledgers I'd been reviewing, dread already coiling tight in my stomach."Show me."He spread the letters across the table, and I forced myself to read through them methodically, cataloging dates, cross-referencing them against the transfer orders and troop movements we'd already uncovered."These are addressed to Nadia directly," I said slowly, "but the handwriting isn't hers.""Look at the content, not simply the recipient."I read further, and the words settled into my stomach like stones. Detailed troop positions. Supply route timelines. The exact schedule for reinforcements arriving from Marrow Vale and Ember Crest, information that should have remained sealed within our highest command
Tahlia's POV"I need you to leak false troop positions to three separate people, each one slightly different, and tell no one else which version you've given whom."Cassian raised an eyebrow at the request, though he didn't question it, already reaching for parchment to begin the task. "You suspect the traitor's someone within immediate command structure.""I suspect it's someone with access sensitive enough that Merek considers the intelligence worth the risk of maintaining an active source inside these walls." I paced the length of the war room, mind racing through the mechanics of the trap I intended to build. "Three false positions, each fed to a different commander who reports directly to strategic planning. Whichever version reaches Merek's forces first tells us exactly whose hands the information passed through.""And if none of them leak it?""Then we've at least eliminated three suspects and narrowed our search considerably." I met his eyes. "Who reports directly enough to st







