Paladin's Hope Novels & Stories

Halva Renn’s voice dropped into that calm, unwavering rhythm, when the thing growing inside me for nine months finally pressed into the world I looked at him. Through the pain. Through the strain. And I saw something on his face I had never seen before. Not fear. Not that helpless dread from the days he couldn’t enter the Moon Court to protect me. Something else. Hope. Raw. Fragile. Terrifying in its openness. The hope of a man who had lived believing his purpose was only to be the last to carry a dying line to its quiet end and who now stood in a drawing room in the Free Cities, watching the impossible unfold.

He had failed every promise he'd ever made. "I couldn't save them." Rowan shook his head gently. "You gave us something more important." Grey frowned. "Hope,” Rowan answered. The word struck harder than any blade. Hope. Maya. The tiny bud upon the Everlasting Tree. Lyon returning home. Hope had finally arrived. Only to be swallowed by flames. Grey closed his eyes briefly. "I'm sorry." The elder squeezed his shoulder. "No." His voice remained remarkably calm. "Don't apologize. Lead us."