Page 1 of Renegade Kingdom
Chapter One
Alyssa
Sister.
The word echoed around my mind like a scream piercing through the darkness. It couldn’t be real. There was no possible way. He…Arik.
My gaze moved around the horror of the aftermath of our battle. The dead, the dying, the grieving. It was all too much.
Sister.
It just couldn’t be possible.
Then my gaze locked on the charred remains of The Endless he’d burned alive just to spite me. The soldiers I could have freed if only I’d had enough time. If only I’d been better.
If only.
The touch of a hand on my shoulder cut through the fog of the horror before me. I spun around, my hand flying to my dagger before my mind could catch up with what I was doing. The blade was already arching through the air when my eyes locked with Tank’s understanding gaze. I barely stopped in time, the edge of the dagger biting into the soft skin of his neck.
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even raise his hand to stop me.
Tank’s eyes just locked with mine before he gently took hold of my wrists and pulled me against him.
“It’s over, Lys. I’ve got you,” he murmured as I sank into his embrace.
“He said…”
“It doesn’t matter what he said,” he interrupted. “Not to me. And not to the others. All that matters now is what you do next. You can fall apart. Say the word and I’ll take you out of this place, away from it all. Or you can stand tall, Alyssa. Show them the Queen you were always meant to be. Show them there are people who still care, people who will fight. Show them that this was the action of a desperate man. And he fucking should be. Because we’re coming for him, and we’re not going to stop until he’s dead.”
I wanted the first option. Every fibre of my being screamed for it. To let Tank carry me away from this nightmare, to find a dark corner where I could shatter into a thousand pieces and let someone else put me back together.
But I couldn’t. Not with all those eyes on me. Not while I still stood in front of the evidence of what Arik was capable of.
I pulled back from Tank’s chest, letting my hand linger on his arm a moment longer than necessary. Drawing strength from that connection. From the steady pulse of the bond between us.
When I turned, I saw them properly for the first time. The Endless I’d broken from Arik’s command. Dozens of them pulling themselves free of their gleaming armour, their movements stiff and uncertain, like creatures emerging from long hibernation. Some wept. Some just stood there, staring at nothing. A few had already dropped to their knees beside fallen comrades, the friends they’d been forced to fight alongside, friends they’d been unable to save.
Then they were all looking at me.
At first, I thought it was hope in their eyes. That desperate, fragile thing that survivors cling to when the worst has passed. But the longer I looked, the more those gazes sharpened into something else entirely.
Questions. Accusations.
Who are you? Why should we trust you? You wear his magic. You carry his power. How are you any different?
I didn’t have answers for all of that. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But Tank was right, and if I wanted these people to follow me, they needed to know who they were following.
I stepped forward, and my voice carried across the ruined battlefield with a steadiness I didn’t feel.
“I know you’re scared.” The words felt inadequate, but I pressed on. “You don’t know me, and you have no reason to trust me. Arik took everything from you. Your freedom, your choices, your lives. I can’t give any of that back.”
A few faces hardened. I’d expected that, but every glare still felt like a blade slicing across my soul.
“But Icanoffer you a choice now. A real one.” I gestured to the carnage around us, to the smoking remains and the bloody snow. “If you want to fight, if you want to make sure no one else suffers what you suffered, thenstand with us. We’re going after him. There is nowhere in Nymeria that Arik can hide. Not now, not after everything he’s done. He’s spilled our blood, taken the ones we loved and we won’t stop until he canneverdo this again.”
I paused, letting that settle.
“But if you’re done fighting, if you need time to heal... I understand that too. We’ll arrange safe passage to somewhere beyond his reach. Somewhere you can rest, heal, try to remember who you were before he took you.” My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. “No one here will thinkless of you for choosing peace. You’ve earned it. You’vemorethan earned it.”
