Page 169 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“The headcounts you asked for.” The poor woman was huffing and puffing by the time she thrust it at me. “And Lord Malakai wants to know if he should pull from the northern faces? They could be gathered and moved within the hour.”

“No. Goddess, no. Tell him to keep them right where they are for now.”

The messenger gave me a curt nod and hurried away as fast as she came.

The last thing we needed was to strip our other borders of their manpower and have the fucking wool pulled over our eyes at the last second. Shifters fought territory wars so often with the unscrupulous high fae who inhabited the northern faces beyond our wards that I wouldn’t put it past them to strike an alliance just to scourge their precious mountains of dark fae filth, leaving the rest of Grimmoria to Odessa’s taking.

We were well supplied with bodies at the gate anyway, and a once-over of the headcount confirmed that. I folded the paper, tucking it into my pocket, and was ready to head back to the planning tent when a crackle in the air came from across the camp.

It shouldn’t have registered to me at all, given how much energy had been coming and going from the temporary stone placed there all damned morning. It was an aetherical anchor to make it less taxing for our Steppers to come and go as they moved troops and resources—something I had used abundantly already.

But Enora wasn’t supposed to be standing beside it with Gallan, wide-eyed and awestruck as she held Apollo’s lead.

What the fuck.

Enora should not have been anywhere that wasn’t stowed away inside the Keep, not when she was being used as the fuel for this assault.

If there was even a chance the stone fell, and she was here at the gate? Goddess below, she would be so fucked, never mind the rest of us.

Maksym and I had discussed it as well.

It might’ve been a fraught, hurried conversation while he refused to let me tend to the wound in his side and directed me to haul two bodies like trash, but we had agreed.

Enora was to stay in the Keep until a time came that it wasn’t safe to do so—Maksym had even sound-warded her quarters to give the woman a chance at some damned rest after everything she’d gone through.

To hell with whatever else was on my endless list of things I needed to check at the camp. I was striding towards them in a hurry, dodging infantry and mages as they hurried from place to place.

From a step behind her, Gallan fixed me with a wide-eyed stare that built a knot in my stomach. I knew what was coming next, even if I didn’t want to hear the word uttered.

We’d also discussed this, just a few weeks ago.

A fail-safe.

An absolute last resort.

Enora approached first with a tentative smile, decked in leathers with a war bow strung over her shoulder, her golden hair worked back in twin braids. She was breathtaking in her element, and I wished I’d had more time to appreciate that.

“Maksym put me to work,” she said, though I could tell there was so much else trapped behind that smile. “You can never have too many archers, right?”

I cast her the most playful look of skepticism I could manage, despite catching Gallan digging out a missive from the corner of my eye. “Does that mean your aim has improved? You had just about the worst⁠—”

She gave me a shove with a scowl. “It’s great now, thank you.”

“And I’ve got this for you,” Gallan interjected with the folded note poised between his fingers. “A little update in direction from His Majesty.”

Gallan and I both knew what was inside, but I took it and cracked the seal anyway, reading the single word scrawled in Maksym’s handwriting. Somehow, reading it felt worse than I thought hearing it would.

I sighed and nodded, stuffing it quickly into my pocket.

“Are they directions I can know about, or…?” Enora was quick to quip.

Despite her former kingdom having all but just declared war on ours, in her name, she seemed awfully chipper.

That had to be why I hesitated.

“Just organizational strategy for Elixia. Boring stuff,” Gallan slid in with ease. “And I’m sure Jasper probably needs to get on relaying it, doesn’t he? We’re pretty spread amongst the camp right now.”

“I…really should.” Fuck. They were going to be utterly ravenous about this. “If you find Matteo, he’ll get Nor set up with the archer squads on the battlements.” I shifted my attention to Enora. “Are you good with that?”