Page 303 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

Couldn’t fault her there. “So, what are you waiting for? Why not accuse them directly?”

“I don’t know enough about Moros.”

“There’s not much to know.”

“Expand.”

“The hierarchy died,” I said, more bitterly than I intended. “The Divide scattered our descendants across the globe. Their dwindled numbers were slaughtered under Koa’s reign, and what was left nearly vanished when Moros backed his uncle’s war against the Solskari. If Adrastos came out of Bellpost, he doesn’t answer to them now. Moros has an ego the size of Helios—he wouldn’t sit on a weapon like that without bragging to the rest of us.”

I didn’t say it aloud, but I was nearly certain she was right.

Her gaze narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

I shrugged. “He said as much.”

Her brows lifted. “What?!”

She leaned in so fast her cider nearly sloshed over the rim of her cup.

“He claimed he had a right to my mother’s throne,” I said coolly. “So, I figured Bellpost or the Knights.”

“Why wouldn’t you lead with that?”

“Because I dug back through our history and found nothing. No Adrastos. Not in any Bellpost tome. For a battle hierarchy, the only names more revered than warriors are royals—and he’s not on either list.”

I watched her lips part slightly, her eyes flicking from one side of the table to the other as she processed. After a moment, she shook her head.

“It’s not his name.”

“You think both are aliases?”

“Maybe.”

“You’ve got a theory?”

“No. When he struck a deal with Alvara, her brand came back marked A.A.”

Alvara of Grayshell. The Alvara. The one who didn’t barter unless the world was ending.

My mind flared with a thousand questions. “Okay, we’re circling back to that later. But for now: there’s no one with those initials in any of the historical texts I’ve read. And I’ve read everything I could get my hands on.”

“In order to command a force that size⁠—”

“What size?”

“At least a thousand Renown.”

“Then he’s a general at minimum.”

Her curt nod matched the unease pulsing in my gut. “Shadows, clairvoyance…Ally says illusions too. He’s ancient, Cyrus. No one masters that many gifts unless they’ve had centuries.”

“What does Aren say?”

She wrapped her hands around her mug, drawing it close, eyes going distant. “All gifts present in balance.”

“You think your second is his counterweight?”

“We did.”