A woman stood in front of me, her glossy obsidian eyes reflecting the scene behind me.

I turned around, holding back a scream. Children's bodies laid on the ground, charred. Some had little flesh remaining on their bones, others were just bones.

Fires flared through the roof of the house. Their house. The bitter smell of smoke ran through the air, a mask for the lack of sounds. There should be screams, but there wasn't.

The woman I was staring at walked into the ablaze house, and when she peered back for the final time, her face shifted into Manea's.

*~⚜️~*

I shot up from the ground, scrambling to the basin. Trying to process my dream, I splashed some water onto my face and looked toward the entrance to my tent. It was morning. Or maybe it was afternoon?

"Are you well?" Rysdan asked as he peeked his head through the crack of the entrance.

"I'm fine. Is it morning?"

He chuckled. "It's the afternoon. I tried waking you up, but you started yelling and I left you alone." I yelled? I don't remember him waking me up. "Odaya wanted to talk to you."

I wiped my face and went out of the tent. Rysdan kept quiet, observing me as he led the way. The path we took was different. That meant there was many exits to the camp. Good.

"So... Odaya is awfully fond of you, isn't she?" Rysdan said.

I couldn't believe he was trying to start conversation. Fine. "She's my cousin."

"Everyone knows that. What else do you know about her?"

"Why do you care?" I snapped.

For a second, he hesitated. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "I'm a curious man. Besides, that makes Odaya a royal, right?"

"I didn't even know she was my distant cousin."

"You don't seem to know much about her. Now that I think about it, you don't seem to know much about the world."

Shit. Have I said too much? "Well, I'm sure Odaya is a wonderful cousin for getting me to this point."

Rysdan looked back at me. "She doesn't have anything to do with this."

"What?"

Before he could answer me, we stopped in front of the Tent. He opened the entry, and I crawled in, curious to know about this so-called cousin of mine.

"Are you crazy? You'll die!" I heard Avaloryn say. She was standing in front of Kallia, who looked visibly annoyed. "You're not going. That's final."

"You're not my mother," Kallia quipped. I made my way over to a nearby chair and sat. I knew I should mind my own business, but...

"Exactly. You should know when something is dangerous without me having to tell you." Avaloryn glanced over at me. "Do you have a problem?"

"No, but it looks like you do," I replied coolly. Behind me someone coughed. "You're the one yelling."

"Mind you're own business," Avaloryn said, returning her attention back to Kallia, "or I'll have fun getting rid of you."

"You won't. You're Prodos's little puppet, remember? Keep dreaming." I knew I was tempering with fire, but I wasn't going to let her stomp on me.

"As much as I would love to see you attempt to brawl with Avaloryn, we have a meeting to start." Odaya came around the table and sat down.

Soon after, Ashe and Nylas walked in clad in black leather. If looks could kill, Nylas would've killed nearly everyone in the room. "We also have a few problems," Nylas addressed.

"How bad?" Odaya asked.

"Really bad," Ashe replied. He brought a chair next to me and sat down, resting his cloak on his lap.

"The amount of ways you could kill him...," the voice hummed in my head.

Avaloryn snapped her head toward Nylas. "Yeah? Well, Kallia wants to go to Kandose—"

"Absolutely not. We don't need Prodos to lose his shit over that too. He's already in a pissful mood." Nylas rubbed his head. I caught him slyly looking up at me. "Kallia, we need you to follow our orders. The only reason why we have you here is because Avaloryn forced us to protect you. Don't make us regret it."

"Whatever. All of you are idiots if you think we can lead a revolution without aid." Kallia got up from the ground, storming out of the room.

Avaloryn was about to leave after her, but Nylas called out to her. "Leave her. Maybe she can learn how to not be reckless."

If I didn't know better, I'd say Avaloryn was worried. She hesitated, but then grabbed a chair and sat around the table.

"Lorcan is questioning me. He's wanting to bring guards here, to Kampa, and search for her." Nylas gestured to me. "Irene is also suspecting me."

"Leave her out of this." I was nothing like Diana, but I'd be damned if I let him hurt her. "She's done nothing—"

"Oh, shut it." Nylas interrupted me and looked over. "I'm aware of her innocence, but she's still an obstacle. We need to get her out of our way." I was about to yell at him, but he quickly added, "Without hurting her."

"How caring. How about you nanny me too, Nylas?" I said.

"So now what? We can't tell Prodos any of this," Ashe mumbled. He gave a pointed look at Nylas. "We have Valarya. I've convinced her about the food shortage."

I hated to admit it, but he did. Seeing that river did alter some part of my mind.

"You still killed my sister," I said.

Ashe hit the table with his palm, rattling it. "For the final time, I didn't kill your fucking sister."

I froze, startled by the response.

"You haven't told her—?"

"Shut your mouth, Nylas," Ashe yelled. He looked at me and ran a hand through his hair. "You're stubborn as hell. I thought you knew I wasn't the enemy—"

"Because you totally didn't take me from my wedding. And, oh, you so didn't threaten me with death. You're too kind for any of that, Knightley." I leaned back.

Ashe slowly got out of his chair, his oceanic stare piercing me down. It felt like he had an invisible hand around my throat that was pushing me underwater.

Without any words, Ashe grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the Tent. I wanted to yell at him, but something told me that I was balancing on a very fine line, at the moment.

"Listen here, stupid girl. If you think you can talk to me like that, I will let Prodos have his way with you—"

"You can take your mercy and shove it up your ass."

His face didn't change. But instead, he leaned forward like he was maybe dreaming. "Come again?"

"Shove your mercy up your—"

He snapped his head up and seized my wrist as he backed me into a tree. My back scrapped against the bark, and deep down, I knew that I should've kept my mouth shut.

"You're insufferable," he grumbled.

I kept my mouth shut this time.

"I didn't kill her; I'm not telling you this again. I don't like repeating myself, Valarya."

His face remained emotionless. I would know; I was staring right at it. It was a hideous thing.

It was a hideous trap. A face that was sharp, hard, and handsome. Not a devilishly handsome face like Ilias, but the kind of face that you looked at once and thought of angels. There was not one imperfection on that hideous face.

I hated it. I hated every piece of it.

I spat on him.

"You—you insane woman! I'm helping you!" He clasped my hand, and I watched as my spit ran down his face.

I could've laughed, but that would've been my death.

Instead of yelling at me, hitting me, dragging me off to kill me, or taking me to Prodos, he took my hand and used it to wipe my spit.

Nausea filled my stomach. Ashe took his time too, making sure to make it excruciating.

"And now I need to bathe. Thank you for your kindness. It seems to run well in the family."

"You've seen nothing," I hissed back.

I lifted my knee to hit in between his legs, but his legs caught mine.

"I've seen it all."

I wanted to slam him into a wall. No. I needed to hurt him. His voice alone made me boil. It made me want to take a fish out of a stream and slap him across the face with it.

As I was imagining all the different ways I could murder this man, I hadn't been paying attention to the way he leaned over with his lips hovering just above my ear.

"I'll be talking to you later tonight."

"I don't want to talk to you."

"I'll be talking to you later tonight," he said again, still keeping that cool voice.

"I thought you don't like repeating yourself?"

He yanked back, almost like he was startled. He opened his mouth, then closed, then opened it again.

"Insufferable woman."

Maybe it was the way he said it, or maybe it was the way he looked into my eyes that made me shudder. I promised myself to not be afraid, but I couldn't help it.

Ashe pulled me away from the tree, cursing. He held me firmly and dragged me behind him.

"The Tent is that way," I told him.

"I didn't ask for you to be a map."

"But if you did ask me to be a map, did you think I would magically turn into one?"

I saw him look back, and when he did, a vein in his neck bulged out. He turned away, saving himself from a headache.

He should've replied. I would've loved to snap back again.

"Oh really, Valarya? You're quite snarky. Someone should learn how to shut your mouth," the voice in my head said.

"Do you know why Prodos wasn't here?"

"Why are you asking me? Of course I wouldn't know. Your little goons are like leeches outside my tent. Except I would be able to kill leeches. You know, there's not much differences between blood-sucking leeches and them."

"Oh yes. Someone definitely needs to learn how to shut you up," it said again.

"Insufferable," he said. Before I could say anything back, he added, "I'll show you what Prodos is doing."

It couldn't be that bad, could it? I thought to myself.

We stopped outside of a circle of tents, and in the middle, Prodos was standing there. My jaw dropped open at the sight.

Maybe Ashe was being merciful after all.