858 A.G.M.

Present Day

Minerva pressed the soldier's eyelids shut and sank back onto her heels. "Thank you for your sacrifice," she whispered to the woman.

"Her name was Mori," Kaolin said from where she directed members of the guard to load their dead comrades into a cart. "She had a sweetheart who came to visit her in the barracks every week. He brought her flowers."

The storm lessened to a light drizzle, but Minerva bowed her head and let the tears flow freely. There was no shame in a soldier's mourning. She understood and honored this tradition more than the noble conventions she'd been raised with. The tears meant that their death had not been empty—that their life mattered.

The practice struck true within her because this was who she was. Not a noblewoman who excelled at politics, schooled in the subtle maneuverings of power and succession. Not an assassin who shed blood for the coin and passed through the world as a lone shadow. At least, she'd only ever wanted to be a soldier.

She was not free of her other roles. Not yet. The burden of responsibility still rested on her shoulders. Upon it piled regret after regret. If she hadn't hesitated, Mori and two others would still be alive.

Squeezing her crying eyes shut, Minerva ground her fists into the pavement. Seconds meant lives in combat, yet she'd held back. Set up straw men to knock over and she'd do it. But give her a real opponent—one capable of bringing her down—and the true colors of a coward would show.

Despicable.

Compared to Mori, she wasn't a real soldier at all.

"Are you going to mope in the dirt there until someone builds a house over your head or what?" a voice said from above her.

Minerva swiped her sleeve across her nose and accepted the hand offered to help her stand. Mori's body had been taken and laid in the cart. "Thank you," she said.

Kodak bent sideways to peer at her face, his dark hair plastered to his forehead from the rain ... or his sweat. Maybe both. "For what?"

A flush crept up Minerva's cheeks as she stammered, "For—you saved my life and I'm ... grateful."

Kodak laughed. "Someone needs to work on her speaking skills. But don't mention it. We're even now." He squeezed her hand before releasing it.

"What was the ... Divinity-sealed saying to you?" Minerva asked. She'd been blocking out the screeches coming from behind her as the guards shackled Dai.

The Hydro prince's face clouded as quickly as the sudden storm had hit. "Nothing," he muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking away from her.

Minerva frowned after him, but instead of following, she strode over to the chained assassin. She needed answers. Her mind flashed back to Sol with her cryptic words. They'd faded from her memory over the years, along with much of the circumstances surrounding the latter part of that night. She'd never encountered another assassin gone berserk since.

Until now.

Both of Dai's arms ended in a bloody stump, cut off at the elbow. Yet he still retained his strength, thrashing and cursing while Kaolin secured a chain around his torso. It cinched both his feet together before being hitched to the back of the wagon.

Kaolin shied back when Dai tried to bite her hand. By her glare, she looked like she'd rather his head had been lopped off. "Why are we bringing the lunatic with us again?" she growled, joining Minerva a few steps away.

"I wanted to talk to him first," Minerva answered softly.

"What's the use? He's insane."

Watching Dai foam at the mouth and lunge against his fetters, it was difficult to disagree. And yet ...

"Partially insane. The monster with a human soul is the worst monster to face because you cannot ignore the remnant of humanity in them," Minerva quoted.

Kaolin grimaced in childish disgust. It appeared she recognized Nola's saying. "Fine. Talk to him if you must, but I'm going to cut his tongue off if he starts worming his way into your brain."

Minerva nodded. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

She took a couple steps forward and waited for the cursed man to notice her. His screams buffeted her ears as he continued writhing in a wretched attempt to free himself.

Then, he stopped, lying face down in the dust of the road.

Minerva shifted on her feet. Could it be a ruse intended to draw them to him?

He groaned and sat up, crossing his legs in an ironic imitation of a temple holy man. Red sparked in his eyes as he spat at Minerva's feet.

"Do you prefer to be addressed as a son of Phoenix?" Minerva asked, ignoring the glob near her boots.

Dai's laughter grated on her ears like salt in an open wound. "My, how you've grown," he crooned like an aged grandmother.

Minerva locked her legs against the temptation to run away. "What were you hoping to accomplish here?" She forced her voice to be level. All eyes were on her, the most cutting of which was the priestess holding Phoenix's flame.

She had too many suspicions, nothing solid. Like watching lines being drawn in invisible ink, but before she could connect the words to form the whole thought, they would fade from sight.

"Not to kill you, or you would already be dead." Dai's eyelids drooped. "You must understand that invoking the name of the Three does not mean that they are, in fact, One."

Three ... One? What? "I'm not certain that I understand you. Speak plainly."

The assassin sighed, for once appearing serious. "There is no room for plainness. You are playing a dangerous game, daughter of Nemesis. One for which you do not know all the rules."

Minerva glanced at Kaolin, but her maidservant's brows were furrowed in thought. An abnormal weight seemed to be present in Dai's words, so that all present listened. His brevity was more perilous than his previous insanity.

"What if I don't want to play the game?"

"You must." He stated it as an absolute.

"How do I win? What are the rules?" Desperation and anger choked her throat as the bite in her neck throbbed with heat.

"We can't" —Dai strained and bent double as if an incredible load threatened to crush him— "can't break the terms." He gasped in pain. "She's too strong."

Kaolin stepped forward and drew her bow on Dai. "Who is?" she snapped.

Dai chuckled even though beads of sweat paved lines in the grimy ash on his face. Spots of black now stained his teeth and the corrupted veins spread past his jawline. "Don't shoot the messenger," he whispered.

Unblinking, Kaolin kept her arrow trained on him. "Then answer me."

"The Pyroline knows. She was claimed by her," Dai said, grinding his teeth.

Minerva's heart went still in her chest.

Kaolin stepped back and lowered her bow. "If you have a message, hurry up and give it. We don't have all day."

The surrounding guards murmured their assent. Some of the procession had left in the scuffle, but the rest of the nobility remained mounted and ready to continue onward to the arena. Impatient. Watching and weighing as nobles so often enjoyed doing.

Kodak claimed the empty space at Minerva's side. "A penny for your thoughts?" he said in a low voice.

Daughter of Nemesis. Son of—

"Who is Nodon?" Minerva said quietly.

If Kodak meant to reply, Dai interrupted him. "While you prepare for the firestorm, a snake emerges from the shadows to devour you. Know your true enemy, Minerva Pyroline. Soon it will be too late for you to repent."

Mouthing the words as he said them, Minerva committed the riddle to memory. She couldn't make sense of it now, but perhaps it would become clear to her later. "Why this warning?" she asked.

Dai shrugged—the motion grotesque as if he were an armless puppet on strings. "Siblings' quarrels. You should know."

Silence pervaded. The ruby gleam in Dai's eyes faded and his body fell slack against his bonds.

"I think we're done here," Kaolin said to Minerva. "What are your marching orders?"

"Hold on." Kodak approached Dai and tilted the man's head up with the butt end of his spear.

Tears leaked from the assassin's closed eyes and the silent movement of his lips reminded Minerva of Nola when she prayed. The powerful tension that had emitted from Dai no longer kept her at bay. She stepped closer.

"Look at me," Kodak ordered.

Dai opened his eyes and the pools of brown focused on Kodak before flooding with more tears. "Please kill me," he begged. He fell forward without his hands to steady him and groveled like a worm at the Hydro prince's feet. His voice soared to a higher pitch. "I can't get them out! They won't leave."

Minerva stared at his prostrate form. "Me ... I ... they said they killed him."

Kodak shot her a considering glance before looping a hand under Dai's shoulder and hoisting him back up to his knees. "Listen, you madman. I want an—"

"My family!" Dai shrieked, twisting in Kodak's grip. He set his eyes on Minerva. "Spare my wife and son!"

Minerva almost preferred the psycho assassin over this tear-stained limp noodle left to boil for too long. She pinched her nose bridge between her fingers. "Your family will not be held accountable for your crimes," she assured Dai. "Now answer him."

"Why do you call me 'son of Nodon'?" Kodak growled.

Dai curled in on himself. "That's who they say you are," he whimpered.

"What if I don't want to be?" The Hydro prince grabbed the front Dai's shirt and lifted him off the ground to look him in the eyes.

Minerva's mouth fell open slightly. He's strong. Whatever the reason for Kodak's rage, she couldn't see this ending well. The air around her crackled with sudden heat. "Kodak—"

Face contorting, Dai snarled like a rabid kat. "Your fate is decided by your allegiance. We don't make the rules." He grinned, an evil glint in his fiery eyes. "I hope you're ready for death to take you, son of Nodon."

His veins filled with fire—glowing like liquid gold to intertwine with the skeins of black.

Kaolin shouted a warning. Kodak dropped Dai as if he'd been burned and lifted an arm to shield his face.

That wouldn't be enough. Minerva threw herself in front of him, channeling the expulsion of heat into her body. It rushed into the open vessel she provided as she fought to keep the air around Kodak from exploding into a blaze.

Too much. Too much to hold.

She couldn't contain it all. Fire erupted behind her at the same moment Kodak pulled the both of them away.

"Are you alright?" she heard Kodak ask through the haze in her brain. He sounded worried. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth when she tried to answer.

What happened? Did she black out?

Her vision cleared enough to see Kaolin hurry over. Her maidservant picked up her hand and inspected the vivid golden hue of her skin. "She's overheating. We need to get some water."

"I've got it." Kodak helped her sink to the ground before producing a flask from inside his coat. He uncorked the container and held it to her lips.

Minerva slurped the liquid, relaxing as steam hissed from her skin. Her head continued to pound, however. Despite the water, the inside of her mouth was cakey, as if she'd eaten too much mung bean powder.

Kodak pressed the bottle into her hand while she continued to drink. Then he shrugged out of his dark blue overcoat, leaving only his white shirt on underneath.

Minerva choked. "What are you doing?" she asked between coughs and gasping for air.

After draping his coat over her shoulders, Kodak took on a studied expression of neutrality. "Your uh—back is bare."

With her entire body close to overflowing from extreme warmth, she hadn't noticed a difference. But now that he mentioned it ... there was a bit of a draft.

"The back portion of your top burned up. The rest is hanging on by your sleeves," Kaolin remarked wryly.

A moment ago, Minerva would have thought her face couldn't get any hotter than it had been.

She'd have been wrong.

When she stood, the hem of the coat almost touched the ground.

"The color ... suits you," Kodak said. The corner of his mouth twitched.

"Go jump in a lake," Minerva snapped. She whipped her head around, causing her long hair to hit Kodak in the face.

The blast didn't seem to have reached the rest of the company, but the wagon smoked. Pyra finished dumping a bucket of water on it and doused Dai's hanging head with the next one handed to her.

"I think he's worn out his welcome at this point," Kaolin said, side-eyeing Dai.

"Oh, he has," Minerva replied. She pulled the coat closer about her shoulders. Soft fur brushed her cheek along with a scent like the ground after rainfall.

I wouldn't mind keeping this ... if only it were my size.

She banished the thought and forced herself to focus. "We're taking him to the arena. He doesn't deserve a Pyro funeral, not like our soldiers." Not like Mori.

Kaolin's eyes lit with comprehension and approval. "The manticores are always hungry," she agreed. A smirk tugged a the corner of her mouth. "Though I would have enjoyed shooting the messenger more."