Hours ticked by until the faint light of dusk claimed the sky and the first brave stars dotted the horizon. Behind me, someone cleared their throat.
I jumped to my feet and reached for the small blade I kept on my hip.
Kostya eyed my hands. “Decent reflexes, though it would’ve helped had you known I was here to begin with.”
My hand wavered. “I heard you approach.”
Kostya sighed. “Because I alerted you to my presence. How long do you think I’d been waiting?”
Everything left me in a rush, and my shoulders slumped. I didn’t care if he’d been there since the beginning. I didn’t have it in me to try to pick apart my surroundings in my grief. And I didn’t rightly care. Running a hand through my hair, I gave him a weary glance. “Sorry I took off like that. You’re free to leave if you’d like.”
Kostya studied me for a long moment before removing his glasses. Slowly, he pulled a cloth from his breast pocket and began polishing the lenses. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I barked out a harsh laugh. As if it wasn’t glaringly obvious.
“Something is troubling you.” Kostya replaced his glasses.
Giving way to absurdity, I tossed my hands to the sky in exasperation. “Of course something is troubling me. Were you not there today? Didn’t you see the battlefield? How many people, on both sides, had to die for this endless fight?” I started to pace, acutely aware of the way his gaze tracked my progression. “I’ve tried to negotiate with Rhyne. I’ve tried to explain what happened to their princess. I’ve tried everything I can think of to bring this to an end, and nothing is working.
“And what’s worse is my men are paying the price. If they’re not dying with a sword in their hands, they’re dying with their backs on a cot, courtesy of a plague no one can cure. It might look like Lendria is winning, but everywhere I turn, we are losing everything.”
Kostya was silent for a long breath, as if waiting to see whether I’d continue. Only when I finally came to a stop did he fold his arms across his chest. “You said you’ve tried everything?”
“Yes. Everything.”
“And you’re sure about that?” His harsh green eyes softened before he looked away to the night sky.
The raging pulse that had been building inside me quieted. “What are you saying?”
Kostya cleared his throat. “What does Rhyne want? All wars boil down to what one side desires but isn’t getting.”
“Vengeance, I suppose.” I went to slip my hands into the pockets of my trousers but failed. I hadn’t even had time to toss aside my armor. The metal gauntlets covering my fingers scraped against my plated thighs.
With a deliberate slowness, Kostya dragged his gaze back to mine. “Specifics matter. What exactly do they want?”
It didn’t take long for me to answer. “Me. They want me.”
Kostya said nothing, but his stare was so damning I had to fight to keep my chin held high. Shadows started to fester in the space around him, and he dipped his hands in the abyss. Onyx tendrils pooled in his palms before spilling out between his fingers. “Then you haven’t tried everything.” With that gut-punch, he added, “I’ll be going now, Prince Aleksander. I wish you luck with your never-ending war.”
Before I could clear my throat to speak, a vacuum of darkness swallowed him whole, and he was gone. If it weren’t for the way his words lingered in the air, I could’ve convinced myself he’d never been there at all. But he had been there. He’d listened. And he wasn’t wrong—all Rhyne wanted was my head on a spike. I’d been fighting against my own death for so long that the concept of giving in had always seemed foreign. Like admitting defeat. And yet… I slumped back to the ground and stared out over the darkening marsh, my world reorienting around the assassin’s parting words.
Thaleus would soon be gone. Amira was gone. Nearly everyone I loved, gone. They were only blips of brightness in my life, stolen away before I was ready to say goodbye. How many other families and loved ones were suffering through the same heartache?
Maybe Amira was waiting for me in the gods’ realm. Maybe a world without me truly was better. Those deathly shadows that had swallowed Kostya whole hadn’t seemed so dangerous. He’d almost seemed to welcome the way they moved, the way they cocooned him in a solitary reprieve reality couldn’t offer.