I sink to my knees and turn his body over. My fingers touch his neck—it's bubbling with blood.

  His mouth seems to move, as if whispering something.

  But the eyes tell all.

  He’s gone.

  I close Kiren’s eyes. Feel all sensation leave me. All pain mute. All fear void

  Blood on my hands, crimson slicking down my palms.

  I clutch them into fists.

  There is no angel dust remaining in my veins. Yet, in that moment, as my breath quickens and my heart hammers in my ears, as Thraevirula yells something at Masaru and the two of them have a small spat—the world seems to slow. Seconds turn to minutes. Minutes to hours. The years come and go, my life brought to a standstill: a picturesque scene of fire in the sky and death in the air, all surging upon my last dawn.

  A spark of crimson flashes from my fingertips.

  I stand up. Masaru stops arguing with Thraevirula, looking at me. Then, he stomps forward.

  I raise my hand and try to blast him to pieces.

  The spark writhes on my fingertips…

  Red lightning enwraps my hand like bloody vines…

  And then it fades.

  No. No, I was so close please. Please give me this one thing I’m begging you please.

  I stare dumbly at the hand before Masaru cuts into it. I shell up just in time, but his blade rents deep wounds into the wrists. My feet try launching, but they just buckle from the pain and I trip in front of him.

  I grab for his ankle. Try pulling him down.

  He kicks me in the jaw. My world rocks—jaw aches heavy.

  I try biting his ankle. He shakes me off, props his boot under my shoulder, and turns me to the sky. Masaru looks down upon me coldly before stomping his foot into my chest. I wheeze and cough blood.

  “I’ll… fucking… kill you,” I manage to say. The words are cracked with hate and sorrow. My eyes wander to Kiren’s form once more—one last source of rage for that is all that he has been reduced to—before I make one last effort to reach up at Masaru.

  The Elder presses his tachi into my arm, pinning me to the ground.

  I scream. Partly because of the pain. Mostly because of Kiren. His blood still wets my face like tears.

  “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU I SWEAR IT MASARU I SWEAR—”

  He presses the blade deeper. I hiss, pain lancing like icy water upon my shoulder.

  Then, all at once, he withdraws the blade. Another sharp pain stretches through my body. Though, it doesn’t have enough time to register, for Masaru grabs me by the hair and starts dragging me in front of Thraevirula. I can barely move. Everything is too broken and cut up. I’m just a sack of meat waiting to be butchered.

  He throws me to the ground and lets go of my hair, circling around to the witch now. I glare up balefully at Thraevirula, but she too wears a sad expression.

  I can’t tell if it's real anymore. Did she actually mean to let us go? Or was the contract worded specifically to allow Masaru to kill us? What does it matter? Kiren is dead. Our army is lost.

  I’ve lost.

  I have all this hate bundled up within, yet no way of expelling it anymore. My body has raged all it can. Masaru leans down in front of me. I do my best to rise—make it up halfway to a kneeling position.

  Then he slaps me.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Do you know,” he begins very slowly. “How much you’ve cost me?”

  I don’t answer. Instead, I just stare at him with eyes that would kill if they could.

  “That look. You have no right to give me that look. You have no idea what true loss is.”

  “Just kill yourself or kill me, I don’t want hear this—”

  He slaps me again. Puts a boot to the back of my head and pushes me into the ground. “No. You're going to listen like an obedient slave.”

  “Masaru…” Thraevirula begins but the Elder turns to her.

  “Are you defending him?” he snaps.

  From my half-lidded gaze, I can see a dark look pass over Thrae’s face. A black rage. In that moment, I can tell she wants to kill Masaru. She no doubt could very easily.

  But after a few seconds, she just shakes her head.

  Masaru turns back to me. “You probably don’t know this. I made you take a contract. But, your mother and I were intimate. She threw herself upon me like a lost, fragile woman… used her wiles and seduction to bring me into her bed. I allowed it out of amusement and out of pity. At the same time, my wife and I were trying to make a child. One that would be worthy of inheriting the Dragon Blade.”

  He doesn’t know that Thraevirula already showed me the contract, I realize. So I guess she was being sincere in the dreams. Maybe I should’ve taken that contract. I would’ve been able to kill him. Save Kiren. Just at the cost of letting Thrae win.

  At this point, I don’t care about good or evil. Right or wrong. She can plague the whole world for all I care.

  “By what I thought was the luck of spirits at the time, both my wife and your mother became pregnant within days of each other. So I had to make assurances. Fall back plans.”

  “What are you even talking about?”

  “Right. You didn’t agree with the clan laws. That’s why you were always unworthy of us. But the other Elders… they all knew: no woman could inherit the Dragon Blade. No matter their signs, they would never be strong enough to wield it properly. So I cast a wide net. Just in case.”

  I’m starting to realize what he means now.

  And I look at him, for once, not with hate, but with horror.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I did what I had to do. During the final days of her pregnancy, I stole Hanata away to a ritual site. She bore me a son. Of course, you won’t remember because that contract erased all notice of the pregnancy from your mind. But perhaps you recall her leaving for a few days.”

  I do, but I don’t indulge a response. I remember it only because she was never the type to honor clan rituals, so this behavior was odd from her. A few days later, Sadai apologized to me about something. I don’t remember what though.

  “A week after your mother’s labor, my wife had a child. She fainted during the pregnancy. Nearly died. But by the will of the spirits, she lived. And I gave her a son.”

  That confirms it.

  I spit. “You will burn in the Hells.”

  “No. The spirits will understand. They know I’ve worked too hard. It was their test. They wanted to see if I had what it takes.” He nods, reverent at the mere thought of the memory. “I killed my daughter peacefully. Buried her in the rocks, with tears in my eyes. But I passed their test. And I was able to show my wife my son when she woke up. She was so happy—she thought she had succeeded in giving me an heir. After so many tries.”

  Tears wet his glands. He blinks them away with spite.

  “Your mother and I swore to silence. Hanata acted as though she lost the child during the labor. Nobody really cared regardless. Years later, when you and that bitch stole the blade, I was enraged. But I also knew it could be salvaged. I was even planning on being a bit merciful. I would’ve given you lashes for the crime and killed the girl once we got her back—some consideration for your mother’s years of silence. However, the same day that you stole it…”

  His voice goes dark and cold. Shaking with rage. “My wife found out. She found out that her son was not hers. And if I was just given a moment to explain it all to her—to tell her it was a test of the spirits, then maybe I could’ve saved her. But I was too busy dealing with your idiocy. My wife took my son, locked the house, and killed herself along with him in shame.”

  The world goes dead quiet. The sounds of war don’t matter.

  My heart slows to a mere whimper.

  Masaru continues. “Your mother was the only one that knew. She had to have been the one to tell her. And even if Hanata didn’t say it, I don’t care. Because of you, I. Lost. Everything. In my sorrow, I left the clan and went to my relatives in Sorayvlad. Then, the civil war happened and I found a new heir to take care of. My nephew. And by the spirits, I won’t allow you to take him from me as well.”

  He tangles his fingers in my hair and yanks me up once more before setting my head down.

  The steel of his blade kisses my nape.

  “So consider this your formal execution. Die for all of your sins, Thunderwatcher. Slave of Clan Adachi.”