The ride was a bumpy one from my seat at the back of a wagon full of crates and barrels. At least I had a large, fluffy black and white dog for company that was sprawled across my lap, snoozing away. It was a little warm for that, but I wasn’t about to complain.

Hell, I was free. At least as free as I’d probably ever be. I had some time to relax with a dog in my lap, without the looming threat of death I’d always lived with.

What did the average person even do with their life?

What would I do once I’d repaid my debt?

And the question that strangely gnawed at me, would I see Eujia again? I didn’t know why I cared, but I wanted to show her she’d saved more than just a heartless killer.

Because I was more than that, wasn’t I?

“Almost to Nisi,” the driver shouted over his shoulder.

The dog woke up and jumped into my face, licking at my cheek, and I laughed. “Yeah, I’ll miss you, too,” I said.

We passed by a few farms and ranches before the wagon pulled up to one and stopped. “This is as far as I go,” the driver said.

“Good enough for me. Thanks.” I hopped down from the wagon and came around to shake his hand.

“Good travels to you, kid.”

I gave the dog one more scratch behind the ears before I headed farther down the road to another ranch. Gradis would be long gone, but I hoped he’d been in enough of a hurry that he’d been sloppy and left something behind. He’d obviously left his animals behind. They probably hadn’t been fed in a day, and they were living in their own shit. Some, if not all, of them would die before any of the other ranchers noticed Gradis had abandoned them. Poor things. Maybe I could leave an anonymous note for another rancher tipping them off. But first things first.

I glanced up and down the road as I stepped up to the little ranch house, but there was no one in sight. I picked the lock and slipped inside.

I barely dodged the blade that swung at my neck.

Nal swung again, but this time I had my sword ready to block him. I kicked him back and vanished.

He stood perfectly still, listening, while I stepped as silently as possible around him. Once I’d reached his side, I lunged, but he stepped back into a portal, reappearing behind me. He swiped his sword down, and I ducked and rolled sideways out of the way. I lifted my sword to block his next cut just in time.

I didn’t bother hiding anymore.

“Tell me where he is!” I roared.

“You know I can’t do that!”

I couldn’t hold down the Rage and felt my eyes blacken. My muscles ached to tear into something or someone—to move, destroy, kill. I’d rip his fucking throat out.

“Don’t start with me,” Nal growled as the whites of his eyes turned black, too, leaving only that narrow ring of golden iris.

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We traded more blows, neither of us landing a hit other than a few shallow nicks. I needed to be faster. But I couldn’t risk going into a full Rage, since I didn’t know if I’d ever come back down.

I could get just a little closer, though. I only needed a little more.

My fangs and nails elongated as I snarled, and the next time Nal blocked my sword, I swiped my claws across his ribs. He cried out and stumbled back. I dropped my sword and punched his jaw with my metal fist. His sword dropped, and he fell back into the wall, then my claws were at his throat.

My hand shook, and I could barely hold myself back from shoving my claws through his neck.

He blinked a daze away before glaring down at me. “You’re out of your mind.”

“Tell me where he is, you fucking traitor.”

He scoffed. “You’ve always taken the worst of the dirty work so I wouldn’t have to. Always taken your idea of the high road. So, you think you’ve got it in you to kill me? Do it. Because you won’t get shit out of me.”

Just another couple inches, that was all it would take to end him. Just a little further.

I couldn’t do it.

I jumped back with a hiss, and my Rage snuffed out.

Nal rubbed at his throat, his Rage gone, too. He’d never been good at holding his tears back, and he failed at it again.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

He laughed. “We? I do what we’ve always done. You take your new freedom and fuck off.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Then next time, you’d better be ready to kill me.” He picked up his sword and stepped through a portal.

And took my only leads with him. Even after searching the house high and low, even tearing into the walls and pulling up the floorboards, I didn’t find shit.

All Gradis had left behind were a handful of furniture, his tools, and a little collection of books on animal rearing. My Rage was bubbling back up, so I tore the bookshelf down, sending the books flying across the destroyed floor.

Something metallic clinked and bounced, and I stopped to look around. Whatever it was, it must have gone into the floor. I stepped across the support boards, checking in each of the empty spaces and peeking under the planks I’d torn up, until I found a small silver ring with a clear gem in its center.

Except that wasn’t just any gem. A tiny wisp of black smoke swirled inside. A stri crystal.

I pulled Gasni’s comm device out of my pocket and tucked it into my ear, pressing a button to call him.

It didn’t take him long to answer. “I just realized I don’t know your name.”

“It’s Genet.”

“Genet. Anything to report?”

“I found a ring.”

A pause. “You found a ring.”

“Look, that’s all I got. It has a stri crystal in it.”

“Put it on.”

I had a bad feeling about that, but I slid it onto my little finger.

The ranch house blurred and disappeared, then a new scene snapped into place, and I was walking through the castle with a woman’s arm in mine. I turned to face her. Eujia. She’d grown her hair out a little, and she was smiling. Legitimately smiling, and she was stunning. I walked her to what must have been her room, where four guards stood at attention. She said something with a tilted head and laughed at whatever my answer was. Then she closed the door after her, and I continued down the hallway, only to run back in a hurry. I followed the guards into Eujia’s room and found her lying dead on the floor, her eyes staring emptily at the ceiling while blood stained the carpet under her.

I gasped as the ranch house snapped back in place and ripped the ring off my finger. “What the hell?”

“What did you see?” Gasni asked.

“How do you know I saw something?”

“Answer the question.”

“I, or somebody, was in the castle walking Eujia back to her room. I left her there but came back when she must have screamed. Someone killed her.”

“Shit. I think you found Griana’s ring.”

“Who?”

“The prophet Scion.”

I eyed the thing in my hand and felt an urge to chuck it to the bottom of a lake. “Are you saying someone is going to murder Eujia?”

“Someone might try, obviously someone who knows little about her, otherwise they wouldn’t bother. Griana’s prophecies were no guarantee, though, not by time or place, and sometimes they didn’t come to pass at all.”

“People sure seem to put a lot of stock in them.”

“The Prophecy with a capital P is a different beast. But that ring should contain at least most of her lesser visions. She stopped sharing them for good reason. I want you to sift through them, but their contents stay between you and me.”

This felt all wrong, but I didn’t have anything else to go off. “I guess I’m staying in Nisi, then.”