Amos, you’re snorting.

[SS]: I can’t stop snickering at how cute he and Xelan were.

Tell me, was it any different for you and a certain sleeping King?

[SS]: I’m taking a minute to consider how I want to answer this. I’m sorry if this is more than you wanted shared, and I’ll probably redact it. But… “Rayne kissed me first when we were playing as kids, and many times after that. While we snuggled. While we danced. And while we cried together. She wasn’t reserved with her love. It’s one way she inspired me.”

The way Korac’s staring at me… It’s almost haunting.

“Did I say something wrong?”

No. Never, Sagan. I wonder what makes her that way. And… Fuck, I hate saying this, but I hope all this bullshit hasn’t cost her that endearing quality.

[SS]: This time I beam at him. “Nothing can take that from her.” He’s finally smiling and stands to return to his pacing behind me. This way, he can idly test my ability to focus. Neither one of us is tiring of this game.

Beware of bullshit brought on by trauma, warriors. My Shadow. My love. And my King. Like water, it erodes until it finds a way inside. And once there, it can carve out canyons to divide your reason from your actions.

This was one of those nights.

At dinner, we sat and entertained a pirate. Nothing unusual. I wore silk robes with tactical pants designed by Xelan. I adorned it with my whip holstered in the belt. The nature of this guest left me watching from behind a mask and touching the weapon often.

Especially when he suggested we find another planet to make our home.

It didn’t sit right with Savis, who rarely spoke anymore for the tremor in her voice. “We will not abandon our home. My sons.” She indicated Nox, Xelan, and me. “They will save Cinder. It will take some time, but through them, we will find salvation.”

Her son.

Xelan smiled warmly at me across the table. I’d much rather explore that smile than spend another minute faking my way through this dinner—

Screams cut through the night. From outside. Before I could say anything, the horns sounded.

It was an attack.

I followed Nox to the window and swallowed my disappointment. Karter, Para, and a swarm of Lyriks led thirty thousand troops from Umbra’s slave continent. They were here to punish us for defying their Tritan masters.

Umbra flew out the window before we squared away Savis with Xelan for her protection. Nox promised Xelan that we wouldn’t hurt the Valkyrie.

I knew he meant it.

Nox flew us down to the battlefield at the base of Umbra’s Spire. Karter and Para spent their years in exile wisely. The farmers and merchants of the nacre glass farm fought like proper soldiers. For every ten of them, we fought a Valkyrie or a Lyrik.

Deadly.

The Tritan-constructed female race upgraded beyond us with projectile resistant nanotechnology and voices that split nacre glass in two if sung in the right pitch.

But the Icari were many.

So vast was our army that I lost sight of Nox once on the ground.

Good.

Feeling partially responsible for this mess, I pushed through the fight to seek Karter and Para. If I found them in time, perhaps I could reason with them. Convince them to escape with these unfortunate people to a better location for a secret colony. I expected Umbra to burn the continent to ash after this.

I found both Valkyrie with their necks under Amolot’s considerable boots. The General already subdued them, and the fight would end soon. I owed them. They treated me so kindly after Amolot left me battered on my first day in Cinder, and ever since, they treated me with familial affection.

Intentionally stepping into her periphery, I cracked the whip into the crowd before flinging it at her. With perfect precision, it wrapped around Amolot’s neck. She growled in surprise as I put all my strength into the lash and sent her great heft flying over my head. With a satisfying thud, she landed amid the battle.

Karter broke her bonds first before untying Para who cried out, “Korac. What are you—Are you helping us?”

Climbing on Amolot’s back, I looped the barbed whip around the woman’s thick throat until the handle grated on her vertebrae. Coldly, I glared at Para and Karter. I wasn’t angry with them, more disappointed in their decision not to include Nox, Xelan, and I in their designs. That they potentially risked Savis’ cover.

To say Amolot twitched beneath me is inaccurate.

A body of violence would not go gently.

The convulsion that wracked through her sent her boots hammering the stone. The Wrong Side of Eternity awaited her, and I wanted Amolot to know why. I looked into her beady yellow eyes while she choked. “You violated me. Tried to break me. But you made a fatal mistake when you slapped me. I am not your peasant slave. I am personal guard to the future Kings of Cinder, and with you gone, I will be General. The face of your replacement will be the last thing you see.”

Ever the warrior, Amolot spat blood from her mouth and nose in my face. Her eyes bulged out of her head, filled with blue blood, until the capillaries tried to burst. Her face went indigo, then black. Those massive fists of her destroyed the stone road into chunks of rock. Until they only batted to prevent the inevitable. Until they stopped. Until they fell open and loose.

It took forever to strangle Amolot to death, and I held a few minutes longer for good measure.

Para and Karter watched with their eyes wide in a mixture of pride, bewilderment, and relief. I wasn’t an ally of theirs, but I wasn’t an enemy, either.

“Go find another continent, Para,” I advised as I unwound the whip. “Take Karter with you. Never return.”

Damn, her black eyes looked sad when she met mine. “I wish we could, but it is far too late for that now.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Karter shouted to the surrounding troops, “Phase two!” Before flying into the air with other rebellious Valkyrie.

Across the battlefield, Nox fought off a greater volley of Lyriks as if they specifically targeted him.

I wouldn’t fight Para, but… “Do what you can to send the Valkyrie away. There is no chance of you winning, and only Elden knows what Umbra will do to them if they get captured.”

“Karter and I will take full responsibility. While your advice is sound, we lost our choice long ago, but I can ensure the slaves escape.” The shortest Valkyrie set about organizing the retreat.

I went to help Nox with the Lyriks. This felt wrong. Attacking our own kind, and the Lyriks were so prepared. As I approached my future King, I ripped the throat from one with a snarl.

He smiled at my return before shouting, “Get down!”

I tossed him the whip and hit the ground. A wayward Valkyrie flew behind me, and Nox hitched the whip’s barbs into her wings. When he ripped her pinions, she fell to her death.

Disgusted, Nox declared, “I despise this.”

Here, here.

“They breached the castle!”

No. We glanced at one another before we both muttered, “Mother.”

From here, Nox’s Verse accounted for the coup thoroughly.

The female warriors surrounded us—me, Nox, and Umbra—in the castle. Gale revealed herself as the driving force behind the Valkyrie Rebellion. The Tritans wanted the Lyriks to bring us—including Xelan—back to Enki and leave Cinder to the Valkyries’ rule.

After rendering Nox and Umbra unconscious, they detained the three of us on a balcony. Nacre cuffs bound my wrists behind my back. Stony and calm, I stared at Gale, who intentionally avoided my gaze.

Karter joined us. “Gale, we can leave Cinder to the Princes. Take Umbra. He is enough.”

“No. The youngest son instigated this. We take them all.” Gale shivered as she dared to glare at me. “And this one we execute… I have no words for what he did to me.”

Nox picked a great time to recover. He joined everyone in staring at us.

I let her words sink into me. So that’s what it was. Sex with me was a religious experience for Gale, and it freaked her out. But that wasn’t my problem. She could communicate like an adult. “You made no protest at the time. I recall quite the opposite.”

She scoffed, “Rather difficult to protest when one is gagged.”

Everyone on the balcony turned and gaped at me.

I smirked and reminded her, “You put the bit in your mouth, my dear. And you looked very pleased as you did it. Lie to yourself in your regrets afterward, but never lie to me. I left you more than satisfied.”

Gale seethed until fumes rolled off her feathers. I swore I saw smoke. and it only broadened my smirk.

“What the fuck did I wake up to?” Umbra groaned as he straightened.

[SS]: I laughed so hard at that in Nox’s Verse, and I remember feeling surprised I laughed while reading it at all.

While the female warriors argued over whether to leave without Xelan, we three detained Icari tried to create a plan of attack. But before we finished…

“Karter, why are you doing this?”

Xelan.

His appearance grieved Nox, but intrigued me. How was this bleeding heart about to save the day?

It turns out rather effectively.

When Karter tried to appeal to him, Xelan swiftly knocked Gale and Para out, set them both down gently, and restrained Karter. In the work of a moment.

[SS]: That’s right. It was a shock to read the first time.

It was shocking to watch. There’s a reason I’m willing to follow him now, despite our unresolved differences.

He worked things out with Karter and assured her of a fair punishment for the Valkyrie. Umbra protested because he wanted to hurt them for killing Amolot. That lowlife spat in Karter’s face and…

[SS]: Oh, he’s smirking again. This means it’s a good memory.

It felt so good to knock his face onto the stone and grind it into the rock with my knee.

[SS]: Something we all wanted to do.

Nox put his face on level with his father and clicked his tongue at the anger steaming from him. “That will not do. Play nice or you stay in those cuffs while my guard scrapes your face on the rock until you bleed to death.”

Nothing would give me more pleasure. “On your say, Prince Nox.” Karter uncuffed me.

It was all working out until Gale woke up. The moment she was conscious, she tried to kill Xelan with her voice.

Nox…

You could feel the rage emanate from him like a shockwave. A breath of pure acrimony. I’ve only felt turmoil like that from one other person. You, King Rayne.

We know what Nox did. He articulated it in quite horrific yet eloquent detail in his Verse. But for the sake of my story, I’ll try to keep it succinct. He covered his hands over her mouth to keep her from singing and crushed her skull into the stone floor.

Slowly.

And I agreed. She used me, manipulated the Valkyrie, and tried to kill Xelan. There was no forgiveness for that.

Afterward, I knelt into the ruin my King created, my own hands stained blue in Amolot’s blood. “By the Tenements of Vengeance, sire?” At the time, Nox mistook my acceptance for indifference. I understood vengeance—Hell, I mastered the reaping of it from those who abused me. Not even an hour prior.

For me, this act garnered no explanation or apology. And for her attempt on Xelan’s life, Gale would have suffered worse under my more controlled hand.

In his Verse, Nox said my words were exactly what he needed to hear before he recited Elden’s Second Verse. “‘Behold that enemy of mine. Let him suffer for the suffering he caused. Let the punishment rival the crime.’”

“No.”

I wanted to shut my eyes to Xelan’s innocent disdain. To his pure altruism and kindness. It had no place here.

But I turned and faced him while he urged us in that naivety I’d come to crave.

“There is a better way than this. Killing her was unnecessary, and we will not kill the Valkyrie. We failed them first.”

I appreciated at least half of his sentiments. The Valkyrie were abused and misused by Amolot and Umbra. Gossip about Karter and Para suggested a long-anticipated coup, but no one expected Lyriki support and Tritan backing. A light punishment for the Valkyrie was the right message.

Karter and Para earned their right to live and to see their people prosper.

And Nox thought so as well. “Do what you like with the Valkyrie,” he ordered as he stood.

When Xelan recoiled and startled at Nox retracting his wings, my heart sank. This was much worse than Monarch 3. I wondered how long it would take to recover our family after this.

Acting as more King than Prince, Nox eased some of my concerns. “I will rebuild Cinder after this attack. The Icarean families who lost their mothers and fathers today will rejoice when I present them with their murderer’s nacre.”

It was a day of division and one of many to come.

[SS]: “What happened to the Valkyrie?”

Xelan and I collected them for confinement. They were quiet on the walk down to his lab. Hell, so were we.

The space boasted machinery designed by him and constructed from parts gathered from all over the Vast Collective. He kept spare white robes everywhere like labcoats. I spent a lot of time down there, volunteering myself for experiments.

This time, the space felt different. Ominous. Xelan led us to the glass beds along the wall. An entire person fit inside and slept.

That’s how he explained it.

I leaned back against a table and folded my arms as I observed.

“There are enough for all ten remaining Valkyrie. I wish I could take back this day, but I know why you did it,” Xelan offered, as he opened each casket.

Karter, leading the women, gazed inside first. She looked from me to him with soft eyes. “I am fortunate to be alive and not at Umbra’s mercy. Thank you, both.”

Para joined her and examined the dimensions. Her voice sounded hard; she was being brave. “Is there enough room for both of us? It will leave you with one more device for the future.”

Xelan glanced back at me, and I gave a subtle nod. I wasn’t interested in keeping them apart and wasting whatever space this allocates.

The youngest Prince gave her a warm smile. “Yes. Thank you.”

They climbed inside together, and the rest of the Valkyrie followed into subsequent chambers. Not one went in alone. They held one another as sisters and lovers.

After the emotional display, Xelan swallowed hard before he could speak. “I promise this will not be the end. I will retrieve you one day when the future is brighter. Please keep your faith in me a little while longer.”

Tears glistened in their eyes as they assented. Xelan initiated the mechanism. They fall asleep with ease.

They rebelled to save their people from a tyrant. An indefinite sleep seemed unfair, but they went about it the wrong way. Xelan almost died because of it.

But as their personal guard, it wasn’t my place to say so.

“Some night, huh?” I muttered as I headed for the door. I was covered in blood from Amolot, Umbra, and Gale. Not to mention, I breathed the aggravation of my people as the rebellion’s failure thickened the air as much as the ash from Cinder’s ruin. “What a fucking night…”

“Do you still want me to brush your hair?”

I turned in the doorway to see Xelan standing there, looking lost and out of place in his own lab. Forlorn and distraught.

My poor young Prince.

“Yes, please, your highness.”