My efforts to murder Doldimar weren’t going as planned. In fact, nearly a year into them, I had yet to step out of camp.

Reive said that my inability to kill made me a liability. I could endanger any team I might go on a mission with, and no matter how much I argued that my other ability outweighed that disadvantage, he wouldn’t change his mind.

So, I’d been stuck here, wondering if I shouldn’t try my luck elsewhere, for an entire year. To date, the effort of doing this hadn’t seemed worth it, although that could change at any moment.

On top of everything else, Reive probably wanted to continue with his experimentation once this war was over. He still wanted to become a god, but if he thought I’d let that happen, he had another thing coming. Any leverage he’d once held over me had been lost.

All this meant, though, was that over the last year, I’d lingered at the edge of camp often, wishing I could go further. When people asked what I did out here, I answered that I was keeping watch, but my true reason for coming out here was far worse and perhaps a tad worrisome.

“I don’t know what to do, love,” I said. “If you were here, what would you tell me?”

In the moonlight, Lirilith blankly stared at me. I’d long ago grown numb to the evidence of abuse scattered over her body, just like I no longer flinched at her eyes on me. The nights when my mind conjured her were the good ones. When Sepiala appeared instead…

Those were the nights I’d have gnawed through my palm, containing my screams, if not for my unnatural healing.

“How long can I sit around, waiting for Reive to make a move?” I said. “I want this over, although what I’ll do once it’s done still mystifies me. Everyone I loved will be dead…”

With a gasp, I slapped a hand to my mouth. Apparently, this would be a bad night, even without my daughter to haunt me.

“I want him dead. I do!” I said into my palm. “He murdered you. He’s not Arivor, my brother, anymore. He’s Doldimar. A monster. A- a-”

Taking a shaky breath, I hugged my legs, burying my face in my raised knees.

“How did this happen?”

Lirilith didn’t reply, but then, she never did. A noise did, however, jerk me upright.

Getting to my feet, I moved toward the sound of rustling leaves. Was someone taking a midnight stroll? Or perhaps a group of hopefuls had come looking for this resistance’s base.

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When I found the source of the disturbance, I froze with my stomach roiling. It was definitely nothing like what I’d been considering.

Ahead of me, a woman in shoddy armor was failing miserably at pushing through the underbrush, but this was no ordinary person. Black lines flickered and writhed beneath her skin, and as always, something about them made me sick. I’d never identified why this happened, but considering how many strange things I’d seen in my life, another mystery didn’t bother me as much as it used to.

She was one of Doldimar’s new soldiers: a Kiraak. Exceptionally bloodthirsty, they were almost impossible to kill. Even something as debilitating as a sword through the heart couldn’t stop them.

I needed to warn my allies that one had gotten so close to camp.

Before I could back away, though, the woman lifted her face toward the sky, sniffing at the air, before spinning toward me with a hiss.

What the hell? How had she known-?

She rushed me, barely giving me time to draw my sword. I batted her initial strike aside, and all the while, I was scrambling for a plan.

I’d fight this woman, of course. What else was I supposed to do?

I couldn’t end her, though, and since she might share the news of this encounter with the enemy if she escaped, letting her kill me didn’t seem wise. So, what should I-?

When I swung for her, the woman didn’t duck as she should, and I had a split second to wince. I’d barely gotten used to my body stopping me from landing killing blows.

It didn’t happen this time, though. My sword sliced into her neck, carving through it to the other side, and my enemy’s head fell from her shoulders.

Stunned, I could only blink as the body crumpled, working through what had happened. Then, I took off toward camp, running as if a flash flood was chasing me.

When I plunged between tents, people didn’t pay me any mind, used to my eccentricities by now. I ignored them too, racing for the place where I would most likely find Reive.

Barging through a tent flap, I dismissed the others gathered here, zeroing my focus on the bastard who’d ruined my life. Storming to him, I drove my sword point at his chest—

—and was brought up short.

Glancing at the blade, Reive said, “Really, Eriadren. I thought we were past this nonsense.”

With a growl, I sheathed my sword while Reive waved off the people, poised to attack, around us. Only Alouin’s Voice was watching us with anything approaching calm.

“I need to speak with you,” I snapped. “In private.”

Nodding, Reive said, “Everyone out.”

Without protest, they went. Hell, he had such control over them. After this horror show, any remnant of the empire that remained would be fucked because he would almost certainly be in charge of it.

After the others had filtered outside, Reive crossed his arms.

“What was that about?” he asked.

“I ran into an enemy soldier in the forest, one of Doldimar’s new monstrosities,” I said. “I killed her.”

Humming, Reive stroked his chin for a moment.

“You’re sure?” he said.

“If you doubt me, send someone to check,” I said, throwing a hand toward the tent flap, “but you know what this means, right?”

“That your inability to kill isn’t as absolute as we thought?”

Well, yes. That had seemed obvious. But…

“No. It means that you can’t keep me here anymore. Your reason for it is gone.”

Stepping to where my toes brushed Reive’s shins, I crouched, jabbing a finger at his face.

“Send me out there. Use me like you should have done from the beginning,” I said, “or this tenuous partnership is over.”

And damn the consequences for that choice. I was done sitting idly by.