THE BATTLE RAGES ON FOR hours, but there are no more berserkers and for that I am grateful. I know it will be a long while before I close my eyes to sleep without seeing that crying girl in my nightmares. I’m not the only one shaken—Blaise hasn’t said a word since it happened, though against all odds we actually appear to be winning now. It’s a slow progress, fighting for every inch we gain, but it’s progress.

By the time the sun is directly overhead, we reach the slave quarters and a few dozen warriors slip in to free the slaves there. There are still Kalovaxians remaining—maybe a couple hundred fighting with everything they have—but I can’t imagine they won’t surrender any minute, especially once the slaves who want to fight join the fray. Stubborn as Kalovaxian warriors are, they know a lost cause when they see one.

“Should we start making our way down?” I ask, but S?ren holds up a hand, his brow furrowing deeply.

“Something isn’t right,” he says, staring at the battle still raging as if it’s a puzzle he can’t solve. “They should have surrendered by now. It doesn’t make sense.” He pauses and the color leaves his face. “Unless they know help is coming.”

I shake my head. “That’s impossible, S?ren,” I say. “The closest soldiers are days away. They couldn’t possibly arrive quickly enough.”

His frown deepens as his eyes scan the horizon, but it’s Blaise who finally lifts a finger to point east.

“There,” he says, voice a hoarse whisper.

My eyes follow to where he points and my stomach plummets. There, snaking through the mountain ranges, is another army all dressed in Kalovaxian red.

“It doesn’t make sense,” I say, more to myself than to them.

S?ren’s jaw clenches.

“King Etristo got word to my father,” he says. “It’s the only explanation I can think of. He put the pieces together and figured out where we were going and sent word ahead. We took our time getting here—a single, fast ship could have made it to the capital in half the time.”

My gut sinks lower as I stare at the incoming troops. A seemingly endless red ribbon of soldiers weaving its way through the mountains.

“How many, do you think?” I ask S?ren.

He looks at me, his gaze unflinching. “Too many.”

I nod. I expected as much, but hearing it makes me feel sick all over again.

“We have to retreat,” I say. “We freed the slaves, that’s enough. It’s still a victory and there’s no other option. If we stay, we’ll be slaughtered.”

S?ren nods, but Blaise is faster, hurrying around to the opposite side of the cliff, overlooking the sea. He shades his eyes against the sun.

“Wait a minute,” he says. “There are ships coming from this direction, too.”

My stomach sinks lower. “Kalovaxian ships?” I ask, struggling to stay calm. If they’re surrounding us on all sides, we are done for. We haven’t just lost a battle, we will have lost everything.

“No,” Blaise says after a moment that seems to last forever. His voice lifts. “No, those are Gorakian flags.”

Erik. I send thanks to all of my gods and I make a mental note to ask Erik about his gods so I can thank them as well.

“And…,” Blaise says, peering in another direction. “And there are more. A few of the ships have Vecturian flags and, Theo, I…I think I see Dragonsbane as well.”

My knees give out beneath me and I would fall to the ground entirely if S?ren didn’t steady me with his hand on my shoulder. It takes me a moment to realize I’m laughing. Delirious, hysterical laughter, but laughter all the same.

“Will it be enough?” I ask S?ren.

“Two camps will give us another four thousand or thereabouts, plus the warriors we still have, plus the slaves we just freed, plus a couple hundred Vecturians, plus Dragonsbane’s crew,” he says, tallying up the numbers in his head. After a moment, he nods. “It just might be.”

“We can still run,” Blaise says. “All of us can, then regroup and attack another mine.”

I shake my head. “That’s what the Kaiser will expect us to do,” I say. “He’ll expect us to run from him—he’s used to people running from him. He’ll make sure we don’t get another chance to embarrass him like this. It’s now or never.”

Blaise nods, eyes somber. “I’ll get word to our army, update them on what’s happening, tell them to get the freed slaves armed or to safety as soon as we can.”

I open my mouth to protest, but I know it’s the best choice. I can’t very well go myself, and if S?ren shows up looking like a Kalovaxian, he’ll likely wind up dead before my army realizes he’s not an enemy.

“Come back quickly,” I say instead.

Blaise stares long and hard at the battle below.

“No,” he says, the word quiet and clear, though he won’t look at me. It feels like it echoes in the distance between us, but I think that’s only in my head.

No. No. No. It occurs to me suddenly that Blaise has never said that to me. He’s disagreed with me often enough and argued his point until I came around to his way of thinking, but he’s never outright refused me.

“Blaise,” I say, taking a step toward him. “After what we just saw—”

“After what we just saw, I know more than ever where I need to be.” He says it quietly, but there’s steel in his voice. “I’ll stay close to Artemisia. If it looks like I’m losing control, I trust her to make the judgment call—kill me or let me kill as many of them as I can.”

I take a step closer to him, placing a hand on either side of his face and forcing him to look at me. “Blaise, you can’t. You won’t. I’ll order you—I’m ordering you to stay here. As your Queen, I’m ordering you.”

I don’t sound like anyone’s queen, I realize that as I say the words, but in this moment I’m not. I’m just a frightened girl begging a boy she loves not to leave her. I hate it, but I can’t stop.

Blaise swallows, his eyes heavy on mine. “No.” It seems to kill him to say the word.

Tears sting at my eyes and I blink them away furiously. He won’t see me cry over him.

“I’ll never forgive you if you do this,” I say, biting the words out.

He glances away from me.

“I know,” he says softly, looking at S?ren over my shoulder. “You know what to do if it looks like we’re going to lose—even if there’s the slightest chance.”

S?ren’s voice is strained. “I’ll get her back to the ship,” he promises.

Blaise nods before gently extracting himself from my grip. He looks at me for a moment that seems to go on forever. “I love you, Theo,” he says.

“If you did, you wouldn’t do this,” I say, sharpening each word to a dagger’s point.

He recoils like my words physically hurt him, then turns away from me.

As he makes his way down the mountain, he doesn’t look back once, even though I’m sure he can hear me crying his name until he reaches the bottom.

* * *

—

Erik and Dragonsbane arrive mere moments before the Kalovaxian reinforcements do, and when the troops clash it is a cacophony straight out of a nightmare. Metal clangs against metal, screams pierce the air, battle cries mix and mingle until I’m not sure whose are whose. All of it bounces and echoes off the mountains so that it surrounds me. The scene before my eyes is a blur of bodies and blood that seems to go on forever, but I only watch one figure in particular.

It should be hard to find Blaise at this distance, with nothing to differentiate him the way Artemisia’s hair distinguishes her, but it isn’t. Even in the madness, I find him easily, sword in hand and a wildness to his every move that is terrifying.

S?ren doesn’t say anything when I can’t stop crying. He seems a bit frightened of me, keeping a careful distance and pretending he doesn’t notice. I realize distantly that he hasn’t been around many crying women. When my sobs finally do quiet, he allows himself to speak.

“Blaise is reckless, but he isn’t stupid,” he says. Though the words are clipped, he seems to be trying to sound compassionate. “He will be all right.”

“He’s not in control of what happens,” I say, wiping my eyes. I remember the earthquake in Sta’Crivero, how close he came to losing all control before I pulled him back from that edge. Who will pull him back if it happens now? Artemisia will put a sword in his back if she thinks he’s more of a danger to our army than the Kalovaxians. She will even think it’s a mercy.

S?ren shrugs. “He seems to have more control than any berserker I’ve seen. A few slips don’t mean that using his power will kill him.”

I know he’s right, but it doesn’t bring me much comfort.

Blaise left me, after everything. After everyone I’ve loved and lost, I can’t lose him, too.

“Theo,” S?ren says.

“I’m fine,” I tell him, wiping my eyes again.

“It isn’t that,” he says, his words tentative. “I think…I think my father is here.”

That shocks me out of my thoughts. “What?” I ask, blinking away unshed tears. “The Kaiser never goes to battle.”