Page 44 of The Dead Saint

“Some?”

“There was someone who was my closest friend.”

“But isn’t anymore?”

Adrian shook his head.

“How did you come to be the Wolf?” she asked, picking at her plate, keeping her eyes down. “I’ve heard stories.”

“There are many stories,” he replied.

“Tell me which ones are true.”

“All the bad ones.”

He hesitated, watching her. There was no judgment in her expression, only curiosity. A desire to understand.

Adrian began to speak, and he was surprised at how easily it all came, the words flowing out of him. His father had been an advisor in Prince Eine’s court. He stood beside the throne, an aging man with a sharp eye and a carefully blank expression, but Eine wouldn’t let Adrian stay. Adrian had been sent to live with the prince’s older brother. Prince Thueban had been fighting in the east, expanding the empire, growing their riches and lands. Adrian had learned to fight there, grown up there, and he’d been given a new name and a fresh future. Soon, it was as if his life had always been this and nothing else.

But there was tension between the brothers. Empress Isolde favored Prince Thueban. She’d built the Traveling City to be near him, forsaking her seat in the Summer Palace—following her oldest son’s progress across the continent. Prince Eine was envious, and it poisoned him. But with Thueban expanding the empire, Eine had grown comfortable ruling from the Summer Palace. When his brother had sent word that he planned to return to take his place on the throne, Eine made a choice.

Prince Eine devised a plan to kill his older brother and take the throne for himself. But Eine would not survive if Thueban attacked. And anyone who had supported him would die with him. If the brothers went to war, Adrian’s father would die because Adrian’s father was in Eine’s court, a trusted advisor.

Adrian went to Prince Eine and offered his loyalty. He would kill the man who had raised him, who had become a second father, in the hopes that his birth father would live. Eine was elated. Even then, Adrian had a reputation on the battlefield. He was not yet the Wolf, the Monster of the White Snake empire, but his name was known.

Prince Eine sent Adrian back to the Traveling City with a contingent of men. His instructions were to take the city, execute Prince Thueban, and escort Empress Isolde back to the Summer Palace.

If you do not defeat my brother, I will know you have betrayed me, and your father will die. Then I will hunt you down and kill you. But if you are victorious, I will reward you beyond your wildest dreams.

Adrian would never forget the bleak expression on his father’s face beside the throne. There was no escaping that twist of fate. Finian had gone with him. Finian. That was a name he hadn’t thought about in several years. One he’d avoided until now.

“I returned at the head of a small army and killed the man who had raised me.” He looked down at his hands, pale in the light of the fire, seemingly clean. “I proved my loyalty.”

“And you did it alone?”

“No,” Adrian said, hesitating. “Most of the men here have been with me from that first battle.”

“Most,” Sorcha asked. “Have you lost many of your friends in battle then?”

“Yes.” Adrian leaned forward and stirred the fire, sparks rising. “But there was one who left.”

“I didn’t think anyone left the Horde alive. I’ve heard stories about deserters being hunted down. Is that true?”

“It is.”

“How did this man leave then?”

“We made a deal,” Adrian said.

“I didn’t realize monsters made deals.”

Monster.

Looking up, he found Sorcha’s eyes on him—luminous green in the firelight, the crackling flames reflected back at him. It was impossible to read her face. He couldn’t tell what she thought of his history in the empire. But he didn’t want her pity, not even her understanding.

That’s a lie.

“It seems like a sad life,” Sorcha murmured.

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