Page 51 of Three Scorched Kingdoms

He snorts. “I’ve been scared since the moment Aries left for your realm and, suddenly, everyone was looking at me like I was supposed to have the answers.” He shakes his head. “I’m the second-born prince. I’m not supposed to be the one leading armies or making big decisions. That’s Aries’ job. I’m just the backup. The spare.”

I frown. “You’re more than that.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I have no desire to rule. But when it’s thrust into your lap and you have no choice but to step up… it’s terrifying.” Leo chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “Feeling like you’re not enough? That’s a feeling I know very well.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and I feel the weight of his words sinking in. I never realized how much he carried withhim. All this time, Leo’s been acting like everything’s fine, but underneath, he’s been struggling too.

“I thought you were always so confident,” I admit, almost embarrassed at the way I’d dismissed what must have been a difficult role for him.

“For a long time, my confidence was mostly smoke and mirrors. It’s easier to pretend you’re not scared when you’ve got a whole kingdom who sees you as the funny, carefree prince. But the truth is, every day Aries was gone, I woke up wondering if that was the day I finally screwed it all up. Lost the kingdom. Got people killed.”

I blink, taken aback by his honesty. “Then... how do you keep going? If you feel like that all the time, how do you keep moving forward?”

Leo turns to me, his expression softening. “Because it’s not about me. It’s about them. The people we’re fighting for. The ones who believe in us, even when we don’t believe in ourselves.”

I look down, his words hitting me hard. “But what if we fail? What if we lose everything?”

“We might.” His voice is steady. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we have to try. We keep pushing because people are counting on us. Not to be perfect but to be there. To show up. And, Paige, you’ve already done that. You’ve already shown more strength than most people ever could.”

I shake my head. “I don’t feel strong.”

“You don’t have to.” Leo leans closer, his voice dropping to a quiet, serious tone. “Strength isn’t about feeling strong. It’s about what you do when you’re scared out of your mind. You think I don’t want to run in the opposite direction sometimes? You think Aries doesn’t feel the pressure? We’re all terrified. But we fight anyway.”

I can feel the tightness in my chest loosening just a little. I glance over at Leo, his face open and honest. “You really think I’ve made a difference? I’m not even Astronian.”

He gives me a half-smile. “Aries’ utter devotion to you aside, I see the way the men look at you. Like they respect you. Like they’d fight for you. Hell, even my mother likes you. That’s gotta mean something, right?”

For the first time all day, I feel something shift inside me. A spark of confidence. And more than that, hope.

“You know,” I say, “for a guy who usually jokes around, you’re not half bad at pep talks.”

Leo grins. “Don’t tell Aries. He’ll never let me live it down.”

I laugh softly, the sound surprising even me. “Thanks, Leo. I needed this.”

He stands up, stretching his arms over his head. “Anytime. Just remember, Paige—courage isn’t about being fearless. It’s about pushing through the fear. It’s about being willing to face something so the rest of our people won’t have to.”

“Wow, you should give a speech or something.”

“Nah, I stole those words from Aries, who stole them from our father.”

I laugh, shaking my head.

As he turns to walk away, he calls back over his shoulder, “I hope this means I get my favorite brooding spot back.”

I watch him go, feeling the weight on my chest lift just a little more. I still have doubts. I still have fear. But Leo’s right. Strength isn’t about feeling strong. It’s about whether or not you let the fear win. The guilt and self-doubt I felt before was just as much a threat as the horde or Constantine himself. Esma’s insults, the village we lost—I refuse to let those things take me down.

I’ll fight—until my last breath, with my whole heart—to save the people I love.

13

ARIES

The next few days are filled with bouts in the training ring, strategy sessions, and reviewing reports from the front lines. I don’t even have a chance to corner my mother to ask her about the blight she’s been fending off alone all this time. So far, no one else has reported signs of it, and I can only hope whatever threat it harbors is one that can wait—at least until after we deal with the orc army.

At night, Leo and I patrol the skies, checking the horde’s progress through the mountains and looking for weak spots in their lines.

They’re a hell of a lot closer than they were yesterday,Leo says when we finally spot their camp many miles from where it was last night.

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