Page 54 of Three Scorched Kingdoms

“Why not?” Paige demands.

Thorne clears his throat. “I’m not sure you’re cleared for that kind of classified information.”

I start to respond, but Paige cuts me off. “Last I checked, I was the only one of us who Aries actually invited to this meeting. So, you tell me who’s cleared.”

The silence from earlier is nothing compared to the stillness that follows her retort. Thorne’s face flushes. It might have been funny watching him get put in his place by another, but considering he holds all the cards to my future, I don’t laugh.

“Evacuating civilians or sending extra soldiers in to protect them would only signal to the horde that this location is significant to us. We can’t afford for them to find our weapons cache.”

“You prioritize weapons over your people’s lives?” Paige doesn’t wait for an answer before she adds, “We need to send word to evacuate the civilians. Now.”

Her words elicit murmurings of agreement from the captains, and my chest swells with pride at the way she’s so deftly taken charge.

Leo clears his throat. He gives Paige a slight nod, and she exhales before he goes on, “As much as it pains me to say this, Thorne’s not completely wrong. The blacksmith in Misthaven is our most valuable forge. Nearly half our army’s weapons are made there.”

“Why aren’t we already protecting it better if it’s so important?” Paige asks.

Leo snorts. “Good question.”

Again, he tosses a pointed look at Thorne and Myantha.

Thorne looks ready to explode, but Myantha answers calmly and almost friendly compared to Thorne’s dismissal of my mate’s questions. “The forge is a well-kept secret,” Myantha tells her. “Our best strategy has always been to make sure no one else knows of its existence or its value to us.”

“So, they aren’t targeting it on purpose then?” Blossom asks.

“No,” Myantha says. “But once they realize what’s there, I’m sure they’ll waste no time either destroying it or taking it for their own.”

“Orcs can’t use our weapons,” Thorne snorts. “Their arm span is way too short for our swords.”

“Maybe not, but they can use the forge to make their own,” I say.

Thorne looks pissed enough at my argument, but we both know I’m right.

“The fact is, if the horde takes Misthaven, we’ll be in a tenuous position,” Leo intervenes.

“And if we defeat them,” Mag says, looking between Leo and myself. “Could it turn the tide in our favor?”

Leo and I share a look. “We’d have to decimate their forces and destroy their siege weapons,” my brother says. “That’s a lot to ask from one battle.”

“I’ve done more with less,” Mag says with a confident shrug.

Maybe it’s his careless confidence or the reminder of our hunts together and the things we faced in those worlds, but an idea I’ve been toying with suddenly strikes me as possible.

I lean forward, focusing on the skilled fighters assembled before me. “The forge isn’t the only significant location here. You’re forgetting about the valley.”

“What valley?” Mag asks.

“Here.” Leo points to the section of flat green space just before the village.

“Why is a valley significant?” Mag asks, studying it shrewdly.

“Since this map was made, there have been multiple landslides in that area, shrinking the valley to a narrow passage. The orcs will be forced to slow down to pass through.”

“A bottleneck,” Mag says, slowly nodding.

“We could be waiting for them,” Blossom says, eyes gleaming as she studies the map. “Ambush and trap them.”

“Precisely.” I glance from Mag and Blossom to Paige. “But we’ll be dealing with their … siege weapons up close.”

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