Page 107 of Warlord's Plaything

"Ran the moment you fell. Abandoned you."

He raises his chin.

"Or maybe she never meant to stay at all."

I exhale slowly.

Control.

Control is a dangerous thing when you don’t have any left.

He’s wrong.

She wouldn’t?—

Would she?

Would she really let me rot in this fucking cage?

Would she really let them put me in the sand and slit my throat like an animal?

Would she?

Why am I even expecting something?

Kaelith smiles, watching me crack.

Then he stands, brushing off his robes.

"Tomorrow, you’ll kneel."

He turns away.

"Or you’ll die screaming."

The guards haul me back, dragging me through the doors, back into the darkness.

Back into the fucking abyss.

I can’t help wonder if he’s right.

I wonder if she’s really gone.

I wonder if I’m already dead.

35

HIRA

Idon’t have a sense of belongingness here.

But where the fuck else can I go?

Xyron is in chains, waiting to be paraded like a fallen god before they cut his throat.

The gladiators I once trained—the men who fought beside me, who bled with me—will be executed alongside him.

And I’m standing here, trapped between two impossible choices.

---