Page 86 of No Greater Sorrow

“The others are waiting for you. There’s a meeting,” Silmiya said.

“What?” she asked. “This is the first I’ve heard about it.”

Silmiya had no qualms about rolling her eyes at the new Lady of Wrath. “It’s an emergency meeting. I would have told you sooner had you not extended your patrol for an extra two hours. You can follow Red and Gray—they’re on their way there too.”

“What about you?” she asked. Aside from Taddeas, Silmiya was most in charge of day-to-day operations involving their armies.

“I’m gathering our troops. A small Astraelis convoy is at our border. Much has changed in a short time.Go. They need you there.”

Aleja broke into a run, Garm trailing her.

She was faster now, even with her feet sinking into the mud. Aleja was halfway across the field before Garm banked sharply to the left and she realized they were headed past the place where the Avisai grazed, then uphill, beyond the tree line toward the craggy rocks at the foothills of the Second’s mountains.

“There!” Garm barked, pointing his muzzle at the shimmer of wards.

A ring of stones stood behind the wards, where all the Dark Saints, including Merit, were gathered. His soft face was peppered with soot, as thought he’d been pulled from his duties with little notice. To his left, Orla leaned against a tall rock, tapping her fingers against her thigh.

“What’s going on?” Aleja panted. “I met Silmiya on the way here. She said there were?—”

“Sit down, Aleja,” Nicolas said, gesturing to a flat boulder. His hair was disheveled, the gray streak bright against the black like a lightning bolt.

Something jolted inside of her. Her eyes found Taddeas and Bonnie, searching for some explanation in their faces, but Bonnie was looking down at her feet and Taddeas’s gaze was distant.

“The Astraelis have sent a message,” Orla said. “They’re going to execute Violet unless we meet their demands.”

Aleja wished she had followed Nic’s advice. She swayed on her feet. “What do they want?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s most likely a trick. They’ve used tactics like this before—distracting us while they planned something else,” Nicolas said.

“What do they want?” she insisted.

“The Messenger wants to meet with you alone,” he told her.

“I’ll do it,” Aleja said immediately. The tension in the air was palpable; even Garm’s body felt as stiff as one of the marble statues in the palace as he brushed against her.

“Violet betrayed us,” Orla said before anyone else could speak. “We wouldn’t be in this position if she hadn’t fed information to our enemies. Perhaps we shouldn’t respond at all.”

“We’re not going to stand aside and let them kill her. What is wrong with you?” Bonnie snapped. Her dark eyes roamed the space, never settling on anyone’s face.

“The Messenger has always had it out for Aleja. You’d be a fool to let her do this, Nic. We all would. Who would you rather lose? A girl who lied to us and ran off with the enemy or the Dark Saint of Wrath?” Orla said.

“We’re not losing either,” Aleja hissed. “I already told you all, I’ll meet with the Messenger. She’s had the chance to kill me more than once and didn’t take it. Maybe she really does just want to talk.”

She tried to make eye contact with Nicolas, but all she could do was tug uselessly at their marriage bond. His silver eyes dimmed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The small box containing her Unholy Relic weighed heavily in her pocket, but she couldn’t reveal what she’d seen while scrying with it until she was able to speak with him privately.

Orla threw her hands up, as if she knew Aleja would get her way no matter what happened, but Taddeas protested. “I have to take Orla’s side, Al. I don’t know what exactly caused Violet to betray us, and I’m not going to pretend we’ll learn by speculating, but this is probably a trick.”

“Val insists that—” Aleja said.

“We can’t trust Val. I don’t put it past the Astraelis to leave a snake in our midst,” Orla interrupted.

In their past meetings, Nicolas had spoken to Aleja as if she were just one of his Dark Saints, but his eyes softened as he watched her pace from one end of the wards to the other. “Orla is right. Violet’s actions surprised us all, but?—”

“I’m doing it. When does the Messenger want to meet?”

“In an hour, near the border,” Merit said.

“It’ll take me that long to get there. Stay here, all of you. I’ll be back after I talk to her.”

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