Page 86 of ColdIron
Then another realization. During the Sorting, the dragon fire had stripped my disguise and exposed me as a woman. But it hadn’t found the demon. The creature had taunted the dragon fire from inside me, and the dragon hadn’t reacted.
Did that mean the demon outranked a dragon? It wasancient—I’d always known that from the arcane knowledge it carried. Or maybe it wasn’t a demon at all.
I waited for the creature to comment on the news of demons pouring from the DarkVeil. Even a taunt would give me something to work with.
It only yawned. Mockingly.
“Everything’s changed,” Aelindor said. His gaze found me. I sat straighter. “We’ll know more about the demons coming out of the DarkVeil soon. We’ll be there in three hours.”
Three hours could pass in a blur. As the heirs continued their military brief, I peeked out the armored windows.
The landscape had shifted. Snow-capped mountains rose against the gray sky, peaks vanishing into low cloud. The world after the Rupture was grim—wounded earth, barren wastes, the ruins of a civilization that had tried to kill itself. But the mountains didn’t care about our wars. They’d been here before the Q-bomb. They’d outlast us all.
I’d seen pictures of the old world. Skylines. Parks. Rivers that ran clean. Aelindor wanted to bring it back—rebuild what the Rupture had leveled, restore his home. But nothing got rebuilt in wartime. And wars had continued for centuries.
And if the White Witch won, there’d be nothing left to save.
The train banked through a curve.In the distance, a town of dusty yellow nestled in a valley. We’d passed a dozen satellite villages, camp cities, and towns since our departure. The demons hadn’t reached this far. It was our mission to make sure they didn’t.
“This puts another front on a line that’s already stretched to breaking,” Aelindor said, a distant look in his blue eyes. He got that way when things turned dire. How desperately I wanted to shoulder his burdens. They weighed heavily on him, on all the heirs.
“We’re the center kingdom.” Drakken shook his head. “New Columbia plays neutral in the north. We face hostiles on three borders. Mutants from the wastes. The White Witch to the west. And now demons from the east.”
“I wonder if this demon invasion has anything to do with Xander.” Commander Marco spoke from the end of the table.
Marco, the pale-skinned vampire commander, had ridden with Team Wraith into the Scorched Wastes, the unit that had accompanied the heirs and found me half-dead there. He wore oxblood fatigues, silver rank insignia, the Sagittarius crest over his left breast. Nikolai’s stand-in for this deployment.
“Why do you think this might be the Collector’s doing?” Commander Lee asked.
“Xander rules the southern kingdom,” Frost whispered to me. Aelindor had definitely tasked the aide with keeping me current.
“I know the name,” I whispered back. “But not much beyond it.”
Captain Holt’s gray eyes swept over me. The officers had glanced my way, assessing and cataloguing. They knew who I was: the cadet who’d wrecked the Sorting, stripped bare by dragon fire. My power remained unknown, and unknowns made soldiers itch.
Holt had missed the Sorting, so her confusion was simpler: what was a first-year cadet doing in this room? She didn’t ask, though.
No one would question Aelindor.
“Xander claimed the old state of Texas,” Frost continued. “His followers call him the Saint. Everyone else calls him the Collector. He hoards anything rare or priceless: artifacts, paintings, vintage cars, wine, animals.” A pause. “And people.”
My skin crawled. My parents had drilled one rule into me about leaders: distrust anyone who wraps power in scripture. There’s a thin line between saints and sinners.
Across the table, Commander Marco answered. “The DarkVeil borders three territories—ours, part of New Columbia, and part of the Haven. Captain Holt reported the demons emerged from the triangular junction where our border meets Xander’s and the Veil. Yet they advanced straight into our territory. Not his.” He let the implication sit. “Our intel says Xander has employed summoners of late.”
“Nikolai’s intelligence and my own recon both confirm Xander’s intent to move against us,” Caspian said. “Part of New Mexico sits in his territory, and he’s pushing to expand. There’ve been skirmishes along the southern line for months. He’s getting impatient. TheWhite Witch hasn’t launched a major offensive against us in a while.”
“The White Witch is waiting,” Aelindor said.
Caspian frowned at him. “For what?”
“What we’ve all been waiting for,” Aelindor said vaguely. He didn’t elaborate.
His gaze touched mine. My heart skipped an icy beat. I prayed whoever the fuck was waiting had nothing to do with me.
“Xander’s been content to let the White Witch and us bleed each other dry,” Drakken said. “Hoping to swoop in after. Preach peace and love on the surface. Armed takeover underneath.”
“Is it true he keeps a living head in his collection?” one of the advisors asked.
