Extraits

« Now that everyone knew I was a girl, most of the other guards treated me differently — they seemed to think that I was suddenly weaker than I used to be, even though I hadn’t changed. I was still the same person — the same soldier — I’d always been. But no one else saw it that way, except for Rylan, who’d always known.

And Damian. »

« Yet another project Damian had spearheaded was to try to reunite mothers with children who had been taken after they were weaned and then put in the orphanage to survive until they were old enough to join the army themselves — or to take their place in the breeding house. It was a heartbreaking and, in some cases, futile process. The wounds from King Hector’s rule ran deep, and many were still slashed wide open with little hope of healing. »

« I shuddered as I thought about the building that had once been the focal point of so many horrors. Damian’s very first act as king, even before releasing the boys from their involuntary servitude in the army, had been to move the women and babies out of the breeding house and tear it down. I still remembered the night that it had crashed to the earth through a targeted attack by both Eljin’s and Damian’s sorcery; some had cheered but others hadn’t been able to do anything except stand in the falling dusk and sob. Now there was a small tent city situated in a section of the courtyard, as far away from the former breeding house as possible, where the girls and women were relocated. »

« My safety won’t be in question. That’s why I have you — isn’t it?” Damian lifted his eyebrow. »

« Shortly after being crowned king, Damian had released the orphan boys from their forced enrollment in the army. Many stayed, as they had nowhere else to go, but there was a significant number who had quit, returning to their ravaged villages and homes to try to put the horrors of the war — and Hector’s reign of terror — behind them. Even Nolan, Damian’s former “handler,” had chosen to leave the palace. Damian had done the right thing, letting them choose, but it left Antion with a diminished army. »

« As I marched up and down the hallway, forcing the blood to move in my tired limbs, the side of my face and neck began to throb. The pain from my scars had eased over the last month, but it was still there. A constant reminder of the battle I’d fought against Iker.

Damian, too, had fought and lost so very much. He and I were alike in more ways than one — we’d both had to play parts to protect ourselves, and we’d both seen our families wiped out. I’d watched my parents and brother die at the hands of our enemies, but Damian … He had been forced to kill his own father in order to protect his people. Those scars were the type that no one could see, but would never truly heal. »