Chapter 174
Dane
The battlefield still clung to me like a second skin.
My armor was cracked, blood crusted against the collar, though most of it wasn’t mine. The scent of scorched earth and steel still hung in my lungs. My body was littered with bruises, cuts, and healing bones—nothing new. The adrenaline still coursed in my veins like wildfire, fierce and unrelenting.
This—this was my place. This was what I was born for.
Fighting.
I wasn’t the one to sit behind scrolls or maps. I left that to Sylus and Cassian. Let them strategize and speak in riddles at the court. My gift was simpler, bloodier—meant for the field where swords clanged and men screamed. Where honor was earned in sweat, and the only language spoken was violence.
But even with that rush alive in my blood… I still coul
