THORNE POINT OF VIEW.

Pain pulsed through my body in heavy waves, hot and unrelenting. Blood soaked my trouser leg and spread into the forest floor beneath me. Every breath felt thicker than the last, like my lungs were fighting against the weight of what had just happened.

My men were dead.

All of them.

The smell of blood hung in the air, sharp and sickening, and rage clawed its way up my chest so fast I thought it would tear me apart. I forced myself to my elbows and snarled, letting my ...