“Azzoth? Are you—what the hell!” That wasn’t how Elanor thought she was going to start the rather deep discussion and argument she thought they were going to be having about how the Strirus Kingdom was trying to secretly kill her off without the people knowing.

She would’ve started with that too if she didn’t walk into the tent seeing Azzoth half-naked and half dead, sitting on the bed and bandaging his own wounds. They looked bad, like he’d been stabbed through the ...