The double doors rip open and Shaun stands there, crust in his eyes. One of his guards is on the ground bound with magical rope, and the other looks as if he’s about to pee his pants after seeing what my magic did to his friend. Shaun glances between them and he blinks, still in the fog of being awoken.

I rush at him, knocking him backward. Hitting him is like a bus charging a brick wall. He pulls at me, but his hand slips on my gilded arms. I latch on to his scalp and grip firmly. But before I can tug, he shoves me hard. My back slams to the ground, stabbing pain shooting up my spine.

“Bruh,” Julius says. “We really gotta work on how you treat females.” Julius swings and the blade is a blur of gold. Shaun leans back just in time, the blade grazes his face and tufts from his beard fall to the floor. Pain ripples through me. I bite down and drag myself over to the pile of hair. I grab a handful and exhale… when a giant shoe presses my fingers flat.

“Ah!”

“Get up!” Shaun tugs me up by my collar and I try to hold on to the hair but it slips between my fingers. “I should have never let you get away the first time. Reckless. You give us a bad name.”

“You killed Doile,” I say. “What kind of name does that give you?”

His nostrils flare. “You do not know what you speak of. Tuh. My name is one to be feared.”

“This is not the way.”

He laughs. “She thinks she knows the Ghizoni way. You know nothing. This is not a war you can win. You showed us that already when you came here and the Chancellor all but killed you.”

“And you can? You can win, Shaun?”

More fill in the hallway, summoned by the commotion. Eyes are everywhere. Yakanna, more Beerchi, several others whose expressions I can’t quite read.

Shaun slaps his chest. “This is my way.” He turns to his guard. “Let her go. Let her stand up straight, accept her place with some dignity.” His men back up. I could kill him. I could shoot a flicker of magic so fast into that spot in his neck just below his ear, he’d be done for. But then what makes me any different from him?

“You may kneel, take the vow, and follow us like the rest of them,” he says. “You fight well, thanks to the Ancestors’ generosity. So I would give you a fitting rank among our best fighters here.” He holds up his chin and he’s so close. So very close I can count the beads of sweat on his brow. “Swear it.”

“Rue…,” Julius starts, but I shoot him a glance and he closes his mouth.