Helly nodded, rising to her feet. “Now, sleep. You have a big day tomorrow.”

Kerrigan smiled halfheartedly. “Helly, did you ever find Basem’s killer?”

“No,” she said faintly. “We’re still working on it. Don’t worry yourself. Your number one priority is training.”

“Of course,” she said and watched Helly leave. Such a nonanswer and not at all satisfying.

It was only a few minutes before Fordham was at her side again.

“You didn’t tell her?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. How would I even begin?”

He nodded, understanding. The way everyone thought of the House of Shadows was already so set in stone. The monsters that Mei had claimed they were all those years ago.

“You can see my dilemma when I first arrived.”

“Clearly.”

“What actually happened when you blacked out, Kerrigan?” Fordham asked.

She debated on not telling him, but she could keep nothing from Fordham. Not when he had been there. Not when he’d saved her. Their relationship was complicated, but this bond was as true as it had ever been.

“I saw the wall go up.”

Fordham blinked, as if that wasn’t the answer he’d expected. “During the Great War?”

“Yes. And it’s not what you think. It was someone like me who put it up to protect the Society.”

He rocked back in the chair. “So, it is true. We were always the monsters they painted us as.”

“I don’t know. She believed it. Her name was Mei, M-e-i, and she had a soldier with her, Trulian.”

“I’ve never heard of a Mei.”

“Me neither.”

“But Trulian is a common enough name,” he said.

“It is. At least it gives us a place to start.”

“To start?”

She smiled at him with the last bit of strength as the medicine pulled her toward slumber. “I have an idea.”

“Gods help us all,” he said, but he was smiling.

“If we find out who they were and how she did it, then maybe I can figure out how to take it down without killing myself.”

“You still want to do it?” he asked in shock.

“Benton and Bayton are still trapped. Your cousins are still trapped. Whatever her reasons for doing it, they do not deserve to be punished for a thousand-year-old war.”

“And how are we going to do this when training starts tomorrow?”

But he wasn’t disagreeing with her. He could see the merit. He’d wanted out of there for who knew how long. How could he deny the rest of his people? Even if they could both see the consequences.

“As we do the best things—together.”

15

The Training

Kerrigan stumbled into the training facility behind the other four winners of the dragon tournament. The four people, who together, they would dedicate their lives to the Society.