Alec looked out, eyes red from crying, and slowly, his sadness gave way to a tide of anger, as his jaw set. It felt good to stand: it allowed the heat of anger to pulse up within him, until it coursed through to his very fingertips. It was anger driven by purpose. A desire to kill. A need for vengeance.

Alec turned and looked at Marco, and he felt his muscles bulging, muscles he had developed from years of striking the anvil, and he knew that he, indeed, had something left to offer this world. He had strength, a knowledge of weaponry—and a desire to use them both.

“I do have a reason,” Alec finally responded. “I have one thing left to live for.”

Marco stared back questioningly.

“Death,” Alec continued. “I must find the Pandesians who murdered my family, and give them the same death they gave my family.”

As he uttered the words, Alec felt his own conviction, and it felt good. It was as if he were speaking outside of himself.

Marco nodded back, seeming satisfied.

“That is reason indeed,” he replied, “as fine a reason as anyone has to live. Finer indeed than I myself have. You have a cause now, my friend. That is more than most people have in life. Consider it a gift.”

Marco clasped his shoulder.

“You are not alone,” he said. “There are others, too, who crave vengeance. Others who want to cast off the yoke of Pandesia. I know of them. They are my friends. They hail from my city: the city of Ur.”

Marco gave him a knowing look.

“If you want vengeance against a vast army, you will need help,” Marco continued. “I want this vengeance, too, and these men can help us.”

Alec felt a resolution growing within him.

“Pandesians are everywhere,” Marco said. “Stay here, and we shall be captured, sent back to The Flames. We must make it to Ur, and quickly.”

As his friend spoke the words, they resonated within him. Alec was ready, ready for the first day of the rest of his life: a life of vengeance. Doing for his brother what Ashton could not do for himself.

“I am ready,” Alec replied.

The two of them turned and began to march back through his village. They began the long hike into the plains, heading south and west, their backs to the rising sun, on their way for death, for vengeance, and for the city of Ur.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Kyra sprinted down the forest path, Dierdre and Leo beside her, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she chased after the Pandesian carriage. It turned and disappeared from view, and she increased her speed, lungs burning, determined not to lose it. There were girls trapped in there, girls like her, girls being shipped off to an awful life, as she nearly had been. No matter what the cost, she could not sit by and allow that.