No one spoke, but he saw their eyes turn to him.

“Abaddon would not put us in a situation we had no hope of winning,” Cade muttered.

“Wouldn’t he though?” Grace demanded. “Maybe he’s bored of us. Wants to wipe the slate clean. When we attack, we don’t drop below the red line. That only happens if we get attacked from below and lose.”

“So he might throw us away on a suicide mission and get new contenders to replace us?” Amber asked.

“Why not?” Grace asked. “He’s done it before.”

Cade let out a long breath. “He did mention there would be new contenders, didn’t he?” He tried to remember. “Right before my battle with the alpha—something about getting help?”

“So … we’re going to meet them before the attack?” Scott asked.

“Or maybe they’re the ones who will replace us,” Grace retorted.

Cade wished he could remember the exact wording of what Abaddon had said. But it had felt like they would be given help.

“Look,” he said, holding up his hands. “I can’t read Abaddon’s mind. Who knows what sick motivations he has. But what I can tell you is he doesn’t lie.”

“Yeah, right…,” Grace muttered.

“If he said we’ll be getting help, then I believe him,” Cade went on. “Quintus, do you know if there are any missing legions that he might place in the keep—we know he has a thing for Romans.”

But Quintus wasn’t listening. He was standing on his sled, staring out across the plains.

“Quintus?”

The young legionary turned, and Cade saw the hint of a smile upon his friend’s face.

“I see something.”

He beckoned Cade to jump up, and Cade did, blinking as he left their makeshift shade. Quintus pointed.

At first, Cade could not see anything, his eyes yet to adjust to the glare. But then, as he focused, he saw it, just to the right of the sun’s place above the horizon.

It was small, almost a stain on the white of the salt flats. But the more he looked, the more he could make out. A structure. Alone in the sea of sand.

“Well, at least we’re not going on a wild goose chase,” Cade announced. “Come on … if we hurry we can get there before nightfall.”

They approached as the sun set, the structure casting a long shadow toward them as they staggered the last hundred feet of their day’s journey.

It was a ruin. It was made of stone, though the outsides were blackened with the fire that had destroyed what must have once been a fort.

A crumbling tower at its front dominated their view, with a ring wall in varying states of disrepair behind it. Strangely, there was a wide space open beneath the tower, with large, iron gates rusted off their hinges lying in the sand in front of it.

It was, as far as Cade could tell, human in origin. But then … who knew what their enemy was capable of?