He faced the opposite wall, his hands on his hips, his breathing increasing. The fury was starting to grow, beginning with a small fire and rising into an inferno. Invisible smoke left his nostrils. Rage exuded from his entire presence. So angry, he couldn’t even look at his brother.

Magnus shook his head slightly as he stared at Fender’s back. “One by one, they executed each one of us. I was with Alix, Eric, and Nathan while they were shot in the skull. I don’t feel bad for what happened to them, but they didn’t deserve that either.” He turned angry himself, his voice full of furious accusation. “Your men died because you failed to listen to me.”

Fender stilled.

Magnus spoke with heated emotion, like he needed to get it out for his own sake. “And the only reason I’m alive now is because Raven saved me. I was on my knees in the dirt, the last one to get a bullet in my head, but she shot him first.”

There was a long stretch of silence.

I looked at Raven, surprised but also not.

Fender remained still, his back no longer rising and falling with his deep breathing.

Then he slowly turned around.

He didn’t look at Magnus.

He looked at Raven.

For a very long time.

He was still angry, still furious, but there was something else there now.

Raven held his gaze and didn’t blink.

Neither did he.

He stared at her the way he stared at me, like a few seconds weren’t enough to absorb what he wanted to see.

Magnus spoke again, pride in his voice. “I am the sole survivor because of her.”

Fender didn’t say a word as he stared, but he didn’t need to.

The look said it all.

Twenty-Six

Napoleon

Fender

I sat across from my brother in the parlor. Minutes passed even though we didn’t have them to waste. The door was closed, so we were alone, but I felt Raven’s presence outside, registered her in a different way from before.

As an ally.

It was hard to look at my brother. Not because of anger, resentment, or anything that I’d felt for the last few days.

But because I was ashamed. “You were right, and I didn’t listen.”

Magnus stared at me stoically, without a hint of gloating. There was actually pity there—even though he was the one who’d almost died.

Because of my stupidity. “Now the camp is lost.”

He still said nothing. Didn’t say I told you so. Didn’t even seem angry with me.

I rubbed my palms together as I considered our next move. “We have to take it back.”

Now he had a reaction. “Why?”

“Because we can’t let him get away with that, Magnus. We don’t let someone make a fool out of us.”