There was not much to Rowan’s personal quarters. It was much like his own, but considerably larger; one of the perks, he imagined, of being sister to the Chief. It was dimly lit, much like all the other chambers in the tower. She kept her bow and quiver of arrows right beside the doorway, just in case she needed to grab them and run. One other interesting thing Alex took notice of was the elegantly carved spear hanging on the wall just above Rowan’s bed. He remembered Rowan telling him about the spear that Delmar had begun crafting for her before Ravenna was destroyed. He had given it to her after the Citadel was founded, and she spent much of her spare time adding her own finishing touches to it. He had told her that it turned out beautifully.From there, Alex looked ahead to see Rowan sitting on the edge of her bed, her back turned to him. S

The trip returning to the Domineers’ territory in the east was shorter than anticipated, due in part to the fact that the number of catapults they had constructed had been reduced to practically nothing. Those few among Caine’s group who were still alive could not wait to get out of their enemies’ territories after their encounter.In just two days, the Domineers had made it to Ramon’s camp near the eastern borders of the Dark Zone. They did not hesitate to fall in among the crowd of Outsiders to get some much needed rest and recuperation as Caine reluctantly made his way up to the cliff looming over the rest of the camp. It was clear that, given everything that had happened, the message he had sent was never received, and Caine knew that he would have to deliver the bad news himself.It had been months since Caine and his team departed

Beyond the Citadel plateau, the Domineer party approached the natural land bridge between the mountains. Just as Malachai said, it was a company far too small for an attack, consisting of only seven Domineers, one of whom was holding up a post with a large, light-colored cloth tied to it.Inside the Citadel, Matheus hurried to the top of the wall and watched as the Domineers cautiously made their way across the bridge. As soon as they made it about halfway across, however, Matheus signaled for the archers to aim their bows down at them.The small Domineer party froze immediately. Most of them were growing restless while on the verge of panic. The man leading the company, however, did not seem to be fazed by this expected hostile welcoming, as he only glared up at the archers along the wall. “Easy now, Ravennites!” he boldly called out to them. &ldqu

The dreams were no less disturbing tonight. Alex had no idea what time it was when he had finally fallen asleep in his depressing cage. The only notion he had was when the faint amount of light flowing in through the cave’s opening had all but vanished, leaving the narrow tunnel in a dark state illuminated very dimly by the torches along the walls.Time seemed to be moving even more slowly as it continued to drag. Alex was constantly waking from his weak ability to sleep. There was simply far too much consuming his heart. How could it come to this? He never meant any betrayal against Rowan and her people, and he hoped that she would be able to see that. He could not help but wonder, should he ever get out of this cage, if he could face her again. Sometimes, the tempting idea would enter his mind to simply try and break himself out, but he forced himself to shake the thought away. That it only would c

The hills were silent over the next couple of days. The Ravennites did not trust Ramon Morenno one bit, and Delmar took every precaution by ordering regular patrols around the Citadel to keep an eye out for any unwelcome Domineer activity. However, after two restless days, Delmar recalled most of his scouts as no sign of the Domineers was ever detected.Ramon had kept his word and left the Ravennites in peace to prepare to meet his offer. He did not wait for his messenger to return with Delmar’s answer before he immediately began recalling every Outsider in the Dark Zone to fight for him. Caine was right; the only way he would be able to draw the Ravennites to fight in the valley was by giving them reason to believe they could make this their final battle. Ramon needed them to think they might have a chance of defeating him once and for all. Of course, he intended to unleash everything he had upon De