Page 256 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

“Good. He’ll need someone he trusts when this finally ends.” His gaze returned to my ribs. “In our prior encounters, you carried a consistent assortment of blades.”

I snorted. “Don’t we all?”

“Yours are particular.” The man said it like a decree—no room for debate. “Intentional.”

“Aren’t all warriors’ weapons?”

Kade’s smile felt like being watched—like he saw far too much. “In lethality? Weight and balance? Choice of venom? Of course. Then there are those of us who prefer… a little theater in our selections. Stories, each.” He drew a dagger from his hip. I shifted my stance, earning a dark chuckle. “Easy, Commander. Friends, remember?”

“I don’t have friends.” The admission was honest, but his intrigued tilt made my chest squeeze in protest. Cerulean eyes flashed through my mind. Tessa’s laugh as she shoved Blaz off target in the bunker. Blaz. Carrson.

Well, fuck.

I didn’t correct myself. The sparkle in his eyes said he already knew.

“Well, life is long. Perhaps you’ll learn to have them in the end.” He turned the dagger between his fingers. “This relic, for instance—functionally useless, yet always on my body. A reminder of sorts.”

“Of?”

I didn’t know a sigh could sound heavier than the one he’d given before, but the sly bastard proved me naïve again. He tucked the blade away, the abrupt movement closing the subject.

“That I am not him.”

“Hmm.” I scoured his face for any sign of a story spun instead of truth and came up… uncertain. His shoulders bowed beneath secrets, but Kade felt sincere. In his words. In showing up for August.

“I recognize a nostalgic when I see one, little Porter. You’re just as particular as I am—close your mouth; not everything needs to become a sparring match. I know because I’ve watched you fight. You don’t move like him—August,” he clarified. “You fight like others I’ve known. And in every encounter before this morning, you touched one here at least twice.” He set a hand against his ribs. “Before drawing it for a killing blow. Runic, if my eyes serve me well—and they always do.”

“Why are you watching me, Kade?”

“I watch all threats to my plans.”

“And I’m a threat to your plans?”

A wry smile transformed the stoic king into something boyish. “Indubitably.”

“Wouldn’t that be concerning to The Commander?”

“Only if you make it one.”

If I made it one? Why the hell would I make trouble for August?

“It holds meaning—this blade?”

“You ask too many questions,” I decided, straightening.

“Knowledge is a currency I cannot afford to exhaust. Bit of an addiction, I fear.” When I said nothing, he prodded, “So? Bellpost in design, I assume. Paladin in make.”

“It is.”

His smile turned devilish. “You won it.” His eyes sparked when my weight shifted. “Took it off an enemy?”

“Quite the story you’ve spun over my dagger, Balaskas.”

“I’m hunting for an object. Something… indicative of loyalty.”

“I assure you, it’s not that.”

“Isn’t it?” His eyes flashed. “Do you know what that rune means, little Porter?”