Chapter 79

Evelyn

Though the rogue camp had always smelled vaguely of smoke, the charred smell of burning fabrics and flesh was cloying now. Everything burned around us, with tents and makeshift structures quickly becoming engulfed in the fires we had set. Around us, embers danced in the air like lazy fireflies as Logan and I moved through the wreckage with sharp precision.

We barely spoke as we moved further into camp, easily navigating through the smoky haze and the maze of burning tents. We didn’t need to exchange words. All that was needed was a glance here, a tilt of the head there. We moved like one being, one body, and one brain split in two.

I had never been so in sync with someone in my life. But with Logan, there was no need for words. He read me like a book. I tried to ignore the intimacy of that, the fact that he knew my intentions with just a glance at my face.

Whenever a frantic rogue crossed our paths, Logan and I were prepared, always coiled to strike. But before I could even so much as lift a hand in retaliation, Logan was on them. Protecting me.

He was strategic and lethal. Nothing passed him unnoticed. He covered my blind spots without hesitation, and I found myself navigating the familiar terrain easily with him watching my back. The way our movements mirrored each other’s felt like we’d been trained side by side for years.

It was clear in those heart-racing moments that this bond between us, whatever it was becoming, had already bled into muscle and instinct. Somehow, unintentionally, we had honed our senses to protect each other.

And it hit me all at once, there between the burning tents and the bodies of rogues we hadn’t had time to spare: If this was what we were like in battle, what could we be in peacetimes? We could be something unstoppable if we carried these instincts off the battlefield and into the world.

But that was a thought for later. I didn’t have time to dwell on it now.

We reached the center tent after some time. By then, the air was hot and the smoke was thick enough to make us cough. Despite most of the rogue camp going up in cinders, this centermost tent remained untouched. I wondered if he would be elsewhere, fighting blindly among his burning camp. There was only one way to find out.

I ripped open the tent flap, and Logan stood poised behind me, his arms, jaw, and sword dripping with rogue blood.

And there he was, sitting casually as though he had been waiting for us all along.

Jesse.

He sat like a king on his rickety wooden chair. Naturally, a glass of red wine was cradled lazily in his hand, and the other was draped over the armrest. His shirt was open, and he was without armor. While his people ran about he camp in chaos, he had been sitting here, untouched and unarmed.

Perhaps he was just a leader learning how futile the fight would be. Or maybe he truly was too arrogant to see that this was the end.

“Well, well, the anticipated couple has finally arrived,” he purred, raising his glass. “Thirsty, Evelyn? You liked the wine last time, didn’t you? It’s that vintage you like so much.”

My lip curled, thinking of the tainted cask he had poured from the last time. The one he drugged me with.

Before I could speak, Logan stepped slightly to the side. He looked between his half-brother and me, his features set cooly.

“The decision is yours,” he said to me. “Whatever you wish to do with him, we will do.”

He was leaving the decision in my hands. His gaze found mine, calm and unreadable. And I knew then that he spoke truly. If I wanted Jesse dead, Logan would gladly slit his throat to appease me. Or he would look the other way and allow me to do it instead if I wanted to end him myself.

They may have been related by blood, but Logan was letting me decide whether those familial ties were strong enough.

We could kill Jesse now. Be done with it. Put this war to rest and remove our greatest enemy from the map all in one evening. There would be no trial, no interrogation. No risk of Jesse exposing secrets I wasn’t ready to share.

And we would have no Alpha King to answer to. In the privacy of this tent, it was just us and a blade. We balanced in that moment, knowing the future of everyone in there hung on my decision.

“You deserve this,” Logan said softly. “No one would blame you if you choose to put an end to him. He has earned worse than a swift death.”

Jesse sipped his wine with a smirk. “Oh, how romantic. Letting your little wife make all the big, bad decisions. Tell me, Evelyn, do you enjoy the power? Does it remind you of anything?”

I took a step forward, every bone in my body screaming for justice. This taste of vengeance was almost enough to make me salivate. In just a few words, Logan had gifted me the ultimate power over my former captor. The taste of fear was thick in the air, and for once, it wasn’t mine. I savored it. Relished it.

But still, I didn’t lift my blade.

“You want to die, Jesse,” I said, my voice low and even, “because you’re afraid of what we’ll learn if you live. It would be so easy, wouldn’t it? To just die instead of living with the consequences of your actions.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“You should be. You might think you know what I’m capable of, but you haven’t even scratched the surface.”

“How merciful of you. I’m sure the dear Alpha King will have something to say about your bleeding heart.”

“I doubt it,” I snapped. “He was the one who requested we bring you in alive. Soon, you’ll wish you were dead.”

I nodded to Logan. “Bind him.”

There was a flicker of something—relief, maybe—before Logan moved in, unspooling the coil of rope at his hip. The ropes were around Jesse’s wrists before he finished blinking. It was satisfying to see the tightly bound rope around Jesse’s wrists now instead of mine. But he didn’t fight it, didn’t even so much as squirm.

“Happy now, brother,” he said. “Happy with your little wife? Will you both get off to this together? Will you–”

Before he could hurl some fresh poison, Logan shoved a thick cloth into Jesse’s mouth, muffling his scathing words. The gag silenced him, but it did nothing to dampen the smug gleam in his eye. He stared at me like he still had the upper hand. Like he knew something we didn’t.

Or, at the very least, that he knew something Logan didn’t.

I knew it was a gamble, keeping him alive. He was one of the only people who knew of my secret identity, and I wondered how eagerly he would spew it out of revenge. But it was not something I could dwell on. Perhaps after he spilled significant information in his interrogation, they would cut out his tongue before he could talk about me.

I stood over him, heart pounding, watching him shift just slightly from the discomfort of it all. The firelight from outside was bleeding through the tent’s canvas, painting everything in a stunning orange hue. The shadows cast by the surrounding fire danced across Jesse’s face, giving him a devilish appearance.

As I looked at him, utterly submitted to us, I felt a strange wave of calm. Even in the face of all I had endured under this man’s captivity. Even while I knew that his exposing me might be in future.

Logan came to stand beside me, his shoulder brushing mine. “You did the right thing.”

“I know,” I said, and I meant it.

As if for reassurance, I felt Logan’s hand slip into mine. The warm caress of his palm nearly made me shiver. It was an anchor, a mute act of unity. We were in this together.

We always had been.

Outside, the war was dying as our fires grew stronger. Within just those few evening hours, the power dynamic had shifted entirely.

And we were no longer playing defense.