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Bronwen spat on the bloody ground and prowled off

A lie Manon had lied

She arched a brow at hie settle into hian a series of orders andthe injured and dead Dorian helped as best he could, healing those who needed itwounds that leaked blue blood onto his hands

The warmth of that blood didn’t reach him

CHAPTER 15

She was a liar, and a killer, and would likely have to be both again before this was through

But Manon had no regrets about what she’d done Had no roo down on the hours while they worked to repair camp and Crochans, Manon monitored the frosty skies

Eight dead It could have been worse Much worse Though she would take the lives of those eight Crochans with her, learn their naht helping the Thirteen haul the fallen wyverns and Ironteeth riders to another ridge The ground was too hard to bury them, and pyres would be too easily marked, so they opted for snow She didn’t dare ask Dorian to use his power to assist them

She’d seen that look in his eyes Like he knew

Manon dus body, the sentinel’s lips already blue, ice crusted in her blond hair Asterin hauled a stout-bodied rider toward her by the boots, then deposited the witch with little fanfare

But Manon stared at their dead faces She’d sacrificed them, too

Both sides of this conflict Both of her bloodlines

All would bleed; too many would die

Would Glennis have welcomed them? Perhaps, but the other Crochans hadn’t seemed so inclined to do so

And the fact re them So she’d picked the only method she knew: battle Had soared off on her own earlier that day, to where she knew Ironteeth would be patrolling nearby, waited until the great northern wind carried her scent southward And then bided her time

"Did you know the at a fallen sentinel’s body Down the line of thereat drifts of snow over the corpses

"No," Manon said "I didn’t"

Daas breaking by the time they returned to the Crochan camp Eyes that had spat fire hours earlier noatched the toeapons as they aiest of the camp, and located in its heart Glennis’s hearth

The crone stood before it, warnarled, bloodied hands Dorian sat nearby, and his sapphire eyes were indeed da as he met Manon’s stare

Later That conversation would come later

Manon halted a few feet away fro into rank at the outskirts of the fire, surveying the five tents around it, the cauldron bubbling at its center Behind the--and kept one eye upon the to the bubbling cauldron To what s before she obeyed, gathering one of the small earthenware bowls beside the fire Another way to demonstrate trust: to eat their food Accept it

So Manon did, devouring a few bites before Dorian followed her lead and did the sahed "It’s been over five hundred years since an Ironteeth witch and a Crochan shared a e words in peace Interrupted, perhaps, only by your mother and father"