Chapter 26 · The Nullstone

"Sir, the main gate's breached."

Kael didn't look up from the map. His jaw tightened. The countdown on his chest read 68 now, glowing faint through his armor like something alive.

"How many?" he said.

"Four hundred. Maybe more." The runner's voice cracked. "They're using siege runes. The wards won't hold."

Nora pressed her back to the stone wall, hands still shaking from the last resurrection. The kid she'd pulled back—seventeen, maybe eighteen—was alive. Alive and counting down. She could see the number on his collarbone through his torn shirt. Forty-one days.

Forty-one days she'd given him.

She wanted to throw up.

"Kael," she said.

He held up one hand. "Mira, get the reserves to the east wall. Pull everyone from the lower barracks."

"That leaves the armory exposed," Mira said. She stood by the door, arms crossed, her face hard. "If they punch through—"

"They already punched through." Kael's voice was flat. "We're buying time now. Nothing else."

Nora stepped forward. "Kael, listen to me."

He finally looked at her. His eyes were steel, and the countdown on his chest pulsed once, twice. In sync with her heartbeat.

"I'm listening," he said.

"The stone," she said. "The Nullstone.