Chapter Seventeen
The deeper Cade and the others traveled into the forest, the more the world around them seemed to twist into something unfamiliar. The woods surrounding the village had always carried a certain sense of peace to them, even after the war—a quiet refuge where the sounds of rustling leaves and distant streams could calm even the most troubled mind. Cade had walked these paths countless times over the years while hunting, gathering supplies, or simply escaping the weight of old memories for a few precious hours. But now, every step forward filled him with unease. The forest no longer felt alive; it felt like something holding its breath.
The villagers following behind him noticed it too, though none of them wanted to be the first to say it aloud. Their movements had grown quieter as the silence thickened around them, and even the crunch of boots against fallen branches sounded unnaturally loud beneath the towering pines overhead. The sunlight struggled to break through the dense canopy, leaving much of the forest floor swallowed in cold shadows that stretched endlessly between the trees. Lyrica stayed close beside Cade, clutching the strap of the satchel hanging at her side while her golden eyes scanned the woods nervously. The excitement she had shown earlier when joining the search party had faded hours ago, replaced by a growing tension she could no longer hide.
Cade noticed every small shift in her expression, and it only deepened the knot tightening in his chest. He had wanted her to experience adventure, to see the world beyond the safety of their home and understand the responsibilities that came with protecting others. But this no longer felt like an adventure. This felt like the beginning of something darker—something deliberate. The troll attack had already shattered the fragile peace surrounding the village, yet the deeper they followed the tracks into the woods, the more Cade realized the attack itself had merely been the surface of a much larger problem. Someone had orchestrated this.
"Dad," Lyrica said quietly after several minutes of silence, her voice barely rising above a whisper. "Do you feel that?"
Cade glanced toward her immediately, instinctively alert. "Feel what?"
She hesitated for a moment, searching for the words as her gaze drifted deeper into the trees ahead of them. "I don't really know how to explain it," she admitted softly. "It feels… heavy. Like something bad happened here. The same feeling I got when the lightning happened during training." Her brow furrowed slightly as she pressed a hand against her chest. "Only this feels colder."
A chill crawled down Cade's spine as he listened to her. Ever since revealing the truth about her heritage, he had become painfully aware of how sensitive Lyrica had grown to magic around her. If she could feel traces of something lingering in the forest, then it meant powerful forces had moved through these woods recently. Forces connected to darkness. He kept his expression controlled for the sake of the villagers, but inwardly his instincts were screaming louder with every passing second.
The village elder eventually stepped closer to Cade, breaking the uneasy silence hanging over the group. "You've gone quiet," the older man observed carefully. "What are you thinking?"
Cade slowed near a patch of disturbed mud and crouched down, brushing damp leaves aside with his fingers. Several sets of tracks crisscrossed through the earth—bootprints, horse tracks, and deep grooves carved into the ground by something heavy being dragged forward. His eyes narrowed immediately as he studied them. Hollow trolls were destructive creatures by nature. They rampaged wildly, crushing anything unfortunate enough to stand in their path. But these tracks were too organized, too controlled. Someone had guided them here intentionally.
"These trolls weren't wandering," Cade said grimly as he rose back to his feet. "They were transported."
A murmur spread uneasily among the villagers behind him. One of the younger men frowned in confusion before asking, "Transported? You mean somebody brought them here?"
Cade nodded slowly. "Look at the ground," he explained, gesturing toward the grooves cutting through the dirt. "Heavy cages were dragged through here, most likely reinforced with iron. The trolls followed a controlled path all the way toward the village." His jaw tightened as the realization settled more heavily inside him. "This attack wasn't random."
Lyrica looked disturbed by the implication. "Why would anyone do that?" she asked quietly. "Why attack innocent people?"
Cade's expression darkened as memories of war clawed their way to the surface of his mind. He had seen leaders manipulate fear countless times before, sacrificing lives for influence and control while pretending it was necessary for peace. During the war, entire cities had been burned simply to make political statements. The thought that someone might be reviving those tactics now filled him with a cold anger he had not felt in years.
"Fear is powerful," Cade answered bitterly. "If people are terrified enough, they'll surrender freedom willingly in exchange for protection. Kings and councils have used that tactic for centuries." His eyes hardened slightly. "Sometimes the people who promise safety are the ones creating the danger in the first place."
The mention of kings immediately brought Sir Alden back into his thoughts. Cade could still picture the knight standing confidently in his doorway, preaching strength, superiority, and power while thinly veiling threats beneath his polished words. At the time, Cade had dismissed him as another arrogant servant of a corrupt ruler. But now, after seeing the tracks leading through the forest, the timing no longer felt coincidental. King Erigut's ambitions suddenly seemed far more dangerous than simple politics.
As the group continued deeper into the woods, strange markings began appearing along the trees. Deep cuts had been carved into the bark in repeating patterns, weathered enough to suggest they had been placed intentionally rather than by accident. Cade stopped immediately upon seeing the first symbol, his entire body growing rigid. Memories surged violently through his mind before he could stop them—war camps, smoke-covered battlefields, and soldiers navigating forests under the cover of darkness.
Lyrica noticed the shift in him right away. "Dad?"
Cade slowly stepped toward the marked tree and ran his fingers across the carving. Three vertical slashes crossed by a jagged horizontal line. An old military trail sign. One he had not seen since the war itself.
"These are military markers," he said quietly, his voice heavier now. "Used during the war to guide troops through forests without drawing attention."
The elder frowned deeply. "You think soldiers are operating out here?"
"I know they are," Cade answered without hesitation.
The certainty in his own voice unsettled him more than he wanted to admit. For years he had tried to bury the part of himself that recognized these things so naturally. Yet the deeper they traveled into the forest, the more those instincts returned effortlessly. The Kingslayer was waking up again piece by piece, and Cade could feel it happening whether he wanted it to or not.
Roughly an hour later, the trees finally opened into a wide clearing hidden between massive walls of stone and pine. The moment Cade stepped into the open space, his stomach sank. Burned tents littered the clearing alongside broken crates, abandoned weapons, and shattered supply wagons. Several enormous iron cages stood near the edge of the camp, their bars bent inward and covered in deep claw marks. Black blood stained the ground beneath them.
Lyrica stared in horror. "They kept the trolls here…"
Cade approached one of the cages slowly, studying the damage in silence. The creatures had been imprisoned, starved, and transported like tools waiting to be unleashed. Not wild monsters. Weapons. The realization filled him with disgust.
One of the villagers suddenly called out from near the center of the camp. "Cade… look at this."
Cade turned sharply and walked toward the overturned supply crate the villager was pointing at. Stamped onto the side of the wood was a royal insignia—a crowned wolf wrapped in golden laurels.
King Erigut's crest.
Silence swept through the clearing as the villagers recognized it. Fear spread quickly across their faces, but Cade barely noticed them anymore. Everything was beginning to fit together in the worst possible way.
Before anyone could speak, a sharp crack echoed from the treeline.
Cade's head snapped upward instantly.
"Get down!" he roared.
An arrow exploded from the shadows and slammed into a villager's shoulder, sending him crashing into the dirt with a scream. Chaos erupted immediately as masked figures burst from the trees surrounding the clearing, dressed in dark leather armor and armed with swords and bows.
Mercenaries.
Professional killers.
Lyrica stumbled backward in shock as two attackers charged directly toward Cade. The moment they reached him, something inside him shifted violently. The hesitation vanished. The restraint vanished. Years of buried instinct surged to the surface all at once.
The first mercenary swung wildly, but Cade sidestepped the strike effortlessly before driving his fist into the man's throat hard enough to collapse his windpipe. The second attacker barely had time to react before Cade ripped the sword from the dying man's grasp and buried it into his chest in one smooth movement. The villagers stared in horror as the legendary warrior they had only heard stories about suddenly emerged in full.
"Dad!" Lyrica cried out suddenly.
Cade turned just in time to see another mercenary charging toward her through the chaos. Panic surged through him—but before he could reach her, golden light exploded outward from Lyrica's hands. The blast struck the mercenary directly in the chest, launching him backward across the clearing with enough force to crack the tree he slammed into.
The entire forest seemed to freeze.
One of the masked mercenaries pointed toward Lyrica immediately. "There she is!"
Cade's blood ran cold, Not who is she.There she is They already knew about her.
And in that moment, Cade realized the horrifying truth that this had never just been about the village.