Heart (Cruelly Made Book 3)
Page 28
“Grand. I think.”
I unwrap my box, wondering if it’s going to be my custom Mage armor that I’d been fitted for the previous fall, or if it’s going to be another shitty IOU. I shove my orders at Smoke to hold while I crack off the wood top.
It’s my custom armor.
It sits folded in a pile of straw: dark green leather tooled with patterns—because Imperial Mages look the part—and masterfully shaped brigandine. Bars of rank slashed across the breast and shoulders, and the team’s number stitched boldly in silver, Aether-dusted thread on both arms. There is one small detail under the number on the left sleeve: the armorer had stitched a silver spur crossed with a sword, the number of my cavalry company, and added a number of small, dark green cross stitches under it.
I smile and run my thumb over it.
“What is that?” Atrament asks curiously.
“Pebbles did a year in the cavalry,” ScatheFire says. “That’s the unit she served with, and the stitches are each battle she rode away from. Because cavalry are crazy assholes that keep track of things like that.”
“I liked being cavalry,” I say mildly, touched that the armorer had added that detail.
“I rest my case.”
I take my orders back from Smoke and smack ScatheFire with them on the shoulder. He pretends to yelp and shield himself. I snap open my thick packet. Exactly what I expect greets me: the top sheaf is my official commission paperwork into the Imperial army as an Imperial Mage.
My entire life’s purpose, the entire reason I exist, realized.
I skim it quickly—officially assigned to the Fell team standing around me, reporting to Blood. I re-read it, and this time my eye stumbles over a single line.
“What is it?” Rot asks instantly.
“I—they’ve changed my name,” I say.
“What? What’s it been changed to? Shard?” Blood demands.
“No. Shend-Heart.”
“The hell?” Blood takes the paperwork from me. “What the hell does that word mean? Shend? What is a Shend? Atrament?”
Atrament shakes his head. “I’ve never heard of it.”
Smoke grimaces and his presence darkens. “It’s not a what. It means to ruin something, corrupt it, destroy it, to revile it. Defiled. It means Ruined Heart.”
Rot snaps, “Well, fuck those assholes. She’s not ruined.”
“They just couldn’t resist,” ScatheFire says. “Just had to make it so every time she introduces herself she’s that Heart.”
I take my orders back while they seethe with fury. Then I set them down and pull the armor out of its crate.
“That is not her name.” Atrament practically simmers with anger. “Her name is—”
“We have a war to win, guys,” I say, “and I don’t mean the one against the Blight.”
“This is where you’re supposed to get angry,” ScatheFire says. “You’re a Heart. You’re supposed to be pissed. They’ve got no right to say you’re ruined. You’re not ruined. You’re the greatest Mage that’s been born since the First Wars’ Mages were god-forged.”
I’ve had so many names in my life it doesn’t matter. If Atrament is right, I will have yet another one before all of this is over. I smile and kiss ScatheFire lightly. “I have a name. The name you gave me. The Empire can call me whatever it wants.”
The team is everything.
The team is sacred.
And I have made mine.
About the Author
K. M. Hade is the not-so-secret alter-ego of Merry Ravenell.
More fantasy, fewer shifters, more heat, less quantum superposition, and all the “I do what I want.”
She lives in the Napa Valley of CA with her husband. She survives off a steady diet of coffee, cheesy movies, and nerdy documentaries.
www.kmhade.com
Also by K. M. Hade
Cruelly Made
Crystal
Shard
Heart
Luminous - coming soon
Snow - coming soon
As Merry Ravenell
The IronMoon Series
The Alpha’s Oracle
Iron Oracle
Ice & Iron
Obsidian Oracle - coming soon
The Breath of Chaos Series
Breath of Chaos
Bound By Chaos
Chaos Covenant
Gate of Chaos - coming soon
The SnowFang Series
The SnowFang Bride
The SnowFang Storm
The SnowFang Secret - 2022
The NightPiercer Saga
NightPiercer
Separated Starlight
Between Dark Places - 2021
Aphelion - coming soon
Other Titles
The Nocturne Bride
On The Bit
Mirsaid