Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
MARCIA’S PERSPECTIVE
I held his gaze for a moment, preparing.
Then I nodded. “It is.”
A breath seemed to leave his entire body. His weathered face sank into grief. The others behind him—soldiers who had once laughed with my father around campfires lowered their heads.
“Rum’s Shadow Forces attacked in the dead of night. Tore down the estate, killed everyone in sight. Vengeance for a crime my family didn’t commit.”
I resisted the urge to glance at Eunice. To shoot her a look that said ‘I know about what you did.
“I received the news too late. When I got home…” I trailed off, reliving that night in my head. Heat of tears filled my eyes. “Her body was ripped apart like a child’s doll. There was blood everywhere.”
The weight of truth settled across the camp like a storm cloud.
No one spoke. Not even Dravic.
But Eunice, of course, never knew how to stay silent.
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
“Don’t look at her like that,” she said coldly. “She didn’t even tell you. She let you go on thinking they were alive because that’s what she does. She holds everything in, plays the silent victim until someone else speaks up. Then suddenly it’s all about her. Poor Marcia, always suffering. Always the tragic little heir.” She smiled bitterly. “She’s been weaponizing her grief for months.”
The words didn’t sting.
But irritation coursed through me.
“You speak like you know me,” I said quietly. “But you don’t.”
Eunice snorted. “I know you better than you think. You’re good at lying, at hiding what you really feel. You’ve always been the cold one. The proud one. You think loss makes you noble? That being orphaned gives you the right to walk above the rest of us?”
I didn’t move.
But inside me, something stirred again.
An edge. A flicker of something dangerous, something dark.
My fingers itched to curl, to tighten until her heart burst in her chest and blood streamed down her eyes. To finally finish what I had yearned for since the moment I first met her. Since she spoke to me for the first time in her insensitive, condescending voice. Since I found out it was her actions my family paid the price for.
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Chapter 24 Deputy Commander
17 min left
My jaw set, chest tightening, as a soft hum spread under my skin.
I stared at her pretty face, and the cruelty it masked.
But before I could think of doing anything, Dravic took a step forward. His aura shifted.
“That’s enough,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “You’ve spoken more than enough to last you a year. I do not want to hear your voice again.”
Eunice faltered, her posture stiffening. She blinked at Dravic, almost as if she was measuring him up. She looked to Kael for backup.
But as usual, Kael didn’t have the guts to speak.
So she lifted her chin, hardening her face again. “You don’t get to tell me what to say. I came here with the Prime King’s elite guard. I’m here on royal order. You’re just a war–born Alpha with an ego. You can’t command me.”
My eyes widened at her words.
Eunice Hale was too stupid for her own good. Too confident.
Dravic’s lips curved into a smile, his eyes slowly darkening, going completely black. “You think I need to command you to
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
make you kneel?” His voice was deeper, animalistic.
* 17 min left
The air changed at once. It turned heavy—overwhelmingly so.
Dravic’s alpha aura rolled out with terrifying precision. Silent, invisible, yet suffocating. It pressed down on every living
creature in the vicinity. Even the guards shifted uncomfortably. Captain Rohen’s knees bent instinctively. Somewhere, a soldier dropped their waterskin.
My own heart thundered in my chest, my eyes widening.
And Eunice gasped, choking on air.
She dropped to her knees, trembling violently. Her nails dug into the dirt. She didn’t speak now. She couldn’t.
Kael’s eyes widened. “Stop. Please.” He stepped forward, grabbing her arm to steady her. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“She never does,” Dravic said coldly.
Kael turned to him. “I’m asking you. Please. Please stop. I apologise, Your Highness. On her behalf. She—she isn’t the smartest, I know. But please, you’ll kill her.”
Dravic considered him for a long second. Then he glanced at me.
I flinched, staring back at him, breathing hard.
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
- f) 17 min left
Dravic’s gaze softened, but his eyes didn’t change back to green.
Then, he exhaled slowly, and the pressure lifted. The air felt cool again.
Eunice collapsed fully, coughing, gasping for breath. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she trembled on the ground like nothing more than an insect.
The King’s elite guard, the ones who had travelled here with Kael and Eunice, stood frozen.
Dravic turned to them next. “You arrived with the Prime King’s order?”
They nodded hesitantly. “We did.”
“Good,” Dravic said. “Then you fall under the command of the warfront’s senior leadership.”
He gestured toward me.
“Lady Marcia Xendale is now your commander.”
Every eye snapped to me.
I stood still, not letting the tremble in my fingers show. Not letting the storm inside me cloud my face. But my breath caught, lingering in my chest.
■
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
(^) 15 min left
“You will report to her,” Dravic continued. “Train under her. Fight under her. Die under her command if you must. That is the will of the king, and mine.”
The guards nodded, stunned but obedient. They shifted toward me, instinctively forming a loose line behind my back.
Eunice’s head whipped up from the dirt, eyes bloodshot. “You can’t do this. She’s not qualified. She’s not–”
“She is a general,” Dravic snapped. “Appointed by the Prime King himself. A leader of forces who won a battle before you even arrived.”
“She’s just a name!” Eunice shouted. “A bloodline! If it weren’t for her father and brothers–‘
་་
“You mean the father and brothers who died defending your borders?” Captain Rohen barked. “Don’t speak of them. Not with your disgraceful tongue.”
་་
Eunice turned red. “She was supposed to be nothing! A quiet, pathetic wife! She was supposed to break when Kael left her!”
Kael closed his eyes.
“I don’t know what your game is,” she said, pointing a shaking hand at me. “But I’m not letting you win.”
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
16 min left
“There’s no game, Eunice,” I said finally. My voice was quiet, but sharp. “There’s no throne. No crown. And no husband to fight over. I’m not here to win.”
Eunice stumbled back to her feet, still unsteady.
“I’m here because I have a duty,” I continued. “Because the people who gave me their names are buried in the dirt now. Because war doesn’t care about your petty, distasteful grudges.”
I took a deep breath, maintaining my composure.
“And neither do I.”
Kael looked at me for a long time.
Then lowered his gaze.
Dravic’s voice came next. Loud, clear, and final.
“From this moment forward, General Marcia Xendale will take full command of the Prime King’s elite guard,” he declared. “She will serve as Deputy Commander of the Western Front. Any challenge to her authority is a challenge to mine.”
My heart gave a thump in my chest, goosebumps littering my back.
He turned toward the silent soldiers.
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Chapter 24 – Deputy Commander
16 min left
“Am I clear?”
They nodded.
Eunice trembled beside Kael.
And I stood there, completely still, even as everything within me stirred.
I was finally where I was always meant to be.
Finally, I had the power to show the world exactly who I was—and who my family was.
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