Chapter 30: Greet Your Dead

Eden dragged a thunderstorm behind him.

Violet watched the clouds build, swelling with rain. Their dark underbellies marched across the land, overtaking everything. Ahead of the squadron a wall of thick smoke barred their vision. Violet knew this area—they were entering the borderlands—but she hardly recognized it.

An unnatural mist, one that Eden couldn't control, wove through the trees, undercutting the smoke and eating the sunlight. Farms sat deserted. Sheep and cattle wandered, abandoned in the panic of Curzon's attacks. Violet wanted to run from it herself—something about the mist stole the breath from her lungs.

"What is all this smoke?" Violet asked.

Eden's face was grim. "Curzon's dead have a habit of torching homes on their way back to Ipsit. The nobles defending the border haven't been able to douse the flames—they think the dead have brought it with them from the grave."

"So their fire is as undead as they are?"

"It looks that way," Captain Augustus said.

The three of them r