Chapter 71. Snow

JULIAN

With every step we took, I could feel her strength ebbing away, like sand slipping through an hourglass. Her breaths came in shallow gasps, her once steady gait faltering into a shaky stumble.

The tremor in her knees was unmistakable; they threatened to buckle beneath her at any moment. I could see it, feel it, even before she could admit it. And in that moment, I was profoundly glad I had insisted on coming.

No, scratch that—I was overwhelmingly grateful I had managed to persuade Claudius to allow me to join the troops here. After his initial, stunned recovery from the shock of seeing me alive, he had become fiercely opposed to the idea of me risking my life yet again by heading to the north.

Not that Xerxes would have been much of a threat to me. Truthfully, I had wished I’d been here far sooner. Perhaps if I had arrived earlier, I could have dealt with Xerxes myself and spared Vesta the agony of staining her hands with his blood. Though, deep down,