---
Kai nodded. Yet inside his chest, a darker oath coiled, "Darius will pay." The coward had buried them under stone, stolen star crystals, and fled. Kai would carve that crime onto his bones and settle the debt in full, one day soon.
Wind rustled willow fronds. Above, the night sky spread like black silk pricked with diamonds. For a heartbeat Kai imagined Mia's face and her divine figure among those stars, soft, determined, waiting to be conquered by him. A slow heat crept through his ant rod. He pushed the thought aside.
"Sleep," he told Vexor. "I'll take my first watch."
The older ant tried to protest but his eyelids drooped. In minutes he lay snoring, back against a log. Kai remained by the fire's last glow, spear across his knees, Renna's soft breaths steady at his side.
The moon rode high when something padded at the pond's edge. Kai spun, his spear ready and his mind very relaxed.
