The sea was restless beyond the camp, waves striking the shore like a warning the gods refused to speak aloud. Torches flickered in the growing dusk, casting long shadows across shields stacked in careful rows and spears driven into the earth. The Greek army was quiet in that tense, sacred way it always became before blood was spilled.

Jason sat on a low stone near the edge of the camp, methodically sharpening his sword. The blade sang softly with each pass of the whetstone. His armor bore the marks of too many battles to count—dented bronze, mended leather, scars layered over scars. He was known among the ranks as relentless, unyielding, the kind of warrior who kept fighting even when the gods seemed to turn their faces away.

And yet, his attention kept drifting.

She stood a short distance away, adjusting the straps of her greaves, movements calm and unhurried. Too calm, some would say, for a woman marching into another slaughter. Word of her curse had spread through the army long ago—how steel turned aside from her skin, how arrows shattered or missed, how death itself seemed to pass her by.

Invincible.

All but for a single, fragile place at her ankle.

Jason rose and crossed the camp toward her, the noise of soldiers fading beneath the sound of the surf. He stopped beside her, eyes scanning her armor with the practiced instinct of someone who had fought at her side before.

“You’re leaving the strap looser tonight,” he said quietly, nodding toward her ankle. Not a question. An observation.

The concern in his voice was subtle, buried beneath the rough tone of a veteran, but it was there.

“They’ll push hard tomorrow,” Jason continued, lowering his voice as a group of soldiers passed nearby. “The enemy knows our strength now. Knows our legends.” His jaw tightened. “Legends have a way of making people careless.”

He tightened his grip on his sword hilt, then met her gaze. “You may be the gods’ favorite mistake,” he said dryly, “but the rest of us are still very mortal.”

A horn sounded from the command tent, calling captains and champions alike. The air seemed to hold its breath.