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“You’re holding blood money,” Sir Leopold said. “Whatcha gonna do about it?”

Jade stared at the coins. “Give it to Dracor. Let him find justice for it.”

“You do that. Then there’s someone you need to meet.”

Jade told Sir Leopold everything.

Kissing the earl. Her father losing his job. Her family falling onto the charity of others.

The jobs she’d taken to listen and report.

Sir Leopold listened to it all, never once interrupting.

Jade stared at the Knight of Valor. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’ve heard a lot in my years of service,” Sir Leopold said. “Doubt you can surprise me, but I may be able to help.”

Jade instantly like this man. Trusted him. And it was more than the dragon tabard.

He was everything that the man who had given her the jobs wasn’t.

A chuckle came from the rear of the temple. “This time of morning, I’d say you were here to confess. But those clenched fists tell me otherwise.”

A tall man with shoulders that matched his height entered the temple, knelt, and offered a prayer.

His greying hair whispered he might be retired, but the sword he wore said otherwise.

Jade stood before the altar to Dracor, god of justice.

She had no idea what to say.

She’d known what she was doing was wrong, but she’d done it anyway.

A part of her wasn’t sorry she’d fed her family. Only sorry she’d been caught.

And Dracor would know the truth.

Jade stared at the coins in her hands as she trudged up the steps of the Dragon Cathedral.

Her father would not allow her back home until she confessed her sins.

Tears burned her eyes.

The words he’d said… he had not spoken so harshly to her even after he’d lost his position because of her.