Status Updates From Steel Scars (Red Queen, #0.2)

For once, his smile is real. No jokes, no mask. “Are you with us, Shade Barrow?” “I’m with you, Diana.” “Then we will rise.” His voice joins mine. “Red as the dawn.”

Shade looks on, expectant. I realize he’s holding my hand, not minding the blood coagulating beneath my fingers. “My name is Diana.”

When the Colonel was called Papa, and the Scarlet Guard was the pipe dream of hunters and farmers and empty soldiers. My name is my mother, my sister Madeline, and their graves dug in the frozen ground of a village no one lives in anymore


SHADE gave Diana a reason to like her name again 😭

My name. The others don’t mind using their own, but for me, there is no such thing. My name holds no importance. Only rank and designation truly matter. What my mother called me is of no consequence to anyone, least of all me. It is a burden more than anything, a stinging reminder of her voice and the life we lived in early days.

For a man who can move faster than the blink of an eye, somehow he manages to take the world’s slowest step forward. We stand eye to eye, blue meeting gold. Curiosity gets the better of me. “And that is?” “What’s your name?”

Slowly, I close my fingers around his wrist. He still bleeds, but I don’t mind. It’s fitting. “Will you oath yourself to the Scarlet Guard?” I expect him to smile. Instead his face turns to stone. “On one condition.” My eyebrows raise so high they might disappear into my hairline. “The Guard does not bargain.” “This isn’t a request to the Guard, but to you,” he replies.

—You’re a special kind of stupid, kid. —RAM—

So there’s still affection between Farely and her father

The age difference isn’t weird it’s just an observation

I am twenty-two years old, a captain of the Scarlet Guard, and no one, not even the Colonel, can tell me I am wrong now.

Shade is 19

On another day, my team would spend hours tracking them all to their homes, only to watch them sleep off the long journey. Not so now. Because it’s First Friday. Today is the Feat of July.

This is where Red Queen begins

One of three top-of-the-line, techie-made, long-range secure radios, all swiped from the Corvium stores by Barrow’s light fingers

So stealing runs in the family Shade and Mare steal

“Or you might kill each other.”
They did a bit of both

Then Barrow laughs. “What?” “You remind me of my sister.” It’s my turn to grin. “You spy on her a lot, do you?” He doesn’t flinch at the jab, letting it glance past. “In your manner, Farley. Your ways. You think the same.” “She must be a bright girl.” “She certainly thinks so.” “Very funny.” “I think you two would be great friends.” Then he tips his head, pausing a second.

“I’ve got two spotters waiting on you.” “They must not be very good.” Again, that smile. Another would think Shade Barrow was warm, open, always laughing. But there’s a chill beneath all that. An iron cold. “I came the usual way.” Sneering, I pat his jacket. “Did you now?” There. His eyes flash, chips of frozen amber. Shade Barrow has secrets of his own. Just like everyone else.

“You’re a special kind of stupid,” I say. He chuckles. “Must be, since I keep wandering back to your ragtag rebel club.” “And you’re late.” “I prefer chronologically challenged”

AHHHH THE BANTER

The one with the crooked smile steps out of line before she can say his name. He crosses the gap between us, though he doesn’t extend a hand to shake. “I’m Barrow. Shade Barrow. And you better not get me killed.” My eyes narrow at him. “No promises.”

Legendary lovers. Their introduction

“Hey, I’m missing some coin!” another Guardsman, the muscle-bound Tye, mutters. She shoves her scarred hands into her pockets. This time, I almost laugh. We entered the market looking for a master thief, and my soldiers fell prey to a pickpocket instead

Mare just be stealing ig

As we make our way back out of the market, I try to ignore the grumblings of two Guardsmen. Apparently, someone picked their pockets. “All those batteries, gone in a second. Didn’t even notice,” Cara grumbles, pawing through her satchel

MARE AHHH she was stealing in the beginning of Red Queen. She was stealing from Farely before they even met

Silvers might send men and women to die on the lines in equal measure, but a rebel group led by a woman is easier to underestimate

Even in fantasy we can’t escape sexism

We know only what we must to move forward. It’s the only reason the Guard has lasted this long, surviving where no other underground organization has before

“Information is more dangerous than any weapon we possess. We learned that early, after decades of failed uprisings, all laid low by one captured Red in the hands of a Silver whisper”

It’s happened before

“He continues to squint at the landscape. Not to look outside, but to avoid looking at me. Fine. I don’t like looking at him either. Bad blood or not, we make a good team. Command knows it, we know it, and that’s why we keep getting sent out together.”
It’s so interested to see the relationship ship Farely and her dad have