Chapter 23
inn is dressing before I can react.
“Stay here!” he commands. He reaches for his sword in the same moment that a scream fills the hallway. It’s a voice I recognize, and I leap up.
“That’s Daisy!”
Another scream sounds, then a distant crash strong enough to make the floor shake. Finn blocks my path, and the terror in his eyes mirrors mine. “You need to hide!”
“No!” I howl, trying to shove past him. “I can’t leave her!”
Finn seizes my wrists, shouting, “Lyria, wait!” but I break his grip and tear into the hall.
A nightmare awaits. Flickering amber light floods the scene. I see people fleeing in every direction, their shadows long and macabre. I smell smoke and blood. Ahead, a huge chunk of the staircase has been blasted away, leaving nothing but singed rubble.
I stumble forward.
Daisy’s screams are coming from the chamber down the hall from Finn’s.
I can only assume that is Damien’s room.
Tearing toward it, I see the door flung open.
A body is crumpled across the threshold, a Verdish guard.
Running toward the doorway, I barely register his form before something swings at my head.
The sword misses me by a kiss. I lurch back as it slams into the doorframe, shattering wood and sending splinters flying in every direction.
I wheel to face my attacker. The person is male, but his face is mostly concealed by a dark green cloak. He roars as he swings for another strike.
Something yanks my arm. Finn throws me behind him, then swings to block the attacker’s next swipe. Steel crashes against steel. Finn drives forward—he strikes once, twice, then cuts down his assailant with an overhead blow that slams into his neck.
The hooded figure crumples.
When Finn turns, he’s unrecognizable. I’ve never seen this much hate in his eyes. The boy in the cottage is gone. This is the son of Verdinae, the descendant of Dornik pillagers, the agent of the Frumentari, the man who’s been taught to end life for as long as I’ve been taught to save it.
“Are you hurt?” he demands, his eyes desperately scanning my body for any injuries.
“No.” I’m shaking, but I manage to hold my footing.
“Are you sure?”
He reaches for me, but his wild eyes focus on something behind me, and then I’m shoved behind him again without warning. I keep from falling, but just barely, as he lunges forward to meet the next threat.
Soldiers. Two more. Plus countless others behind them.
They’re pouring up the carpeted stairs, some hooded in dark robes like my first attacker.
I don’t have time to worry about figuring out who they are.
Right now, there are only two goals, which are simple: Keep Finn alive.
Help Daisy. The world narrows to those objectives.
Finn takes down the second soldier in the time it takes me to consider. My Talent is screaming for use and the heat is hellish, almost unbearable, but with so many onlookers, I don’t dare reveal myself.
He handles the third one next, but he’s tiring.
And there are more. So many more. My eye snags on an assailant as they seize a fleeing courtier and cut her throat.
Who are they?
“Run!” Finn shouts, interrupting my thoughts.
We hurry together back toward Damien’s chambers, but we’re not fast enough. Two of the enemy soldiers catch up with us. I lose sight of Finn as someone yanks me from behind.
We both scramble. My attacker lands on top, and I’m clearly outmatched. I thrash and claw at his face as he struggles for something at his waist—a blade. His face is obscured by the hood. I’m screaming, kicking…
Instinct takes over. My Talent barrels to the surface, and I hear a scream that might be mine as the power explodes through my hands.
Rough and quick. That’s all I can do. I feel the explosion, rather than see it, as I will his insides to oblivion.
Hot blood and guts spill over me, and I roll over and vomit, overcome.
I spit out the sick and shove the corpse off me.
The soldier’s cloak flops as his body rolls, and that’s when I notice it.
His ears. They’re tapered like mine.
These are my people.
There’s no time for self-punishment. No time to orient myself in this tumbling landscape of enemies. The only thing I can trust is Finn, who is already rising to meet the next batch of attackers.
How are there so many?
I tear after him.
Then something happens that I don’t understand at first. The floor seems to be moving under us. Finn seizes my arms, and we struggle to stay upright as the world wobbles around us. It’s an earthquake. It must be. It takes me several confused moments to process as another blast rattles the castle.
“They’ve got drakesbane!” Finn shouts.
Another blast hits near us. We both lurch to avoid it, but the flames catch on my skirt. I roll and thrash as the fyre crawls up my legs, searing my calf—
Then Finn is there, smothering the flames with his boots.
“Are you hurt?” He seizes my shoulders. “LYRIA. Are you hurt?”
I shake my head even though the pain is overwhelming.
He tries to scoop me up, but we’re tossed back by another blast. Finn lands on top of me, crushing me. I blink, squinting through the smoke and dust. There’s something warm and sticky on my face. My fingers find my cheek and draw back covered in blood.
Finn struggles upright, and I follow.
We finally burst into Damien’s chamber, vaulting over the fallen guard at the threshold.
Within, the scene is harrowing. The window is shattered, glass strewn over the floor.
Scattered amid the shards are easily half a dozen bodies.
My gaze finds Daisy backed into a corner, gripping a fire poker like it’s her lifeline against drowning.
She’s half dressed, as I am, and covered with blood.
Shaking, dazed, petrified but unharmed. I nearly weep with relief.
I don’t notice Damien at first. It’s Finn who rushes toward him where he sits bare-chested amid the wreckage. He doesn’t have a weapon I can see. He’s crouching, doubled over with his head in his hands. Finn embraces his brother, dragging Damien upright.
I look away when I realize the younger prince is sobbing.
My stomach twists. Tonight, the world seems uncertain about just who is supposed to be my friend or my enemy. I’ve been so wrong about so many things since I arrived at the castle. Maybe I was wrong about Damien, too.
Daisy seems to snap out of whatever trance she’s in. The poker clatters out of her hand, and she stumbles toward me. I’ve never seen a person so ashen.
“Are you all right?” I ask, surging toward her.
She nods vaguely. Her eyes are unfocused, and they keep darting back to Damien. “I’m…I’m okay.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No…Damien…he…he…” She struggles for words.
“It’s okay.” I wrap my arms around her. She’s trembling.
We both look up as the clatter of oncoming footsteps sounds from the hall. Finn and Damien sink into defensive stances, weapons drawn, and I lift my palms for the fight.
But the face that appears is familiar.
“They’re here!” Roburn shouts behind him.
Guards swarm the room, with Sebastian among them.
The eldest prince looks older, harder somehow.
He’s armed with a sword and there’s blood on his shirt and trousers.
Strange, seeing him like this. I’ve never taken Sebastian for a soldier.
But it makes sense that all Rodrick’s sons would have learned how to kill.
Finn rushes toward the captain. “What’s happening?”
“We’ve secured the lawn and we’re sweeping the castle now.”
“Where’s Mother?” demands Damien.
“We’re figuring that out,” says the captain, his face hard.
Damien blanches, turning to his oldest brother. “You don’t know?”
“We’re looking,” Sebastian says. “We thought she was in her chambers.”
Damien exchanges a glance with Finn, and the pair waste no time trying to shove out the door. But Roburn and their older brother roadblock their attempt.
“No!” Sebastian roars. “You two stay here!”
“Like hell we will!” Damien shouts.
Roburn shoves them both in the chest. “Neither of you are to leave this room!”
“But—” Finn protests.
“Back up. Neither of you is going anywhere.”
Damien snaps, “I COMMAND you to let us through!”
Everyone’s watching this play out. Everyone’s distracted. That’s why, when the first arrow hits, I’m the only one attuned to the sound. I notice it before anyone else does—the whistle and crack of it striking the back wall—but it’s not enough time to change anything.
Finn is the next to discern we’re under fire.
He tackles me without a moment’s hesitation, shielding my body with his.
Screams explode all around us. Roburn snatches Damien and pushes him out the door, roaring for his troops to follow.
I throw out a flare of my Talent, trying to understand the scene beyond Damien’s room.
There are archers in the trees outside the open window. Half a dozen of them. Calm and collected and sure. They must have been waiting for this moment.
I can’t move with Finn atop me. He’s so much larger, I can’t breathe.
Arrows rain down around us, and it doesn’t stop.
I start to fear it won’t stop—until I’m actually considering striking out with my Talent.
I could cut the archers down to end it. I could strike them all at once—I did it with the skakabri.
But I need to draw back those dark impulses, move away from those terrifying thoughts of what the full leverage of my magic could achieve.
I have to wait for it to stop.
And finally, it does.
The onslaught ends just as suddenly as it started. The archers withdraw, leaving aching silence and the fallout as the cold knowledge of death seeps through us.
I’m gazing up through a narrow, slanted viewpoint. It’s all I can manage beneath the weight of Finn’s arm until he withdraws and speaks, placing gentle hands over me. He’s unhurt. I am faintly aware of him asking once again if I’m safe, if I’m injured.
But my attention is elsewhere. On the one person who hasn’t moved since the arrows started.
He’s still standing beside the open window, gazing out at the night. There’s a puzzled expression on his lovely face, and the red that blooms from his throat might be roses…or ribbons…or rubies.
It can’t be anything else. I can’t believe that it’s anything else.
Until Sebastian’s legs give out.