Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
ABBY
N ight falls far too quickly as I pace the edge of shadow. Somehow, even in the darkness, I can still see where the boundary lies. As certain as I am that this will happen beneath the light of the moon, I can’t calm the thundering of my heart. If we’re wrong, then we’re just sitting here while Lunae’s people— my people —are massacred. They may not have seen me as anything more than the princess, who occasionally spared those destined for death and instead subjected them to a life of ridicule and poverty, but they don’t know the scars I bear for them.
“It’ll happen when the moon is at its highest,” I say, for what could very well be the tenth time. Imelda always waits for the moon to be directly above before she makes her sacrifice. That knowledge offers little comfort when she can’t see the moon to begin with. If the shadows don’t disappear soon…
Quinn tilts his head back and looks up at the sky. He’s already shifted into his wolf form, and I hate that. I hate that I don’t get to feel his arms around me one more time before we’re separated again. Hate that he’s going into there with no knowledge of what he’ll find waiting for him, while I’m stuck out here focused on everyone but him. ‘We likely have minutes now. When that barrier dissipates, direct the wolves to the square as quickly as you can. I can’t go with them.’
I know. He’ll be too busy running for the palace. Ty hasn’t shifted to confirm that he and Arabella made it out, so we can only assume they didn’t. If Ty shifts and it turns out they’re fine, Quinn can loop back around to meet them. But at this point, it’s a big if.
When I don’t answer, he continues. ‘It’s up to you when you unleash chaos. If the wolves get there and there’s still time, look for any advantages you can and wait for the right moment to strike. Merrick and the others can make it there in less than a minute, but only you can tell them when to fly. I won’t be here to make those calls, and there’s not enough time to ask me first. We all trust you.’
I don’t deserve that kind of trust. He’s been trained since he could lift a sword. Trained to fight, to strategize, to lead. I was the eldest daughter to a crown I would never inherit. He should be here to make these decisions. Not me.
‘What about Jade and Rhett?’
‘The Guardians will be too busy to be much of a threat. Send them in when it’s absolute chaos. And Abby?’ There’s a sudden seriousness in his gaze. ‘I can’t prepare you for what you’re going to see. I wish I could spare you this because it’s going to be—’
He cuts off just as suddenly as the wall of blackness collapses in on itself and fades out of existence in a whoosh of smoke. I know he doesn’t want to leave me. Know that every cell in his body is urging him to stay by my side. But I also know that he has to go and won’t unless I push him.
‘Come back to me.’
‘Always.’
And then Quinn takes off at a run towards the city I once called home.
‘Go!’ I send the word down my mental connection with the sixteen wolves who joined us for this fight. The sixteen people willing to lay down their lives for this cause. For a chance at liberating the oppressed and tearing down the veil. They run, not nearly as quick on their feet as Quinn, but quick enough.
At least, I hope.
Sixteen sets of eyes open themselves to my mind, and sixteen copies of nearly the same image overlap my vision. Gods, I’m never going to get used to this. Even if I’d had another month of practice, I doubt this would be any less overwhelming. I’m able to pick and choose which image I want to give priority and since I’m stationary, my own surroundings don’t matter all that much. But fuck, what I would give for—
“Am I too late?” I swing my head around and see Lara—the influencer who can turn thoughts into visions, charging up the sloping hill at our backs on horseback.
“Just in time,” I say as she dismounts. “Where did you get a horse?”
“There was a group of Guardians patrolling the border. There is not one now.”
“Was killing them enough for you? What about your revenge?” As a siren, she should be with the rest of them, waiting to spring their trap and massacre the Guardians in the same way they once massacred Marein.
She shrugs and extends her arms, forming a massive image projected on a backdrop of trees. “I am content to watch. Besides, Erwyn promised to save me one that I can take my time with.”
I don’t want to think about that. Especially not with the wolves breaking through the tree line and charging across barren fields. They’re faster than horses, and I say a silent prayer to Terranous that they’ll be fast enough. This gift to become one with the wolves came from him, so if he’s going to answer me, it better be now.
‘Which way?’ The voice was Ellis. He’s running at the front of the pack, so I narrow in on his eyes. The projection in front of me morphs to match and makes focusing on him all the easier.
‘Follow the path until you see the wall. Then veer left alongside it. You’ll come to a more discreet entrance. I doubt any are guarded tonight, but I’d rather be safe and this one is closer to the square, anyway.’ I’m rambling in my nervousness and although I know Quinn can hear this too, he’s not correcting me. In fact, he’s dimmed our connection just enough so that I can still feel him without it being a distraction. It’s just enough to know that he’s alive and remind me of his promise that we’ll take on Imelda and Void together.
‘I see it.’ So do I, but I don’t point that out. ‘Once inside, where do we go?’
I try to visualize the layout in my mind. It’s been so long since I last snuck out of the palace and moved like a shadow through these same streets. Now, instead of breaking out, we’re breaking in.
‘Your first right and then a left. Follow that path until you come to a staircase. That leads to the lower city. Go down it and take an immediate left.’
‘And that leads to the square?’
‘No, but I need to see what we’re dealing with.’ From there, there’s two paths they can take. One that I’d prefer, and one that involves doubling back. Those precious seconds lost might be the difference between life or death, so I hope I’m making the right choice.
Ellis doesn’t question me and leads the wolves according to my instructions. I watch as he does, waiting for the moment I can jump in again. There’s movement to my right, and I spare only the quickest glance to see that Jade is now standing there, wings splayed and claws ready. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was going in there to kill rather than to rescue.
“It’s like looking through a dream,” he muses. “Or a reflection on water.”
Somehow, I know he doesn’t mean the projection itself. His memories are clouded and the only ones that are clear to him are the ones that bring pain. Seeing the city that brutalized him, starved and ridiculed him through the eyes of another is bound to have this effect.
I can feel him looking at me now, but I do my best to ignore it. “Where are you taking them?”
Ignoring him would be a lot easier if he wasn’t talking. “I really can’t explain this to you right now.”
“There’s no way into the square from the lower city. Unless I’m remembering that wrong.”
Rhett and Kaylee must also be watching—and perhaps the rest of the dragons too—because Rhett says, “He’s right. Unless…”
“Brilliant,” Merrick says from behind me. “How did Quinn know about that?”
“He didn’t,” I mutter, because it’s all the attention I’m willing to give them. It doesn’t matter whose plan this was as long as it works. If that door isn’t open or the wolves can’t get inside, we may already be too late.
“The grates,” Jade says, and I know he’s figured it out. He’s pieced together fractions of distorted memory and flickers of the vision before him to understand my plan.
There was a time when blood pooled in the city’s heart. When the volume of executions grew so great that something had to be done. The king and queen’s solution was to dig down into the lower city and install grates that could be opened before an execution. Sending the wolves up from beneath the square not only guarantees a surprise attack, but it gives the people somewhere to flee. While the fighting rages above, they can pass through the lower city where Jade and Rhett will meet them and lead them to the only tunnel that leads to the forest.
But if those grates are closed—if Imelda didn’t think to open them or plans to bathe in the blood of the innocent, this risk will cost us. But Quinn told me to make the calls as I see them, and I think it’s worth the risk.
‘Taking the left,’ Ellis says moments before they do.
‘Go straight. All the way to the wall.’
I can feel his hesitation. ‘But—’
‘Just do it!’ They run and then skid to a stop, a few of them kicking shoulders into the solid stone. ‘Look up!’ My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I feel as if it might burst out of me. Or maybe that’s just the surge to vomit when I realize why the stone looks so red.
Oh, Gods. Are we too late?
I don’t even have time to ask before Ellis looks up and through the open grate. There’s people above them. Far too many people to be able to see all that clearly, and not a single one of them is dressed in silver.
‘This is perfect,’ Ellis says, and by the blooming of pride I feel through the bond, I know Quinn has been watching this, too.
‘Can you fit through there?’ I need the confirmation. If this goes wrong, it’ll be my fault. I can’t be the reason thousands of people die.
‘Oh, yeah. We can fit. Are there more?’
‘Yes. The path you’re on now arcs in a wide circle beneath the square. There’s six or seven other grates spread out along it. Do we have enough time?’
He cocks his head as if listening to something I can’t hear. ‘Imelda’s giving a speech. The people seem calm, but they’re nervous. I don’t think they know what this is yet.’
I want to ask Quinn, but he’s in just as much danger as they are. I don’t even know if he’s made it to the palace yet. This is my decision. I pull in a breath and then make it. ‘Pair up and spread out. The moment Imelda gives the order or you hear the Guardians draw their blades, go through the grates. Don’t wait for me. I’m sending the dragons now, but they’ll wait for you.’
‘Got it.’
I turn my attention to Merrick. “Go. Hang back on the rooftops and don’t be seen. Just get close enough to hear what’s happening. The moment you hear screams—fly.”
“Leadership suits you,” Merrick says as he stretches his wings and takes to the air. Ory and Wyatt follow close behind him. I can only hope that the three of them will be enough. Maybe Jade should go with them and leave Rhett to guide the people, but there’s no time to deviate from the plan now. Besides, there are at least two thousand people crammed into there and only two of them.
Rhett pulls Kaylee into a hug and I have to look away because I don’t want to see them say their goodbyes. Not because I don’t want to imagine the heartbreak she’ll feel if Rhett doesn’t make it back, but because it selfishly reminds me of how far away Quinn is from me now. I want so badly to reach out for him, to ask him to share his eyes with me so that I can make sure he’s safe, but I know why he won’t. We both have a duty, and right now, we need this boundary.
I look at Jade and find him still staring intently at the vision materialized in front of us. All we can see through the narrow bars above Ellis are multiple pairs of feet—some shoed and some bare—but I know he’s thinking the same thing I am. Somewhere up there is Imelda. Busy giving a speech about the Goddess Lunalissa and how this sacrifice will spell their salvation. I don’t need to hear it to know that’s what she’s saying. When the wolves stopped driving prey to Lunae, Imelda will have told them that Lunalissa was angry about their murdered king and princess.
Jade’s hands ball into fists at his sides. He’s angry, but at what? I know he remembers Imelda’s cruelty and the suffering he endured all those years as a Marked. As the first Marked. He was just a boy when he was outcast and ridiculed. He had no one. Not even his kin until they, too, became Marked.
“I don’t want you to be a hero either, you know.” I don’t know why I say it. Maybe it’s the thought of that poor boy he once was or the broken man he is now. “Your job is to get the people out and then get yourself out. Don’t do what I know you’re thinking. This isn’t your chance to fight to the death so that you can escape the pain you’re feeling.”
I expect his anger to grow at my words, but instead he blows out a breath. “I’m no hero, Abby. I don’t think I ever was.”
I think that might just be the first time he’s said my name since the night he let his blood burn him from the inside out. Not once since our cursed bond broke, nor since he awoke as the person he is now. And the way he says my name sends a shiver running through me. There’s no malice in it, but it’s just as brutally honest as the words that accompany it. The same sentiment he’s been repeating over and over. That he’s the villain. That he’s bad and wrong and shouldn’t have come back as the broken creature he is.
But he’s wrong. Jade is a lot of things and has made a lot of wrong choices, but that doesn’t make him bad at his core. He learned from his mistakes and grew. He was willing to sacrifice himself so that I didn’t have to know the pain of what it would be like to live in this world without Quinn. Even if he doesn’t remember—I do.
I mean to tell him just that, but then it happens.
Screams fill my head as the wolves erupt from their grates and spill out amongst the people. I get flashes of silver and steel as Guardians raise their weapons. First in attack, and then in panic.
I try to focus on one set of eyes at a time, but it’s all too much. There are wolves everywhere and this is so much bigger than I imagined. What must be all of Lunae is crammed into the city’s heart, and many on the outer edge have already fallen. I can’t let myself think about whether or not attacking from the outside would have spared them, because people are already jumping or falling into the now open grates.
Through one set of eyes, I see Merrick flying overhead. He swoops low and grabs a Guardian by the head before lifting him into the air and twisting at a sharp angle. The body falls like it weighs a thousand pounds and lands atop a small cluster of Guardians with their backs pressed against each other as they defend themselves on all sides. I bet not a single one of them ever thought to look up.
I focus on another wolf because I don’t want to see that, but no matter which eyes I gaze through, all I see is death. Wolves tearing into throats, swords driving into defenceless people. Quinn tried to warn me, but this is so much worse than I ever imagined.
“They need you out there,” I say to Jade, but he’s already gone. I can just catch sight of Rhett behind him as they disappear over the trees, leaving me alone with Kaylee and Lana.
Sixteen pairs of eyes become fifteen and I can’t bring myself to check who we lost. I didn’t see it happen, but the missing connection is a heavy presence. I feel the tangled agony of rage and heartbreak through the bond and know Quinn is feeling this loss, too. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that we would all make it out of this, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon.
How many more lives need to be lost before this is over? After this battle, there’ll be another and another and another. This will never stop until Imelda and Void are dead.
“Stay here,” I tell Kaylee and then turn to Lana. “Keep her safe.”
“Where are you going?” Kaylee calls after me, but I’m pulling myself up into the horse’s saddle and driving my heels into its sides.
I answer her, though I know I’m far enough away now that she won’t hear me. “To finish this.”