2. CHAPTER 2
Aveline
The next deafening cry had me pushing against the door hard enough to leave indentations in my already scarred back. The sound was close. Too close. The floorboards shook beneath us, and Enora pressed against the back of the oak counter, disappearing from view.
I squeezed my eyes shut, sending a silent prayer down to Mordecai—the god of death—that we would not meet today. The door shuddered beneath my weight. People were trying to get in. Banging against the wood with all their might, hoping for a place to hide.
Enora peered around the counter, catching my gaze with a warning in her own.
I couldn’t leave those people out there. I couldn’t.
My mother—was she out there, among the fray? Had she made it back to our apartment safely?
I moved to turn—to unlock the deadbolt and let the innocent people of Myros inside—as a new cry set my teeth on edge.
The cries of humans. The cries of fae. Fire scorched the air beyond the docks.
The people who had been banging against the door mere moments ago were now jumping into the water, searching for any reprieve from the flames.
“We can’t stay here.” Enora’s voice brooked no argument as my fingernails curled into the wooden floorboards.
I opened my mouth to speak—to argue—but nothing came out. My own voice was caught in the back of my throat.
“If they set this dock aflame, we have no chance of surviving. The apothecary is made of wood, not stone. We need to get back to the palace. Now.”
I knew she was right, knew that we needed to make a run for it. But my feet were planted firmly against the quaking floorboards. My hands were shaking, nails digging into the splintering wood until they were frayed and raw enough they bled. I was terrified.
I had seen magic at work before, but never anything like this.
The Veytari fae practiced common magic as if it were nothing, but the magic of the Vireth from the west was something else entirely.
While there were humans and creatures in all kingdoms, Veytari fae ruled the eastern kingdoms, and Vireth ruled the west. It had been that way as long as the histories knew.
Vireth magic had not visited Myros in my lifetime.
“Aveline.” Her uncompromising voice drew my gaze once more. “I will protect you. But we have to move.”
Her words were almost drowned out by another roar beyond the door; the flames so close the heat was licking against the wood at my back.
Enora scrambled toward me on her hands and knees, grasping my arm roughly in hers.
She did not wait for me to be ready; she simply pushed me toward the seashell curtain, toward the back door of the shop.
She followed closely behind me, urging me onward as my crippling fear turned into something else.
An urge to survive.
“Go!” Enora cried as I reached the back door, rising to my feet.
I wrenched it open, but the chaos that consumed the world beyond had me skidding to a halt. Enora skidded right into me, almost knocking me over.
“Enora—” I shook my head back and forth, eyes darting left and right.
The city of Majur was on fire.
People and creatures alike were scattering from their homes and shops.
Screams and wails pierced the air as time slowed before my eyes.
Enora didn’t wait for me to gather myself; she simply pulled me along behind her as we scrambled back toward the dirt path we had taken to the market.
We weren’t far from the castle, but so much devastation stood between us and the looming stone palace beyond.
I followed Enora, my arm still tight in her grip. We dodged and weaved through the crowds, pressing toward the gray spires beyond. I kept my sights on them the entire time as Majur devolved into utter chaos around us.
A shadow crawled overhead, and I pumped my legs as hard as I could, too afraid to be swallowed by that darkness.
I cursed my skirts as they tangled in my legs, slowing me.
The bloodred dragon swooped low; his cry so close I could smell its fetid breath as it swirled through the air above.
It was hot against the back of my neck, urging me faster.
The southern part of the marketplace had been set aflame, and market stalls and aged homes alike had been set ablaze.
The thatched roofs caught fire quickly, reducing everything to ash in a mere matter of seconds.
The townspeople were screaming, the roar of the dragons and the cries of the Myrosian people filling my ears as my vision blurred with tears.
Osric’s cart was gone. Reduced to embers. I could only pray to the old gods that he had made it out, that he had made it to safety.
“Lady Aveline!” I could hear my name, but I couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. I swung my head left and right, but I didn’t see any face I recognized among the fray other than Enora’s.
“This way!” Enora urged, pulling me further and further into the heart of the city streets.
“Lady Aveline! Wait!”
I turned and almost ran headfirst into the guard from earlier. The one who had told us to keep off the streets and warned us about the curfew. Was this happenchance, or had he been searching for us?
I pulled Enora to a halt, and her alabaster hair flew in front of her face, obscuring her wild gaze for only a moment.
“Why—” But her question was cut off when the guard grabbed both of us, urging us back the way we had come.
“Where are we going?” I asked through gritted teeth, doing my best to pull against his hold. But he was Veytari fae; I stood no chance.
Enora whipped her arm out of his grip easily.
“My lady, we have to get—”
But Enora cut off his words with a sharp kick to his armored chest. Despite being Veytari herself, the guard barely moved beneath her strike.
He tried again. “My lady…” he was exasperated amid the mayhem that had unfurled around us. “We have to get to the castle.”
“Where do you think I was taking her?” Enora asked incredulously. She grasped my shoulder in her firm grip, but the guard did not release me.
Enora raised a brow at him in question. “We don’t have time for this!”
“There is a passageway! This way…” The guard turned, pointing toward a nearby storefront that still stood among the roaring flames.
A passageway? To the castle? There was only one entrance to the castle that I knew of…and that was through the front doors. My brow creased in confusion.
“I will take you directly to Prince Kallias. You have my word, Lady Aveline.”
I was no lady but now was not the time to argue formalities.
I exchanged a tentative glance with Enora, who gave a minute nod of her head.
What other choice did we have? We certainly didn’t have time to find one of King Faris’s men to confirm what the soldier said was true.
We could only pray that he wasn’t leading us to our deaths.
Anywhere was safer than out here in the open, waiting to be barbecued by the terrifying creatures soaring through the skies above.
I followed reluctantly behind the guard, dodging the people of Majur as they fled the city in droves.
Blood was smeared across the flooded cobbled streets.
Wares were tossed from carts, broken glass littering every step we took.
The flames were close enough that I could feel their heat licking against my skin.
We were backtracking toward the destruction. Toward the docks we had fled from.
Right as I was about to turn back—to head back toward the castle the only way I knew how—the guard ducked into a storefront that appeared to be selling charms. Once inside, he released my arm. He surged toward the back of the shop with a speed only the fae could possess.
Without hesitation, he wedged his boot into a floorboard, releasing it from the ground with a snap. He had memorized the location. He reached inside and pulled, releasing a lever and a trapdoor beneath him. Within the blink of an eye, he had disappeared into the darkness.
“I will catch you!” I could hear the echo of his voice from below.
We were running out of time. The flames were licking against the roof of the shop, the storefront filling with oppressive heat. Enora and I exchanged one last, uneasy glance before I moved to the mouth of the opening.
I jumped.
I had been half-expecting to hit the packed dirt floor beneath, but the arms of the soldier caught me, his hardened armor unforgiving against my soft flesh. I fell with a grunt, the wind knocked out of me. The guard immediately released me.
Enora jumped next, landing lithely on her own two feet. Once we were safely inside the hidden tunnel below, the guard pulled another lever and the trapdoor snapped shut above us. It thrust us into the shadows.
“But the people of Majur—” I protested, but I couldn’t meet the guard’s gaze in the darkness of the corridor.
I didn’t even know where he stood in relation to me, only that I could hear his fading footsteps against the damp stone as he moved away.
“We don’t have time to save every innocent in Majur, my lady. There isn’t enough room in the castle. My priority is getting you back to the prince in one piece.”
We couldn’t leave those people out there to burn. I felt along the wall for the lever release I had seen the soldier pull, but it was Enora’s strong fingers that I found instead. She gripped my hand in hers, her palms sweaty against my own.
“I hate to agree, but we don’t have time. If Prince Kallias has his way, you are the future queen of Myros. We have to get you back to the castle safely.”
Enora did not wait for me to argue with her. She gripped me tightly as she followed the guard down the dark, endless corridor, dragging me along with her.
It was a shock being down here in the quiet after the sudden rush of adrenaline that had flooded my veins. Above, the city had been swallowed by utter pandemonium. People running every which way to escape the flames and the scaled, roaring dragons above.