Chapter 22 #2
“I am the foolish moth.” I shake my head. “Who has flown into the candlelight because I craved to feel the warmth just once, even if it wasn’t real.”
“Don’t talk like that, Your Majesty.” Ahm pulls me around to face him. “You’re getting us out of here, right?”
My eyes widen. “I am.”
Ahm is smart.
Instantly, he understands.
“Line up for inspection,” Ahm calls, which is the code we worked out for any escape attempt.
I am impressed by how calmly the Bloods pretend to drop into their ranks like this is a normal inspection.
My heart speeds up.
I keep my gaze carefully neutral, even though Taran’s gaze prickles on the back of my neck.
I stare at the guard who has just entered through the silver door and has forgotten to fully close it. There is only a sliver of light through it, but it’s enough.
It’s the only chance that I have seen.
We must take it.
I raise my shackled hands, making sure that it looks to the guard like I am simply adjusting the searing silver around my wrists, as I march to stand in front of the Bloods.
I press my right thumb against the tip of my finger, forming the shape of a tiny sun enclosed within the circle of my fingers. I hold it for a mere heartbeat, before I release it.
It will mean nothing to a Shadow Dragon.
To everyone from the Blood Kingdom, however, it means that the Sun Arena is eclipsed.
We are escaping now.
The Eternals straighten their shoulders.
I turn to Yara, as if I am adjusting her uniform, but in fact, I whisper, “The door.”
She doesn’t react.
I am impressed.
Instead, she marches up and down the line like she is carrying out my inspection.
I know that she is passing on the information to every vampire.
At my back, Ahm is vibrating with tension.
I clench my hands, trying to keep my pulse steady.
On the Void, give me patience.
The guards are growing bored and wandering to the far side of the arena.
Just one moment longer…
“Now!” I roar.
My claws and fangs descend.
I dive for the door.
The silver burns the palms of my hands, but I ignore the agony and smell of my burning flesh, as I shove it fully open. Behind me, I hear Yara and Ahm ripping out the throats of the guards, as we’d agreed, then the thunder of the Eternals following me.
I dive out of the arena into the shadowy corridor beyond.
My heart is hammering in my chest.
I sprint through the maze-like corridors, which are lined by stone.
Are we being pursued?
I glance over my shoulder. The corridor is crowded with vampires, but not the two who I swore to protect.
“Ahm,” I yell, as anxiety fills me. How can I face my twin here or in the afterlife, if I am responsible for the deaths of his nestmates? “Yara?”
I snarl, turning another corner that simply leads into another damp corridor. There must be stairs somewhere.
I talked this over with Yara. As long as we keep climbing upwards, then we will inevitably find the exit.
If it’s daytime, then we will need to find somewhere that is defensible.
But together, we can fight. The Guild members aren’t warriors. They may be assassins but they are still cowards who break us apart with cruel toys, when we are chained and held behind bars.
Aurelius can’t know what is happening in this place. He may believe that I deserve this punishment, but the other Bloods are prisoners of war or captured cadets and civilians.
I won’t allow them to continue to suffer. I won’t allow my twin’s nestmates to die.
Aurelius would never expect me to. He’d understand, right?
I once believed that if I ran to the Golden Dragon, then he would save Lazarus and me. Because of that dream, Lazarus gave himself up to this captivity.
This is my fault.
I twist around, searching through the tight crush of whooping and howling vampires again.
“Your Majesty.” Yara struggles through the crush, dragging Ahm by the hand.
He is limping but doing his best to keep up and not slow his nestmate down.
Yara’s mouth is stained scarlet with blood that isn’t her own.
I clutch them both to my chest, startling them. “My dears, you’re well.”
Yara pulls back, dragging me with her as frantically as she is Ahm.
I slip my arm around Ahm’s shoulders, helping him to stumble on faster.
“No stairs?” Yara’s lips tighten with concern.
“Not yet.” I turn yet another corner into a dark corridor.
No stairs.
“We did it though. You did it, Your Majesty. You’re amazing.” Ahm’s eyes are bright with joy. “We escaped. I bit that vile guard who enjoyed whipping Laz. We got our revenge. We’ll be safe and free. And now we can—”
Suddenly, I hear what sounds like a low groan above my head of stone grinding against stone.
Startled, I glance upwards.
Then I scream, as a giant silver net falls from the roof.
I throw myself over Ahm and Yara to protect them.
My back sizzles with a delicate pattern of burns.
The net captures every one of the escaped vampires, trapping them.
I howl with pain and desperation.
This was a trap.
We never escaped. Taran planned this.
The corridor is filled with screams and groans.
My Eternals’ cries hurt more than the silver because these superficial burns will heal but knowing that I have failed the Bloods will always remain with me.
I struggle, but the net must be weighted because I can’t shove it off me.
When I hear footsteps near my head, I raise my gaze with difficulty to see the black robes of one of the assassins.
“Hope,” Taran sneers. “Give it and then take it away. Vicious taught me that trick. Hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Eat burning poison.” I should have realized that this was a trick. Yet Taran’s deliberate provocation about the coronation pushed me to take the risk. “That was only my first attempt. You shouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“Hmm, really?” Taran leans over me; his shadow swallows me. “Tell me, does it hurt more to know that in three nights our King will be crowned Emperor over your kingdom? Or that your Omega and Blood Lover will be married as consorts to him.”
“Consorts?” Outrage surges through me.
So, that is why Freya and Daire were moved out of the palace to some cold house.
In my kingdom, Betas are taken as consorts into the nest.
Neither Daire nor Freya is a Beta.
I also know how disrespected the role of consorts is within the Draca Kingdom.
They are not viewed as equals, no matter what title they are given.
I shudder with rage.
Taran straightens. “Well, that gives me my answer. As if our King would take a filthy fae and savage wolf as Emperor and Empress. He has an elite silver Omega now to sit next to him as his proper bride. You were given to us for a month. When King Aurelius has made his other mates into consorts, however, maybe think about what he will do with you after this month is up.”
I shiver.
Yet I am not frightened for myself. My head is filled with a vision of flames, bones, and ash.
When I struggle in the net, Taran laughs.
By the Shadow Devils, if Aurelius tries to marry another Omega, what will Hadrian do?