Chapter Four
There was nothing like a wedding to rip out the last shred of hope from a person’s soul and stomp on it until it lay bleeding and dejected on the ground.
Zahra stood behind the corner of the side doorway leading into the throne room where she was to be married, peering between the detailed wooden feathers of a phoenix statue standing between her and the dozens of guests visiting the Perch to witness the ceremony.
She fastened her red veil to cover the bottom half of her face, watching anxiously as her would-be groom entered the room crowded by two of his own guests dressed in black—a man distinctly of red phoenix origin judging by his appearance and a woman with white hair likely hailing from the north—and many other red phoenix servants bowing and waiting on them hand and foot.
The three dressed in black also wore face coverings similar to her own, with only eyes peeking out from sheer black fabric.
The tall man between the other two stood out from the others.
Tall and muscular with cold, dangerous eyes the color of a pale desert flower.
This must be Captain Xuehe, the war general whose third wife recently passed due to a mysterious illness.
The first had died during childbirth, and the second was rumored to have been killed at the drunken hands of the captain in a fit of anger.
Of course, it was only a rumor, unable to be proved. But it inspired caution and vigilance, nonetheless.
Not for the first time, she tried to devise a way out of the Perch without arousing suspicion. She’d already checked. The ladder leading to the ground was heavily guarded. More so than usual. But there must still be another way to escape this place before it was too late.
Her fists clenched as she stared at Captain Xuehe. Another option was to marry the man, leave the Perch with him, and escape later.
But...
With the man’s ruthless reputation, she wasn’t sure she would make it three steps in her flight before getting caught.
In her mind, she came up with another plan. A dangerous plan. A desperate plan.
Scaling down the outside of the Perch.
If she fell, she’d heard of stories of people surviving enormous drops. Perhaps she would be lucky. Otherwise...
Zahra ripped the red veil off her face and slowly backed away from the doorway. But not before witnessing Captain Xuehe slamming his fist into her uncle’s throat.
Her eyes shot wide open in shock as chaos erupted within the room. The captain and the two accompanying him started an all-out brawl, with fists and weapons and claws as those in the red phoenix clan shifted to fight back.
A gasp of shock climbed her throat, but before it escaped her lips, someone leaped out of the shadows and grabbed her around the waist. Her first instinct was to scream, but a hand quickly clamped around her mouth to stifle the sound before they dragged her into the shadows, around the corner, and pressed her against their body.
“Don’t move,” someone murmured next to her ear. “Don’t scream.”
Zahra’s heart nearly exploded out of her chest at the shock of someone grabbing her so suddenly, at the shock of knowing who stood behind her.
Despite the deeper sound of his familiar voice next to her ear, she knew who held her with large, gentle hands.
Heat flashed across her entire body when she was overly aware of Weiyu’s hand pressed against the bare skin on her upper hip.
Her heart beat fiercely at the press of her back against a warm, sturdy chest.
He removed his hand from her mouth, but as if absently, unaware of his own actions, those same fingers cupped her chin, the gentlest brush of his fingertips.
Zahra released a shaky exhale. This certainly was not a child anymore.
She itched to turn around in his arms, to look at his face. But making any sort of movement, no matter how small, might give them away.
“You weren’t supposed to come back,” she quietly accused, but then he shushed her with the press of his finger against her lips right before several people rushed past.
His arm tightened around her waist. His heart pounded fiercely against her back. If they were caught, he had much more at stake than herself. She couldn’t stomach the idea of even one more of his deaths. Therefore, she silently promised to comply with whatever he asked of her.
After the guards disappeared, his grip on her loosened.
“Those people,” she murmured, now connecting the dots. “Captain Xuehe is one of your men.”
“He’s an imposter. But yes. My highly talented bodyguard.”
“And the other two?” A part of her wished to keep the conversation going despite the danger if only to speak to him for a bit longer. It might be her only chance.
“Friends.” Was it her imagination, or did his voice sound even closer to her ear? “Will you come with us?” he whispered. The pleasant timber of his voice sent a thrilling chill shooting down her spine. “Will you escape this place?”
“Yes,” she breathed without a hint of hesitation.
“Where is your room? I can send one of my friends to grab a few of your belongings.”
However, she shook her head. “There is nothing I am not willing to part with.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. The longer they wandered about the Perch, the less the likelihood of her escape. Anything she owned was not worth the promise of leaving this place behind forever.
“Is there anyone we need to bring with us?”
Zahra thought of her sisters. None had ever voiced the desire to leave. Plus, they all possessed the ability to shift. Not only were they favored in their father’s eyes, they could also fly away from the Perch if the situation demanded it.
“No.”
Unable to resist the temptation any longer, she turned to face Weiyu.
However, a dark hood shrouded the top half of his face, and a black scarf covered the bottom half, hiding him from view.
As for the rest of him, the baggy clothing and cloak he wore concealed his figure and effectively hid his identity.
“Let’s go.”
He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her along the shadowy corridors.
Fighting and shouts grew louder behind her.
Momentarily, she squeezed her eyes shut with the fear that the ones who had come to rescue her might die because of her.
She wasn’t sure she could face the guilt for such a thing happening.
She tripped over a snag in the rug. Weiyu moved quickly to catch her with one arm around the waist and the other over her mouth to stifle the sound of her gasp. She cursed herself for closing her eyes at all and instead focused on the way ahead.
A pounding rhythm took control of her heart when she realized the direction he tugged her toward.
The ladder.
Already having tried her luck multiple times, she knew at least three men guarded the ladder at all times.
But as they entered the sky loft, she skidded to a stop as shock overwhelmed her. Ten guards lay unconscious on the ground with no signs of rousing.
Her gaze lifted to the high walls of the circular loft, roaming across the twelve arches cut out of the brick for phoenixes to land.
They were empty. A thick, sturdy railing surrounded the cutout in the middle of the floor, wood clacking together with the wind as the ladder hit against the short inner wall.
Weiyu opened the gate. It squealed before falling quiet once more. “Can you climb?”
A tremor started within her chest and quivered to the base of her fingers.
She made the mistake of looking over the railing and to the far drop awaiting her.
Dizziness swayed her thoughts and frazzled her bravery, especially as a fierce wind grabbed onto the ladder connected to the ground and ripped it back and forth through the sky.
“I can climb,” she replied, the terror hidden behind a calm facade she’d had to practice for most of her life in front of her father. “What about the others?”
“They can handle themselves. Our priority is you.”
“You shouldn’t have come for me. You shouldn’t have risked yourself.”
Despite the hood and scarf shrouding his face, she detected the mirth behind his voice as he answered, “I’m already here. Are you coming or not?”
Releasing a long breath filled to the brim with anxiety, she nodded.
He guided her through the gate and held her hand with a tight grip as they stood over the hole in the floor. “You go first. I’ll stay close to you.”
“And if I fall?” A tremor in her voice gave away her rising terror. For someone with phoenix origins, she was likely the only person scared of heights to exist in her clan.
Weiyu rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand, smoothing away some of her anxiety. “I won’t allow it to happen.”
A loud bang startled her attention toward the way they’d come.
A guard crashed through the door leading into the sky loft and hit the wall with a dull thud.
He tried to scramble to his feet, but the woman with white hair and dark skin trudged after him and grabbed him by his armor, hefting him to his knees.
“Are you going to stand there and watch me beat this man to a pulp,” the woman jested with a grin spread across her face, “or are you making a timely exit?”
Weiyu nodded once toward the woman before guiding Zahra onto the ladder.
Her hands and feet shook with trepidation as she clung onto the rungs.
How could the ground be impossibly far? She’d seen heights before, but never had she climbed down the ladder.
How could this experience possibly seem so terrifying?
“Don’t look down,” Weiyu instructed as he hopped onto the rungs above her. “Only focus on where you place your hands.”
Those same fingers she focused on shook uncontrollably, her muscles threatening to release her hold with each passing moment.
Only a fourth of the way down, her limbs froze until her feet refused to lower onto the next rung, and her heart seemed as if it might leap right out of her chest and splat onto the ground below.