Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
The world slipped away
nik
The fog enveloped me as I moved through the darkening cobblestone streets caked in grime. I drew a sharp inhale through my nose, regretting the decision with a strangled cough. It was indeed not fog, but smoke from rotten wood left to burn.
It hung thick. Heavy. Like a weighted reminder of what this place was.
I pulled the hood on my cloak lower, keeping my eyes sharp, and mouth shut.
Every now and then I glanced over my shoulder to double check my wings were still black.
The moment my disguise slipped, chaos would break loose and Blythe would remain ensnared.
A chilling cry sounded from somewhere behind closed doors. Instincts stopped me. I wanted to dash inside and help, but it wasn’t just one cry. It was everywhere. Hollow eyes, soulless moans, cruel, wagging tongues. If I stopped to help one, I’d have to help them all.
And none of them got me to Blythe.
That’s why I had to keep moving.
I slipped down an alleyway, avoiding bodies slumped over in their own pools of vomit.
My jaw clenched as I held back the urge to cuss.
It reeked of strong ale and day old piss.
Hugging the wall, I finally exited the other end with a sigh of relief.
The palace was closer now. Darker and more fierce from this view.
The wide open gates loomed ahead, and Thorns were stationed on either side.
They were clad head to toe in black leather, slick and lightless, their silhouettes blending too easily into the stone.
I stayed in the shadows for a moment, watching the flow of bodies passing through.
Merchants. Servants. Guests dressed for excess.
It seemed almost as if anyone could enter without even a show of nobility or stature.
I shouldn’t have any trouble.
I lifted my gaze.
The palace rose above Oscuro like a carcass picked clean, its arched windows dark and hollow—black eyes leering down at the city. For a heartbeat, it was just stone and shadow.
Then I saw it. A flicker of colour in one of the upper windows. Barely there. A mistake, almost. Blue.
The sight of it hit me like a blow to the chest, crushing the air from my lungs in a single punch. Colour didn’t belong here. Oscuro leeched it from everything it touched. My focus sharpened instantly, breath catching as I strained to see more.
She stepped closer to the glass.
Blythe.
The world narrowed to that single, black window. To the way she stood too still. To the way the light caught her hair, dulled but unmistakable. Every instinct in me screamed to move—to run, to tear through the gates and the walls and anything in my way.
Then a shadow crossed behind her. Long white hair and a black gloved hand.
Snake.
He came into clearer view with infuriating ease, his presence poisoning the space she occupied.
His hand lifted, sharp and possessive as it wrapped around her arm, and though I couldn’t hear him, I knew the gesture.
Knew the cruelty behind it. Blythe flinched—just slightly—and something savage tore loose inside my chest.
My hands curled into fists at my sides. I could kill him.
Here. Now.
The thought was pure and blinding. But I stayed where I was, forcing my lungs into slow, steady breaths—even as my blood roared in my ears.
Charging in would get me recognised. Caught.
It would put her in danger. That was exactly what Snake wanted—recklessness.
A spectacle. Blythe's words had not been lost on me. I was learning from experience.
I wouldn’t give him the show he was looking for.
Snake’s hand dropped. He turned away, disappearing back into the dark, taking Blythe with him. The window went black once more, as if she’d never been there at all.
I lowered my gaze to the gates again, jaw set, every muscle tight with restraint.
There was no more time to waste. If I couldn’t get through the gates, I’d find another way in. I’d spend my last breath trying to get to her.
I would get inside.
And when I did, I wouldn’t leave without her.
With another glance at the surroundings, I moved, hunching my shoulders to look crooked like the souls around me as I stalked towards the gates.
I kept my gaze straight ahead as I passed through.
Neither one of the guards looked my way.
My brow pinched, and I threw a quick glance over my shoulder just as I stepped over the threshold into the palace grounds.
But both were too preoccupied with a blonde woman swaying her hips as she passed between them.
It was too easy. All of it.
As I spun around, I walked straight into something hard.
I looked up. A Thorn stared back at me, his face scowling with eyes so dark he could sour milk with a flick of his gaze.
A jagged scar travelled from above his left eyebrow across his skin, all the way down to the corner of his nose.
His top lip quivered up into a peak as his yellow tinted eyes dragged up my frame.
He angled his head to the side. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”
I raised a brow, feigning compliancy. Anything to buy myself some time. “They told me I was needed in the palace,” I lied, jerking my head towards the two Thorns at the entrance.
He leaned sideways—slightly—-to look over my shoulder, disgust apparent on his hardened face. “Pair of cockheads, they are.”
I shrugged. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
He straightened, assessing me once again and my blood ran cold. The longer I stood here talking the easier I could be discovered.
“Well, get your ass back to the palace. You know the king is on high alert,” the Thorn hissed, throwing his head in the direction of the Thorns circling the castle grounds.
“Yeah, alright,” I muttered as I sauntered off. I’d only visited Oscuro twice, but both times I noticed the way the folk here spoke to one another. I just had to be a dick and I’d fit right in.
I kept moving.
My thoughts travelled to Blythe's note . . . Snake is waiting for you. He knew I was coming. Of course he did. He was a Snake, after all. And all these years of living in a place where he had to watch his back certainly wouldn’t make him dumber, it would make him cunning.
I’d just have to be smarter.
A small troop of Thorns moved towards the entrance to the castle so I eased to the right.
Now was my chance to breakaway. My boots barely made a sound as I slipped through the shadows, around the side of the castle walls and towards the balcony I saw earlier from the gates.
If I flew up to it, I could sneak in and find my way to the room where I saw Blythe.
Before I took to the skies, I checked my surroundings.
The Thorn who stopped me earlier was headed towards the castle entrance.
My gaze caught on the way he dragged his left leg a little stiffer than the right.
A slight limp. Something I hadn’t noticed before.
I waited until he was out of view before I shot into the sky.
It was dark enough that I circled the castle once from above. Thorns guarded the palace grounds, but I only spotted one circling the skies a little lower than me. The rest were all too busy mouthing off as they stumbled through the tall, obsidian castle doors that were twice the height of me.
Once I could no longer hear the rustled flap of wings, I dropped in altitude and landed on the balcony with silent ease. I’d barely touched the stone with my boots before something in the shadows moved.
Muscle memory had me reaching for the blade at my hip, but I froze when a Thorn stepped out from the murky covering half-lit by the cold glow of the sconce.
His gaze slid over me lazily at first and then slowed.
“I thought I was supposed to patrol up here,” he muttered as his eyes caught on my wings.
I didn’t move, but my fingers twitched involuntarily.
The male cocked his head to the side. “Is there something wrong with your wings?”
With a quick glance over my shoulder, my eye caught the faint crimson sheen of my feathers. The charcoal had rubbed thin along the outer edge of my right wing, a blood red streak flashing like a wound in the dark. The charcoal was wearing off. I’d have to move quickly.
I flicked my gaze back to him and shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Slowly his eyes widened, mouth falling open as realisation set in. His mouth twitched. “Wait, you’re—”
I didn’t give him time to finish. I closed the distance in a single step, elbow snapping up to drive into his jaw with a sickening crack. His head shot upwards, eyes rolling back as his body went slack, collapsing to the stone with a dull thud.
I caught him before he could hit the slick, balcony railing and dragged his limp body back into the shadows. My heart hammered in my ears.
So much for not being noticed.
I smudged the charcoal over my wings again, concealing the red once more.
The door barely made a groan as I eased it open. Inside was dark, but the scant light from the moon and the sconce on the balcony, revealed an empty bed. No one had been in here for a while.
I glided across the floor to the door, pulling it ajar. Muffled voices carried down the hall, but there was no one in sight. I stepped out, and with a firm click, I shut the door behind me. The less trace I left of my presence the better.
From the sconces on the wall, low, golden light spilled down the hallway in short bursts. They cast long shadows that swallowed more than they revealed. I stayed close to them, moving when the flicker of flame dimmed, stillness between each step.
From further down, a door creaked. I froze as footsteps followed—soft, hurried.
A girl dressed in black, with dull brown hair, appeared with a golden tray in hand laden with glasses and bottles of wine.
She nearly collided with me, breath hitching as she looked up.
Her brown eyes widened and I internally groaned.
I didn’t want to have to knock her out too.