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What if Kazimir caught us and chained me again?
Panic clawed its way up my throat, and I forced myself to inhale and imagine myself flying on Ruslan’s back through theAgrenak Mountains. Wide, open space. Endless air. Puffy white clouds…
We broke into the hub of the spoke, and I sucked in a serrated breath, trying to regain control over my emotions. But I was struggling – with the narrow, oppressive spaces, the threat of facing the Night Fae, everything that Kazimirhad fucking done. Liliana grabbed my hand and squeezed, offering her silent support. It only slightly tempered the images of that knife sailing toward my chest, and the clanking of chains filled my ears.
My best friend took charge of my body as I grappled with my mind and forced me to step into the next passage behind her. I did not release her hand as we navigated the final steps toward my old rooms.
We dead-ended at the door that led into them, and Drazen squared up with it, preparing to open it. Savich also took his place in front of us, while Liliana notched an arrow into her bow and aimed it toward the door. The iron arrow tipped in poison would paralyze its target with only a graze against the skin.
The passage was too narrow for me to draw my swords again, so I called on my magic instead. Opening up to that well of white fire wrapped protectively around a spear of dark crystal and moonlight, I pulled my power to the surface of my skin, ready to unleash my light or manipulate my foes. The scrape of rock against stone was the signal that Drazen had begun to open the door, and shouts rang out in the distance.
Fuck.
“Prepare yourselves,” Drazen hissed, then with a mighty shove, flung the door to the side, revealing my old bedroom and a stream of soldiers bursting through the door beyond.
Liliana’s arrow shot straight over Drazen’s head and landed in the exposed neck of one in the front, sending him to his knees and those following him stumbling over his dying body. In a flash, Drazen shot forward and engaged them in combat, Savichhot on his heels. The big males fought brutally, while Liliana moved off to the side and emptied her quiver. The door was a chokepoint that halted their progress and helped us pick them off.
But then I remembered the closet.
Whipping to the side, I raced in its direction moments before the door slammed open and a line of soldiers forced their way into the room. Fire coated my twin blades as I pulled them from their straps on my back, and the first soldier had the audacity to laugh as I sank into my fighting stance and held my blades high. He towered over me, but he did not scare me.
I was an insidious bloom, and it was time to show him my thorns.
In a flurry he could not follow, I sliced him to ribbons, the wickedly sharp blades Ruslan had gifted to me cutting through his leather armor like butter. The eyes of the soldiers behind him widened a fraction as he fell at my feet, and by the warmth coating my face, I had no doubt that I wore his blood. The third in line was too busy watching his fallen friend to see the arrow flying in his direction, and the iron tip tore through his neck, coming out the other side and catching a companion in the shoulder. They both dropped, leaving the second for me to kill.
“There are soldiers in the castle,”Ruslan relayed to me.
“We know,”I shot back, wanting to return to my prey.
I smiled a vicious, triumphant smile that showed this male how I would savor his blood coating my blade. He raised a hand to throw magic at me, but my shield was rock solid and faster than him. The moonlight shattered against my shield like it was nothing more than a delicate glass, and as I dropped it, I used my flame-coated blades to hack off his hand, then spear him through the stomach. His jaw dropped as he clutched his wound, burning his hands, and as he fell, I yanked my blade free. The pleasure of watching the life dim from his eyes was divine.
Gone was my trepidation about returning to this place. Power thrummed in my veins, and I imbibed every dark drop.
The room was silent, save for the pounding of my heart, and when I glanced up from my fallen foes, Drazen and Savich looked on with pride swimming in their eyes. Liliana held her bow in one hand and saluted me with the other, earning a laugh from me.
But then, a tiny wail broke the silence.
I leaped over the dead bodies and raced through the closet that still held all the dresses I never got to wear. There, in the living area, was a young female clutching a baby to her chest, frozen in shock and fear.
Drazen and Savich barreled through the other door, and the female was immediately surrounded as the four of us crept toward her. Liliana slipped to my right, trying to circle out of the female’s field of vision. I shot my best friend a questioning look, needing to know if she knew the nursemaid.
A subtle shake of her head told me she didn’t.
“Give us the child,” Drazen commanded, holding his blade in one hand and extending the other.
The Night Fae female shook her head, still unable to speak. The little princess cried in her arms, wailing louder as tension filled the room.
“Give us the child, and no harm will come to you,” Drazen promised, his tone more like a caress and less like a command.
I winced as the child’s screams reached a piercing crescendo. Whatever soldiers remained on patrol would no doubt hear and rush toward the sound.
“Zuriel, we found her. In my old rooms in the Royal Wing.”
“We’ve got her. Take the potions,”I relayed to Ruslan, then returned my attention to the female Drazen and Savich were backing into a corner.
Heavy footsteps grew louder, and I glanced toward the door. “Liliana lock it,” I whispered in a rush. Kazimir had once taught me how to do so, but having not practiced it since, I didn’t trust myself to do it. Moonlight ripped from her palms and sealed the area around the door. Her brow furrowed as she focused, and I was so busy watching her that the first bang against it startled me.
Gripping my weapons, I tore my attention back to the female caretaker.
