People danced. Debutantes laughed. Lords watched her with glittering eyes.
She recognized several of their faces as men to be wary of. They circled the ballroom in small droves, and Adele tried not to stare at them. Sweat dripped down her spine. Thank goodness she'd told Lena and Hattie to avoid the celebrations tonight. She could almost feel that target painted between her breasts.
But when she blinked again, only friendly faces smiled back at her.
Barrons started a toast to the queen. "…and as we usher in a new day, so do we celebrate a new era of…"
She could barely make out what he was saying. "Where have they all gone?"
Malloryn had been pretending to laugh at something the Duchess of Casavian said, but he turned to her sharply. "Who?"
"The Rising Sons," she said through her teeth. "I can't see any of them anymore."
He raked the crowd with his gaze and reached up, very slowly, to tug at his earlobe. Several Nighthawks noticed Malloryn's signal and straightened.
The enormous clock began to chime midnight, sending a portentous shiver down Adele's spine.
Its peal rang slowly; one, two, three, four, five—
"If we could charge our glasses?" Barrons called.
A choreographed wave of glassware glittered in front of her. She couldn't help looking for a malevolent stare, but all she could see was the flash of gleaming white teeth. No Rising Sons anywhere.
"Malloryn," she whispered sharply.
"To her Majesty, Queen Alexandra!"
—six, seven, eight, nine—
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
It sounded like fireworks, but they weren't scheduled yet, were they? There was supposed to be some grand conflagration just before dawn to herald the rising of the sun in some sort of symbolic gesture.
Every guest in front of her froze.
Malloryn's hand locked around her upper arm, prepared to haul her to safety if need be. "That." Malloryn clasped the hilt of the sword sheathed at his hip with his other hand. "He's been waiting for that."
"What the hell is going on?"
"We're under attack," he replied grimly, pressing a finger to the earpiece in his ear. "Ava? Jack? What have you got for me?"
Another explosion ricocheted through the night, and this time it felt as though it detonated nearby. The entire tower seemed to shudder.
Adele screamed as a chunk of the roof crashed down, sending a pair of debutantes sprawling. Lords and ladies fled the center of the dance floor in a panic of silk and velvet.
Plaster dust rained down, painting Malloryn's coppery hair white. He looked up, tensing as he listened to the information clearly relayed through his earpiece.
Another explosion rattled the tower. Adele staggered into him.
"Where is that coming from?"
"Protect the queen!" he bellowed, shoving her behind him into the waiting arms of Gemma and Ingrid.
The cacophony of sound continued.
Another detonation shattered every window along the north side of the ballroom. Glass spewed into the ballroom. Screams filled the air.
"Sound the alarms!" Malloryn bellowed, for the sake of the crowd. "And find out where that noise is coming from! Someone's setting off explosives."
"Where's the source?" Gemma demanded as she put herself bodily between Adele and the crowd, her pistol held low, hidden in the folds of her diaphanous skirts.
"I don't know yet," he snarled. "Clear the room!"
Several guards surrounded her, forming a bodily mass. The rest started pushing the frightened guests through the doors. Until they could work out where the explosions were coming from, there was no point fleeing.
Adele slid her little knife into her hand, though she was trembling so badly she didn't know what she'd be able to do with it.
"He knows where we are." Malloryn's face tightened with strain. "He's going to drive us out of the ballroom."
Gemma whirled her skirt away from her waist, revealing tight leather trousers and half a dozen knives strapped to her at various places. "We need information," she said as Obsidian appeared at her side. "Obsidian and I can work out what's going on. Ava and Kincaid may not be in the right position."
Malloryn hesitated only a second before he nodded curtly. "Watch your back. Dido's still out there."
"Yes, Father." Gemma rolled her eyes again. "Please. Tell me how to run reconnaissance again."
"Haven't you been doing this since you were off short strings?" Obsidian drawled, loading bullets into a dangerous-looking pistol.
"I don't know," Gemma replied, mock seriously. "Weren't you once the most feared assassin in Europe?"
"Ha. Ha," Malloryn said. "I don't know why I even bother, some days."
But Adele knew their banter had a purpose.
"I'll watch her back," Obsidian promised, as if could sense Malloryn's concern.
Then the pair of them vanished.
Malloryn turned to her. "Are you ready?"
Adele nodded at him.
"Good." He glanced toward Ingrid. "On my signal, prepare to get her out of here."
Chapter 34
"Your Grace, it appears to be coming from Thorne Tower!" One of the guards told them after a swift glance through the ruined windows. "They're firing on us!"
"The headquarters of the Coldrush Guards," Charlie said, pausing by the windows to get a better look.
"Stay there," Malloryn told her. He pressed a hand to his earpiece, trying to tune it. "Kincaid? Are you there? The cannons in Thorne Tower are firing on us. Can you find out what the hell is going on down there? Have they breached the walls? Is there any sign of anyone approaching?"
He listened intently to the tinny reply, and Adele watched his face tighten.
"It's one cannon," he said.
"What's its range?" Charlie asked. "Because those explosions are happening too frequently for one cannon to manage, and I doubt it would have hit us up here."
Malloryn relayed the information through the communicator, and then looked up. "Ava said she thought it was coming from the servants' quarters."
"What the hell is going on?" Byrnes snapped.
"So it's coming from both inside and outside the tower." Malloryn spoke his thoughts out loud.