She remembered Julian’s suite as spacious yet streamlined, with large landscape paintings from European Old Masters and only enough furniture to make the living space comfortable.
Because of the artwork, the lack of windows had never bothered her before, but now she frowned. The castle had been built long before the technology for automatic shutters existed. While there were plenty of guest suites along the outer walls, the entire core of Evenfall was like this suite, window free and utterly secure from sunlight, with hallways running throughout the castle like a honeycomb, interconnecting everything.
The suite no longer felt spacious to her, but all the soldiers crowding the rooms might be influencing her perspective. The air felt electric with adrenaline. Energy jumped underneath her skin.
Julian and the rest of his group had already disappeared. A small part of her tried to panic. She might never see him again. Ruthlessly, she squashed it. She had seen firsthand what he could do when he had fought the ferals. He would win this fight.
Tess and Xavier were the last of the group to arrive. They strode immediately to the office area. Tess threw herself in front of Julian’s computer.
Two Nightkind guards in black uniform stood just inside the suite’s carved double doors, watching everyone with undisguised relief. One of them was a Vampyre unfamiliar to Melly, but the other was a ghoul whom she recognized.
She strode to him. “Herman?”
The ghoul fixed large, dark eyes on her. The long, downward lines of his gray face shifted into something that approximated a smile.
“Mum,” he said. “You is a sight for sore eyes, you is.”
“How are you?”
“Trootfully, mum, I seen better days,” he told her.
Shane joined them. At that, he turned to face her and raised one eyebrow.
Telepathically, she said to him, I love ghouls. They’re the Eeyores of the Elder Races. He might have said the same thing on a perfectly wonderful day when the Nightkind demesne wasn’t imploding and there was no attempted coup.
Aloud, she asked the ghoul, “You’ve been guarding the suite?”
“Yes, mum,” said Herman. “King’s suite always haz a guard. Usually we stands outside no matter what, but shit happened dis morning. Mr. Dominic wanted in. We say no way, cuz he ain’t no king of ours. Then we scarper inside, and we bin stuck here ever since.” The ghoul rubbed the back of his bald head with long, skeletal fingers. “Whatta surprise when Mr. King himself walks outta that wall.”
She told them, “We’re going to start evacuating noncombatants. Don’t let anybody through those doors if they aren’t with us, do you understand?”
Herman’s Vampyre partner said, “Yes, ma’am. The King told us what you would be doing and ordered us to help. We’ll keep watch for you.”
She glanced through the open doorway to the office area where Tess and Xavier were focused on the computer screen.
She told Shane, “Julian and his group will have gone down and north, toward the parking garage. The IT area is down there. I don’t know where the munitions area is, but it has to be somewhere close to that.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I thought the parking areas were aboveground.”
“Those are the public parking areas. The garage is for private use, for Nightkind officials only. Julian took me through there a couple of times when we drove in.” She paused. “We’re going to go in the opposite direction – toward the public meeting halls. We’ll do a sweep for people, and bring them back here. Anybody who might be barricaded in their rooms should be safe enough for now. Maybe by then, Tess will have some news for us.”
Shane turned to their troops. “You heard the orders. Let’s move out.”
As Melly regarded her team, they drew weapons, their expressions calm and deadly.
Every one of them was Light Fae.
“Hold,” she ordered.
Those closest to the door jerked to a halt. As one, they all turned to her. Pivoting, she strode into the office area.
When Xavier and Tess glanced up, she said, “We made a mistake. We sent some of the Light Fae troops to help Julian, but we didn’t retain any Nightkind troops for my team. I can’t take a Light Fae force out there and expect people to follow us to evacuate. They’re going to be confused and scared. They won’t be thinking rationally. For all they might know, they could believe we’ve invaded.”
Comprehension flashed on their faces. Rubbing his face, Xavier swore in Spanish. He said to Tess, “I have to go with them.”
Tess’s gaze flared with alarm. “Julian ordered you not to go into battle.”
“If it comes to a fight, I’ll have to stay out of it,” he said grimly.
Tess clenched her teeth. “But what if you’re attacked?”
Xavier’s voice gentled. “Remember querida, Julian left me an out. I’m free to defend myself if I need to. I simply can’t choose to go into battle voluntarily.”