But I had never wanted her life, and now she was trying to get me killed.
“I’m here,” Delilah said, stepping out from the kitchen before either Ember or I could stop her. “I’m Marksinna Delilah Nylen, and I’m here and I’m safe.”
“Where is she?” Astrid demanded.
I leaned against the kitchen wall and carefully peered around the entryway to watch the scene unfolding. The H?gdragen was Janus Mose, a tracker I’d gone to school with who was only a couple years older than me. He didn’t appear as confident about their intrusion into the Nylens’ home as Astrid did, and she pushed her way around him.
A war was raging on half a mile from her doorstep, and she wore a gown with a fur stole. It was typical of her arrogance and stupidity.
“I saw that Skojare traitor run in here, and if you’re housing her, you’ll go to prison too,” Astrid said, sneering at Delilah. “Or you’ll be executed. Janus could do it right on the spot.”
“There’s no need for that.” Ember sheathed her sword and rushed out to the main hall.
Linus pulled on his shirt and stepped out from the kitchen. “You probably just saw us. Ember and I ran in here to get away from the fighting.”
“I wanted to keep the Markis safe,” Ember explained, standing beside her girlfriend.
“With all due respect, Markis Linus, you look nothing like a little blond half-breed traitor,” Astrid told him, doing her best to keep her cool when talking to a royal who outranked her. “Bryn Aven is here, and I know it. And if you all keep covering it up, Janus will have no choice but to execute you all.”
I gripped my sword tightly in my hand, but I didn’t move. Not yet.
Theoretically, Astrid was right. In times of war, a member of the H?gdragen had every right to execute those who were standing in the way of the kingdom or harboring traitors. But while Janus hadn’t been the brightest guy I’d gone to school with, he’d gone through enough training to know that he shouldn’t act rashly on the word of a spiteful Marksinna.
“Are you housing Bryn Aven?” Janus asked them directly, standing tall in his H?gdragen uniform. The light coming in through the open windows caused his epaulets to shimmer, and he kept his expression hard but blank, the way Kasper always had.
“It’s just us here,” Delilah said, speaking as calmly as she could.
“Then where are your parents?” Astrid demanded, and she looked up at Janus. “They haven’t left yet.”
“My parents are in the panic room—” Delilah began, but she couldn’t even finish her sentence before Astrid let out a delighted gasp.
“They have a panic room! They’re hiding Bryn in there!” Astrid shouted, pointing wildly into the house. “Search the house until you find her.”
“Is this really necessary?” Linus asked. “This all seems to be getting out of hand, especially with everything that’s going on outside. You should take Astrid back to her house so she can be safe.”
“As soon as we find the traitor, this will be all over,” Janus told him firmly. “And then everyone can be safe.”
That was when I knew that this wouldn’t end peacefully, and I couldn’t let Ember, Delilah, and Linus fight my battle for me. I stepped out from the kitchen. Astrid screamed when she saw me, but her eyes were wide with excitement.
“I told you she was here!” Astrid squealed.
Janus raised his sword, and his eyes were unforgiving and his jaw was clenched. I knew that look—he meant to kill me, with Astrid cheering him on.
“It doesn’t need to come to this,” Delilah said.
She stepped closer to him, perhaps meaning to reason with him, but she didn’t understand the severity of the situation. With the tension of the war, Mina’s fabrications about me, and Astrid screaming in his ear, Janus was like a gun, cocked and loaded, just waiting for something to set him off.
When Delilah stepped toward him, that was it. He drew his arm back—he was going to kill her, the way he would kill anything that stood in his way. Everything unfolded so quickly, but it felt like slow motion—like the world had stopped and I could see it all but I couldn’t move fast enough to change anything.
Linus shouted the word stop, but Ember was already moving, diving at Delilah and pushing her out of the way. Delilah fell to the floor just as Janus drove his sword straight through Ember, and she hit the floor with a sickening thud.
SEVENTY-TWO
allt ?r mitt
I ran at Janus, not caring if he was a H?gdragen or if he truly believed he was justified in what he’d done. For a moment my anger blocked out any rational thought, and I was just moving.