I grabbed her wrist and started dragging her outside. She was pleading with me to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. As I pulled her out to the street, a Tralla horse came racing by, its heavy hooves pounding on the snowy cobblestones. With all the fighting, the fence outside the stables must’ve been broken down, freeing all the horses.
But that was the least of my concerns. I dragged her toward two hobgoblins who were just finishing taking down an Omte ogre at the edge of the fray. Astrid began to scream as soon as she saw them, since she was unaccustomed to them and frightened by their appearance.
“Bryn! Please! Let me go!” she begged.
“Hey, guys!” I yelled, and the hobgoblins looked over at me, and then I motioned toward Astrid. “She just had a soldier killed that was helping us, and she has close ties to the Kanin Queen.”
“Queen Mina will have your head if any of you lay a hand on me!” Astrid shouted, her voice growing shriller.
Since she seemed like she would do just fine digging her own grave, I let go of her and started walking away. The two hobgoblins smiled before they pounced on her. I heard her screaming, but I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to.
SEVENTY-THREE
bloodied
At first I’d been trying to avoid hurting any of the H?gdragen. But after Janus, I would kill anyone who ran at me with a sword. I’d always known that war wouldn’t be so black-and-white, but I’d come to realize that there was a darker shade of gray, where right and wrong came second to simply surviving.
I wanted to make a straight line to the palace and find Ridley, but the fighting made it hard to move quickly. I could make it a few feet, stepping over bodies, before I’d find myself in combat with someone else. My hands and clothing were soaked with blood, and there had to be a quicker way to get to the palace.
Then, almost like a guardian angel, I heard Bloom. I looked back and saw the massive Tralla horse running through the streets. His sterling mane flew behind him, and I whistled for him. He reared up on his back legs, braying loudly, and I saw that the fur around his hooves had been stained dark crimson.
He saw me and raced toward me through the crowd, knocking over anyone who got in his way. When he reached me, I sheathed my sword, and I jumped up to grab on to his mane. I tried to hoist myself up, but Bloom was over seven feet tall at his shoulders, so I couldn’t exactly just hop up on him.
Then I felt a hand under my feet, pushing me up, and I finally got high enough so I could swing my leg over. I looked down to see who’d helped me, and Baltsar smiled up at me before taking on a H?gdragen guard.
“Go, Bloom,” I commanded, but he didn’t need more prompting. Even he knew that a war zone was no place to pause.
He charged ahead, his massive size chasing everyone out of the way. People either dove to the side, or he ran them over. I buried my fingers in his mane, leaning into him and urging him to go faster.
After losing Ember, I knew I had to get to Ridley as soon as possible. I couldn’t waste any more time killing Omte or helping anyone. I couldn’t let him die because I’d been busy somewhere else.
Delilah’s last words to Ember, the poetry, pounded in my head like a death knell. I wouldn’t let all be taken away from me. Not without a fight to the bloody end.
For so long, I had thought of love as a weakness—as something that would only make you distracted and vulnerable. But what I’d come to realize was that love had only made Ember braver than she’d ever been before. Love made Tilda find the strength to carry on. Love made my parents willing to sacrifice everything for each other.
And love made me stronger. I would do anything to save Ridley. I would do everything I needed to do.
The massive door to the palace had already been knocked down, but after seeing the way the hobgoblins had handled the wall, I wasn’t surprised. The door was over twenty feet tall, so Bloom ran through the opening with ease and straight into the grand front hall.
It was a massive stone room with high ceilings that rose several stories high and had iron chandeliers. The only natural light came through stained-glass windows that faced different directions. Right now the sun shone through the window depicting the Long Winter War, which left everything glowing red.
Other than a few dead bodies scattered around, the front hall appeared empty. The rest of the palace wouldn’t be so easy for a horse of Bloom’s size to maneuver around, and I really didn’t want him getting hurt either. I swung my leg over and hopped to the floor.
“Son of a bitch,” Konstantin said, and I looked over to see him coming in from a corridor off to the left of the hall. He looked up at Bloom, shaking his head.
“What?” I looked up to make sure Bloom was okay, but the horse seemed fine.
“I told you that you couldn’t come in riding on a horse like a white knight, and so you had to go and prove me wrong.” He smirked at me.
I stroked Bloom, telling him he’d done a good job, then I smacked him on the side and told him to get out of here. He did as he was told, racing back out through the doors again, and I turned to Konstantin.