I was moving before I fully took it all in. I didn’t need to know more than that.
Sword. Leather armour. Gauntlets. With those in place, I gathered guards outside the palace. None questioned my orders, even though the sun was high and half their number was Dawn rather than Dusk. There wasn’t even a whisper of “oathbreaker.”
The swiftest I sent out on foot to gather intelligence from the rooftops. How many Horrors? Where were they? Their orders were not to engage but to keep eyes on the monsters.
And to watch out for any sign of Kat. I shouldn’t have mentioned her, but… I couldn’t not.
The others I led towards our stables.
Emerging from Dawn’s stable yard came Cyrus on a huge golden stag, followed by his elite guard on marginally less impressive steeds.
“Don’t worry: I’ll kill them all.” As his stag reared, he raised the Brightblade, Dawn Court’s ancestral sword. He tilted it to catch the sun’s rays and set its magic ablaze. “On me!”
Cerulean blue cloaks streaming, he and his guards charged away.
The Dawn folk around me faltered, glancing back after their prince. But he had no plan and no interest in leading. He wanted only glory. I’ll kill them all. Not we.
I continued into Dusk’s stable yard and left them to decide whether or not to follow.
Stags and hinds snorted and pawed the ground, picking up on the fear and anticipation. With low words in the ancient tongue, stable hands calmed the creatures and warned them of what was to come.
Trainees and those with only basic weapons, I ordered to help civilians. Panic was as much our enemy as the Horrors themselves. They would help get people indoors to safety, coordinating with the lookouts to keep them away from the roaming monsters.
I barked order after order, muscles tight and ready. I should be out there finding her, not here dispatching units to different quarters of the upper and lower city.
The Head of the Palace Guard, Evin, arrived and I gestured for him to take over, but he shook his head and motioned for me to continue.
Those with enchanted weapons, I split between him, his first and second in command, and myself—a dozen per group.
The Queensguard and Kingsguard would keep to the palace—a last line if it was needed.
I prayed to every last god that they wouldn’t be.
We mounted and rode out. I flew across the bridge, barely registering the sheer drop.
How did the Horrors get past the wardstones? Past the patrols? The questions burned in me, but they would have to wait until the threat was neutralised.
We passed abandoned stalls, chestnuts burning on portable stoves. The smoke blotted out most scents, but they wouldn’t be enough to cover the stink of Horrors once we got close.
One stove had been tipped over, and I jerked my chin for a guard to speak over the fire and quench it. They weren’t meant to spread, but if Horrors sucked up the magic, it might turn into a normal fire—as hungry and deadly.
We had enough to deal with for one day.
We aimed for the screams coming from the lower city. In a neighbouring quarter, it sounded like the monsters had breached the upper city, but that was Evin’s problem to deal with.
As I rounded a corner, I picked out a flash of red hair against a wall. Kat? My heart leapt.
But when I slowed, I saw it was lighter—strawberry blond rather than rich red. “Rose?”
She slipped from the doorway, a larger shape unfolding behind her—Faolán. Just the two of them. Kat had to be safely indoors somewhere with Ella, Perry, and Ariadne.
“Stars above, am I glad to see you.” I flashed them a grin, which neither returned. “You’re both all right? No injuries?” I examined them more closely. No sign of blood.
Rose kept her eyes downcast, and Faolán edged forward, placing his shoulder between us.
“What’s…?” I frowned between them. “Where are the others?”
His nostrils flared as he raised his chin. “Ari, Ella, and Perry are holed up in the shop. Asher’s stationed himself there healing folk who need it. They’re assisting with bandages, triage, that sort of thing.”
“Ari, Ella, Perry, and Kat, you mean.”
My heart beat harder with every moment it took Faolán to reply.
His throat rose and fell in a torturous swallow, but it was Rose who looked up, eyes wide, and asked, “She isn’t with you?”
The street tilted. For a second, I thought I was falling from my stag.
But no. It wasn’t me falling. It was the entire world.
“Why would she be with me? She went to the festival with you. You were meant to be—”
Faolán’s growl made my stag toss his head. “She headed back to the palace to find you.”
She hadn’t made it.
Rose’s eyes filled with tears. “It… it was just before the attack began.”
More screams pierced the air. They could be Kat’s. And even if they weren’t, they belonged to people relying on us—on me.
I urged my stag towards the sound.
Faolán loped beside me, claws elongating. “We’re all worried about Kat, and she clearly cares about you.” He shot me a look, brows drawn low. “But you need to make a decision—do something. Because at the moment she’s still—”
“If you’re about to mention her marital status, Faolán, we’re going to have a problem. Should I not care if she dies because she’s married to someone else?”
“No,” he growled. “It’s just… be careful, Bastian. You’re on the edge of something here.”
“Yes, I’m on the edge of fucking reason because you’re lecturing me about the fact Kat is married when there are Horrors in our city.”
“I thought you needed the reminder.”
Like I didn’t remember it every single day.
I bared my teeth at Faolán, every part of me tight and sharp. “I didn’t expect you to be so invested in rules handed down by the same people who consider you an abomination.”
At once, I hated myself for saying it. But I hated the world more for this situation.
And a Horror rose ahead.
No time for apologies, I spurred my stag onward and rode to face it.
50
Kat
Down one alley, darting into the next, I ran and ran and ran. My legs burned as breaths tore through me.
It hadn’t worked. The carapace must’ve protected the Horror from my poison as it protected it from weapons. Shit.
I turned again and again, trying to lose the skittering sound of the Horror’s feet.
The fact I’d drawn it away from the woman and her children was the faintest glimmer of a silver lining.
The next corner brought me to a long lane with no turnings and a wide set of gates at the end. If those gates didn’t lead out onto a road, I had just found the cloud for that silver lining.
A thick, black dead end of a cloud.
I pushed, sprinting with every ounce of energy I had.
Questioning clicks echoed from behind me as the dank stink grew, invading every sharp gasp for air.
I didn’t dare turn. If I did, I’d trip or just plain lose my nerve in the face of those flat, void-like eyes.
Just a little further. Just a little faster.
Acidic spit sizzled on the stone behind me.