“Valko,” I said as I pointed to the city, to his night of reckoning. The people were meant to come tomorrow, but they were already on their way, as if they somehow knew tomorrow would be too late.
The emperor’s eyes flew wide. He dropped my hand and rushed to his balcony wall. “They wouldn’t dare,” he breathed.
I backed slowly to the door of his chambers. My fingers clutched the latch when he noticed me. His gaze narrowed. “What are you doing?”
I pulled my gown back over my shoulder. “As your Auraseer, it is my duty to warn you your life is now in grave danger.” I opened the door. “However, it is not my duty to fight for you, and it will never be my duty to lie with you. I bid you farewell. You will soon discover how much the gods value your life.”
His face hardened to stone. “If you leave me, Sonya, you will live to regret it.”
“Perhaps.” I drew up taller. “But I will live. I cannot say the same for you.” I whirled around and raced down the corridor.
“Sonya!” Valko bellowed. “Guards, seize her!”
I panted, my lungs already burning. Of course he would send his guards after me, and not to reinforce his regiments outside. I knew I’d damned myself by being so bold, but I couldn’t help it. The people gave me strength—the same daring people whom Anton feared coming and Nicolai didn’t believe stood a chance against the emperor’s forces—I believed in them. I felt their courageous energy steel inside me. And I no longer cared if they slit Valko’s throat in order to throw down his reign.
I grabbed the banister of the twirling staircase and hurtled downward. I tripped over the hem of my dress, barely able to stay on my feet. The guards’ sabers rang out from their sheaths. At least they hadn’t fired their muskets. They must know Valko wanted me alive.
I stumbled onto the landing of the second floor and stole a backward glance. Ten or so guards were on my trail. They would soon be upon me. “Let me alone!” I shouted with a ragged breath as I descended the last staircase. “Don’t you know where the danger lies?” I pointed to the great doors of the palace.
I sensed their panic and understood their compulsion to serve their emperor. I had once felt the same. But there came a time when obedience needed to be broken.
“The people are coming,” I said, “and they will bring this government to an end!” I stared at them beseechingly and willed the guards to feel the might of the revolutionaries. With all my conviction, I shouted, “If you want to live, now is your last chance to join them!”
Their expressions of determination went blank. They shuffled to a halt and looked to the great doors. Surprised I had stalled them, I didn’t waste my opportunity. I fled down the remaining stairs.
Once my slippers clapped the lobby floor and I turned my focus to finding the dungeons, my spell over the guards broke. Their boots picked up speed, and they rumbled like a storm down the marble staircase.
I darted for the corridor in the opposite direction of the great hall and ballroom. When the guards reached the lobby, half bolted for the great doors, their curiosity propelling them outside. The others stayed fast after me.
I pressed onward at a relentless pace. The entrance to the dungeons had to be this way. Perhaps the auras of desperate prisoners would lead me there.
The storm of guards came louder. They were gaining on me. I lengthened my stride and ran faster. My legs trembled. My throat burned raw. My vision flashed with white. Auras danced inside my breast. The righteous indignation of the people. The shock of the servants. The dogged tenacity of the guards.
With my waning physical strength, I kept their energy at bay and forced my purpose to take precedence. Anton. I had to free Anton.
A dark, unlit corridor loomed to the left. I took it on a whim. I could very well be headed in the wrong direction, but I was running out of options.
This part of the palace was built haphazardly—added onto over time as the laws became stricter and the prisoners multiplied. Corridors branched in a mazelike fashion as they blurred before my eyes. I reached out for any new auras emanating from the dungeons, but my racing pulse was too much a distraction.
A shadowy figure flickered to my right. I spun around. It was a man. Bearded, but young. Somehow familiar. Close-set eyes. A wide nose. And—my nerves surged with panic—wearing a soldier’s uniform.
“Sonya?” he asked.
The thunder of the Imperial Guard pounded behind me. Any moment now and they would turn the corner. I took a desperate chance and whispered, “Help!”
The man grabbed my hand and tossed me behind him. “Hide,” he rasped. I did my best and flattened myself behind the jutted edge of an uneven, patched-together wall.