Page 200 of Tears for a Broken Sky

---

I dropped my shoulder and slammed into the first like a cannonball, sending him sprawling. Another lunged from behind—too slow. I caught his arm, twisted, and flipped him over my shoulder, hurling him into the soldiers rushing up the stairwell.

Chaos exploded behind me.

“Don’t touch her! She’s mine!” Thorne’s voice cracked like thunder—raw, furious.

Panic clawed at my ribs.

I couldn’t let him catch me.

I ran. Hard. Fast. Like my life depended on it.

Outside the barrier shook as another bomb hit, and another. The tower, though protected, was showing signs of distress.

I threw myself into a group of panicking servants, pushing my way through to the front. Thorne just tore them away like paper, his eyes black once again.

I failed him.

I turned a corner and saw another group of approaching soldiers. I was surrounded. I ducked into a room and slammed the door shut. This was an office of some kind. I slammed my fists against the window—nothing. The glass didn’t even crack.

I ran to the desk and began frantically checking for weapons. I emptied the drawers tipping all the contents to the ground.

Nothing.

Then I remembered the key.

That tiny thing—I’d thought it was for a door. But what if—

I dropped to the floor, breath catching, and pulled it from my boot. My hands were shaking as I slotted it into the manacle at my wrist.

Click.

I stared in disbelief as the manacle fell to the floor with a dullthump.

Holy shit.

I fumbled with the second.

Click.

The weight fell away—and the world shifted.

My shadows surged forward like they’d been holding their breath. Like they’d just come home.

They wrapped around me, whispering, cold and familiar and alive.

I turned my hate filled gaze to the pounding on the door.

Time to get out of this hellhole.

I exhaled—and let go.

My body dissolved into smoke and shadow, a wraith reborn.

Iblastedthrough the door, a streak of darkness tearing past the guards before they could blink.

No chains. No mercy.

Not anymore.

---