Page 110 of Born of Starlight
He was smiling, but I was frozen, staring at him. I examined every curve of his face, every line.
“I like the rain.” It was all I could say.
Emmerick looked at me bewildered.
“Just the two I was looking for.”
A noxiously sweet voice hit me like a lightning bolt to the chest.No. Not here, not now.“What a strange place to find the Central Corridor’s High Enchantress and the Queen’s Constable, alone, unarmed.”
The sunlight seemed to disappear in an instant, and the bird’s song stopped.
Firose stood at the garden archway as six cloaked archers flanked her, donning northern armor. And blackened fingertips—they’d killed to gain access to the gardens, harnessed that dark magic for use on us now.
“I’m never unarmed,” I growled.
Blue flames ignited in my palms. Emmerick’s arm moved out in front of me as though he could protect me from whatever she had planned.
How had she gotten in? Had she been in the palace all night?
“I need them alive,” Firose ordered as she looked under her nails carelessly, as though we were no threat.
I released the blue flames, aiming at two of the northern guards, but the flames bounced off an invisible shield before them and back at us. Emmerick and I ducked in unison.
Warded.Now I knew what they’d used that dark magic for.
“I won’t let you go breaking apart to kill these ones too,” Firose cooed.
Emmerick and I exchanged glances.
She won’t kill me…I desperately wanted to believe that. I had no idea what she intended to do with Emmerick.
“Run,” I commanded. “Now.”
Emmerick shook his head and said, “I’m not leaving you.” He did not understand the dire situation he was in. He was the heir to a throne Firose desperately wanted.
The six hooded archers drew their bows from their backs.
“Don’t aim for anything vital,” Firose commanded.
The archers released their arrows at once.
Emmerick was hit in the shoulder. I cried out as an arrow buried into my thigh—pain shot up my body. The arrow had struck bone.
Every belief that the woman who had once trained me wouldn’t harm me vanished. In its place sat a heavy sense of betrayal. This was a political game, and we were all playing on Firose’s game board, bending to her whims.
Everything grew clouded, groggy, slow.Poison.
“Asterie!” Emmerick’s shout reached my ears just before I slumped to the ground.
This was the end of the road.
All the unseen paths that I’d tried to conjure, they all had led here.
Chapter32
Fenris
Iawoke and reached toward Asterie’s side of the bed. It was cold and empty.
