Page 72 of The Dark Prince
Screaming rent the air; broken and desperate. Aella elbowed me in the face in her haste to get up the steps. Bessy only gave a quick boost up and we ran to the high edge of the castle’s roof, looking down below.
Maddeus lay down below in the snow, bleeding, Arne’s dark figure already bent over him as he waved his arms. Other men were down and writhing on the ground, an empty chain between them all. Beyond them, a black blur darted toward the forest.
Tyr was free.
“My father is going to hunt him down and kill him. Hopefully, that will end it all for good.” Aella intoned, her voice as cold as death.
“The king’s here?” I asked, confused. I shook my head, focusing. “It won’t,” I grit back, refusing to give up. I kept my eyes on the tree line, where I knew Tyr had disappeared. “Everyone near to him will keep turning until there’s no one left.”
Aella sneered. “Then everyone who swore love and fealty to him will die.”
I turned and met her icy glare. “Including us.”
Before I knew what had happened, Aella had slapped me with all her strength. Bessy gasped, and I gaped, resisting the urge to cup the burning sting on my cheek.
“I had almost ended it. It would have been over. You interfered.”
“I saved him,” I shot back, but my voice was unsteady.
“He was going to let me do it, too,” she added cruelly. “He knew it was our best shot. You destroyed his chance of being free. Because of you, he will stain his soul more tonight.”
WHAM.
Pain exploded in my knuckles as I cracked her again on her face, hearing a satisfying crunch in her sinuses. I wasn’t anything like my stepfather, who hit people who’d done nothing to him. Aella deserved all this pain and more.
“Stop it! Girls! Stop it!” Bessy was sobbing now, and that was what snapped me out of my bubble. Bessy was always in charge. Bessy always knew what to do. Her loss of control snapped me out of my red haze.
In the distance, horns sounded.
“What was that?” I demanded of Aella, who didn’t even try to staunch the blood dripping down her face.
“I toldyou.”
She had. It was the king, and those were hunting horns.
Tyr.
I ran away from the edge and down the stone steps, pulling and tugging the door for everything I was worth.
“My lady! Don’t!” Bessy pleaded, but didn’t stop me.
Ever so slowly, the door gave out. I slipped inside, not waiting for it to open all the way. I grit my teeth as I painfully pushed my body through the small crack, but then I was out. Dust mites flew and danced around me as I ran blindly, having no true objective other than to get to the forest. The witch’s dagger felt hot against my thigh.
I wouldn’t use it on Tyr. I wouldn’t.
I ran down the staircase, nearly falling flat on my face as a regiment of guards strode by. A hand clamped down over my face and pulled me behind a pillar and into a servant’s alley, muffling my scream.
“My lady, it’s me!”
The hands fell away, and I turned to see a terrified Rose. “The soldiers stormed the castle. They’re killing whoever they can get their hands on and saying it was the beast!” Tears welled in her eyes. “Why are they doing that?” she begged me.
I didn’t have an answer immediately. Clearly, the king wanted his people to turn on Tyr, and reveal their own lord was the same beast terrorizing them.
“Rose, get out of here. If you see anyone left, tell them to hide. Please.”
I broke away and watched as she ran down the dark hallway and toward the place in the wall where I knew the servant’s crawl space was.
I listened closely and stepped out of the shadows when I heard nothing.
