Page 233 of A Touch of Poison
Cornered.
Shit.
87
Bastian
Ishould go to the queen. I should ensure her rooms were secure. I should check whether they’d also attacked our side of the palace.
Should. Should. Should.
But Iwantedto find Kat. Ineededto know she was safe.
“Grab weapons, if you need them.” I nodded as Lysander returned to us. “I’ll be back in a second.”
I slipped into a side room and ensured I was out of sight. Only Kat, Faolán, my fathers, and a few lovers had known about my ability, and I planned to keep it that way. Thank the Stars, it was a couple of weeks since one half of me had died fighting Sura’s soldiers, and I’d regained my strength enough to split in two.
We nodded at each other in perfect unison. Unlike my Shadowblade, which was linked to me, these mundane weapons didn’t double when I split in two. We’d need to find another weapon once we left this room.
One of us stayed in the side room, while the other returned to the ballroom and rejoined the others. As Asher and Lysander buckled on belts with scabbards, I noted where a sword remained so my other self could pick it up when he emerged.
“Hmm.” Faolán scowled, turning over a long knife he took from one of the fallen attackers. “Guard issue.”
Eyes narrowing, I scrutinised my sword. The same leather wrapped hilt. The same stamp on the blade. I clenched my jaw and nodded. “Like those the Ascendants took in their raids.”
“And…” Asher pulled the damaged leather cuirass from one of the attackers, revealing an insignia on the shirt beneath.
A three-headed hydra.
Both in the ballroom and in the side room, my blood boiled. I should’ve killed Sura. I’d spent the past fifteen years dealing with that guilt—I might as well feel it for something I’d actually done.
Then she wouldn’t have been able to do this. A dozen wedding guests wouldn’t be lying on a blood-soaked dance floor.
She had to be behind the Solstice attack too.
But there wasn’t time for blame—of herormyself. We had work to do.
I jerked my chin towards the doors, keen to give myself a chance to creep out of the side room without two Bastians being spotted at the same time. “Come on. Let’s find the others.”
From a crack in the door, I could see through my own eyes as I crossed the floor.
With a deep breath, I pushed that side of my awareness away, making it as dim as my peripheral vision. Two awarenesses, we both saw and felt equally, but one of us focused here.
* * *
And one ofus focused here.
I watched myself leave before removing my black jacket and replacing it with a blue one I found on the back of a chair. I pulled my hair into my face. Not a great disguise, but it would have to do—it should be enough to make anyone who caught a glimpse of me leaving assume that I wasn’t Bastian but some other Dusk guest.
As soon as the guard who’d watched me leave turned away, I slipped into the ballroom and hurried out to the corridor.
With one side of me searching for Kat, the other could go after the queen.
Alone, I moved quickly along the corridors, aiming for the nearest lodestone—the shared dining room. Rarely used now, it had once been a space for feasts, back when Dusk and Dawn had been more closely allied.
I passed guards who nodded when they recognised me and came across several skirmishes. Each fight broke up once I joined in and the palace guards got the upper hand, sending Ascendants scattering.
It felt like a distraction.
