Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

It was happening. The vision. I knew it.

Grabbing the handle of the door, I looked over my shoulder and my legs almost gave out on me.

What had snuffed out the light of the moon and stars was something straight from a nightmare— creatures with a wingspan of over seven feet and talons longer and sharper than the claws of a bear. They looked as if a lowborn had been fused with a giant eagle.

Ni’meres.

They dived from the sky, faster than a charging horse. Those still on the lawn had no chance of escaping them. The ni’meres’ talons ripped into flesh and bone, tearing open backs and shoulders and piercing even the skulls of those fleeing.

Horror seized me as a ni’mere lifted a man high into the air. He screamed, beating at the talons tearing into his bare shoulders. The ni’mere let out a terrifying sound, somewhere between a shriek and laugh, before releasing the man. He fell, plummeting back to the ground—

Another ni’mere caught him, its talons sinking deep into the man’s stomach, splitting him open.

Gagging, I spun away and flew into the receiving hall. I didn’t understand why the ni’meres were doing this— had a Hyhborn been attacked? There was no time to figure it out.

My other shoe, slippery with blood, fell off as I dodged pedestals holding tall vases of summer flowers. I raced down the wide hall, heading for the solarium, where I’d last seen Grady. When I was halfway through the hallway, doors all along both sides burst open. Low-born flooded the chamber in a panicked tide, toppling pedestals and spilling petunias and daisies across the marble floors. In a heartbeat, I was swallowed in the crush.

Someone slammed into me, spinning me around. My feet slipped. I fell into another, knocking them aside as wings beat upon the walls of the manor.

“Sorry,” I gasped, reaching for the woman. “I’m so— ” I choked as she turned her head to me. Deep gouges scoured her cheeks.

She had no eyes.

“Help me,” she rasped as I jerked away from her reach. “Please. Help me.”

“I . . . I don’t know how.” I backed up, bumping into another. I twisted to a man— a man who was undressed but covered in so much blood he appeared to be wearing a sheath of glistening red. I pressed my hands to my chest. “I’m sorry.”

Chest squeezing, I turned away and pushed forward, desperately trying not to look too closely at those around me, trying not to hear the screams as I yelled for Grady, but it was impossible. I saw flesh shredded and hanging in tatters as if they were strips of nothing more than silky garments. Cheeks split open. Limbs hanging and attached by strands of sinew. There was so much gore that my stomach cramped.

“Grady!” I yelled, straining to see above those crowding the hall. “Grady!”

The doors leading to the Great Chamber and the rest of the manor appeared miles away as bodies pressed in; bodies slick with sweat and blood crowded mine, and it was too much. Something was happening in my mind as I stumbled forward. Dozens of strings formed in my mind, stretching out and connecting all around me and all at once. Their thoughts pressed against the inside of my mind as strongly as their bloodied bodies did.

Why is this happening?a voice screamed in my head, jerking me around before quickly being taken over by another shrieking Where is Julius— did he make it inside?

My wide eyes darted from a pale face to a crimson-streaked one in confusion. I should’ve helped her. I just left her there— I left her out there.

Get up. Gods damn you, get up. If we stay here, we’re going to die.

“Leave me,” the wounded man pleaded out loud. “Just leave me.”

“Like hell I am,” another man grunted.

Their thoughts— oh gods, I couldn’t block them. I couldn’t sever the connection as I pushed through the frenzied bodies, my heart thumping as the moans of the dying became final words in my mind.

It’s too soon.

This isn’t happening.

Why me?

I can’t feel my legs. Why can’t I feel—

They merged together, making it impossible for me to tell exactly how many I was hearing, if it was one or many.

I’m dying.

Oh blessed gods, save me.

I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead.

Gasping for air, I tripped over something— someone. I caught myself on a still-standing pedestal, my stare fixed on the man’s face. His mask hung from one ear, his lips parted as if they had frozen mid-inhale. His throat . . . it was torn wide open. Through the mess of snapped bone and jellied flesh, I could see the floor— see the blood streaming through the gold veining of the marble.

My body locked up as I clutched the cool marble. Their thoughts. The sights and sounds. My own rising terror. My legs shook, knees weakening. I couldn’t move as my throat seized. I couldn’t shut them out. I slid to the floor, pressing back against the base of the pedestal. It was too much. They were inside me— their fear, their panic, their last thoughts— and I couldn’t pull myself out of it. Couldn’t stop them from being a part of me. I tucked my knees to my chest, squeezing my eyes closed as I pressed my balled fists to my ears.

Help me!

I’m dying!

It hurts— oh gods, it hurts.

He’s gone. He’s dead.

I’m bleeding—

Lis. Lis. Lis.

I don’t want it to end like this.

I can’t.

It’s not fair—

“Lis!” Hands clamped my arms, shaking me. “Calista,” the voice demanded. “Look at me.”

Dragging in air, I was terrified to do so— terrified by what I’d see— but it was brown eyes staring back at mine, eyes a shade darker than mine. Grady. He’d found me— like always, he’d found me.

“I can hear them,” I rasped, shaking. “Their thoughts. Their screams. I can’t stop it— ”

“Just focus on me. Just me, and take a breath— a deep, long breath. Okay? Focus on me and breathe,” he ordered, the warm brown skin around his mouth taut as another’s voice started to intrude on my thoughts. “You focused?”

“I— ” I began to look away from him. Blood pooled along the floor. Rivers of crimson, slick and shiny. Blood splattered along the base and up the sweeping golden pillars. Still arms and legs. Skin torn apart by deep gouges. . . .

“I saw this,” I whispered. “This is what I saw, Grady. This is— ”

“I know. That doesn’t matter right now.” He clasped my cheeks then, forcing my gaze back to him. “Tell me how I’m supposed to make catmint continue to bloom?”

His question caught me off guard. “W-What?”

“Tell me how I can get your favorite flower to keep blooming?”

“I like catmint, but it’s . . . it’s n-not my favorite. Tickseed is.” My mind suddenly filled with images of tiny, daisy-like yellow blossoms. “The moonbeam kind.”

“Okay. Whatever. How do you get moonbeam to keep blooming?”

My brows knitted. “You have to deadhead them— cut off the little black buds, the spent blossoms.”

“Good to know.” His hands smoothed the hair back from my cheeks. “You picturing those flowers?”

I nodded as my mind finally began to calm. Grady . . . he’d done this before, when we were younger and I hadn’t learned how to sever the connection with others. Pushing off the floor, I threw my arms around him. “I don’t know what I would . . . I would do without you.”

“It’s okay. I got you. It’s okay.” His arms tightened around me. “You hurt?”

I shook my head. “N-No. It was just their thoughts. I couldn’t— ”

“I know. I know.” He rose, bringing me with him. “We’ve got to get out of here. Get farther into the house and hide before they get in.”

“The ni’meres?”

“Not just them.” He pulled back, quickly scanning my face and body for any injury I might have lied about. “I saw the Rae coming over the hill.”

“W-What? Why?”

“I don’t know.” He grabbed my arm, squeezing as he looked around. “But something bad is going down, Lis. Primvera is burning.”

My chest went cold. “What?”

He began to lead us through the crowd. “I saw the Rae from the solarium. Saw it before the ni’meres came. That’s when I started to look for you. Careful,” he warned, guiding us around a motionless pair of legs.

I didn’t look to see what had caused those legs to become so still.

“Knew right off something bad was going down.” Grady shoved his other hand through his mop of curly hair.

“Do you think it’s the Westlands?”

“Who else could it be?” he said. “They must’ve made it farther into the Midlands than anyone knew. That’s the only answer.” He grunted as someone knocked into us. “We’ve got to hide,” he repeated. “And then the first chance we get, we’ve got to get out— ”

Glass shattered behind us. Grady looked over his shoulder as I did the same.

Ni’merescame through the broken window, their feathered bodies slick with blood and gore. Their wings beat at the air as they swooped down, aiming for those still standing with talons that dripped red.

Chaos erupted. Those who could scattered in every direction, as we ran toward the main hall. We weren’t the only ones who reached the narrow hall that led to the Great Chamber and the remaining halls and spaces within the manor.

“Not the Great Chamber,” I gasped. “We can’t go there.”

“Shit.” Grady’s gaze briefly met mine. “Hold on. Don’t let go, Lis. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

I clutched the back of his tunic as people crowded in all around us, quickly choking the hall.

But they didn’t know the house like we did.

Narrow tables fell, clogging the path even more as we were pressed farther down the hall. I tugged on Grady’s arm. “The blue door!” I yelled. “The back halls.”

Grady nodded, keeping his footing and mine as we were nearly shoved right past the door. We dug in, him grunting and me gasping as several people slammed into us. The door was stuck, forcing Grady to throw his weight behind it.

The door groaned, swinging open, and we all but fell through. I spun around, spotting Allyson’s pale curls in the madness. “Allyson,” I screamed. Her head whipped toward us. She started fighting toward the door.

“Come on,” Grady yelled, pulling us aside as a young fair-haired man and then Allyson dashed into the chamber.

I went to her. “Are you okay?” Her light blue gown was splattered with blood. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she rasped, her curls falling haphazardly into her face. “Are you?”

“I’m okay.” My heart thundered. “I’m so glad I saw you. Have you . . .” I froze. A silver chain circled her neck, and from it, a sapphire jewel hung. “Is that Naomi’s necklace?”

Confusion marked her brow as she stared at me like she couldn’t believe I was asking such a question. “Yeah, I wanted to wear it with my gown. She gave it to me a few days ago.”

Oh gods.

I’d been wrong. It hadn’t been Naomi I’d seen. . . .

Allyson glanced up at the ceiling. “I . . . I got separated from the others,” she said, and I looked away, heart cracking at the realization. “The ni’meres— they came in through the windows there. I don’t know if . . .”

“This way!” Grady shouted, and I whipped around. “Come on. Damn it,” he cursed as people scrambled past the door. “This way, you fuckers!”

No one listened.

I shook my head, heart sinking as a ni’mere’s shriek entered the hall.

“They’re coming,” Allyson whispered, backing away from me. She bumped into a settee. “We can’t stay here with the door open.”

She was right.

“Damn it,” Grady snarled, slamming the door shut. “Damn it!”

“Th-This way,” I said, glancing at the other man. He was pale. “There’s another hall. It leads to the servant quarters and— ”

“The wine cellar,” Grady finished. “That door is heavy. No one, not even ni’meres, can get through it.”

“Perfect. If I’m going to die tonight, I’d rather be drunk off my ass,” the man said, dragging a hand down the front of his torn shirt. “Name’s Milton, by the way.”

“Grady.” He nodded in my direction. “This is Lis and that’s— ”

“Allyson,” she said, nervously rubbing her hands over her bare arms.

A scream pierced the air, causing both Allyson and me to jump.

Milton swallowed. “Let’s get to this cellar so we can get drunk enough that we don’t think about what’s happening on the other side of that wall.”

“Sounds like a plan. You good?” Grady asked of Allyson, who nodded. Then he turned to me. “You?”

Foot stinging, I limped slightly as I started for the door at the other end of the chamber. I couldn’t look too long or too closely at Milton and . . . especially not Allyson. Not because I worried that what had happened in the receiving hall would overwhelm me again. I feared I’d discover how the night would end for them, and I already . . . I already knew how it would end for Allyson.

As I proceeded forward, an all-too-familiar sense of fragile calmness descended upon me, one that had sprung from dark, scary nights that had come before we’d fled Union City and after, when we’d slept on streets and in ditches, when we were chased off by lawmen or were running from adults whose thoughts were full of terrible things. We’d been in a lot of bad spots, many I didn’t think we’d make it out of.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t scared. I was terrified. My heart hadn’t stopped pounding. I felt sick with fear, but this was . . . it was just another bad spot to get past. To survive, and I would. We would.

I opened the door that fed into another hall, which was the length of the manor and wrapped around the whole back. It was empty. Grady motioned the other two forward. We hurried down the dimly lit hall, the muted sounds of screams coming from the other side of the wall following us, haunting us.

Remembering the dagger, I halted and hitched up the skirt of my gown. I unsheathed the dagger. I looked up.

Beside me, Milton raised his brows as he spotted the lunea blade. “I’m not going to even ask.”

“Probably best that you don’t.” I let the skirt fall back into place.

“Why are they doing this?” Allyson asked, nibbling on her fingernails.

“Don’t know,” Grady said, then repeated what he’d told me about the Hyhborn Court. “But a bunch of the ni’meres flew over the manor, heading straight for Primvera.”

“You can’t be serious,” Allyson gasped. “They’re attacking their own?”

“He is. Saw it myself,” Milton confirmed, and I had a feeling we’d see it soon enough when we reached the back hall. “Looked like the whole city was burning, but I think it was just the wall outside Primvera.”

“But why attack us?” Allyson stuck close to Grady. “We weren’t doing anything.”

No one answered, not even my intuition, but I didn’t think this was the Westlands or the Iron Knights. This was something else entirely.

“You lied to me,” Grady muttered under his breath.

“What?” I glanced at him.

“You said you weren’t hurt.” He raised his brows. “Your foot is bleeding.”

“You’re bleeding?” Concern filled Allyson’s voice.

“It’s not a big deal. Just a minor cut on my foot.”

“Minor cuts get infected all the time, Lis. Then you end up with your foot getting cut off.”

My brows shot up.

“That escalated quickly,” Milton commented under his breath from behind us.

Grady ignored him. “As soon as we get a chance, we’re washing it out.”

I sighed heavily. “I was planning to, but currently, I’m more worried about the ni’meres.”

“Agreed,” Milton commented.

We neared the corner where the hall turned to continue along the back of the manor. I peered around. The hall was dark. “The windows are intact.”

Grady strode forward, his hand around the hilt of his sword. His steps slowed. “Sweet mercy.”

I crept forward as Allyson cried out, smacking her hand over her mouth. She stumbled back, pressing against the wall. I told myself not to, but I joined Grady at the chest-high window and regretted it at once.

The moon was no longer blocked. Silvery light flooded the manor grounds. Bodies were strewn about the lawn, being . . . being picked at by a few lone ni’meres.

My stomach churned with nausea, but I couldn’t look away from the horrifying and grotesque display. I’d only ever seen a ni’mere once before and at a distance. I’d been a child then, but they were no less terrifying now than they were then, with their feathered bodies that were vaguely mortal-like, and their faces a palish-gray shade. Their yellow eyes were nearly iridescent, a shade of gold that matched the streaks cutting through their onyx-hued wings and their long, straggly hair. Their teeth . . .

They were pointed, as razor-sharp as any beak or talon would be, and yet their features were delicate. Pretty even, if not for the ghastly shade of skin and the blood smearing their lips and chins.

I dragged my stare from them. Beyond the ni’meres was a wholly different sight. Archwood Manor sat atop a hill, and on sunny days, the sun glinted off the tops of the walls surrounding Primvera. Tonight, the entire horizon was lit in a golden glow. Primvera was burning.

“Shit,” Grady cursed, jerking back. “The Rae. Get down.”

I crouched beside Grady, stomach knotting. “If there’s Rae . . .”

“Then there are princes near,” he finished, his eyes briefly meeting mine.

“ ‘Prince Rainer will be joining us for the Feasts,’ ” I whispered. “That’s what Hymel said.”

Grady’s jaw clenched. “Your prince decided to leave at one hell of a time, didn’t he?”

“He’s not my prince,” I retorted.

“We should try to keep going,” Milton said from where he was crouched farther down the hall. “How far do we have to go?”

Grady rose halfway, keeping himself below the window. “At the end of the hall. Just keep low to the floor.”

“End of the hall” felt like it was in a wholly different realm. “It’s the second-to-the-last door . . .” I trailed off as a tingle of awareness erupted between my shoulder blades and traveled up the nape of my neck. Tiny goose bumps spread across my bare arms, and there was a strange warmth in my . . . in my chest even though the temperature had dropped, just as it had in the gardens. The hair along the nape of my neck rose. I lifted my gaze to the window above me as I rubbed my chest.

“Lis?” Grady called out quietly. “What is it?”

“I . . .” Intuition was guiding me as I reached up, gripping the bottom of the windowsill.

“Shouldn’t we be hurrying?” Milton hissed.

We should be.

But there was something I needed to see. I rose just high enough to peer over the ledge of the window.

Rae rode past on horses shrouded in black cloth; the wispy mist seeping from openings in their cloaks trailed down the sides of their horses, spilling upon the ground like fog. There had to be well over two dozen of them. Warning bells started to ring throughout me when the Hyhborn rode forward on large reddish-brown steeds draped in indigo banners that bore a crimson insignia of what resembled several interlocking knots. I’d seen the sigil before. It was the Royal Crest and represented all the territories joined to form one.

If this was the Westlands or the Iron Knights, would they ride into battle bearing the sigil of the king they sought to overthrow? I didn’t think so. But if it was the King, why would he have Primvera destroyed? Unless he believed Primvera would be a loss too?

A flash of silvery white in the moonlight drew my gaze. Hair. Long blond hair so pale it was nearly white. Paler than the hair of the lord I’d seen in the Great Chamber.

I recognized him.

Even though I’d been too scared as a child to look him the face, I knew it was him.

“Grady,” I whispered. “Look.”

He turned from me, rising slightly.

“You see him?”

“Yeah,” he spat between gritted teeth. “Lord Samriel.”