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Niko didn’t. That wariness was back—a hundred-fold.
“Get the people to any stone building you can find, understand?” Lord Thomas’s voice carried past the turn, breaking the moment. “These things are tearing through wood and burning it down.”
“Come on,” Gwyneira said, directing the words to all of us.
With a last careful look at me, she turned and headed for the corner.
Avoiding everyone’s eyes, I hurried after her, reeling inside. How had she done that? I’d been about to lose control. I’d been seconds away from murdering everyone in this castle and probably half the city besides. But she’d calmed that. Quieted the demon enough that I could think again.
And all she’d done was touch me.
On shaking legs, I came around the corner. Lord Thomas stood in the open castle gateway, shouting orders at the guards in the courtyard. Valeria was at his side, sweeping the crossbow in her hands across the sky and then firing. The guards were doing the same with their bows, and screeching harpies plummeted to the cobblestones every few moments, speared through by arrows. Beyond the castle wall, fires blazed in the city, the orange glow stark and terrible against the night sky.
With every harpy that fell, twists of smoke rose from their chests, weaving through the air like snakes seeking a target. Guards rushed at them, stabbing each one as quickly as they could. Screams that were more sensation than sound followed like metal grating against my brain.
“Lord Thomas!” Gwyneira rushed toward him.
The lord threw a glance back at her. He wore his armor over his bedclothes, but nothing about him said he gave a damn how that looked. He was a leader in the midst of a war. Fashion could wait.
“Princess.” He scanned us all swiftly. “My guards didn’t find you?”
“We saw no guards,” Gwyneira said. “I’m sorry.”
His mouth tightened, and I could guess why. The people he sent had run or they were dead.
Either was a bad option.
“How are your people striking those things down?” Dex asked.
“Garlic tincture,” the lord replied. “Valeria’s idea. We dipped the arrows and swords in it.”
He stepped back seamlessly as Valeria swung her crossbow around and fired at an oncoming harpy diving for his opposite side. The creature tumbled out of the sky, and the moment it hit the ground, a guard was there to stab the smoke rising from its chest.
The horrible screech of the Voidborn came and then faded. But screams still rose in the city beyond the walls.
“Princess,” Lord Thomas said. “Please go to the cellar. It should protect you while we deal with these?—”
“Incoming!” Dex shouted.
Screeches came from behind us. A tumbling flood of feathers and talons surged down the corridor. A servant screamed, trying to duck into another room to escape them.
The man was too slow.
Snagging him with their talons, the harpies ripped him away from the ground. Blood splattered the walls as they tore into the human like they were starved and rabid beasts.
“Open fire!” Lord Thomas ordered. “Protect the princess!”
Valeria spun, doing as ordered. The harpies lunged away from their dead victim and flew at us, their faces soaked in blood. Arrows tore down one creature after another, but still the horde kept coming.
I drew my sword, and a smile tugged at my lips. My hands were steady. My skin wasn’t shifting anymore. The demon was still stunned by what Gwyneira had done, leaving me feeling more stable than I’d been in an age.
I could do this. Protect her. Stay in control. Keeping my distance from her had never been the answer. No, the truth was the exact opposite.
And now for her, because of her, I could do anything.
Something suddenly stirred at the edge of my mind, rumbling strangely through my elation.
I tensed. That wasn’t the demon. Not exactly. It was familiar but not, and I couldn’t place?—
