“She wrote a lot about this battle—said there were two possible outcomes, but didn't write many details about what they were. She just said that one outcome involved someone crucial dying. With the prophecy and sacrifice lingering in the air, I'm terrified that person is going to be Maeve. This whole time I’ve been trying to protect her from the truth and ensure that this is not the outcome that occurs, just in case itisher. But now she's alone out there and I…I don't know what to do. I feel completely fucking useless,” I finished, out of breath from the sputtering confession.
Pia glanced at me, then pretty much ignored everything I said and immersed herself in the journal, her mouth going slack as she read. “Did Aunt Cicily predict Jocelyn's death?” she asked, not moving her eyes from the journal. “It says something about her son—you—having a feud with a friend over a loss?”
I nodded. “Yeah. There's that, too.”
Pia’s eyes were small, narrow slits when she lifted her gaze from the journal. I fully expected her to yell, but to my shock, she did the opposite. “Seb…How have you kept this in for so long?” Her voice was so calm, that I almost preferred her to yell.
“Fuck if I know. And there's more. Maeve's power?—”
I didn't get any further. We were interrupted by the sound of shattering glass as a projectile was thrown through the window, conveniently through the small barrier gap I had been utilizing earlier. Whatever was thrown, struck Pia in the side of her face, knocking her to the floor with a thud. She clutched the broken skin, but before either of us could react further, the cartridge exploded, releasing a powerful force of smoke and flame.
The whole room was ablaze within seconds.
Before I could reach her, Pia vanished from my view. I coughed and choked on the smoke while glittering flames danced around me, the contents of the room going up in smoke.
I called upon my magic, trying to counter the heat with ice, but there was too much fire, and too little of me. “Pia?” I barked, each breath I took causing my lungs to constrict and fill with black smoke.
While waiting for her response, I prayed to the gods that she was at least conscious. I was good at a lot of things. But I wasn't confident that I could find her amongst all the smoke.
“Pia?” My voice croaked, trying to be loud enough to overpower the crackling of burning wood. I scanned the room for any sign of her as I stumbled around, trying to devise a plan to save us.
“I'm okay.”
Thank fuck.Relief encased me as I made her voice out. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my cousin and another one of my friends' mates died on my watch. “Where are you?” I called back, wafting away a cloud of black smoke while pushing towards her voice.
“I’m heading towards your voice. Keep talking!”
“We have to get out of here!” I shouted back through the soot as I searched for any sign of an exit, landing on the broken window as our best option. Fuck. That was gonna hurtlike a bitch. “The window!” I yelled to her as I fought my way through scorching furniture.
“Okay,” she gagged out as she approached me, her hand reaching for mine amidst the flame.
I guided us blindly through the havoc. My eyes burned from the heavy darkness of smoke, but I led us to our only chance at survival. “Draw your weapon,” I instructed. “We have no idea what's waiting for us out there.”
She dropped my hand to follow orders and I waited until her palm was in mine again to continue.
Broken glass crunched under our boots as we walked blindly towards the window, using the minuscule amount of starlight that shone through it despite the smoke. With each second we stayed in this room, the more my eyes and throat burned. It was too fucking hot.
I dropped Pia’s hand. “Drop to your knees. Crawl,” I called out, though my words were barely more than a gasp as my lungs begged for fresh air.
Head down, I made for the window, checking in with Pia every few seconds to make sure she was okay. When fresh air began to break through the smoke, I rose and used the sole of my boot to kick the window’s rough edges off, in hopes we could crawl through without shredding our skin.
I went first, peering outside to make sure no Draemornians were around before I lowered Pia out. My hip stung as it brushed against the jagged glass remains, tearing a hole in my pants. “Motherfucker,” I cursed, but disregarded the pain as I’d done plenty of times before, and carried on.
I tossed myself out of the window, reaching a hand up to grab Pia’s as she threw her own body over the ledge and onto the balcony. The smoke was so heavy that all of our enemies had cleared the area, which gave us the briefest of moments to center ourselves.
We both coughed and gasped for any ounce of fresh air, but smoke still pooled from the window, inching closer to uswith each gust of wind. My gut churned. “We need to move.” My throat scratched out the warning, and as soon as we started our descent down the balcony stairs, I was proven right.
“Run!” I shrieked, dragging Pia down the steps with me, trying to avoid the chunks of stone that fell from the castle walls.
We dove onto the grassy area at the bottom of the staircase. I scrambled to pull myself up to sit, watching as the room we narrowly escaped collapsed into itself. The entirety of the space shot up in flames. Anything that could be destroyed by fire, was.
“Holy shit,” Pia retched, tucking her singed hair behind her ears.
My throat bobbed. At this rate, if we didn't stop them, it wouldn't be long before the Draemornians burned the entirety of the castle to the ground. “Holy shit is right.”
She nodded as she rose to her knees and hunched over. Smoke came from her lungs as she wheezed, trying to catch her breath. “That was too close.”
“Those fuckers must have gotten inside through one of the towers,” I gasped to her, still struggling to breathe.
