“You were doing what you considered best for you. You saw becoming the sheriff as your way to move ahead. You may not have sought your father’s position in the palace, but you wanted to move higher through the ranks too,” I said.
“I was doing my duty.”
“And that duty allowed you to blindly follow the orders of men who are monsters; that makes you as bad as them.”
“Worse,” Tucker said. “You could have said no, slipped into the woods, and fought against our oppressors. Instead, you chose acquiescence.”
“I freed you assholes, so save me the fucking morality speech,” Samael said. “I don’t like what they’re doing to the children, but those are grown men and women in Nottingshire. They could work harder.”
“You’re a prick,” Lawrence said. “Everyone, in all the towns, is killing themselves just to survive.”
“I’m the prick who set you free, so fuck off. Now, if you want to have any chance of getting to those children before sunrise, we have to move.”
Samael stopped beside a bookshelf, grasped a book, and pulled it down. As the bookcase swung toward us, I called my lightning forth to illuminate the corridor it revealed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ellery
We emerged from a portal about half a mile away from the palace but still within the Revenant Woods. Farley had ensured that no enemies waited for us. If things had changed, he would have sent word to the cavern.
We were far enough away that the guards wouldn’t accidentally detect us, but close enough that it wouldn’t take much time to get to the palace. One hundred and fifteen amsirah and gargoyles gathered with me beneath the trees. It wasn’t a large army, but there wasn’t much we could do while the duke still had Ryker and the children locked away.
While I wanted to run through the towns and villages shouting our intentions to all in the realm, we had to move cautiously. If the duke knew we were mobilizing, he’d use the children against anyone coming at him.
But the amsirah were spreading out through the towns, gathering parents, whispering to those they trusted, spreading the word. If all went well, by the time the children were free, an army would be gathering.
That’s why we had to get those children away from him; if we failed, then our army would be pointless.
The earl’s son had revealed that the children were in the dungeons reserved for the common folk. I had no idea where those dungeons were, but thankfully, some of the amsirah in the encampment knew their location. One had even spent time there under Leo’s reign and knew the layout well—though he said there wasn’t much to the dungeon, other than insects and rats.
My skin crawled at the memory, and I pulled the cloak Luna had returned to me closer. I couldn’t imagine those poor kids trapped in that hellish place.
The wind had picked up and now howled through the trees. It tugged at my hair, pulling it free of my braid. It tickled my face, but I didn’t pay it any attention as I studied the woods.
This close to the palace, there was a chance of guards, but the poltergeists had been patrolling the area since nightfall and hadn’t reported anything. No dead bodies littered the ground so they hadn’t encountered anyone; if they had, they would have killed them as that was the poltergeists’ favorite pastime.
As I thought it, three of them drifted out of the trees. Two of them carried the daggers we’d armed them with; seeing them with those weapons made me nervous, but the poltergeists were among our best weapons in this war.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t leave the forest.
“It’s clear to the edge of the trees,” one of the specters said. “After that, it’s a shitshow.”
That didn’t sound good, but we’d known this part of our plan would be the most difficult. However, we’d succeeded in the first stage, and we would succeed in this.
“Thank you,” I told him.
The poltergeist grinned at me, waved his dagger through the air, and vanished with the others. With Indon and Scarlet at my side, we slipped through the woods toward the palace.
We hadn’t brought torches with us; the forest was thick, but it wasn’t thick enough to hide lights. I didn’t use my lightning either; we relied mostly on the little bits of moonlight filtering through the leaves to guide our way.
It wasn’t much, but we were all used to moving through the forest with ease. We’d become one with the woods during our time living within them. They kept us alive, and we helped protect them.
Over time, we’d come to form almost a symbiotic relationship with the forest. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t kill us at any time, or that we didn’t have to fear the things living in it, but we worked well together.
A few poltergeists waited for us at the tree line; Farley was with them. This time, he was far more subdued and didn’t greet me with a smile when I stepped up beside him.
My stomach plummeted, and I gulped when I spotted the sea of soldiers separating us from the palace and children. I bit on my bottom lip as I tried not to give in to the anxiety clawing at my chest and twisting in my belly.
