Eva wrenched herself free of Lila’s grasp, but her annoyance quickly turned to horror.
“Is that…What’s wrong with…” she rasped, but didn’t finish either sentence.
Lila used her confusion to shove her forward and away from the scene. They couldn’t get out through the doors, but Lila could break a window.Pausing at a marble sculpture of a warrior angel, of all things, she tried to lift it up with no success.
“Help me!” she shouted at any angel who passed by. It took a few tries, but some of them caught on to what she was doing and helped her heave the sculpture up. Collectively, they tossed it into one floor-to-ceiling stained-glass window, and the green and blue glass shattered and rained down on the new path leading outside.
Angels poured through the opening, feet pounding over the glass. Lila dragged Eva by her wrist, determined to be one of the first to emerge into the courtyard.
Unfortunately, once there, she saw that the fighting had already spread.
Screams pierced Lila’s ears from every direction. The clang of swords and the roar of warriors rent the aether. The wood tables that Lila and Castor—mainly Lila—had carved so diligently thudded to the ground as they were thrown. They splintered and cracked on the marble and broke into pieces.
There was nowhere to go. The fighting was thick in front of the Great Hall, but in the aether above, it appeared even thicker.
Lila and Eva pressed themselves against the stone wall and huddled behind one overturned table. Lila peeked over the top of it, keeping an eye on the warring angels. She wondered if she should return for Castor and Beni, but she couldn’t be guaranteed to find them, and Eva was trembling beside her, looking unfit to go anywhere. She couldn’t leave her there alone. Eva had been barely responsive since they’d seen the angel who’d lost his soul.
On the other hand, they couldn’t stay where they were. Armed angels were spilling into the courtyard in increasing numbers, and their safety would be forfeit if they didn’t get moving.
But to where? Where could they go?
Wherecould they go?
At that moment, Castor and Beni rushed through the opening in the glass. They rushed so fast that they didn’t see the sword till it was too late. Beni dodged, but Castor hesitated. The sword slashed his midsection, missing its intended target, who had sidestepped.
The sword-bearer dropped his blade immediately—Felix, one of the student warriors—and Lila waited for Castor to drop too, but he didn’t. He merely stood there as blood began spilling down his torso. He stared with emotionless eyes, and Felix stared back, equally stunned.
First blood. They were taught to fight until first blood.
Felix looked like he might reach out and comfort Castor, but Beni pushed his friend out of the way. He’d noticed Lila and Eva, and he guided Castor over to their hiding place. Castor argued with Beni every step of the way.
“I can’t stay here. I need to change. Look at this.”
“Castor, you need to sit down.”
“It’s ruined!” He flung out his arm, gesturing to the wreckage in the courtyard. “Look at it! It’s all ruined.”
“Castor,sitdown,” Beni hissed, yanking his friend behind the barricade. Castor plopped down beside him and scowled. Blood flowed freely from his abdomen, soaking his robes; his wound was deep, cutting a wide path across his upper abdomen, but he appeared not to notice.
Lila knew that sword wounds didn’t always sting. Sometimes they caused a numbing sensation. Sometimes a warrior didn’t realize they had a wound until another warrior pointed it out.
Castor didn’t know how much danger he was in, but Lila sensed it. She sensed howwrongall of this was. All warriors knew that wounds were to be knitted up with healing salveimmediatelyafter injury. But Lila didn’t have healing salve, only the dread gnawing in her gut, growing at the pace of Castor’s blood loss. As she bent over Castor’s wound, its metallic scent filled her nostrils, laced with something unpleasant. She didn’t have words to describe the new scent, but she knew it wasn’t good. Castor’s eyes were almost solid black, and his chest barely rose and fell with each rapid breath. Besides that, he wasn’t himself. Castor wouldn’t care about their work being ruined. Was Castor about to lose his soul too?
No, no, no. She couldnotlet that happen. Despite everything he’d done, Castor was her responsibility. He was her other half, and she should never have left him in the hall. All she had to do was get to the Healing Chamber where she had her sword-fighting lessons. They could get there if they could just get up. If they could all get up and move and get out.
But first, Lila needed a sword. She needed a sword, and she could fix this. She could fix this. She needed healing salve and a sword.
“Lila.” Castor stared at her, fixated on her face. “They ruined our tables.”
“Tables?! What are you talking about?! Castor, you’re…you’re…” Lila wanted to scream in frustration. She didn’t even know what she wanted to say,but she knew he was losing too much blood, and he didn’t seem to notice. Or care.
Eva had gone white; she’d pressed herself against the wall as if she wanted to become one with it. Beni looked concerned as he propped Castor up against his shoulder, but not as concerned as he should have been. Maybe he hadn’t yet seen a body lose its soul. She wondered when Castor would start twitching. She had to move him before that happened.
And Castor was laughing! Weakly laughing, but still.
“You spent…so much time on this.” He chuckled, grazing his fingers over the carvings in the splintered wood. “Look at it.” He took a few shallow, rapid breaths. “I told you…it was a…waste of time.”
Finally, he’d said something that sounded like him, but Lila could not rejoice.
