Emmeline must’ve been in wait, as she appeared in the hallway before me in a blur of vampiric speed. With a metallic ring, she unsheathed her sword and pointed it at my heart. Her three remaining devotees followed a pace behind her.
“Coming here with the sunset, immune to its burning rays. I can still smell its heat on your clothes,” she tsked. “Youhave been the slayer this whole time, here to murder us in our beds.”
There was no need to respond or lie. I’d been caught, and she’d clearly made up her mind for what to do next. But these walls had eyes, even in this quiet corridor. Human servants, who would scurry off to inform their superiors of a fight. I spoke loudly, only for their sake. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m not to blame for?—”
“Liar!” It was a furious lash.
A tickle brushed the back of my mind. I nearly swatted it away like a buzzing fly. Noir’s voice invaded my head.“Flower, there you are. I’ve been reaching out every five minutes. Fetch me a banana on your way in?”
“Noir!”My thoughts latched on to his foreign presence like the lifeline it was.
“Didn’t think I’d get you to scream like that outside of the?—”
“Not now. I need help.”
Emmeline’s devotees reached for their weapons as well. I wasn’t about to engage them in a fight, four against one. Especially not while I was still sore and stiff from my visit to Terrigana’s hell. I needed Ash—and my men. If I could just stall for a while, they’d arrive to save me.
I turned and rushed back outside, the sky too darkened with dusk for the sun to dissuade them from following me. Gritting my teeth, I plunged back into my grandmother’s rose garden and wove into the manicured hedges of blood red blooms. Pounding footfalls echoed behind me.
I plunged down a narrow path between rose bushes, zigzagging further into the garden. Once I was far enough into the makeshift maze the bloated hedges made, I slowed, putting my feet down carefully. It was more important than ever to put every moment to use thinking of a plan.
The scent of this place invaded my nostrils. It was death’s skeletal hand wrapped around a floral bouquet.
I delivered my instructions to Noir in quick snippets.“Tell Zane and Finn that I need them. Armed. The queen’s old rose garden. Finn will know where it is.”
“What about me?”He sounded like he was pouting. For fuck’s sake, how old was he again?
“Oh, Ilyana!” Emmeline called. Her voice echoed strangely as the rosebushes shivered from a stiff breeze. I shuddered as well. “You didn’t really think you could run away, did you? Even now, my father is reporting our suspicions of your duplicity to theregent.”
Fuck. Someone must’ve given them my stake.I shook my head sharply.It doesn’t matter now. Focus and observe. Analyze and adapt.
Lord Clement was prepared for this ambush. I hadn’t fooled him or his daughter for a moment, it seemed. I needed a miracle to intervene on my behalf. I needed…Noir.
“Listen. I need you to kill someone for me.”
“Oh, fun. I’m listening!”
Footsteps sounded just past the hedge where I was hiding. I lengthened my own stride to round a bend in the path. Time was of the essence, and I had so little of it.
“His name is Clement Rodgerson. Do you know what he looks like?”
“Hmm…no.”
I nearly ran straight into the stone barrier at the end of this section of the garden. I glanced over my shoulder, where Emmeline or one of her devotees was still so close. Past this section was a patch of grass, the unfinished grass plots prepared for future victims before Nemea’s death. I would lose my cover to cross the grass to another part of the garden, but I had to do it.
“I’ll remind you that I’m retired. How am I supposed to keep track of every stupid vampire in the House of the Sanguine?”Noir added.
“He’stheinquisitor. What kind of assassin—”I arrested that thought before it became an insult.
I shimmied through the gap where hedge and wall met. Thorns and branches scratched my arms and back and snagged in my hair. Exhaling tensely, I looked across the grass just in time as one of the devotees spotted me and pointed. I ducked as a rock thesize of my fist smashed into the wall. It struck with such force that it exploded in a shower of brown dust.
I took off running again, crossing the grass toward a different section of the garden. A male voice rose. “She’s over here!”
“Oh, wait, does he look like this?”Noir somehow pushed an image over my sight. I nearly careened straight into a wall of thorns, blinded by the sight of Lord Clement from behind. He was descending the staircase in the guest wing.
Shaking my head, I dismissed the intrusive sight.“Fuck me.”It was a pretty eloquent summation of my evening so far.
“Gladly! But I thought you wanted a murder, not?—”
