Page 145 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

The magic hits Hayes before any of us can move. Vines erupt, wrapping around Hayes’s throat, yanking him up out of the chair. His feet leave the ground. His hands claw at the vines, face going red, mouth opening and closing in silent gasps.

“Father! Father, stop—that’s your heir⁠—”

“My heir should know better than to keep secrets from me.”

Hayes’s lips are turning blue. His eyes are bulging.

“Father!” I grab his arm. “You’re going to kill him!”

He turns to me, and I see his eyes narrow to small slits. For a moment, one horrible, endless moment, I think he’s going to let it happen. Going to calmly stand there and choke his son to death.

Then the vines release.

Hayes crashes to the ground, gasping, retching, hands clutching his throat.

Father steps over him like he’s nothing, and his eyes land on Finn. His vines wrap around Finn’s throat, slamming him back against the bookshelf and lifting him off his feet. Books tumble to the floor. Finn’s hands claw at the vines, his face going dark red.

“Tell me what happened tonight, Hayesland.” Father’s voice is almost bored. “Or I’ll crush his windpipe.”

“Stop!” Hayes is on his knees, still gasping. “Stop, I’ll tell you—just stop⁠—”

The vines tighten, and Finn’s eyes start to roll back.

“I found her outside your chambers!” Hayes screams. “Gem. She was outside your chambers. I thought it was suspicious, so I detained her. She’s in the dungeons. That’s all, that’s everything.”

Father goes still.

“Outside my chambers.” He says it slowly, like he’s tasting the words.

“Yes.” Hayes is shaking. “I didn’t—I didn’t know what she was doing there.”

Even now, even after everything, he’s still protecting her. Leaving out the lockpicks, making it sound like she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Mmm.” Father releases Finn.

Finn crumples to the floor, choking, gasping for air. I want to go to him and make sure he’s okay. But I can’t move, can’t draw Father’s attention.

“The swordmaster.” Father turns away from all of us, staring at the dark window. “The pretty commoner who’s been getting too close to my sons. The one who wanders my castle like it belongs to her.”

The silence that follows is suffocating.

“Well.” He straightens his jacket and smooths his hair. “That’s easily handled. We’ll just kill her. Tonight.”

The world stops. My mind scrambles for something, anything, but all I can see is Ella’s face in the moonlight. Find me.

I look at Finn. He’s on the floor, one hand pressed to his bruised throat, but his eyes are sharp and fixed on mine. He doesn’t speak; he just mouths, Go.

I don’t think. I’m out the side door before Father registers the movement, taking the narrow staircase two at a time until it spits me into the throne room. My footsteps echo off the glass dome as I sprint across the marble floor, weaving through the trees.

Please. Please let me find her. Please.

I burst through the eastern doors and cut toward the hidden entrance below the training yards, taking the dungeon stairs three at a time.

It’s empty down here while the guards are still at the ball, and I find her in the third cell. She’s standing at the bars, still as a caged bird, face streaked with tears, and when she sees me, her whole face crumbles.

“Rye?”

My chest splits open. I want to reach through the bars and hold her, wipe the tears from her cheeks, tell her everything is going to be okay, but there’s no time.