AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
Before we left,Honor wanted to run back to the library for one last book.
We almost made it through the halls of the academy without being seen. But then a girl in a brown dress turned the corner, and she ran for Honor, calling out her name.
June burst into tears and clung to Honor's neck.
“Are you going to help Calla?” June sobbed. “And the others… My sister was taken.”
I saw the pain written across Honor’s face. It was familiar pain. She had failed the people she cared about.
“I'll fix it,” Honor promised. “I just need more time.”
I winced, because she was making promises she might not be able to live up to, and I knew what it would do to her if she felt like she had failed even more.
She looked anxious when she finally slipped away. She took my hand, and I startled at first, then wanted to comfort her, then realized it was merely because we were stepping into shadows. Icy cold washed over me as we slipped through the shadows and then we were stepped into yet another icy winter scene. We were on the rooftop of a castle, with snowflakes drifting around us. Some of them landed in Honor’s red hair, and her cheeks and nose were already turning rosy.
As we made our way into the castle, I thought I glimpsed movement below from the ramparts. I moved to the wall to look, but all I saw was a white hare racing across the ground, then a silvery fox chasing behind it.
Honor was at the door, looking back at me. “Nothing,” I said, then followed her inside.
The castle was as cold inside as out. We searched Joachim’s treasure rooms, and we were both disappointed as we made our way through the great hall. It took all my strength to open the massive doors that were usually handled by several men, and as we stepped into the winter storm, Honor gave me a smile. “I could’ve just shadow traveled us out.”
“You can take us to another castle,” I told her. We'd already found more gold than I've never seen in my life, except in glimpses behind Lysander as he stood at the door of his treasury.
Movement in the woods. Knights shedding white cloaks and moving toward us. We weren't alone.
“We need to shadow travel,” I said urgently.
An axe winged toward us, and I pushed Honor out of its path. She stumbled back, slipping on the ice. The axe glanced off the stone wall and fell at my feet.
I seized it instantly and turned to face the dragon knights.
“How can you take her side?” Lord Maren yelled as he ran toward us, drawing his sword. “You know she's trying to destroy us!”
Shit. So all the knights knew she was trying to undo the Scourge curse.
They would do anything to stop her.
“I don't want to destroy anyone!” Honor protested as she scrambled to her feet. “I’m trying to save the kingdom from the Scourge.”
“You want to take away what makes us ourselves,” he disagreed. “That's the worst kind of murder.”
I would’ve disagreed, but he raised his sword and I leapt forward. Our swords clashed against each other’s.
None of us dared to shift into dragons, because we'd have a moment of vulnerability when we did. Instead, we fought ferociously with fists and swords. Honor and I closed up tight together, watching each other's backs.
“You can get us out of here any time,” I told her through gritted teeth, now that we were touching. Then I remembered she didn’t want anyone to know about her capabilities. I cast a glance at the doors to the castle, which seemed far away now; if I could get us inside, we could disappear. The knights would have an entertaining day tearing apart Joachim’s castle.
Dark figures crested the snowy hill.Scourge.Endless waves of them, enough to wipe them all out.
Sometimes problems sort themselves out. I grabbed Honor’s sleeve in my arm and drew her back toward the door. “Let's go.”
Honor was staring at the approaching Scourge. The knights cursed and turned into dragons before leaving us behind, charging forward to fight them.
“They're outnumbered,” she said.
“And before that, they outnumbered us.” I reminded her curtly. “And they will again if we don’t move.”
