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The world spun.
My back collided with the cold, unyielding ground with a force that knocked the breath out of my lungs. Yet I kept kicking, shoving myself over the dirt-packed ground and away from him.
He lunged at me. “Get back here!”
The world around us shuddered violently. A crash echoed. A blast of wind hit me like a furious gale. Men screamed. Chunks of stone and debris rained down, burying the soldier under a tomb of rubble alongside others, his outstretched arm twitching eerily for one breath, two, three.
It stilled.
With my heart pounding like a drum in my chest, I got to my feet, brushing stone dust from my face as I took in the damage. Was that… parts of a catapult tower?
No, no, no.
It was too soon! Too soon!
Chaos escalated, the sense of danger palpable in the air as I weaved through the rushing bodies, my breath harsh in the chill of the evening. The scent of smoke mixed with the distinct tang of iron and bloodshed. Hurrying past the fallen debris and those trying to unearth the injured soldiers, I managed to squeeze through to the barbican, my eyes fixed on the oaken door.
The dungeons!
If the door was unlocked, I would have to figure it out. Even if not, I could always hurry along the wall back toward that—
Something slammed into me.
No, not something.Someone.
I staggered sideways, finding myself in the arms of a frantic Lady Brisden, her eyes filled with terror. “Quick! We must get you out of here somehow!”
“What?” My mind scrambled to process her words as a wave of dread crashed down on me. “What are you still doing here? Why didn’t you escape the attack?”
“He had you shadowed,” she said as she ushered me away from the dungeons, her green dress a mud-speckled mess. “Brisden knows, Galantia. He knows what you are. Worse yet, he believes you might be Prince Malyr’s fated mate. Every soldier of the house guard was ordered to find and capture you.”
The air seemed to freeze in my lungs, the way the soldier had tried to snatch me earlier now explained. “What of the carriage?”
“The moment I learned of Lord Brisden’s discovery from my maid, I abandoned the stables to find you,” she said.What had she just said?“The carriage is lost to the Ravens now. They swept into the outer bailey like a swarm of blackness drawn from the hells themselves, killing everyone. You must fly, Galantia. You must leave from here an find your own before our guards capture you.”
The weight of her words landed heavily in my chest. Lady Brisden, who’d never shown me any love, had abandoned the carriage—her only way of escape—to… warn me? The thought rattled me to my core, stripping away the icy layers of bitterness I’d built around my heart for her.
“Galantia!” She took hold of my shoulders and shook me out of my stupor. “Lord Brisden is having ships readied and the bay will bustle soon, but you cannot stay here, either!”
With a blink, I snapped back to the present, my mind clearing with a sharp inhale. No, I couldn’t stay here. Definitely not to play sitting duck in the dungeons.
I glanced upward along the walls, finding only nine out of ten catapult towers fully intact where soldiers scrambled to reload the nets.“Stay away from the walls and the towers, especially the ones with the net catapults,”Malyr’s voice resonated in my head.
“I need to get to a high place. It’s the only way I know how to get myself to shift, but it can’t be any of these,” I said with a jut toward the catapults. “Our personal chambers are too far back toward the ocean and among the first places where soldiers would look for me.”
Lady Brisden nodded, her pinned-up hair a torn mess. “The bell tower!”
No sooner had she spoken the words, did she usher me back toward the inner bailey. Together, we pushed and maneuvered through the turmoil, our pace rapid as we neared the chapel. Its steeple, topped with a bell tower, shot up into a sky darkened by black clouds. No, not clouds…
A massive unkindness.
One raven fell from the sky, growing big, bigger, only to drop beside me with a heavythud. Its wings still fluttered around the arrow protruding from its chest, uselessly pushing the bird over the ground before its muscles seemed to first lock up, then stiffen into stillness.
When we reached the chapel’s entrance—the doors lying in pieces and massive protruding splinters on the ground—a strong hand clamped around my arm. “Halt!”
“No!” I screamed, lashing out blindly, but the grip only tightened, yanking me backward.
Lady Brisden’s eyes widened before she lunged at the man. “Run, Galantia!”
