Part 28 (1/2)

When Delilah stepped toward him, that was it. He drew his arm backhe was going to kill her, the way he would kill anything that stood in his way. Everything unfolded so quickly, but it felt like slow motionlike the world had stopped and I could see it all but I couldn't move fast enough to change anything.

Linus shouted the word stop, but Ember was already moving, diving at Delilah and pus.h.i.+ng her out of the way. Delilah fell to the floor just as Ja.n.u.s drove his sword straight through Ember, and she hit the floor with a sickening thud.

SEVENTY-TWO.

allt ar mitt I ran at Ja.n.u.s, not caring if he was a Hogdragen or if he truly believed he was justified in what he'd done. For a moment my anger blocked out any rational thought, and I was just moving.

Ja.n.u.s raised his sword, blocking me, but I was moving faster and faster. So each time he blocked me, I would move away and come at him quicker, until I finally found my opening. I drove my blade through his throat, pus.h.i.+ng him back against the wall, until I'd pinned him there like a bug in a gla.s.s case. Blood poured from his throat, staining the dark fabric of his uniform.

I left him that way and turned back to survey the scene. Astrid stood with her back pressed against the wall, looking rightfully terrified. Linus stood off to the side of Ember with tears in his eyes, and Delilah was sitting with Ember, holding her in her arms as she slowly bled out.

I walked over to them and fell to my knees.

”Why did you do that?” Delilah asked through tears, and brushed Ember's hair back from her face. ”You shouldn't have done that.”

”Of course I should have,” Ember said, her voice soft as she stared up into Delilah's eyes. ”You're alive, and you're safe, and I love you. There is no greater thing I could do than die to save my true love.”

”Ember, I love you,” she sobbed. ”What will I do without you?”

”Fight.” Ember closed her eyes, but her chest was still rising and falling with shallow breaths. ”And live. My love will go on with you, so live as long as you can.”

”Allt ar mitt, och allt skall tagas frn mig,” Delilah said, reciting a Par Lagerkvist poem in Swedish, sounding lyrical and beautiful. ”Inom kort skall allting tagas frn mig.”

While my Swedish wasn't as good as it should be, I thought what she said translated to, ”All is mine, and all shall be taken away from me, / within moments all shall be taken away from me.”

Then Ember took her last breath. Delilah leaned over and gently kissed her on the lips, and then she laid her head on Ember's chest and wailed like her heart had just been ripped out of her.

One of my best friends had just died, and I wanted to fall apart the way Delilah was doing, but I knew there wasn't time. Later, I would mourn for Ember the way she deserved. But now I had to finish things so that she wouldn't die in vain. I needed to get Delilah safe.

I stood up and pulled gently on her arm. ”Delilah. You need to let Linus get you to safety.” I looked back at him. ”You do know how to get the refugees out of here, right?”

He nodded, wiping at the tears in his eyes. ”Yes. Ember showed me. I know what I need to do.”

”Good. I need you to take Delilah out of here and keep her safe.” I turned back to Delilah, since she still hadn't gotten up, and I pulled her to her feet. I put my hands on her face, forcing her to look at me. ”Listen to me, Delilah. I know this is hard, but Ember died so that you could live. So you need to live. You have to pull yourself together, and follow Linus out of here. Do you understand me?”

She tried to stop her tears and nodded. ”Yes.”

”Good.” I took Ember's sword and handed it to Delilah, since Linus already had his own. ”Move quickly and stay safe.” I looked from one of them to the other. ”Both of you.”

”I will,” Linus a.s.sured me. ”I'll finish what Ember and I started.”

He stood up tall, looking more confident than I had ever seen him before, and I hoped I was doing the right thing, leaving him to protect the thing that meant the most in the world to Ember. But I had trust that she'd trained him right and he could do this.

Linus took Delilah's hand and led her out the front door, looking for the quickest escape route to the front gate, where Finn could lead them to. And that meant I was alone with Astrid.

I turned back to face her, and she flinched. She hadn't moved from where she'd been before, with her back pressed against the wall.

”Bryn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of those things,” she said in one hurried sentence, almost as if it were all one word.

I grabbed the sword from Ja.n.u.s's throat, which caused him to fall to the floor, and she cringed. I stalked over to her with slow, deliberate steps and Astrid began to whimper.

”Please, Bryn. I'm sorry. I didn't mean”

Astrid kept right on talking until I pressed the blade to her throat, still warm from Ja.n.u.s's blood. Then her eyes flew open and her mouth flew shut. I didn't break the skinI held the blade just hard enough so she could feel exactly how sharp the edge was.

”I could kill you right now,” I growled. ”And I should. But I'm not going to.” I stepped back from her and took the sword from her throat.

”Thank you, Bryn. Thank you so much. I don't know”

”But I'm not going to save you,” I said, cutting her off.

Her hand was on her throat, rubbing where the sword had been. ”What are you talking about?”

”There's a war going on, and I just killed your only protection.” With my sword, I pointed to the window, where the fight was coming increasingly closer to the doorstep.

I grabbed her wrist and started dragging her outside. She was pleading with me to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. As I pulled her out to the street, a Tralla horse came racing by, its heavy hooves pounding on the snowy cobblestones. With all the fighting, the fence outside the stables must've been broken down, freeing all the horses.

But that was the least of my concerns. I dragged her toward two hobgoblins who were just finis.h.i.+ng taking down an Omte ogre at the edge of the fray. Astrid began to scream as soon as she saw them, since she was unaccustomed to them and frightened by their appearance.

”Bryn! Please! Let me go!” she begged.

”Hey, guys!” I yelled, and the hobgoblins looked over at me, and then I motioned toward Astrid. ”She just had a soldier killed that was helping us, and she has close ties to the Kanin Queen.”

”Queen Mina will have your head if any of you lay a hand on me!” Astrid shouted, her voice growing shriller.

Since she seemed like she would do just fine digging her own grave, I let go of her and started walking away. The two hobgoblins smiled before they pounced on her. I heard her screaming, but I didn't look back. I didn't need to.

SEVENTY-THREE.

bloodied At first I'd been trying to avoid hurting any of the Hogdragen. But after Ja.n.u.s, I would kill anyone who ran at me with a sword. I'd always known that war wouldn't be so black-and-white, but I'd come to realize that there was a darker shade of gray, where right and wrong came second to simply surviving.

I wanted to make a straight line to the palace and find Ridley, but the fighting made it hard to move quickly. I could make it a few feet, stepping over bodies, before I'd find myself in combat with someone else. My hands and clothing were soaked with blood, and there had to be a quicker way to get to the palace.

Then, almost like a guardian angel, I heard Bloom. I looked back and saw the ma.s.sive Tralla horse running through the streets. His sterling mane flew behind him, and I whistled for him. He reared up on his back legs, braying loudly, and I saw that the fur around his hooves had been stained dark crimson.

He saw me and raced toward me through the crowd, knocking over anyone who got in his way. When he reached me, I sheathed my sword, and I jumped up to grab on to his mane. I tried to hoist myself up, but Bloom was over seven feet tall at his shoulders, so I couldn't exactly just hop up on him.

Then I felt a hand under my feet, pus.h.i.+ng me up, and I finally got high enough so I could swing my leg over. I looked down to see who'd helped me, and Baltsar smiled up at me before taking on a Hogdragen guard.

”Go, Bloom,” I commanded, but he didn't need more prompting. Even he knew that a war zone was no place to pause.