Page 112 of Stars May Burn

She frowned as if concentrating hard on something. “Lord Lyrason was here. Right at the beginning. They gave me a sedative, so I don’t remember well, but he said something about being outside. That was a long time ago, though. A few hours at least. Father said he would visit me every hour to see if I’d changed my mind. So maybe three or four hours ago?”

I tensed. Lord Lyrason? He knew Sir Halfield had Sophie here? My heart started to thud again.

Surely he would have guessed far more accurately than Sophie’s father how long it would take me to find her. He likely suspected I had one of his tracking devices, but it was clear he hadn’t told Sir Halfield, or he would have had a lot more guards. Halfield had assumed he was safe here with no way for me to find him.

What if Lord Lyrason had been aware of Sir Halfield’s plans and knew I would come running? Was that why he had released more halfsouls tonight? Had he used Sir Halfield’s plans as a trap of his own, knowing I was exhausted from fighting, trying to defend an injured woman, and blinded by rage?

It all made too much sense. Even choosing to release halfsouls on the civilians a few days earlier so I would be absent when Sir Halfield sent Sophie his letter, and then too distracted to realize what danger she was in.

I could see Lord Lyrason calmly offering to help an anxious Sir Halfield rein in his wayward daughter, all so he could work from the shadows and get me exactly where he wanted me.

He knew I was closing in on him. Maybe he was tired of waiting for the king or his noble underlings to finally kill me.

This was bad.

I held Sophie close to my chest and turned to Meena. “We need to go now. Be ready. Your priority is to protect Sophie not me.”

She nodded without question and drew her second short sword.

I hurried through the narrow corridor of the house, cradling Sophie close to my chest. There was no way I would let her be taken from me again. Not when she’d already been so strong while enduring hell.

Ahead, everything was quiet.

Meena slipped past me and pushed open the front door first, bearing her swords out to the night. After a few seconds of continued silence, I followed and took stock of our surroundings. Sir Tristan and the other guards were gone. As was the princess. The thick border of trees and bushes that shielded the garden from the street offered too much cover, too many shadows for me to search.

Some grass was scuffed and there were skid marks. Otherwise, nothing. No bodies. No blood.

My heart pounded in the silence as Meena took up a defensive stance beside me and I scanned the trees again. My device stayed silent apart from the faint drone coming from Meena’s devices.

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked.

“Lord Lyrason. Can you stand? I may need to fight. Have you got any strength left in your reserve?”

She nodded, and I slowly set her on her feet. She winced and stumbled, but held, pressing her necklace three times beneath the neckline of her dress. I suspected she wouldn’t have much left if she had been using it to survive Halfield’s beatings. I drew my sword and took her hand with the other. Her fingers were sticky with blood. I freed a knife and handed it to her. Just in case.

Where had my men gone? I confirmed that my device was turned on, but I couldn’t sense anyone nearby using kryalcomy or Callum’s devices. My soldiers would have to be far away or dead to not give off a signal. Unless Lord Lyrason knew about our detectors and had ripped them free.

Whatever trouble they were in, getting Sophie somewhere safe was my priority. I motioned for Meena to take the front and we slowly advanced toward the gate.

“Kasten, look out!”

My eyes flew up to the voice, and I saw Annabelle’s shadowed form up one of the trees. She gestured to the bushes on either side of the gate. I pulled Sophie back and pushed her behind me, shielding her with my body.

Sure enough, sticks creaked and something shot out from between the dark leaves. It looked like it had once been a large dog, but its fur was ragged, and it appeared half dead. My device remained silent.

A crossbow bolt thudded into its side as it lunged at Meena. The impact pushed it to one side, but it kept coming just as quickly. Meena crossed her blades in front of her, shielding herself from its teeth, then kicking it back. It twisted in the air, however, catching her in the face with its back claws as it jumped off her, forcing Meena to duck.

She took a blind swipe where the creature had just been as she staggered back. One of her eyes stayed closed as she regained her balance in a defensive position just before the creature barreled into her again.

We trained endlessly to fight soldiers and Kollenstar soulless and my elites were trained against halfsouls, too, but we had never trained to fight crazed beasts.

I ran to help Meena, my steps taking too long, and managed a blow to its side with my sword as it pushed her to the ground. Meena had abandoned her own swords, using knives instead to swipe at the beast, now it was at such close quarters. Her freisk knife seemed to have no effect. Another bolt thudded into its side. Still, it attacked without slowing, its jaws snapping in Meena’s face as she blocked its teeth with the thick gauntlet on her forearm so it didn’t reach her throat.

I straddled the beast and slipped my sword between Meena’s arm and its throat, yanking upward. Its neck cracked, and finally, the beast went limp. I noticed a thick leather collar covered in smooth metal studs.

I dragged the strange dog off Meena and helped her to her feet. She was shaken and covered in black sticky blood. “Did it bite through your skin?”

She shook her head and wiped the blood from her eye. I turned to hack off the collar so Callum could study it later.

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