Page 92 of The Fifth Soul

The staff passage is far more packed than I could have anticipated. Staff from all over the castle take refuge inside the walls. Injured men and women cry out in agony as we pass them. Bubbly, burning flesh air fills the passage.

I’ve never felt more shame in my life to watch their suffering yet be unable to stop it. I’ve failed them. One day as their king and I’ve already allowed tragedy inside my castle walls.

We pass what feels like hundreds of people as we make our way across. A guard opens the passageway, carefully watching for any potential attack. The smell of smoke intensifies until I can taste it. Black charcoal walls I don’t recognize cover the vastness of the hall. I step into the space carefully and watch with disbelief as the bodies of the same guards who left with my brother just minutes before now scatter to the ground, their bodies scorched to black soot.

A low cry from inside my grandfather’s office gets my attention. The door stands open, and we approach it carefully.

Jesse, my brother, stands above the unmoving body of my grandfather. Sobs erupt from his chest in a tone reserved for soul-tearing wounds. My breaths become shallow and heavy. I touch my chest over my lungs, looking for a physical wound. I feel everything all at once.

My grandfather is dead. He’s gone.

I move to walk inside the room when Jesse looks up at me. I’m about to cross the threshold to him when my foot makes contact with a man’s body. It takes me a second to realize the unburned body belongs to none other but one of the Duelo children. One of the two brothers.

“I killed him,” Jesse says between sobs. “He conjured a dragon of fire. It consumed everything in its path. I couldn’t reason with him, Brandon.”

My eyes move about the room, scrutinizing the scene. The space is empty but for my brother and grandfather. I halt at the stand. Only a few hours before, it held the Red Book. Now, it stands empty.

I kneel next to my brother. “What happened?”

“Traitors. All of them. I watched as Duelo Senior took the Red Book. I couldn’t stop him. They outnumbered me. He got away while I gutted his son. The coward.”

I look over at my grandfather’s still form. His flesh remains unburned, and a small pitting part of me is glad he did not suffer the agony the souls outside these walls did.

The cracking of fire rings low in the room. It gets our attention as we listen in horror. There’s more. The noise isn’t loud, which can only indicate that the attack is happening in another tower.

Jesse wipes his face with his shirt and looks at me with agony. “I won’t be able to do it, Brandon. If she’s one of them. I don’t think I’m strong enough to give her the same fate as her brother. Please,” he pleads with me.

His plea reminds me one more time of all that is on my shoulders. It’s up to me. I stand and close my eyes. I envision the situation and all the needs to be done. A plan forms in my mind, and I see a path like a checklist of action items.

“Guards!” I yell with the fury running through my veins. A group of soldiers ready to march on my command stand at attention. “Capture all Duelo members and staff you find. Don’t let a single traitorous rat escape. Kill them if you must, but they do not leave the grounds alive.”

CHAPTER 40

BIANCA

The explosion reminds me of the portal to the Island of Angels. It shuts down my senses for valuable seconds. My vision is blurry, and my hearing is nearly gone. White noise rings until I slowly remember where I am and what I am doing. I’m face down on the floor. I turn and all I see is fire. As far as I can see, every window in the castle has flames erupting from the inside out.

“Please be okay. Please be okay.”

My hand goes instinctively to the bracelet on my right hand. The crystal in the bracelet is still there. I activate it with a few words, then move my hair out of my face. I get to my feet and assess the area. People are running out of every door in hysteria. I notice that some people who are being carried out have serious burns.

I don’t think twice before my feet carry me inside. Battling against the current of people flooding out, I manage to make my way inside. I need to find him and know he is okay. I sprint into the dining hall first. The space is nearly empty as people rush out of the back doors that lead to the garden. From the lack of destruction inside the room compared to the hall, I can assess everyone in here was safe from the explosion.

I rush back to the hall and move, looking for a familiar face. Any of them. Isabel, Lexi Blue, Santiago, Sofia, or even Alejandra. I need to know what to do. How to help.

I lend my shoulder to help a man carry an injured soldier when we hear a loud cracking noise. The sound puts a rush into everyone’s steps. Shouts ring, and people scramble out of the hall. I let go of the soldier and someone else takes my place. I turn to follow the noise.

I hear it before I see it. The loud cracking as it consumes everything in its path, leaving death and silence in its wake. It’s not an explosion. The fire rages, its flames fueled by magic. In the shape of a giant centipede, it rushes through the halls, scorching every inch it crosses.

Like the real-life creature, its antennas stick out far in front of it. People run, trying to escape it as it grabs onto them and drops them at its jaws. The fire chews through them and tosses them back to the flames that follow.

Through the flames, I spot a single person walking behind the creature. No, not walking, controlling the creature. A tall redhead man with an all-black uniform. A man I’ve seen once before at a royal home.

A familiar scream snaps me into action. Santiago and Isabel are amongst the crowd running away from the centipede. I watch in horror as the creature’s body envelops them and many others in its flames.

My brain doesn’t process what occurs as I rush to them. Careless of repercussions, all I can think about is how I need to get to them. The crystal on my sleeve shields my body as I dive into the flame’s head on.

Hunch over to the wall, both remain unharmed as the flames smolder everything and everyone else surrounding them. Isabel shields Santiago by pressing her body against him against the wall.

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