Page 124 of The Forbidden Fae King

Silvan jolts. “There are Belladonna Assassins in the city, though I guess you already know that. We were playing cards with the palace guards in the barracks and the call came in that Cyprien’s estate has been set on fire.

“One of his own guards brought us the news. He pulled me aside to tell you to get out of the city. That they slaughtered your corrupted spriggan and would have killed Cyprien if he were home. They maimed a few of his guards to find out where he was.” His gaze passesto the corpse again. “They will come for you again when they find out this one failed.”

Drake practically bounces on his toes with need to get moving. “Cyprien left a message for us to meet him outside of the God’s Gate.”

“We leave now,” Aldrin barks, leading me by the elbow. “Wake up our people and grab the emergency bags you already have packed. Leave everything else so it takes them time to realize we are gone. We knew this was a possibility.”

I stare at him.Ididn’t know this was a possibility.

It takes time to gather our people. Caitlin pulls a knife to my throat as I shake her awake. Her movements are fast and sharp with years of training, and the anger that pinches her features turns to wide-eyed horror as she realizes it is me hovering over her. She dresses quickly as I grab her bag. The rest of Aldrin’s guard meet us in the corridor.

The city is a different place in the early hours of the morning.

The shadows are long and nothing lights our path except the twin moons and the lady of the night blooms, which have their white petals fully open and spheres of light at their core. In the darkness, it appears they colonize every surface of the buildings, breaking some of the inky darkness.

I see phantoms in every corner. Assassins that don’t exist base jumping across the blackness in the corner of my eye. It doesn’t help when Aldrin tells me they specialize in magics of shadows and light.

Fears rolls hard through me, making my whole body shiver. I clutch onto Caitlin’s fingers like it would stop me from losing her and Aldrin pushes my lower back from behind.

Our party of twelve makes our slow descent through the streets from the palace at the city’s apex. Both Silvan and Zinnia sprint to corners under the cover of their invisibility wards, then signal us to follow when it safe.

Acrid smoke curls within my nostrils. Up here the view is clear over the roofs of shops and between apartments, to Cyprien’s walled estate on a not-too-distant rise of clustered buildings.

We pause within the shadows and gape at the travesty.

Plumes of dark ash are almost hidden against the indigo of the night sky, but the heavens around the inferno glow with yellow light. Within it, tongues of orange flames still flicker and dance and rage. They are subdued, but the intensity of blaze hints that the fire spread before it could be extinguished. The buildings themself are black silhouettes on that backdrop.

I hold out a hand and tiny flecks of white ash land upon it like a dusting of snow. The bitter taste of it sits on my tongue.

The calls of firefighters ring out, carried this far in the otherwise still night. Their intensity is suddenly amplified and descends into shouts and screams, as a small building collapses in on itself, followed by a loud clap and rumble.

“I cannot believe even Titania would be this ruthless.” Aldrin’s voice trembles with rage. “That she would threaten this whole city burning to the ground, to silence Cyprien and myself. I greatly underestimated her.”

“Desperate people can do unimaginable horrors, especially a tyrant who has their power threatened,” Caitlin says from my side. “We cannot stay here.”

“She knows you care about all your people and she sees it as a weakness to exploit.” Silvan half growls.

We throw ourselves into our mad flight through the city, dashing down staircases, cutting across platforms and over bridges that take us from one tall clutter of skyscraping building to the next. We transverse the city both horizontally and vertically, until we reach a region of low-lying superstructures that appear to be a series of temples.

The stacked, triangular roofs are constructed purely from polished moonstone, gleaming under the light of the moon and illuminating the streets. The stone walls are almost completely covered in thick brambles.

The pathway downwards passes under great arches of white marble, with vines and closed blooms entwined around them. Large bells hang from each arch, with their chain hanging so low I could easily reach up and grab it.

Soft chanting drift across the air, rising in volume and fever, then dropping to almost a whisper, but never ceasing.

A chill runs down my spine. “What is this place?” I ask Aldrin.

“The Temple Sanctum. Anyone may come here looking for peace and will receive protection. Hopefully, we can pass through to the God’s Gate unmolested.”

My heart hammers painfully. Apprehension builds to an almost unbearable point, as we creep down the staircases that circles around and around the main temple, and into thick shadows below.

The inky blackness of the few recesses seem to have a life of their own. Moving tendrils expand and sway, until they engulf entire regions of the platforms, between buildings and beneath overhanging roofs. My eyes dart between them. I don’t make sense.

I suck in a sharp breath of air as a figure leaps through the void between buildings. Their feet bounce off hardened pockets of air and their dark robes fly out behind them. He is almost impossible to see.

“Assassin!” My hoarse voice is just above a whisper, but a ripple of alertness runs through the soldiers around me.

A silver line flashes through the air, moving so fast I can hardly track it. The blade lodges within the air right before my eyes, making a thwacking sound as though it hit wood. An airshield, thrown up by Aldrin. The throwing knife glitters as brightly as the one that was held over Aldrin’s chest.

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