Page 120 of Bound By Roses

Sixteen sets of eyes open themselves to my mind, and sixteen copies of nearly the same image overlap my vision. Gods, I’m never going to get used to this. Even if I’d had another month of practice, I doubt this would be any less overwhelming. I’m able to pick and choose which image I want to give priority and since I’m stationary, my own surroundings don’t matter all that much. But fuck, what I would give for—

“Am I too late?” I swing my head around and see Lara—the influencer who can turn thoughts into visions, charging up the sloping hill at our backs on horseback.

“Just in time,” I say as she dismounts. “Where did you get a horse?”

“There was a group of Guardians patrolling the border. There is not one now.”

“Was killing them enough for you? What about your revenge?” As a siren, she should be with the rest of them, waiting to spring their trap and massacre the Guardians in the same way they once massacred Marein.

She shrugs and extends her arms, forming a massive image projected on a backdrop of trees. “I am content to watch. Besides, Erwyn promised to save me one that I can take my time with.”

I don’t want to think about that. Especially not with the wolves breaking through the tree line and charging across barren fields. They’re faster than horses, and I say a silent prayerto Terranous that they’ll be fast enough. This gift to become one with the wolves came from him, so if he’s going to answer me, it better be now.

‘Which way?’The voice was Ellis. He’s running at the front of the pack, so I narrow in on his eyes. The projection in front of me morphs to match and makes focusing on him all the easier.

‘Follow the path until you see the wall. Then veer left alongside it. You’ll come to a more discreet entrance. I doubt any are guarded tonight, but I’d rather be safe and this one is closer to the square, anyway.’I’m rambling in my nervousness and although I know Quinn can hear this too, he’s not correcting me. In fact, he’s dimmed our connection just enough so that I can still feel him without it being a distraction. It’s just enough to know that he’s alive and remind me of his promise that we’ll take on Imelda and Void together.

‘I see it.’So do I, but I don’t point that out.‘Once inside, where do we go?’

I try to visualize the layout in my mind. It’s been so long since I last snuck out of the palace and moved like a shadow through these same streets. Now, instead of breaking out, we’re breaking in.

‘Your first right and then a left. Follow that path until you come to a staircase. That leads to the lower city. Go down it and take an immediate left.’

‘And that leads to the square?’

‘No, but I need to see what we’re dealing with.’From there, there’s two paths they can take. One that I’d prefer, and one that involves doubling back. Those precious seconds lost might be the difference between life or death, so I hope I’m making the right choice.

Ellis doesn’t question me and leads the wolves according to my instructions. I watch as he does, waiting for the moment I can jump in again. There’s movement to my right, and I spareonly the quickest glance to see that Jade is now standing there, wings splayed and claws ready. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was going in there to kill rather than to rescue.

“It’s like looking through a dream,” he muses. “Or a reflection on water.”

Somehow, I know he doesn’t mean the projection itself. His memories are clouded and the only ones that are clear to him are the ones that bring pain. Seeing the city that brutalized him, starved and ridiculed him through the eyes of another is bound to have this effect.

I can feel him looking at me now, but I do my best to ignore it. “Where are you taking them?”

Ignoring him would be a lot easier if he wasn’t talking. “I really can’t explain this to you right now.”

“There’s no way into the square from the lower city. Unless I’m remembering that wrong.”

Rhett and Kaylee must also be watching—and perhaps the rest of the dragons too—because Rhett says, “He’s right. Unless…”

“Brilliant,” Merrick says from behind me. “How did Quinn know about that?”

“He didn’t,” I mutter, because it’s all the attention I’m willing to give them. It doesn’t matter whose plan this was as long as it works. If that door isn’t open or the wolves can’t get inside, we may already be too late.

“The grates,” Jade says, and I know he’s figured it out. He’s pieced together fractions of distorted memory and flickers of the vision before him to understand my plan.

There was a time when blood pooled in the city’s heart. When the volume of executions grew so great that something had to be done. The king and queen’s solution was to dig down into the lower city and install grates that could be opened before an execution. Sending the wolves up from beneath the squarenot only guarantees a surprise attack, but it gives the people somewhere to flee. While the fighting rages above, they can pass through the lower city where Jade and Rhett will meet them and lead them to the only tunnel that leads to the forest.

But if those grates are closed—if Imelda didn’t think to open them or plans to bathe in the blood of the innocent, this risk will cost us. But Quinn told me to make the calls as I see them, and I think it’s worth the risk.

‘Taking the left,’Ellis says moments before they do.

‘Go straight. All the way to the wall.’

I can feel his hesitation.‘But—’

‘Just do it!’They run and then skid to a stop, a few of them kicking shoulders into the solid stone.‘Look up!’My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I feel as if it might burst out of me. Or maybe that’s just the surge to vomit when I realize why the stone looks so red.

---