Page 125 of Bound By Roses

Did they start this fire? In one last effort to thwart our escape and ensure enough blood is spilled to tear open the veil?

I duck under an awning that hasn’t yet caught fire and open my eyes to the wolves. Fourteen pairs of eyes—not fifteen, which means we’ve lost someone else—blink open in my mind. I focus on the ones still in the square and search for any sign of Imelda or Void.

But there’s nothing.

Nothing but flashes of silver armour splattered in crimson and reflecting flames as the city around them burns. There’s no sign of Lunae’s citizens now. At least, none that live. The ground is littered with bodies, both friend and foe. Hundreds are dead instead of thousands, but the loss feels just as great.

There may have been no way to avoid this, but it doesn’t make it right. History repeats itself, but when will it stop? Why haven’t we learned? I want to live in a world where no one has to die. A world where fire doesn’t erase progress and blood doesn’t stain sand. Where waters don’t run as red as the slickened tip of a blade.

Movement darts to the left of Ellis’s vision. Silver, like the Guardians, but there’s something else, too. I’m almost convinced it was a trick of the light, but then a massive black wing streaked with red appears and I know immediately who it belongs to.

Jade is fighting, but he should be with Rhett. There’s no way they’ve already evacuated the city entirely.

I’m on my feet again in a heartbeat and blinking away all eyes but my own. I round a corner and trip over what can only be a body before landing hard on my knees. I don’t want to look, but I have to.

Unseeing eyes stare back at me, glassy in the firelight. She’s shirtless; the only thing covering her is the blood that seeps from her throat and spills down the length of her thin frame. For justa moment, I think of Teagan on the night her throat laid open beneath a star-filled sky.

But this isn’t Teagan.

This woman is vaguely familiar—even in death—and I know she’s one of the Marked we left behind. Anger flares in my belly at both the lashes I bear for this woman and the life she lived. She never got to taste freedom, and the sword in her hand tells me she was willing to fight for it. I may not know her name, but I’ll remember her bravery and her sacrifice.

I pick myself up and follow the sounds of screaming. The city square is straight ahead, but the sounds came down the path on my left. I take it and under a shadowy alcove, three citizens cower as the ravenous maw of a sacrificial pig tears open a fourth.

“Abilene?” one woman calls to me. How she recognized me without a dress and a crown, I don’t know. “Please, help us!”

I’m no stranger to that plea, but this time it’s different. Ten lashes won’t save the man on the ground, nor will it spare them the same fate.

It looked so easy before the Lunar Hunt. Yes, the pig is sated beforehand, but it only ever took the man I called father one slice of his sword to silence the squeals forever. The dagger in my hand trembles, but I tighten my grip and demand stillness. There’s been enough death today.

I’m moving before I can think twice. Running down the alley as flames engulf the buildings on either side. The fire is spreading quickly, and soon, the animal will be the least of my worries. It doesn’t see me coming, or maybe it doesn’t care. At least until I drive the knife into the back of its neck, all the way to the hilt.

The beast rears back, squealing wildly, and then black eyes settle on me. It charges, and I barely have enough time to reach for another blade before it’s on me. I jab upwards and hot bloodsprays down from its torn neck, showering me in sticky heat. The animal stills and then I feel its weight entirely. The air is knocked from my lungs, but the sensation only lasts a moment.

“Thank you,” a second woman says as she offers me a hand. She and the two other survivors must have pushed the animal off me, and thank the Gods for that. Of all the ways I’ve thought I might die, being suffocated by a pig was not one of them. I accept the hand and allow her to pull me to my feet. “Thank you.”

“You need to get out of the city. Why aren’t you with the other survivors?”

“We got separated from the group. The smoke—” A cough punctuates her words.

Fucking Jade should be out here instead of having his way with the Guardians. For the first time since our bond broke, I wish I could still connect with him mentally, so I can tell him exactly what I’m thinking right now.

“Follow me,” I tell them and turn towards the square. A hand wraps around my wrist and pulls me back.

“We can’t go that way! They’ll kill us!”

“You have to trust me.”

They must, because this time they move with me as we weave through the fallen on our way back to Lunae’s heart. The battle rages just as it did the last time I checked Ellis’ eyes, but it’s somehow different from seeing the destruction from my own. Seamus was right when he said that much of the fighting had moved elsewhere, but what’s left isn’t any less devastating.

I hold no love for this place, but never once did I wish this upon it.

Jade swoops low some distance ahead of me and grabs hold of another Guardian by his breastplate, sending the both of them crashing against the wall of building that’s only survived the flames because it’s made of stone. One of the women behind mescreams, and I realize it’s Jade she’s afraid of. The wolves too, probably.

“Stay here,” I tell them. “The Guardians are your enemy. The wolves won’t hurt you and neither will he.”

I dart into the square, and it’s impossible to avoid stepping into pools of blood. Even with the open grates, this square has never been so full of it. I do my best to ignore it as I stride for Jade, who seems to be in no hurry to finish off the Guardian he still presses into the stone. Metal screeches, and then the front of the man’s breastplate goes flying by me.

“Jade!”

---