Page 17 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

Zyren drops to his knees, hands held high. A half dozen warriors run forward, binding both of us with thick rope. They wrestle my arms behind my back quite ungently, and I let out a squeal of pain as my previously broken shoulder is wrenched backward. Zyren lets out a low growl, glaring toward the men tying me. I look up at him, surprised by the reaction, but when I meet his gaze, his expression turns impassive and he looks away from me, as if remembering that I’m the enemy.

After we’re thoroughly bound, the warriors haul us to our feet. One rider leads me behind him by a loose length of rope attached to my wrists, and another leads Zyren. The battalion turns and begins to move back toward the ruins. We skirt the abandoned castle, and when we reach the far side, we merge with another group of warriors. I catch glimpses of several other figures bound as we are, moving in between the horses. My neck cranes, trying to see who they are.

I catch sight of Owyn, and his eyes meet mine through the milling bodies of horse and rider. “Sarielle!” he yells, to which he receives a swift kick in the head from the rider next to him. I flinch, and when he looks back up at me, I mouth “are you okay?” He nods. Zara and Asher are among the riders, too. No doubt they could have fought off some of the warriors, but theremust be a hundred riders here. And we’d just battled dozens of nightmares.

I realize, with a rush of adrenaline so swift it hurts, that my three companions aren’t the only prisoners. It’s not Avonia or Jonavus, either. There are more than a dozen strangers, women and men both. They must be the people the nightmares abducted, the survivors. My heart pounds so violently in my chest that I can’t breathe for a moment. My eyes strain, searching the face of each in the moonlight, trying to catch a glimpse between the sea of horses.

A man with brown hair, dark skin; a woman with long, gray hair; a young girl I recognize from the Amethyst Palace, no older than fifteen…

And then my heart stops.

Golden hair, skin smudged with dirt and purple with bruises, but a face so familiar to me that I could etch it a thousand times…

“Lilette!” I scream, my voice splitting the night.

Her head whips up and rotates in my direction, face stricken. Those brown eyes meet mine, and shock flashes across them. Shock, followed by a smile so big it could swallow the moon.

“Sarielle!” She surges toward me, running to the end of her rope. “Sarielle!”

“Lilette!” I cry again, pulling toward her, tugging against my bonds.

And that’s when the fist of the warrior next to me collides with my cheek, and darkness takes me.

Chapter Eleven

Sarielle

When I emergefrom the darkness, the first thing to hit my senses is the smell of mold. Mold and urine.

I blink, taking in my surroundings as everything rushes back to me. Stone walls, covered in a sheen of moisture. Stone beneath me, too, where I’m sprawled on the floor. Iron bars near the toes of my boots. I’m clearly in a cell somewhere. And just before I’d been knocked unconscious, Lilette had been there. She’s alive…

“Sarielle!” An urgent whisper from a few feet away. “Are you awake?”

I never would have thought I could be so happy to wake up behind bars.

“Lilette!” I shove up on my elbows and turn toward her voice. She’s in the cell to my right. We sit and stare at each other for several long moments. I take in her dirty golden hair, the bruise on her left temple. No doubt I have one now, too. But I’m so glad to see her that in this moment, every other horrible thing falls away completely.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” she whispers, pressing her face up against the metal of the cell.

I slide across the rough floor toward her, my entire body feeling like one big bruise. When I reach the row of bars between us, I reach through them and grab her hands in mine. “I prayed you were safe, and that the nightmares hadn’t…” I trail off. I can’t even say it.

She sniffles, her smile dropping. “Not everyone was so lucky. So many of the women from the palace…” She shakes as a sob works its way up her throat.

“It’s okay,” I coo, “It’s over now. The nightmares are gone.”

“You killed them all?” Her tear-filled eyes search mine.

“No.” I won’t lie to her, even after everything she’s been through. “No, some escaped. But we’re safe for now, and that’s what matters.”

Lilette’s gaze travels around her cell. “I’m not sure safe is the word I’d use.”

“We’re going to get out of here. Whereverhereis.”

“We’re in the barracks outside the Court of Oaks,” she says.

Which makes sense. I turn, looking left and right as far as I can see in the dim light. We’re clearly underground, there are no windows. A single torch burns in the distance, so far I can barely see the flickering glow of it. There are small cells like ours for as far as my eyes can see, running on each side of a long corridor. On the opposite row, I think I can make out a figure lying on the stones, but whoever it is isn’t moving. I don’t see any guards.

I swing my gaze back to Lilette. “Did you see where they put the others?”

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