Page 94 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

I took a step back, glancing around for some sort of weapon. Empty cartons littered the alley along with bags of trash that turned my stomach with their wretched smell. But nothing I could use to defend myself.

The cloaked figure stalked forward. I kept my eyes on the hood—straining to see what lay inside it. But darkness obscured the face of the stranger.

Or maybe magic.

Somethingotherclung to it, though I couldn’t sense what.

The figure stopped several paces in front of me. It sniffed the air between us. Then, a raspy female voice said, “You’re the Summer Court heir.”

“I’m not your enemy,” I replied.

“You’re engaged to the Autumn Prince?”

I hesitated, but lying was pointless. “Yes.”

“Then you are my enemy now.”

She lifted the blade. Left with no choice, I reached for my furyfire, but she suddenly jolted. Her knees seemed to buckle, and then she fell.

Behind her stood Rydian, his dark gaze glittering with depthless, burning wrath. “She is not yours to claim,” he snarled at the fallen fae, for all the good it did.

She was already dead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Aurelia

“Are you hurt?” Rydian asked, more anger flashing in his dark gaze as he scanned my length.

“No.”

He met my eyes again and snarled as if finding me in one piece was somehow disappointing. To be fair, Ihadpunched him in the stomach the last time we were together. I was probably lucky he wasn’t the one trying to do me in today.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

On the main road, someone screamed.

I flinched, glancing toward the mouth of the alley then back at the male before me. Something told me, if any more of those rebels found their way into this alley, Rydian would be their death.

“More will come,” I said, and my words seemed to snap him from whatever rage-spiral he’d descended into.

“You can’t be here,” he said. “Come with me.”

Before I could protest, his hand closed around mine, and despite the danger around us, a jolt of heat shot through me. My thoughts jumbled. I nearly forgot what we were doing, but another scream brought me back.

“Hurry up.” Rydian tugged my hand—hard.

Instead of running for the street, he pulled me toward the back corner. I resisted, positive he was leading me into a dead end, but then he rounded the jutting corner and angled his body to slip through a narrow opening between two walls. He pulled me through behind him, and then we ran—racing through the maze of alleyways, his grip firm and steady, until we emerged onto an empty street with narrow townhomes on each side.

It was quiet here, cut off from the chaos we’d left behind. And almost charming with the tree-lined street and the leaves swirling along the pathway as the small breeze swept them up.

Finally, we stopped, and Rydian released my hand, both of us breathing hard. I had the most ridiculous urge to grab his hand again—to find a steadiness in his touch, an anchor in the middle of this fucked-up storm my life had become. I squeezed my hands together to keep from doing something so insanely stupid.

Rydian’s gaze lingered on mine, and for a breath, I could swear he was fighting the same intense urge. But then that look was gone, replaced by that granite-like disgust he always aimed at me. “You shouldn’t have come into the city,” he said, his voice low. “It’s not safe.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that.” I swallowed hard, my pulse still thundering in my ears. “Who were those people?”

“The Withered.” He paused like he was waiting for recognition.

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