Page 110 of A Reign of Roses
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Kane
“What the fuck happened backthere?” I snapped at Mari as we hurtled toward the imposing wrought-iron gates that wrapped around the manicured palace garden. Griffin snarled softly, hand still pressed to his gruesome wound. I waited for Arwen’s reprimand at my brusque tone.
In the split second that it didn’t arrive, I whipped my head around and my heart stopped.
The swarm of guards behind us were losing ground, and we were mere feet from the palace gate. But my chest constricted with each step. She hadn’t made it out.
“We have to go back,” I said, halting my feet. “Arwen—”
“We can’t get her like this,” Griffin rasped, leaning into a rectangular hedge. “We need our lighte. Or a convoy, at least.”
We never should’ve come without men. Ethera had insisted, always worried that our Fae nature gave us an advantage, and we’d been so desperate to please her. Ridiculous.
But the guards were drawing nearer—
And there were too many of them for us to best, powerless, injured, and saddled with a malfunctioning witch. Though it nearly killed me to admit it, he was right. We had to get out first and retrieve Arwen after. “Fine,” I barked. “Hurry.”
Mari’s feet slapped one after the other along the brick path until we reached the gates and hauled ourselves over them. Griffin first with a pained groan, then myself, then Mari, who we pulled down after us. On the other side, deposited into the heart of the capital city of Revue, we ran.
It was barely night and the sky was free of both stars and clouds. An empty, forlorn blue that did not match the urgency warring in my bones.
We rounded the nearest corner—heavy footfalls and horns still sounding behind us—and barreled down a narrow street. Swerving to avoid a neighing steed drawing a carriage, I led us through one more thin alley between two brick buildings.
Silence sounded in my ears, minus the clopping of hooves and our panting, haggard breaths. Above us, wet crepe dresses hung over an ornate teal balcony that mimicked latticework.
Griffin shoved two fingers down his throat and retched against the bricks. His back and arms had been carved with those phantom blades and he was dripping blood on the cobblestone from his ribs as he purged.
“That won’t work,” I breathed, but it didn’t stop him from gagging himself once more. “It’s already in your bloodstream.” We’d need Fae lighte to heal. Or time for the lilium to leave our bodies.
Mari spoke for the first time since we’d left Ethera’s parlor. “I’m sorry…” Her voice was small. “I thought…I’d been trying—”
“Later,” I said to her. “We need to get back in there and with some brute force before Ethera—” I wouldn’t finish the thought. I wouldn’t lose faith in Arwen, either. She was savvy, and skilled, and afull-blooded Fae, and…she’d be fine. Until we could reach her, she’d have to be fine. “How fast can we get back to Shadowhold?”
Mari ripped part of her skirt and used it to stanch the bleeding in Griffin’s ribs as he looked back toward the busy city center that surrounded Ethera’s sprawling urban palace. “Without our lighte?” He worked his jaw, weighing. “Twelve hours. Eleven, if the horses we steal are very fast.”
Fuck.We didn’t have enough time for that.
“A long shot, but—” Mari produced an ornate leather-bound book from her sack. Griffin’s brows rose weakly. “I took this from Ethera’s tree. It’s the mate of the real ledger.”
My brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
Mari chewed her bottom lip. “When I saw the similar spine, I knew this one must be the twin Niclas had told us of. The one that contains the names of those who fought for thenorth, not the south. So I took it. This ledger has family names, home cities, known businesses and affiliates of every single person who fought for Ethera. If Aleksander and all his people helped her—”
“Then his name will be in there…” Griffin finished, massaging his bruised jaw.
My mind had begun to whirl. “If Aleksander is still in Rose like the rebel king told us, he’d be the closest Fae for miles.”
“I’ve read Blood Fae have all kinds of healing powers,” Mari said. “His fixing you both might be our fastest way to get Arwen out.”
She was right. Hemolichs could do a number of unpleasant but valuable tricks with blood, including removing toxins. If we convinced him to aid us, we’d be able to shift and fly back here far faster than if we traveled all the way to Shadowhold for aid. If anyone could help us now, and swiftly, it might actually be him. “Mari, you’re brilliant.”
The look on her rosy cheeks was one of meager redemption.
Griffin added, “It’s the least he could do, given how much he owes us.”
Regardless of my disdain for him, we’d use Aleksander to free Arwen. And then, I’d tear the deranged Scarlet Queen delicate limb from delicate fucking limb.
