Page 108 of A Reign of Roses
Human forms, made entirely of poisonous black silhouettes. Not like Kane’s pitch-black power, which shot out of him like wisps of curling, violent smoke. These magic-fueled soldiers were the absence of light altogether. Muscle and sinew hewn from pitch-darkness. Ghoulish, eyeless faces born of night.
They attacked like a tempest, twisting violently through the room. Slashing Rose soldiers’ necks with whatever weapon fit the fight—a baton to club one man, which became a phantom axe for the next. Cutting men down two, three,fourat a time with little effort.
Ethera screamed and I maneuvered past the soldier before me to see if she’d been gobbled up by one of the apparitions. Victory should have rung in my ears. Success—our way out.
But it was too…vehement. Too unnatural. The phantom soldiers were mindless. They didn’t seem like they killed for Mari. These shadow soldiers killed tokill.
And then it was Mari who screamed.
I craned my neck to find her and my bloodchilled.
Mari’s red hair was swallowed in a blur of gloomy black. They’d converged on their own witch. On Kane, on Griffin. On all of us. The specters saw no creed or color, only warm bodies. I knew it wasn’t a soldier that held me back as I lunged for her. As I shrieked—
It was Kane’s hand that coiled like a manacle around my wrist, yanking my shoulder nearly from its socket as he battled Rose men and spectres, halting me from throwing myself between her and those ghastly things.
The dark phantom drew his weapon. Raised it high—a ghoulish cleaver carved of pure, starless night. Ready to slash Mari in half asshe scuttled helplessly back across the floor on her hands. Before I could scream her name again, or watch Mari sliced to bits, the phantom sword landed on a thick, edged dagger.
Griffin’s.
Griffin, who’d somehow broken free of at least ten soldiers despite being poisoned and without any of his Fae strength. Griffin, who parried the demon like a mythical hero and a fabled beast.
Kane’s and my relieved sighs were short-lived, though. More phantoms headed in their direction, finished with the husks of Rose men that littered the parlor floor, looking for their next kill. Griffin wouldn’t be able to hold them off for too much longer.
Kane was already straining to get there—to maneuver past Rose soldiers and aid his commander.
And Mari—Mari wasscreaming. Lunging for Griffin, the pleats of her warm-colored dress tearing as two Rose guards fought to subdue her, though she thrashed and bit and sobbed.
And those phantoms, those shadows, converging on him—
Griffin barely cut down one apparition only to be throttled by the next.
They’d kill him.
“Mari, stop the spell!”
But fear had swallowed her whole. I’d never seen her so stunned. So frozen.
“You can send them back,” I called to her, grunting as I conceded another step to a snarling guard without meaning to.
But she wasn’t listening, or couldn’t hear, her panic taking hold—
“Somebody help him,” Mari croaked, though a shadow had already slain the Rose guard who held her to get its thick hands around her neck and—
I just had to get to her.
Griffin’s sudden, pained groan was gut-churning.
I knew from the sound—even before I’d seen all the blood—how bad it was.
But Mari’s silence, the horror in her eyes as she watched the gleaming phantom slide his broadsword deeper into the groaning commander’s rib cage— Somehow, what she saw in that moment—it was enough.
The whirl of magic stung the air even as we continued to fight.
Fallen book pages fluttered, the hairs on my arms stood on end—
And then the phantoms were gone.
My gaze clawed across the turmoil. Griffin gnashing his teeth against the floor, bright red blood seeping through his Onyx armor and into the fallen cakes and biscuits. Rose soldiers still swarming us all, more and more andmoreguards. Drawn to the chaos, to their queen—
