Page 136 of The Princesses of Ruin
I scramble up, dagger clenched in my fist. It’s thirty steps to the intersection.
“Help me!” I scream.
There should be guards here. Where are they?
She ordered them away. Ordered their silence.
I trip, the bottom of my dress too long. I kick off my other shoe. I don’t know where I left the first. I taste salty iron and…licorice candy.
A roar of anger down the hall bellows for me. “I’m going to kill you, stupid whore!”
Up again, running. I hook the blade in the front of my gown and cut. It rips away, leaving me in a slip that makes me light and quick. I run faster, my feet thudding as loud as my heart.
“Help!” I scream again, my lungs burning.
There’s no one here. There’s no one here on purpose.
Of course, he said my mother paid him—not nearly enough.
Shadows move beside me and I can feel them in my gut. I don’t know how I know, but I dodge, missing a dark-coated blade meant for my back.
You’ve got him inside you, love, that’s why.
The shadows evaporate, leaving a tiny kris knife on the ground ahead of me.
“You fucking bitch!” the assassin growls.
I run, not knowing where my legs are going, only that we’re getting away from him, to someone…anyone. Maybe Alastair is standing vigil outside Lily’s door. Maybe I can—
A sharp pain spears my thigh. I want to scream, but my lungs ache so badly I can’t. There’s no breath for screaming, only for running.
The stairs are well-lit with sconces, and my attacker disappears. I power up the steps, my leg aching. I check for a blade, but there is none, just a small wound. The black shadows that he’d tamed move against my skin there, filling the void. It hurts, but…it’s a healing kind of hurt. The kind of pain that hot water and salve create. The kind that high-magus healing powers create.
What is happening?
There’s no time to consider it any further. My wound is managed, so I need to move.
I take the stairs two at a time up to my floor. Lily’s room is just down from mine, across from Alyse’s. Alastair will be there. He’s always there…
Except he isn’t. Which means Lily isn’t there, either.
Where is everyone?
Hopelessness sinks to the bottom of my gut. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do—
Shadows explode from the window at the end of the tower. I scream, running from the figure charging through the hall toward me. My door opens and I slam it shut, locking it behind me.
Blackness mists at the crack at the bottom and his eyes appear again. I take a step back, holding the blade out in front of me.
“Don’t,” I whisper on a gasped breath. “Don’t come closer.”
He evaporates and then there’s a hand on my hair. I cut through it with my knife, severing us. I run for the door, but he’s already there. A punch to my stomach sends me reeling. I fall, hitting the ground with a thud that jostles my brain.
I’m going to die.
No, you’re not, love.
I roll, scrambling back on hands and knees, but he’s behind me again. I use the bedpost to help me to my feet. He grabs my ankle and yanks, dragging me back to the floor. My forehead smacks the end of my bed and I see stars in the darkness. Something hot trickles down my face.
