Page 137 of Burn

Briar

Somebody was hunting me. Perhaps more than one.

I stumbled through a chasm, the air so thick with darkness I failed to see the tips of my fingers. The void reduced my senses, narrowing them to scent, sound, and touch. My nostrils inhaled the charred reek of a thousand snuffed flames, my rampant breaths chuffed louder than they should have, and the hard wainscoting dug into my back as I snaked along the passage.

Every so often, I flung my arms out, checking to make sure I wasn’t about to bump into an object. A vase of cattails. A suit of armor on display. A body lunging toward me. No, I wasn’t alone in here, and that circumstance was hardly by chance.

My eyes widened, straining to catch an image, a flicker, a shadow. Palpitations rapped against my breastbone, and the rustling of my gown filtered into the black, the noise sending prickles up my spine. As I inched along what I presumed to be a hallway, the runner muffled my footfalls until my heel clapped onto a polished surface.

Having reached the rug’s edge, the clamor of my shoe charged down the corridor. Anyone within a thirty-yard-radius could hear it. Seizing against the wall, I pressed my scalp into the facade and mashed my lips together, waiting.

Nothing. The sound faded without consequence.

Kicking off my heels, I nudged the shoes into the corner and proceeded barefoot. The wood floor chilled my toes but made it easier to move silently. I padded into a bottomless pit, searching, speculating.

Rhys. Whoever had doused the castle, and by whatever unknown means, they must be working for Summer. They had to be the ones who’d poisoned me and massacred the born soul.

With every creak of the ceiling beams and stairs, panic fired through my chest. A gust of wind turned me in one direction. A shift of noise twisted me in another. Sweat coated my palms as they ran over the wall moldings behind me, seeking a makeshift weapon. Invisibility prevented me from aiming my thorn quills, limiting my options to whatever heavy or sharp object I could locate.

To my distress, my fingers encountered no such luxury. But with any luck, I would spot a blessed window.

Please. Please let me find one.

My toes bumped into something soft and slick. As my foot brushed the shape, recognition assaulted me, and vomit gushed up my throat. I shot a hand to my mouth and forced down the contents of my stomach.

A limp hand flopped across my ankle. As I padded around the dead body, my soles felt their clothing, the metal breastplates and leather vambraces familiar. I stepped over the prone form, then encountered another, and another.

My security detail. That was why they hadn’t been present to escort me from the dance gallery.

Wetness seeped into my hem, likely from blood. I heard no breathing, nor perceived any sign of survivors among the entourage. Pressing my palm harder against my lips, I stifled a gasp and maneuvered past the deceased guards.

There was nothing I could do for them now. Yet it took ages to recover, to regain my equilibrium, to stop imagining their lifeless eyes gawking at the ceiling. Were it not for their duty to protect their princess, those men and women would still be alive.

The depths engulfed me like a catacomb, darkness swallowing everything in its jaws. My frantic mind invoked specters and ghouls. But no, my hunters were not phantoms.

I urged myself to concentrate. From the onset, we had expected Rhys to use the tunnels and infiltrate the castle. But we hadn’t expected his cult to single me out this way, caging me inside these walls like prey.

I continued to move, schooling myself to calm down, to remember the complex’s layout. I knew these halls and wings like my own pulse, had committed this stronghold to memory from childhood, starting with those nights exploring with Father. That knowledge had enabled me to sketch a map of the castle by heart, drafting with Poet a diagram of ribbon trails for Nicu, which we’d installed.

I longed to reach up and touch one of them. Tragically, they hovered too far overhead to make contact.

Instead, I monitored the path and consulted a blueprint in my head. Based on the turns I’d made thus far, my trajectory placed me in the south wing, the knowledge bolstering my confidence a fraction. I’d evacuated the west quickly, since the trespassers would try for the Royal quarters first. This, provided they knew their way around the castle.

I prayed to the Almighty Seasons they weren’t familiar with the skeleton of this citadel like I was. If I could reach the lower level, it would guide me to the armory, the training lawn, and the soldiers’ dormitories adjacent to the main courtyard. The place where I had given my speech. The place where the knights had welcomed me home. Few attackers would likely dare to venture where the soldiers of Autumn slept. Even if the warriors had quit the dorms, they must be stationed in droves around the exterior.

Or rather, I hoped as much. Regardless, that was the closest outlet from where I’d begun, the quickest accessible option.

The wall I’d been pressed against ended. I calculated my whereabouts, recognizing the hollow echo of four thoroughfares. If my estimation proved accurate, a stairwell door stood just across the intersection.

I clenched my eyes shut and pictured green irises. Two sets. One mischievous, the other precious.

Poet. Nicu.

Agony creased my features, but determination set my jaw. By Seasons, I would get to my family.

Taking a measured breath, I hunkered on my hands and knees, then crawled through the murk. With each trembling pace, my respirations quivered and grew shallow. My flat palms braced against the floor, grappling nothing until a hard facade manifested.

I patted the door, clutched the overhead knob, and eased open the threshold. A cavernous groan wended into a cavity so vast, it was hard to believe shapes and color had ever existed. I scurried into the stairwell and sat upright on the landing’s rug liner. Clasping the rail bar would only get me so far before I stumbled and snapped my neck. The safest choice was to scoot down the steps on my backside.

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