Page 124 of Claiming Glass

Von Mekeln attacked again, and I jumped to the next sarcophagus, then the next. Blood ran down my arm. He chased after, forcing me to keep moving as I tried to find a solution.

I can’t hurt them. Could I at least inconvenience them?

Von Lemerch was unnatural. Von Mekeln invincible. But the priestesses seemed human.

I led von Mekeln away until I stood between him and the others, seemingly surrounded. I let my shoulders slump, blade tipsink. His steps slowed as he grinned in my direction, lowering his own blade as I had expected. He wanted a show, a chase.

With genuine fear painted across my face, I backed away. As predicted, he stopped to watch. We both knew there was nowhere for me to run.

I knew this crypt. Could map it in my mind and estimate the steps across. The air whispered each movement of those behind me as they spread out to catch me.

Counting each foot until only eight separated me from where I had started, I spun before the others moved and, barely avoiding Helia’s unconscious body, stabbed the closest priestess through the side.

Before I processed the scream and blood staining the white robe, I pulled out the sword to attack the next one. It was not the revenge I had dreamt of, not the battle I had trained for, but if my skills and life could give Dasha and Tempest a chance, they were the deaths I would claim.

I slashed the next one’s leg. Threw myself forward to keep moving, air speeding me along.

Von Mekeln crashed into the wall where I had just stood.

I sliced the closest priestess’s arm as the others swarmed me—too many, too strong. Twisting desperately, I stabbed Mekeln through the heart.

He smiled as he stepped closer anyway. Two of the remaining four priestesses tore my hands away.

Von Mekeln, still on my blade, punched my temple, and though I saw it coming and the last magic sang in my veins, I could not move fast enough to duck.

My head snapped to the side, the crown crashed to the floor, and the world went blissfully black.

Somehow, my second wedding ended even worse than the first. I must truly be cursed.

Chapter twenty-nine

Vanya

Orso picked one of the back gates to the Women’s Tower as the undead in the courtyard behind us were met with swords and torches. Spirits lit the palace grounds, swarming the main buildings, as men clashed blades and griffons attacked the undead with beaks and claws.

You can’t fight this battle, I reminded myself. I was no warrior, and ahead was both Dimitri and Morovara’s price for the priestesses fighting with the guards.

Lumi’s light grew. “The sigils are fully down.”

“Perfect,” Orso said, his tone anything but.

It should have been obvious as Lumi had been brightening as we hurried through the woods and gardens, but we had still hoped the rebels had stopped them on Palace Road. I should have known better.

Orso waved us through the gate, into what should have been the safest place in Tal. Lumi passed this second line of sigils without issue, and I prayed to the Death Goddess for the children this place protected within its walls. They had nothing to do with this ancient struggle. Then again, neither did I.

Last time I ran through the Tower gardens, I had been high on magic and terror. This time, the fear was different, with tension like wires wrapped around my bone. We snuck through, slower now in case we encountered guards from either side of the battle outside. The natural beauty, hidden away and cultivated for the most privileged women in Tal, barely registered. Lanterns lit a path further in. I led us the other way, trying to remember the way I went last time. Somewhere was the entrance to the underground.

A tree seemed familiar. And a bench and fireflies.

Shouts of pain and bloodthirst sounded from the Tower’s front entrance. That no one came to investigate filled me with equal fear and gratitude.

“It’s close,” I said, trying to see over the bushes.

We stood beyond the lanterns’ light and no matter how I squinted into the dark, I could not spot the stone structure of the entrance to the tunnels under the Tower.

The plan had been to follow Dimitri and Helia as they passed, but midnight had already arrived and we were too late. I could only hope and dread who else was coming.

“We wait until they break through the fighting and come with the dead.”

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