“Oh, I’m going to puke.” She gagged as we entered the room and saw heads and body parts of humans and beast hung on the red walls like trophies.
“Emrys.” I covered my mouth and nose to keep the scents away.
“Emrys, if you’re in here, get your ass out!” Dris yelled, her face ashen.
“I don’t think he’s here. We should head to the dungeon.” I pulled Dris’s arm toward the exit, not wanting to stay in this room any longer. Body, flesh, and organs hung like decorations. The Dramens were past redemption, past their humanity. They were evil.
Desmire had created a perfect distraction outside, so we made it to the holding cell with only going through two more unsuspecting Dramens. Dris used her chopping hands, and I managed to throw two hatchets into the chest of the other.
Emrys was picking the lock when we showed up. He was covered in unmentionable parts of humans and blood.
“You OK?” I asked my spider, relieved.
He nodded. “These are not humans; they are something else.” Emrys’s words were both a fact and a lie. They had been humans—were still technically human. They had changed into something brutal and bloodthirsty. I squeezed his shoulder.
“Prince Torin!” Dris gasped and I saw a man lying in a holding cell with five other people who looked at us with fear.
“Tor!” I breathed. Emotions flooded my chest. I sobbed, as I looked over his ripped clothes and dirty body on the stone floor.
“Sapphira?” He shook, his arms going around his torso like he held me instead of himself.
“I’m here, Tor, I’m here. This is real.”
Emrys got the lock open, and I rushed in. The other’s gaped, like they didn’t know whether to run or fight me.
“You’re free. They are distracted but not for long. Go!” They didn’t need to be told again. Dris offered the biggest man her dagger and he accepted with only a nod.
“Tor.” I called his name again, this time daring to touch him. He turned over slowly. His deep-blue eyes focused on me and softened, then he smiled.
“I was dreaming of you,” he whispered, like he was still away in a dream of us.
Us.
With great effort, Tor stood. He took in my new appearance, and I knew he saw a new woman. I had packed on muscle. My skin wasn’t as sunken in from lack of nutrition. My posture was that of a survivor, not the broken girl he had known. I was someone else entirely, changed in just these short weeks.
So much had changed.
He brought his lips to mine, only for the barest of seconds, though it felt like years. I pulled back and hugged him tightly, sadness and happiness mixing together in the pit of my stomach. Too much had changed, and I wasn’t the same girl anymore.
Chapter Fifty-Four
“We’ve gotta get out of here. Can you run? Can you fight?” He’d already been through so much.
He nodded, his lips pursed together, and I could tell he wanted to say more, but it wasn’t the time. I reached around my back and lifted the bow and quiver off me, handing it to him. He was a master with an arrow, and I was lucky enough to have taken this set from one of the Dramen’s we’d downed on the way here. We walked toward the exit, and he watched only me, not even taking in our companions, whose glances darted back and forth between us.
I was more afraid ofthatconversation I’d have to have with him than I was facing the Dramens who appeared in the hallway just outside the holding room. A woman stood in the middle of them. Her brown eyes were decorated with black makeup, and harsh tattoos covered her cheeks. She was fit, and her leather clothes were bound together by string. She carried a sword on her hip and a gun in the other. She had a cunning and carnal expression. The black-spiked crown on her blood-coated, blond hair suggested we had met the Dramen’s queen.
Emrys didn’t hesitate. With Fae speed, he whipped out the only gun we had and fired. Tor nocked an arrow and shot two of the queen’s guards.
“Run!” Dris screamed, and we took off down the hall, away from the shouting and very angry queen behind us. A howl echoed through the castle, and my body zinged at the sound. Rune was near and alive.
“He came?” Tor’s surprised tone was not hidden through his heavy breaths. My body tensed from his words.
“This way.” Emrys led us through the maze of halls toward an exit. A Dramen bellowed, coming from a room we hadn’t looked in. The knife in his hand aimed for me. My hatchet crashed against his skull in seconds. I reacted without thinking. I pulled my blade from his head. Tor didn’t know what to make of this new Sapphira. It bothered him, and I couldn’t give him any reassurance now . . . maybe not ever.
The scent of smoke hit us as we leaped out into what looked like the courtyard. Fire ravaged the city. People didn’t even try to fight the blaze torching their precious homes. The Dramens were firing cannons, which made loud booming noises. Gunshots were being fired toward the sky, and then close to us on the ground. A snarling roar echoed against the stone walls, and the sounds of screams came from inside the palace behind us.
“Desmire!” I shouted loudly, hoping the dragon heard my call.
