I stayed low, just barely clearing the castle wall, and when I confirmed that the area below was clear, I glided toward the ground.
On the other side of the wall, the guards were still chatting amongst themselves. There wasn’t a cry of outrage or a clamoring of feet.
We’d made it undetected.
Rummy’s body tensed in my arms as my feet hit the ground. And the second I set her down, she scrambled away.
“Are you crazy? Anyone could have just seen that!”
“No one saw us.”
“Really? And how do you know that,oh mighty one? Did you manifest a special power that has made you an all-knowing god?”
“Calm down,” I urged. “If anyone had seen us, the guards would be shouting. Do you hear anything?”
She glanced over one shoulder, then the other. Other than the sound of the wind, we were engulfed in silence.
Rummy narrowed her eyes on me. It was the closest thing to ayou’re rightI’d get.
“Right,” I sighed. “So let’s keep going.”
This part of the city was damn near empty. Most of the citizens had been near the front gates, shoved together on themain streets of the kingdom. The streets here looked older, forgotten.
The farther we got from the city wall, the more my senses tingled. I remained on high alert, scanning our surroundings, but nothing stood out.
“This is weird,” Rummy whispered from where she chose to walk a foot behind me.
I let the tip of my wing graze her arm every so often just to make sure she still followed.
“Where is everyone?” she asked. “It’s like a dead town.”
The sinking feeling in my stomach grew. “I don’t know.” What could have made an entire community up and leave?
The streets here were flanked by small, humble buildings. They were half crumbling, some with boarded windows, some with missing walls.
Every part of this area lacked color. Lacked life. There wasn’t a single living tree in sight. The only plant life was wilted and brown.
“Come on,” I said. “The main city is this way.”
We turned down a cobblestone path, finding signs of life in the distance.
As we got closer, Rummy eyed me. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
I slowed so we were walking side by side. “Like what?”
“Your wings, you idiot. Now might be a good time to winnow them away or whatever it is you angels do. We’ll have a hard time blending in if anyone catches sight of those massive white wings.”
My heart rate ticked up a notch as she called my wings massive, but I quickly squelched the sensation.
So what if she called them massive? Theywerebig.
And she was right.
I took a breath and released a flicker of magic. This was a skill I rarely used in Scarlata, but here? It was necessary.
My wings disappeared in an instant.
I turned to Rummy, arms out. “Is this better?”
