As if the assassination attempt were a cue, the mayhem began.
Chapter Fifteen
“Mother!”Vi started for Vhalla.
“No, this way.” Jayme grabbed her arm. Vi swung around, glaring at her friend. “I know you want to protect her, but you are useless dead. Trust the soldiers to do their jobs and get to the hotel. The sooner you’re protected, the more we can focus on your mother and brother.”
Vi looked back. The crowd had broken through the line of soldiers Vi had left behind her. A small group condensed around Romulin’s horse. They brandished weapons at the encroaching masses. Vi watched as someone leaned down, picking up a rock to volley at him.
“Romu—” Before Vi could call out, a soldier lunged into the fray and Vi watched in horror as the square was plunged further down a spiral of violence.
“Listen to your guard, Vi. Leave it to the soldiers.” Elecia started down the other side of the stair, her own guard quickly surrounding her.
Jayme gave a firm tug on her arm. Pulled off balance, Vi staggered along, half dragged down the other side of the platform.
“Vi Ci’Dan, come with me.” A man lunged for her. “The Knights of Jadar are ready to be loyal once more to your rule.”
Jayme drew her sword in a second, stepping in the man’s way.
A wall of stone shot up from the ground between Vi, the assailant, and Jayme. Vi felt magic crackling around Elecia. It was not unlike Ellene’s, though it was far more focused, more precise.
Vi looked behind her, free of Jayme and Elecia’s attention for a brief second. Had her brother dismounted? Where was her mother in the mob? She knew she needed to be protected, but she couldn’t abandon them either.
Yet abandonment had been her plan all along.
If she couldn’t trust them to be protected in this moment, how could she leave them? Her thoughts mirrored the noise around her—shouts and cries with no logic to string them together.
She took a step, and two strong arms closed around her shoulders, practically hoisting her off the ground.
“Let me—” Vi began to shout, silenced and chilled by the voice in her ear.
“Go? No, we must get you to safety, princess.”
Fallor.
“Unhand me.” Vi pushed against his forearm. “This is no way to carry your princess.”
“I’m merely doing what’s safe for her highness. You seem to have been separated from your guard.”
Vi looked frantically for Jayme and Elecia. She couldn’t find the former in the chaos of the crowd. The latter was already up the stairs of what had long been the Imperial hotel in the Crossroads. Elecia turned, her eyes scanning, no doubt looking for Vi. But Fallor turned away. With his back to Elecia, there was no way Vi would be visible.
She kicked, struggling against his crushing grasp. His arms dug into her ribs, making her wheeze.
“What are you doing?” Vi twisted in his arms. “The hotel is that way.”
Fallor looked ahead, a stupid smirk on his face as he manhandled her.
“Let me go or I will—” She pushed against his forearm, trying to wriggle free, but then stopped all movement.
“You’ll what?” Her stillness must’ve been more intriguing to him than her struggles.
Vi’s eyes were glued to the exposed skin of his wrist. Barely visible were three lines, tattooed in dark ink, jagged and gently curving. If those three points met… if the center line continued, then it would be…
A trident tattoo.
The mark of Adela.
Before she could finish her threat, or he could realize what she’d seen, Jayme sprinted into view. She had her sword at the ready, pointed over Vi’s shoulder and right in Fallor’s face. Vi had never seen a more fearsome expression on her friend’s face.
