I didn’t have to be told twice. I ducked under her arms and sprinted past the tavern, hearing the sound of Lord Koa roaring in fury as I disappeared into the dark alley.
I couldn’t shadowstep and I did not know where I was but I kept running, my feet pounding against the pavement, turning away from any opening at which the fight grew louder, nearer. I resurfaced on a main road after a few twists and turns in the alleys and found it utterly deserted. I turned and followed it up the slight incline toward the hill on which I knew the palace sat. If I could only get to the gates, they couldn’t reach me. Not there.
I took two steps and then stopped, chest heaving from all the running. A figure had appeared right in front of me, only a foot away. I faltered back a step, nearly tripping on a loose stone. Cassiopeia’s eyes were wide and full of sorrow when she reached for me.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and then her warm hand gripped my cold wrist and I didn’t even have time to scream as the world below spun away from us.
Chapter twenty-five
A Bitter Blade
Ithrewapunchbefore the world even stopped spinning and bruised my fist deeply as it connected with something hard on the other side.
“Ouch,” a familiar voice grunted and I came to, blinking rapidly to clear my vision, to see Rook holding a hand to his bleeding nose, hissing in pain as red spots dotted the white snow beneath our feet.
“Ren, please—” Cass begged but I whirled on her next lashing out blindly, violently. She evaded me, shadowstepping a few feet away and holding her hands up in front of her in a sign of peaceful surrender. “Just stop for a second.”
I turned, my braid swinging over my shoulder, and reached for the blade I knew Rook always kept holstered at his side. The warrior was too busy examining his injury to guard against me as I wrenched it from its sheath and trained it on both of them. I held it out, pointed at their throats, and backed away so that I could see both of them at once, so that I could assess the entirety of the threats surrounding me.
“Ren,” Cass said again as Rook looked on in stunned horror, “don’t do this. Just listen to us, please. Give us a chance. We can explain everything.”
“I don’t want any more of your explanations,” I snapped. “I don’t want any more of your lies.”
“Just one more, then,” Rook said, his gaze fixed on a point over my shoulder.
I whirled around and all the breath left my lungs. I faltered back a step, then two. I froze, keeping the knife aloft as my mouth fell open and my eyes bulged from my head. I shook my head slowly at first and then viciously.
“No,” I whispered. “No, it’s not possible.”
“Hello Ren.”
Lark’s voice was the same. That deep, intoxicating drawl that drew me in like a warm fire on a frozen winter night. His dark eyes remained on mine as he watched me closely and I squirmed under the weight of that intense gaze I had thought was lost to me forever. He wore the same dark, embellished cloak, stark black against the backdrop of the snowy landscape we found ourselves in.
I aimed for his neck when I slashed out with Rook’s blade.
He dodged the blow expertly. Rook stepped forward to intervene, already drawing his other weapons, those two swords crossed at his back.
“Don’t,” Lark warned and Rook hesitated as I swung again.
Lark dodged and then dodged again as I lashed out wildly with the blade. I used the training Ursa had given me, placing my feet where they were supposed to go, using my momentum to my advantage. But he had endured the same training as my trainer and had done this for far longer than me.
I raised my arm high, intending to slash down at him, but he caught me by the wrist and spun me so that my back was up against him and he was holding me tight. One hand was around my wrist, holding the blade away from us, the other was around my waist, pressing me against the hard planes of his body. I felt a flush of heat creep up my neck and screamed in frustration.
“Yield,” he whispered, his breath warm upon the shell of my ear.
Hand shaking, I released the dagger and it plunged into the snow below.
Rook scrabbled forward to collect it as I shot into Lark’s soul to find an impenetrable dark wall guarding his emotions. He spun me around so that I was facing him, our noses just inches apart, frozen breath mingling in the frigid air. He cocked his head to the side, dark eyes boring into mine.
“You’ve learned a new trick,” he drawled.
I lifted both hands to his chest and gave him a firm shove backwards.
“Traitor!” I shouted, slicing a hand through the air.
The snow behind him tumbled, rolling forward until it reached a boulder in the distance. That boulder split in two as if it had been slashed, the top sliding off of the bottom and rumbling down the hill beyond. Lark watched with a raised brow.
“Two new tricks,” he said.
