There. To my right, a woman falls, leaving a gap in the surge of people. Bits of glass glint along the stone walkway leading to the doors. I give Nora’s arm a firm tug, and we stumble out of the crush of people just as another cheer goes up inside the palace.
“They’ve found the king and queen!” a man yells. The cheering grows louder.
“What’s happening?” Nora gasps between sobs. “What are they going to do?”
People are still surging past us. I’ve completely lost track of my father. “I don’t know.” I touch a hand to my pendant, pressing the warm steel into my skin. I wish Mother were here now. I consider the steps, the rapid stream of people, and I’m glad Jax didn’t join us.
Soldiers are rushing up the stairs now, swords drawn, and I drag my sister farther away. Some of the protestors have turned to fight, and the clash of steel against steel makes my ears ring. Mother would have been right at home in the midst of a battle, but I’m only at home in the bakery. I’ve never wanted to be a soldier.
A man takes a sword right through his belly. He coughs blood onto the walkway.
I slap a hand over Nora’s eyes, but she grabs at my hand and tries to see, her mouth wide with horror.
A man speaks from the shadows by the doorway. “She’s a child! Get her out of here.”
I can’t tell if he’s a soldier or a protestor. There’s too much noise, too much fighting. But he’s not in the melee, so he must not be a soldier.
“I’m trying!” I shout back.
“Go down the side stairs!” he yells, just as a soldier spots us.
I suck in a breath, but I have no time to react. A blade is swinging in our direction. Nora screams, and I shift to cover her with my body. I brace for the impact.
It never comes. Just a screech of steel as sword meets sword. I catch a glimpse of black armor, a flash of red hair.
“Go!” the man shouts.
I drag Nora. We run, half stumbling down the stone steps. The cheering in the castle has grown louder, carrying over the sounds of fighting. Screams sound from every direction. Suddenly, we’re not the only ones running down the stairs.
“Magic!” a woman shouts. “The king’s going to use his—”
Thunder cracks behind us, so loud that I nearly stumble again. I turn to see a blast of light flare through every window of the palace, brighter than the sun, like a million bolts of lightning all at once.
All sounds of fighting cease. There’s a pulse of sudden, absolute silence—and then screaming. A man is on fire, stumbling out of the doorway of the palace. Then another. And a third. The soldiers at the top of the steps have stopped fighting, and they’re staring in horror.
So am I.
Nora tugs at my hand. “Where’s Da?” Her voice is high and panicked. “What happened to Da?”
I don’t know.I don’t know.
A woman shrieks from the top of the steps. “He killed them all,” she cries. “The king’s magic killed them all!”
More guards are beginning to arrive. Panic still fills my chest, but I’m aware enough to know that things won’t go well for anyone left here.
“Come on,” I say to Nora. I drag her toward the streets, and we slip into the city just as guards begin lining up to block the fallen gate.
I want to run, but guards might be looking for protestors now, so I hold tight to Nora’s shaking hand and head toward a tavern, walking sedately. I keep my eyes locked ahead and focus on breathing. On moving forward. Everyone else is rushing toward the palace, so no one pays us any mind.
The sun is so bright and warm, and it seems like a cruel joke, as if the sun has no right to shine. My chest feels hollow.
Eventually, Nora stops crying, and she looks up at me. “Was that true?” she whispers, and the horror in her voice echoes what I feel in my heart. “Did the king’s magic kill them all?”
“I don’t know,” I say.
But I press a hand over that pendant, because I do know. I saw that flash of light. I heard those screams. I saw the flames.
The king’s magic once stole my mother.
