Vanya swore, trying to shrug off Javier’s grip but couldn’t. “Taisiya?”
“Another squad has her. We’re bringing her back to the palace.”
They’d separated for the meal to better press their argument with the Houses. The Conclave was supposed to officially conclude at the end of the meal, with support offered to the House of Sa’Liandel that Vanya desperately needed. All he could think of right then was how Joelle hadn’t shown, how her most ardent supporters had left, and nowsomeonewas attacking the palace.
An eerie sound rose through the air, the siren high-pitched and pulsing in a way that made Vanya freeze and Javier miss a step. They stumbled into each other as the tones of the warning siren only ever used for revenants drowned out everything.
People screamed and ran back down the long stretch of the garden for the palace. Javier yanked on his arm, and Vanya stumbled into a run, surrounded bypraetorialegionnaires who refused to leave his side.
“Don’t leave anyone behind,” Vanya snapped.
Javier looked over at him with a grim sort of expression on his face. “You and your House are the only priority.”
“I won’t lose everything I’ve sought to gain by refusing to give the Houses aid. Give the order to the legionnaires.”
Javier swore viciously before making a gesture with his left hand at the legionnaire closest to him. The woman peeled off, shouting out orders. Vanya craned his head around and caught a glimpse of a huddled knot ofpraetorialegionnaires hurrying toward them. Through the surge of bodies, he saw Taisiya’s pale face, hisvalideheld safe in apraetorialegionnaire’s arms.
The sun was sinking beneath the horizon, still enough sunlight casting long shadows across the palace grounds that, at first, Vanya thought the figures rounding the distant wing were groundskeepers. But that long-held instinct every Solarian was born with crept up his spine, turning his skin clammy despite the heat.
People had a way of moving, and so did the dead.
What careened through bushes and past desert trees, heading their way, were revenants—inside Calhames’ walls, on the palace grounds, past every conceivable defense. It hadn’t been an earthquake, Vanya knew with sudden certainty.
It was something worse.
“Raiah,” Vanya said, heart pounding so hard he could barely hear Javier over the rush of blood in his ears. “She needs to be kept safe.”
“Get to the palace!” Javier yelled, voice booming in that trained way all officers learned for the battlefield.
Vanya lengthened his stride as severalpraetorialegionnaires went for their clarion crystal–tipped wands and all the rest went for their pistols. The Houses who had been invited—representatives or heads of Houses of nearly all in existence—scrambled to make it to safety. Some had fainted from the sight of the revenants, and while a few loyal members of their Houses carried them onward, others were abandoned to lie on the garden grounds, left for legionnaires to try to protect.
The sirens still rang through the air whenpraetorialegionnaires started shooting, muzzle flashes sparking in the air. Everyone’s screams got louder, and Vanya had to force his own panic down as the crowd finally reached the palace steps at the same time a revenant riddled with bullet holes crashed into a straggling guest and dragged them to the ground.
Javier put his hand in between Vanya’s shoulder blades and shoved. “Move.”
Thepraetorialegionnaires carved a brutal path through the guests between them and safety, but Vanya dug in his heels before Javier could drag him through the doors. He saw Alida over the tops of their heads, already inside and staring back at him with a pale, pale face. The captain whirled to face him, eyes snapping with fury.
“We need to buy everyone time to make it into the palace,” Vanya said.
“All due respect, we need to getyouinside where it’ssafe.”
“What kind of emperor would I be if I cowered while every other House was left to the mercy of the walking dead?”
“You’d bealive.”
Yes, he would—and be blamed for the destruction of the Houses the way his mother had been once upon a time. She’d done what was necessary back then to keep Solaria whole, to keep hold of the imperial throne, to keep their House in power.
Vanya could do nothing less.
He looked at Alida, gaze boring into hers. “See to Raiah.”
Then he wrenched himself free of Javier’s grip, stepping back and turning to face his scattered people. Javier reached for him before jerking his hand back, away from the starfire crawling up Vanya’s arms, licking across his torso. The circle ofpraetorialegionnaires guarding him fell back, giving him space to walk, the heat of starfire creating room in the crowd.
Someone gave a cry of relief, calling out his name, calling for the Dawn Star. Vanya paid no attention to the voices, more focused on creating a wall of white-hot heat between the encroaching revenants and the few they’d lost to the dead already.
“Get everyone inside the palace!” Javier shouted to the soldiers under his command, even as he never left Vanya’s side. “We could certainly use your warden for this.”
Vanya grimaced. “He was supposed to be here tonight.”
