“We need to go,” Sebastian says.
We drop from the roof into a narrow alley. My landing is soft, cushioned by a pocket of heated air. Sebastian hits the ground beside me with the grace of someone born for this.
Boots pound at both ends of the alley. Guards are closing in. I grab Sebastian’s hand and pull him through a low archway that opens onto the inner courtyard. The space is wide and exposed, flanked on all sides by high stone walls. Torchlight paints everything in shades of amber and black.
Six guards block the far exit. They see us, and their shadows bloom to life around their fists.
It looks like all of the guards still have their magical ability, which doesn’t bode well for our escape.
We have to try.
A tendril of shadow snakes toward my legs. I jump over it and send a wave of hot fire sweeping across the courtyard. The guards scatter, breaking formation. Sebastian charges into the gap.
He fights hard, his sword flying. Even without his magic, he is devastating. He parries a strike and drives the pommel into a guard’s ribs. Another swings at his head, and he ducks, coming up inside the male’s reach and slamming a fist into his throat. The guard drops, wheezing. He cuts the next guard down, and blood spatters.
I cover his back. A wall of shadow catches a blade that was aimed between his shoulder blades, and I send the guard who wielded it spinning with a blast of compressed air. Another tries to flank us from the left. I wrap shadow around his ankles, and he goes down hard, his chin bouncing off the cobblestones.
Sebastian finishes the last of them off and turns to me, his chest heaving. There is blood spattered across his tunic that isn’t his.
“To the courtyard gate,” I tell him, and we run.
It’s made of iron and stands open. We barrel through it and into the wide avenue that leads from the castle to the outer wall. Ahead, the grounds spread out in rolling lawns and hedgerows. Beyond that, the dark line of the forest.
There is the sound of hooves behind us. I turn and see riders bearing down on us at full gallop, their shadows trailing behind them like dark cloaks.
“Into the trees,” Sebastian shouts.
We sprint for the tree line. My lungs burn. Sebastian matches my pace, keeping himself between me and the approaching riders. An arrow whistles past and thuds into the ground two strides ahead of us.
I reinforce a shield, which is tough while having to run this hard and fast. I do it anyway.
We crash into the forest.
The trees are dense here, their branches interweaving overhead. The riders will struggle to follow at speed. I can already hear the horses slowing, their hooves stumbling on root and brush.
But the guards don’t stop. They dismount and come on foot, and they bring their magic with them.
Shadows leap at us from the darkness between the trees, lashes of dark energy that snap like whips. Once again, I throw up another shield, and two of them strike it and dissipate. A third catches the edge and wraps around my forearm.
I yank it free with a snarl and hurl fire at the source. The bolt illuminates the forest for a blinding moment. Before us, dozens of guards fan out through the trees.
Nooooo!
There are more coming. They crash through the undergrowth behind the first wave.
Sebastian has picked up a second sword along the way. He fights with one in each hand, spinning and striking. He isn’t holding back anymore. He can’t afford to. It’s them or us.
A shadow tendril wraps around his sword arm, and he twists free of it with raw strength, snapping the bond.
I weave shadows between the trees, creating false images of us that flicker and move through the forest in the wrong direction. Several guards head that way to chase them down. It buys us time, but not much.
“This way.” Sebastian grabs my arm and pulls me down a narrow ravine. We slide through wet leaves and loose earth. At the bottom, a shallow stream runs between moss-covered rocks.
We follow it, and our footprints disappear in the current.
Behind us, shouts ring out. The guards have lost our trail. I hear them arguing, splitting up, sending scouts in different directions.
Good!
