The guards were searching as well, frozen in place. Karwyn’s hand curled around the arrow. Blood stained his silvery-blue jacket.
“I have a speech of my own I’d like to give,” Elyssa said. Her voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. No doubt, Farren had somehow spelled it to make it sound that way. “Why celebrate Caelo when we can celebrate ourdearking?”
Lora watched Karwyn’s expression, a sceptical look in his deadly eyes. His hand was locked on the arrow, but he seemed to hesitate.
“I mean, really, who else can say they have a king who appreciates his people so much that he kidnaps them, experiments on them—”
Karwyn’s face turned red. He turned and gestured to the guards urgently. They rushed forward.
“—and then tosses them aside,buryingthem.”
Guards stormed into the crowd, knocking people down if they didn’t move fast enough.
Karwyn pulled out the arrow with a grunt, throwing it to the ground violently.
“Ah, you didn’t stay still,” Elyssa said, her voice delighted. “Well, to be honest, I was hoping for it.”
It sounded like a speaker was being turned off. The silence made the hairs on Lora’s neck stand up.
And then Lora spotted them: A row of bows and arrows on the rooftops surrounding the plaza. She barely had time to register them before almandine arrows started raining down on them.
The guards on the platform were hit first. They tried to reach Karwyn, to shelter him, but the arrows kept coming faster than they could move. Karwyn tried to back away, but arrow after arrow hit the path in front of him. He managed to redirect some of them with his air magic, but the almandine must have weakened him.
Lora sought out Amira; the princess seemed deep in focus, not moving either. Rhay was being pulled back by Nouis, but he whispered something into his father’s ear, and Nouis let himself be let away by a guard. There was a dagger in Rhay’s hand. He must have brought it. Looking at Lora briefly, Rhay moved to Karwyn. He needed to get him out of there. Away from the tunnel Nouis was planning to take and to the back door on the other side.
The crowd had gone mad. Fae were pushing each other, trying to get away or trying to storm the gate, fury in their eyes at Elyssa’s reveal. The gate gave away easily as if helped by magic. A quick glance at Amira told her she was at least partly responsible.
An angry mob descended, the guards meeting them, but they were distracted by the arrows being aimed at them. It was utter chaos.
The expression on Karwyn’s face was dumbfounded. It almost made Lora laugh.
Furious voices screamed through the crowd. “Off with the king’s head!”
“Justice for the ones you took from us!”
“Let’s buryhimin return!”
The chaos around her increased by the minute; everything was pure madness. Lora began to panic. The people had a right to know who their king was, but Karwyn couldn’t be killed yet. The arrows rained down on them in a calculated manner—to shield Karwyn from moving and anyone from getting too close to him.
But a fae rushed towards them anyways, a long knife in his outstretched hand. An arrow barely missed him as he stepped in front of the king. There was nothing but vengeance in his eyes.
Chapter65
Rhay
Rhay launched himself at the fae targeting Karwyn, deviating his course with his dagger. He couldn’t let Karwyn be killed. Slashing at the fae, Rhay pushed him to the ground as Karwyn stepped back. The arrows had stopped coming, but the mysterious assailants were not gone. Instead, they were joining the crowd on the ground, fighting the guards.
As Rhay took in their worn-down clothes and their dull eyes, he gasped. Humans. They were unmistakablyhuman.For all the human objects Rhay had gathered, he had never actually met a human. Heavily armed, they didn’t appear as weak as Rhay had pictured them from the reality TV shows he loved to watch.
Taking a fallen guard’s sword, Rhay fought off another angry fae while trying to locate Lora and Amira. They had gathered on a corner of the platform, further away from the crowd. Lora’s eyes drifted towards Karwyn. Layken was trying to usher Karwyn towards the underground tunnel.
Rhay ran in their direction. His guilt was intense, chilling his bones, but he had made a promise to Lora and Amira. Lora couldn’t die because of him. He would not stand for it, not anymore.
He grabbed Karwyn’s hand. “I know a better path,” he yelled at Layken. Another fae broke free from the crowd and jumped at them. Layken didn’t have time to reply, turning to the fae who was about to attack them.
“We have to go.Now.” Karwyn was pissed. Rhay had never seen him so lost, so vulnerable.
No, that wasn’t true. He had seen him like that as a kid, when they had been two deeply hurt children, feeling like the whole world was against them. Now Karwyn had turned the whole world against him.
