But there are more than one hundred cries in the air. And they aren’t the cries of the goats.
They’re the cries of the people.
“Fire!” someone shouts. The bells begin to chime in alarm, a continuous ringing.
Something is wrong.
I meet Ronan’s eyes. It can’t be. It’s too soon.
But there’s no other explanation.
It’s the siege.
The crowd on the balcony is panicking. There’s fire down on the water, but it’s far bigger than any ritual altar.
It’s a ship. A ferry. And it’s burning down the river. Then another comes. And off to the east, there are more in the harbor.
Darkness falls around us, darker than the night.
The darkness of a shadow-born.
“Ronan!” I scream.
But I’m far from the only one screaming. There’s a clash of steel down in the courtyard.
I can still see him, but I can’t get to him. The balcony crowd is crushing blindly. It’s surging to the palace doors, carrying me off my feet with it.
I can’t breathe. I can’t turn around to see the doors behind me. I make room with my shadows, which thankfully come to me, shoving just enough space around me to take a breath.
Ronan’s light cuts through the shadow-born’s darkness, stronger than it. Taran is beside him, thank the gods. “Sylvie!” he shouts. “Go inside. I’ll find you!”
A door opens somewhere behind me, and the crowd rushes forward. I have no choice but to move with them or be trampled to the ground.
“Inside!” Cyrus yells. “Everyone inside!”
All that waits inside the palace hallways is more panic. There’s shouting from the stairs, doors swinging open and slamming shut as the smell of smoke fills the air. It’s happening all around us. Nowhere seems to be safe.
Someone in a black robe rushes to my side. “Sylvie,” he says. It’s Titus. I haven’t seen much of him since we danced at the ball. “You need to come quickly. It’s your Guardian. He told me to find you. Adria has escaped.”
Ice fills my veins. “What?”
“They were fighting in the throne room. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She’s in there with a dozen guards. You have to stop her. I’m sorry. I told her not to do this, I told her there had to be another way…”
Larus. She has Larus.
“What did you do?” I remember Titus walking with Adria once. I remember thinking I should have warned him about her.
The backup plan.
“I helped her escape. She told me to, if something happened to her. She told me Ronan was trying to have her killed. But we ran into your Guardian, and he told me she did this. All of this. I didn’t want any of this to happen. Please, you have to help me. Help us.”
I can’t leave Larus to her, but I can’t leave Ronan either.
And Adria would know that.
She would count on it.
Titus is part of the plan.“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say, drawing my dagger.
