"Wait where are you-" the hatch shuts with a bang.
"We need to find a place to hide." Sorin is all business, yanking me towards the bathroom. "We should be relatively safe in this cottage for now if they think you are in the other one with the prince, but we will need to find another place soon. We do not want to be sitting ducks."
"I want to help," I say pulling away from Sorin.
"You will be helping by keeping yourself safe, we already discussed that you are what they are after,"
"That is bullshit. Sam is out there on his own, we need to help him."
He glares at me. "You are not advanced enough in your training to take on a real threat, Firefly. Not that I would send you out any-"
"I am helping," I demand. "You all were training me for a reason. I have a good control over my fire and dagger, and I was able to hold off the other attacker well enough on my own. I am not going to have Sam go out on a suicide mission without the two of you. If you are worried about my training, I promise, I will stay back as much as possible, but if I can help at all, I am going." Sorin stares me down.
"The whole point of us being with you is to keep you safe, Firefly. If we let you go out into the danger we might as well be handing you off to the enemy."
"That thing, whatever it is, sounds big and who knows what destruction it has already caused. Either you take me with you and I stay out of the way, or I will find some way to sneak out of here and join the fight without any of your protection. Do not test me. I will not have Sam out there on his own."
"He can handle himself. He does not need us out-"
"What if all this shaking makes the tunnels collapse? I would be in as much danger of starvation and death being trapped down here as I would be up there."
Surprisingly, it is the prince that breaks. "We need to take her," he says to Sorin, before looking back to me. "But stay out of the way and near the cottages. If something happens to you… well let's just hope nothing does."
"But-" Sorin starts to interject.
"Lace isn't kidding," the prince mumbles. "She will find a way to get away, how do you think she got involved in the fight last time?" He gives me a reproachful look and I cast my eyes down. Not because I am ashamed but because he is right. I am fully prepared to find the next exit out of here to help Sam if needed. I just feel bad about worrying them. "And we do not know how sturdy these tunnel systems are. It is very possible we might get stuck down here if we wait."
Sorin sighs. "Okay, then. Let's go."
We make our way through the tunnels. Dirt rains from the ceiling. We have to pick our way through carefully as to not be hit by any rocks. When we reach the ladder to Sylvie's cottage the prince climbs up, but just as I am about to follow him Sorin stops me.
"Remember Lace, if things get dicey out there do not try to be a hero. Just-"
"Run. Yes. I know." I hold back an eyeroll.
He looks at me steadily. "Will you?"
I look away. "Yes."
He sighs and releases me. "I don't believe you."
I turn away from him and climb up the ladder, because he is right not to. If push comes to shove and I can be of help to any of them out there, I am not sure if I can run away, even if that ended in my detriment.
Chapter sixty
Siege
Alaceandra
Emerging from the tunnels, I look to see where the prince is but instead freeze. Rubble and ash surround me instead of the hallway I was expecting to see. I look to my left and notice the prince standing there, a grim look on his face.
"Why did you stop?" Sorin yells from below me.
"It is… gone." The beautiful cottage that once stood here is now piled around me. Little bits of linens and cookware arestrewn about. The village that once towered around us is also a charred husk of its former self. The belongings of the villagers lay in the streets, abandoned. Sculpted walls are now piles of rock littered as far as the eye can see. Above us, elvisera soar through the skies, their riders barely perceptible in the distance. I blink rapidly, my brain not able to grasp what I am seeing.And the noise.Clattering metal and blood curdling screams echo through the village in a low terrible roar.
"What is gone?"
"Come here, Alaceandra. Let him through."
