I want to tell him it’s okay, but I can’t. His head sags onto my shoulder.
“What the…?”
Bastion appears at the top of the stairs. Lark is hot on his heels, with damp hair and dry clothes. He survived the river too. Pigeonmusthave as well.I can’t lose anyone else.
Bash sprints down two steps at a time, over the destruction to where Card lies, eyes closed, on his back by Ava. They’re next to a cluster of rocks. Next to. Near. Not under.Thank the gods.
Bastion tugs Card into his arms and slaps his cheeks.
“Babe. Babe, wake up. You’re okay.”
“Ugh…What happened? Bash?” Card mumbles then bolts up. “Ava?”
“I’m okay,” she says, flapping a hand but remaining on her side. “Catching…my breath.”
At the edge of the room, Godfrey groans as Tarin inspects the old man’s bleeding leg. It’s oddly twisted, probably broken. Lark traverses the rubble to Howell’s body. I can’t breathe as he checks Howell’s pulse. He looks to the prince and gives the slightest shake of his head. Bash lets out a softno.
The room hangs in silence.
The powdery air ripples.
All eyes fall to Will and me.
“It’s not his fault,” I say, loud and clear. No room for misinterpretation. The truth.
“Fliss, what are you doing?” Bash asks, his pitch rising as hysteria takes over. “He just killed Howell.”
I clutch Will protectively. They arenottaking him. He mumbles something into my shoulder, and Bash’s shoulders rise.
“He’s done something to her! He must have!”
“It’s not his fault,” I repeat.
I can say it a thousand times. It won’t matter to them. Right now, with emotions running high, the truth won’t make a difference. There’s nothing I can say. The guards are broken, by both the fallen stones and their fallen comrade, but there’s a tension in their backs like they’ll come for us if commanded to. Ava, Lark, any one of them would strike us down. Separate us.
“Hold on tight,” Will mutters, and his hands creep to my waist. There’s a brush of wind around my shins. He’s thinking the same thing. There’s nothing we can do right now.
I take one last look at Howell. Howell who saved me, who didn’t hesitate to shield me.
My face crumples.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Will exerts what little energy he has left to wrap us in wind and thrust us up through the holes in the ceiling, onto the roof he brought down. Toward the sky that Howell’s unseeing eyes stare up at, to where the gods will shake his hand, his service to Alrick over.
Chapter Twenty-Six
My shop feels neglected, cold. Betrayed. I’ve been away too long, but I’m not here to tend to the flowers. I shove Will inside and lock the door behind us with the hidden key we keep under one of the flowerpots. Hopefully we fled from the castle before they could see which direction we went in. This is the first place they’ll search for us, so we need that head start. Thank the gods my mother shut all the curtains before she left to stay with Ruth. I bet they’ve both been beside themselves with worry, but Will isn’t in any condition to be magically sending them updates right now.
“Okay, we need some wards. They’ll be here looking for us soon,” I say, dashing in the darkness for a handful of pennyroyal, a purple leafy flower from the mint family. I throw down a line of them by the front door before starting on the windowsills.Flee away,the pennyroyals say,nothing to see here. Flee. Run. Go away.It’s dangerous, perilous. You don’t want to be here.
Will curls himself into a ball on his knees.
He hasn’t said a word.
“I’m going to run upstairs,” I tell him.
He doesn’t move.
