Chapter Fifty-One
Analleia
Idove out the nearestwindow and scaled the wall up to the king’s royal suite, coughing the smoke from my lungs.Guards below paid me no attention as they tried to bring order to the chaos the explosion had created.
They would be taking the king to a safe room, and I guessed that the entrance lay inside his chambers.I pushed myself harder, needing to reach them before he did.Up ahead, his balcony was dark.I crossed hand over hand up the stones, taking too many risks, but I reached the railing and clambered onto the balcony.I pulled my bow off my back, nocking an arrow to the string before trying the door.It was locked.I took a step back, my foot connecting with the jamb.It didn’t move.I went for the windows next, shattering them into a thousand shards and crawling in through the wreckage, tiny bits of glass slicing through my pale skin.
Darkness greeted me.Quiet whispered in my ears.A shocking contrast with the scene I’d just left.
“Analleia.”
I pulled the bowstring taut, aiming at the voice, freezing as I recognized my brother’s dark form standing several paces away.
My heart stuttered.
I couldn’t examine him in the darkness, couldn’t see what they had done to him.
“Desmond.”I gasped, rushing forward to embrace him in a hug.“Thank heavens you’re alive, how did you—”
“Later.”
A key clanked into the lock at the entrance.Desmond darted behind the curtains, and I hid behind the main door.It flew open, guards tramping into the room with the king, queen and chancellor following behind.One more set of footsteps followed, and I saw a flash of red hair before I shoved against the door, barring it shut and entrapping us in the darkness.Drawn swords rang through the air but were quickly followed by several grunts as I heard Desmond take each one down.Someone lit the oil lamps, flooding the room with light.We caged the four of them in, Desmond and I circling, my bow raised, a sword drawn in his hands.More guards would be pounding at the door at any moment.
Valeris’s eyes locked with mine, and I swallowed, keeping my face as cold as ice and tamping down the emotions rising within me.I couldn’t bear the way he looked at me.Soot covered his royal attire, decorated his dark red hair with gray, and left streaks on his hands and face.
But he didn’t look hurt.At least, not physically.
I tore my attention away.This wasn’t about him.I had a job to do.A mission to complete.I swallowed the lump in my throat.He would never forgive me for what I had done and was about to do.He was nothing more than collateral damage at this point.
“What is the meaning of this?”King Zaricor demanded, Queen Cadaren huddled against his side.
The chancellor’s gaze darted around the room.
“Everyone back away from the king,” I ordered, pointing my arrow at them.
“This isn’t the way to do this, Analleia.”
My eyes shot back to Valeris’s, and he lifted his hands as if talking to a frightened animal.
“Quiet,” I snapped, aiming my arrow at the king’s throat.“Our qualm is not with you.”
The king assessed me and Desmond as if to devise which of us was the greater threat.
“Do you know why I am here for you, King Zaricor?”My voice rang with the authority of a prosecutor demanding justice.
His lip curled with distaste.“Kallistars.You’re a witch, a ghost from that wretched civilization of Donnovar we destroyed years ago.”
“Fiveyears ago,” I corrected.
He laughed.“And you did what, exactly?Waited five years to kill me for a justified action?”
