Her eyes widened. They did that a lot—at first I thought she was always worried, but then I decided she was just surprised easily. “I nearly forgot! Forten said to tell you they have another set of lemons, and he wanted to invite you into the kitchen today or tomorrow to make more lemonade.”
Forten was like a giant bear. He looked terrifying, but he was even softer than the king. “Oh, that sounds wonderful. Tell him thank you. I’d love to come by—I’ll ask the king if he wants to come too before I pick a day.”
She shook her head again. “I’ll let him know. I need to get back down there.” She paused halfway to the door. “Do you know, it’s been two months, and Broomden still sends everyone home four hours after dinner? He even acts like anoblenoble now. I never thought I’d see the day.”
I smiled. “I’m glad.”
I was still grinning in the middle of my room minutes after she left—picturing Aedan using all his flaming power and ruthless reputation to terrify Broomden while secretly letting me see the most vulnerable emotions possible—when Mylo pounded on my door and opened it himself half a second later.
“Callista—” He spoke quickly, but made eye-contact and carried a tone of urgency. “I need to go help with an emergency. I’ll seal your door, so do not open it if anyone knocks. Anyone who needs you can wait until I get back. I do not have time to find someone else to stay with you.”
“I’ll stay.” Flashes of the last time he wanted me to stay in my room teased my memories as he raised a brow. “I promise,” I added.
“Do it for my sake, if you can’t manage it for yours,” he added. “The king will kill me if anything happens to you.” That was a sweet sentiment, but I nodded my agreement. He turned, and I just caught a glimpse of another soldier behind him before he closed my door and set it glowing with a magic seal.
I doubted the elves could see it glowing, but my magic senses had no trouble picking up the seal.
The last time Mylo had been whisked away fromme, a horde of karkins had frightened the horses outside. What might have drawn him away so urgently today?
Aedan said he only trusted three elves to guard my door, partly because of their personal motives and partly because of their magical strength, so Mylo, Jolter, and Koan rotated their days in my hall or escorting me around the fortress to different activities. Were Koan and Jolter involved in this crisis? Or were they completely unaware of it? Maybe they’d gone to Bridgetown?
I was still standing in the middle of the room, wondering about what the captain’s newest crisis might be, when a dark purple magic flooded the room. Heat flashed through the entire space like a blast of hot air from an oven door opening, and the walls of my room lit on fire.
My jaw fell slowly as I realized what was happening. There was no crisis for Mylo. Someone had distracted him so they could burn my room down.
If I had been standing near any of the walls, or on my bed, I’d already be dead. I tried to press my rising panic down with logic. As it was, a ring of fire completely surrounded me. Flames blocked Aedan’s door and the hall door, and smoky heat quickly filled my room.
If I didn’t get out of my room, I would die. And I wouldn’t have any help. Whoever had done this had arranged for me to be alone in this inferno.
The entryway to my washroom only had a streak of fire across the ground—no door separated the space from my bedroom, so I rushed through the entrance and tried to leap over the flames along the ground. Some of them jumped to my skirt. I ignored them and climbed into the washbasin.
I turned on all the valves that controlled water, and stepped under the fountain meant to fill the large basin. The waterdrenched my clothes and doused the flames. I grabbed a towel, soaked it, and wrapped it around my body. Then I grabbed another, soaked it too, and wrapped it around my head.
I didn’t have time for anything else. I had to get out of the washroom before the flames at the entrance grew too high for me to jump over.
I couldn’t jump as well with my wet towels. The fire had grown, but my clothes were wet enough that I was able to leave the washroom and get back in my main bedroom without any trouble. Getting out of my bedroom, though…
That would be something else.
I stared at the door, and my vision blurred as panic clawed at me. Flames more than five feet deep blocked my escape. My towels no longer dripped—how could they possibly protect me from a fire this big?
And not just a fire. It was clearly a magic fire, which meant it burned hotter and would be harder to put out. Even Aedan, as a drekkan, had been burnt by the karkins’ magic fire. How was a non-magical half fae, half human supposed to run through it?
I clenched my teeth. Because the only other option was to stay here until the smoke and flames choked me to death. And I was not ready to die today.
I wadded up a few layers of towel in my hand to use as a mitten, wrapped the other one around my face better, and then ran straight into the flames.
The heat made me want to turn around and run straight back out, but I could not. Only one direction led to surviving this day. Every other direction—every other choice—meant death.
I grabbed the door handle and twisted it while my eyes stung and the smoke closed off my throat. I held my breath and ignored the pain in my skin as I flung the dooropen and burst into the hall.
A rush of heat followed me out of the room, pressing me to run into the hall faster. I patted out the flames that licked at my skirts with the towels, and then threw them off my body. They were hot and dry, and parts of them had burnt holes already. But what I thought would be a safe hallway had turned into another death trap.
Apparently, magic fire could burn in a stone corridor.
The hall that would normally lead down the tower and into the main part of the castle was completely blocked by flames… and those flames moved toward me.
I ran away from them, terror mounting in my chest. Only one door remained at the end of this hall—one door that opened to a tiny balcony that dropped hundreds of feet to the ground below. And someone was pushing the fire closer to me.
