Lucius and Luca met steel with steel, while Hunter and Finn, still in bear form, tore through what resistance remained. I fought beside them, my strength restored, a borrowed blade singing in my hands. My heart was fixed on Nico.
“Where are they?” Lucius snarled, his sword at the throat of a young guard who had surrendered.
“I… I think I saw them go that way.” The guard tripped over his words, waving down the grand hall. “The king?—”
“He’s not the king!” Lu barked.
“Yes, yes, of course. Johan lured him to the throne room. Said his powers are stronger there.”
I didn’t wait for more. I bolted down the hall, my name echoing behind me as the others called out—but something deeper pulled me forward. The world tunneled. My breath ragged in my throat as my skirts tangled around my legs. My heart hammered—not just from the sprint but from the bone-deep fear that I was too late. That I’d reach the throne room just in time to watch Nico fall.
A trail of chaos marked their path—chipped stone, overturned furniture, splashes of blood and dead guards told a story that had my blood running cold. What would I find when I finally reached him? Had he already been mortally wounded? There was so much blood.
Boots thundered ahead of me. A detachment of guards rounded the corner, swords already drawn. I skidded to a halt—too late to turn back. There was no way I could avoid them and one sickly human was nothing against these battle-hardened guards. I stood my ground, bracing for the inevitable.
But it never came.
They charged past, eyes wild. One brushed my shoulder with a hissed curse, like he’d passed through a cold draft.
They hadn’t seen me.
I looked down. Shadow clung to my limbs like a second skin, curling like smoke across my bodice and around my hands. Moving when I moved. Shielding me in plain sight.
I didn’t understand how it was possible. A sob clawed at my throat, but I forced it down. I didn’t have time to wonder howJase’s shadows were protecting me even from the grave. I was a ghost in the enemy’s halls.
I glanced back once, a silent prayer for my beasts to hold the line—and surged forward. Each step lighter, shadows parting before me and stitching themselves around me again.
The grand doors to the throne room lay shattered across the floor. The room still bore the scars of the solric that had taken Gunner from me. Only Johan and Nico remained standing. Steel clashed, echoing off the walls.
Nico was larger by far, but his body was battered. Bloodstains soaked his clothes. He heavily favored his right side, his arm tucked in close. While Johan looked fresh, untouched. His guards had done the hard work.
Jase’s shadows evaporated—snuffed by the wards within the throne room.
I hugged the wall, slipping through what natural shadow remained, slowly circling behind them. A distraction now could mean certain death for Nico.
“You can’t win. The Bloodstone Sigil ensures I overpower you ten to one,” Johan said, chuckling as he defended Nico’s blows with ease as they made their way up the dais.
“The Sigil’s just a tool. It doesn’t make a king. Only the Divine can do that,” Nico growled, eyes flicking to the throne that should have been his.
“And yet here I stand, the Sigil would have struck me down otherwise and yet it still sits on my finger. Proof enough.”
“Then take it off and we’ll see who’s the better male. Beast against beast.”
“The Divine favor minds, not muscles. That’s why they let your father die when I killed him with my bare hands. Seems I was the chosen one after all.”
Nico faltered, taking a step down the dais, his eyes wide as the realization hit him. “How could you? He was like a father to you. He was your friend.”
“He betrayed us all,” Johan said, standing before the throne. “You can ask him of his crimes when I send you to meet him.”
I broke from the shadows, angling toward Johan’s back. One well-placed thrust of my sword, and it would all be over. He wouldn’t even see it coming.
I raised my blade—but Johan spun with unnatural speed, seizing my wrist in a crushing grip.
“No!” Nico lunged, but Johan dragged me between them, arm locking around my waist as he wrenched the blade from my grasp.
“Well, well,” he sneered, breath hot against my ear. “Look what the Divine dragged in.”
“Michaela,” Nico breathed, horror in his eyes. “Let her go. She has nothing to do with this.”
