Light freckles dotted his face, and he still had an openness to his expression, like he could never completely hide what he was feeling, but his eyes had darkened, taking some of the innocence he'd arrived with.
Around his wound, his skin had begun to change color, shifting to blend into our surroundings. When the girl tending his wounds tried to stitch up the gash on his arm, Linus winced, and the color intensified, making it almost appear as if his arm had disappeared, other than the parts stained red with blood.
"We just came here to fix Linus up, and I wanted to get Delilah somewhere safe," Ember explained as she closed and locked the door behind me.
Delilah looked back at me, and I hadn't recognized her right away because I'd only met her once before. She was very beautiful, with dark almond-shaped eyes and a soft smile. In her jeans and tunic sweater, she appeared slender and tall.
"We got Linus's parents out of here already," Ember went on. "My brother is helping refugees escape. Since most of the fighting is going on around the back wall, Finn is leading evacuees right out the front gate and to your camp on the other side of the hill."
"I came back to help other people escape," Linus said, and he gritted his teeth when Delilah turned her attention back to fixing him up.
"My parents won't leave." Delilah scowled, and she began wrapping Linus's arm with gauze. "They're in the basement hiding in a panic room, and I'm actually surprised they haven't come back up here to drag me down with them."
"So that's what we've been doing--trying to help people evacuate." Ember looked me over, her eyes lingering on my bloodied sword. "What have you been doing?"
"I've been trying to get to the palace," I said.
I thought about explaining to her about Ridley, and how he'd been captured, and how I had to get him free before they killed him. But it all felt like too much to say aloud, and there was enough going on here. Everyone in this room had more than their share of problems to deal with.
"I saw you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay," I said instead, my words sounding tight around the lump in my throat.
"I think we can handle it," Ember told me, trying for a reassuring smile. "I know you've got your work cut out for you."
A loud knocking at the front door interrupted our conversation. The kitchen was at the back of the house, so we couldn't see the door from where we stood, but we all turned toward it.
"I locked and bolted the front door," Delilah said softly.
But the knocking just grew louder and more intense, until it changed from knocking to someone trying to break down the front door.
SEVENTY-ONE
adversary
Ember and I both drew our swords and moved closer to the entryway from the kitchen so we could see into the front hall, when the door came crashing in.
"Markis or Marksinna Nylen?" a man asked in the strong, clipped tones of a Hogdragen. "Are you safe?"
"I saw her run in here!" a female voice shouted shrilly, and it was like nails on a chalkboard, so I placed it instantly--Astrid Eckwell. "Go inside and get her! She's the one behind it all!"
I grimaced, realizing that Astrid must've seen me coming over here. She had probably been holed up in her mansion with her family and their own personal Hogdragen standing guard. But her contempt for me was so strong that she'd left the safety of her home to make sure that I got my punishment.
We'd grown up together, and Astrid had been unrelentingly vicious to me. She had been the first one to ever call me a half-breed, and she had made certain that it caught on as a cruel chant that the other kids would sing to me during recess.
It wasn't until my teenage years that I realized the sheer level of her hatred stemmed from jealousy and feelings of inferiority. Her house and most of her riches came from an inheritance that should've been my dad's, and would have been my own, had my grandparents not disinherited my dad for marrying a Skojare. The Eckwells--as second cousins to my dad--were the closest relatives and next in line.
Astrid only had her status because my dad had given it up. Her life should've been mine, and I think that secretly she was always afraid I would take it from her.
But I had never wanted her life, and now she was trying to get me killed.
"I'm here," Delilah said, stepping out from the kitchen before either Ember or I could stop her. "I'm Marksinna Delilah Nylen, and I'm here and I'm safe."
"Where is she?" Astrid demanded.
I leaned against the kitchen wall and carefully peered around the entryway to watch the scene unfolding. The Hogdragen was Janus Mose, a tracker I'd gone to school with who was only a couple years older than me. He didn't appear as confident about their intrusion into the Nylens' home as Astrid did, and she pushed her way around him.
A war was raging on half a mile from her doorstep, and she wore a gown with a fur stole. It was typical of her arrogance and stupidity.
"I saw that Skojare traitor run in here, and if you're housing her, you'll go to prison too," Astrid said, sneering at Delilah. "Or you'll be executed. Janus could do it right on the spot."
"There's no need for that." Ember sheathed her sword and rushed out to the main hall.
Linus pulled on his shirt and stepped out from the kitchen. "You probably just saw us. Ember and I ran in here to get away from the fighting."
"I wanted to keep the Markis safe," Ember explained, standing beside her girlfriend.
"With all due respect, Markis Linus, you look nothing like a little blond half-breed traitor," Astrid told him, doing her best to keep her cool when talking to a royal who outranked her. "Bryn Aven is here, and I know it. And if you all keep covering it up, Janus will have no choice but to execute you all."
I gripped my sword tightly in my hand, but I didn't move. Not yet.
Theoretically, Astrid was right. In times of war, a member of the Hogdragen had every right to execute those who were standing in the way of the kingdom or harboring traitors. But while Janus hadn't been the brightest guy I'd gone to school with, he'd gone through enough training to know that he shouldn't act rashly on the word of a spiteful Marksinna.
"Are you housing Bryn Aven?" Janus asked them directly, standing tall in his Hogdragen uniform. The light coming in through the open windows caused his epaulets to shimmer, and he kept his expression hard but blank, the way Kasper always had.
"It's just us here," Delilah said, speaking as calmly as she could.
"Then where are your parents?" Astrid demanded, and she looked up at Janus. "They haven't left yet."
"My parents are in the panic room--" Delilah began, but she couldn't even finish her sentence before Astrid let out a delighted gasp.
"They have a panic room! They're hiding Bryn in there!" Astrid shouted, pointing wildly into the house. "Search the house until you find her."
"Is this really necessary?" Linus asked. "This all seems to be getting out of hand, especially with everything that's going on outside. You should take Astrid back to her house so she can be safe."
"As soon as we find the traitor, this will be all over," Janus told him firmly. "And then everyone can be safe."
That was when I knew that this wouldn't end peacefully, and I couldn't let Ember, Delilah, and Linus fight my battle for me. I stepped out from the kitchen. Astrid screamed when she saw me, but her eyes were wide with excitement.
"I told you she was here!" Astrid squealed.
Janus raised his sword, and his eyes were unforgiving and his jaw was clenched. I knew that look--he meant to kill me, with Astrid cheering him on.
"It doesn't need to come to this," Delilah said.
She stepped closer to him, perhaps meaning to reason with him, but she didn't understand the severity of the situation. With the tension of the war, Mina's fabrications about me, and Astrid screaming in his ear, Janus was like a gun, cocked and loaded, just waiting for something to set him off.
When Delilah stepped toward him, that was it. He drew his arm back--he was going to kill her, the way he would kill anything tha
t stood in his way. Everything unfolded so quickly, but it felt like slow motion--like the world had stopped and I could see it all but I couldn't move fast enough to change anything.
Linus shouted the word stop, but Ember was already moving, diving at Delilah and pushing her out of the way. Delilah fell to the floor just as Janus drove his sword straight through Ember, and she hit the floor with a sickening thud.
SEVENTY-TWO
allt ar mitt
I ran at Janus, not caring if he was a Hogdragen or if he truly believed he was justified in what he'd done. For a moment my anger blocked out any rational thought, and I was just moving.
Janus raised his sword, blocking me, but I was moving faster and faster. So each time he blocked me, I would move away and come at him quicker, until I finally found my opening. I drove my blade through his throat, pushing him back against the wall, until I'd pinned him there like a bug in a glass case. Blood poured from his throat, staining the dark fabric of his uniform.
I left him that way and turned back to survey the scene. Astrid stood with her back pressed against the wall, looking rightfully terrified. Linus stood off to the side of Ember with tears in his eyes, and Delilah was sitting with Ember, holding her in her arms as she slowly bled out.
I walked over to them and fell to my knees.
"Why did you do that?" Delilah asked through tears, and brushed Ember's hair back from her face. "You shouldn't have done that."
"Of course I should have," Ember said, her voice soft as she stared up into Delilah's eyes. "You're alive, and you're safe, and I love you. There is no greater thing I could do than die to save my true love."
"Ember, I love you," she sobbed. "What will I do without you?"
"Fight." Ember closed her eyes, but her chest was still rising and falling with shallow breaths. "And live. My love will go on with you, so live as long as you can."
"Allt ar mitt, och allt skall tagas fran mig," Delilah said, reciting a Par Lagerkvist poem in Swedish, sounding lyrical and beautiful. "Inom kort skall allting tagas fran mig."
While my Swedish wasn't as good as it should be, I thought what she said translated to, "All is mine, and all shall be taken away from me, / within moments all shall be taken away from me."
Then Ember took her last breath. Delilah leaned over and gently kissed her on the lips, and then she laid her head on Ember's chest and wailed like her heart had just been ripped out of her.
One of my best friends had just died, and I wanted to fall apart the way Delilah was doing, but I knew there wasn't time. Later, I would mourn for Ember the way she deserved. But now I had to finish things so that she wouldn't die in vain. I needed to get Delilah safe.
I stood up and pulled gently on her arm. "Delilah. You need to let Linus get you to safety." I looked back at him. "You do know how to get the refugees out of here, right?"
He nodded, wiping at the tears in his eyes. "Yes. Ember showed me. I know what I need to do."
"Good. I need you to take Delilah out of here and keep her safe." I turned back to Delilah, since she still hadn't gotten up, and I pulled her to her feet. I put my hands on her face, forcing her to look at me. "Listen to me, Delilah. I know this is hard, but Ember died so that you could live. So you need to live. You have to pull yourself together, and follow Linus out of here. Do you understand me?"
She tried to stop her tears and nodded. "Yes."
"Good." I took Ember's sword and handed it to Delilah, since Linus already had his own. "Move quickly and stay safe." I looked from one of them to the other. "Both of you."
"I will," Linus assured me. "I'll finish what Ember and I started."
He stood up tall, looking more confident than I had ever seen him before, and I hoped I was doing the right thing, leaving him to protect the thing that meant the most in the world to Ember. But I had trust that she'd trained him right and he could do this.
Linus took Delilah's hand and led her out the front door, looking for the quickest escape route to the front gate, where Finn could lead them to. And that meant I was alone with Astrid.
I turned back to face her, and she flinched. She hadn't moved from where she'd been before, with her back pressed against the wall.
"Bryn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of those things," she said in one hurried sentence, almost as if it were all one word.
I grabbed the sword from Janus's throat, which caused him to fall to the floor, and she cringed. I stalked over to her with slow, deliberate steps and Astrid began to whimper.
"Please, Bryn. I'm sorry. I didn't mean--"
Astrid kept right on talking until I pressed the blade to her throat, still warm from Janus's blood. Then her eyes flew open and her mouth flew shut. I didn't break the skin--I held the blade just hard enough so she could feel exactly how sharp the edge was.
"I could kill you right now," I growled. "And I should. But I'm not going to." I stepped back from her and took the sword from her throat.
"Thank you, Bryn. Thank you so much. I don't know--"
"But I'm not going to save you," I said, cutting her off.
Her hand was on her throat, rubbing where the sword had been. "What are you talking about?"
"There's a war going on, and I just killed your only protection." With my sword, I pointed to the window, where the fight was coming increasingly closer to the doorstep.
I grabbed her wrist and started dragging her outside. She was pleading with me to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. As I pulled her out to the street, a Tralla horse came racing by, its heavy hooves pounding on the snowy cobblestones. With all the fighting, the fence outside the stables must've been broken down, freeing all the horses.
But that was the least of my concerns. I dragged her toward two hobgoblins who were just finishing taking down an Omte ogre at the edge of the fray. Astrid began to scream as soon as she saw them, since she was unaccustomed to them and frightened by their appearance.
"Bryn! Please! Let me go!" she begged.
"Hey, guys!" I yelled, and the hobgoblins looked over at me, and then I motioned toward Astrid. "She just had a soldier killed that was helping us, and she has close ties to the Kanin Queen."
"Queen Mina will have your head if any of you lay a hand on me!" Astrid shouted, her voice growing shriller.
Since she seemed like she would do just fine digging her own grave, I let go of her and started walking away. The two hobgoblins smiled before they pounced on her. I heard her screaming, but I didn't look back. I didn't need to.
SEVENTY-THREE
bloodied
At first I'd been trying to avoid hurting any of the Hogdragen. But after Janus, I would kill anyone who ran at me with a sword. I'd always known that war wouldn't be so black-and-white, but I'd come to realize that there was a darker shade of gray, where right and wrong came second to simply surviving.
I wanted to make a straight line to the palace and find Ridley, but the fighting made it hard to move quickly. I could make it a few feet, stepping over bodies, before I'd find myself in combat with someone else. My hands and clothing were soaked with blood, and there had to be a quicker way to get to the palace.
Then, almost like a guardian angel, I heard Bloom. I looked back and saw the massive Tralla horse running through the streets. His sterling mane flew behind him, and I whistled for him. He reared up on his back legs, braying loudly, and I saw that the fur around his hooves had been stained dark crimson.
He saw me and raced toward me through the crowd, knocking over anyone who got in his way. When he reached me, I sheathed my sword, and I jumped up to grab on to his mane. I tried to hoist myself up, but Bloom was over seven feet tall at his shoulders, so I couldn't exactly just hop up on him.
Then I felt a hand under my feet, pushing me up, and I finally got high enough so I could swing my leg over. I looked down to see who'd helped me, and Baltsar smiled up at me before taking on a Hogdragen guard.
"Go, Bloom," I commanded, but he didn't need more prompting. Even he knew that a w
ar zone was no place to pause.
He charged ahead, his massive size chasing everyone out of the way. People either dove to the side, or he ran them over. I buried my fingers in his mane, leaning into him and urging him to go faster.
After losing Ember, I knew I had to get to Ridley as soon as possible. I couldn't waste any more time killing Omte or helping anyone. I couldn't let him die because I'd been busy somewhere else.
Delilah's last words to Ember, the poetry, pounded in my head like a death knell. I wouldn't let all be taken away from me. Not without a fight to the bloody end.
For so long, I had thought of love as a weakness--as something that would only make you distracted and vulnerable. But what I'd come to realize was that love had only made Ember braver than she'd ever been before. Love made Tilda find the strength to carry on. Love made my parents willing to sacrifice everything for each other.
And love made me stronger. I would do anything to save Ridley. I would do everything I needed to do.
The massive door to the palace had already been knocked down, but after seeing the way the hobgoblins had handled the wall, I wasn't surprised. The door was over twenty feet tall, so Bloom ran through the opening with ease and straight into the grand front hall.
It was a massive stone room with high ceilings that rose several stories high and had iron chandeliers. The only natural light came through stained-glass windows that faced different directions. Right now the sun shone through the window depicting the Long Winter War, which left everything glowing red.
Other than a few dead bodies scattered around, the front hall appeared empty. The rest of the palace wouldn't be so easy for a horse of Bloom's size to maneuver around, and I really didn't want him getting hurt either. I swung my leg over and hopped to the floor.
"Son of a bitch," Konstantin said, and I looked over to see him coming in from a corridor off to the left of the hall. He looked up at Bloom, shaking his head.
"What?" I looked up to make sure Bloom was okay, but the horse seemed fine.
"I told you that you couldn't come in riding on a horse like a white knight, and so you had to go and prove me wrong." He smirked at me.