A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(98)

He shook his head, as if he was dreading this as much as I was. “Why didn’t you meet me? It was because of him—”

“Halden—”

“He’s here, isn’t he?”

“No,” I lied. I knew as soon as it fell from my mouth that it wasn’t convincing. I had gotten better, but not good enough to fool someone who had known me all my life.

“He’d never leave you.”

My stomach twisted, threatening to surge up my throat. Halden stalked toward me, and I drew my sword. Leigh stifled a gasp.

“You’re right,” came Kane’s cold, velvety voice from the darkness. “Clever kid.” Kane stepped out slowly, palms up and open to Halden.

No, no, no.

I couldn’t let Halden take him back to Lazarus. Halden reached for his sword, but Kane shook his head. “I don’t want to fight you.”

I held my sword tightly. “I am begging you. Halden. Nobody would know. Just let us go.”

“I can’t do that.”

I couldn’t tell in the shadows if he felt any remorse.

“Then take me,” Kane said. “Let them go. I’ll go to my father willingly.”

My body shuddered, but I kept my mouth shut. Kane would be fine—he was Fae.

Halden shifted on his feet—an excruciating pause, and then, “I can’t do that either.”

Kane nodded, a horrifying resolve crossing his face. “So, he knows.”

“Knows what?” I asked. My voice sounded shrill and not my own.

Before either could answer me, Kane launched himself at Halden with a guttural growl. They flew violently into the bales of hay behind us. Leigh shrieked and I took off running, dragging her with me. But as we rounded out of the stables, I stopped short, whipping Leigh into my hip bone.

A herd of soldiers was walking past, headed for the castle, now a towering bonfire amid the palms. Leigh peered up at me, more fear than I had ever known shining in her eyes.

“Shh,” I said. And we inched back into the stables.

It was even worse inside.

Halden’s battalion had found him, and Kane was on his knees, held down by six Amber soldiers.

I could hear my heart break in my eardrums as I beheld his beaten face. Realizing I had nowhere else to run, Halden came up behind me and grasped my arms, forcing my sword to clatter on the ground. Leigh screamed as two soldiers pulled her from me.

“No!” I cried.

“I never thought our last embrace would be like this,” Halden said against my neck. Acid churned in my stomach.

“How can you do this? What happened to you?”

“I don’t know, guess you never—” Fueled by pure rage, and zero interest in hearing the rest of that sentence, I smashed the back of my head into his nose with all the strength I had.

A satisfying crunch reverberated through my skull, and I dug the heel of my boot into his instep. Halden let out a strangled squeal, releasing me, and I lunged for my sword.

He groaned and grasped at his face as a faucet of blood let loose, spilling between his fingers.

And I relished it. Every last drop.

I hurtled toward the guard that held Kane’s right arm, dodging the other men who dove to catch me. But I was faster—I swung my sword at the one soldier, forcing him to either release Kane and duck, or lose his head.

With wide eyes he chose the former and freed Kane’s hand for a mere, split second to dodge my strike.

Two more guards found me, grasping at my hair, my arms, my waist, and taking me down to the dusty hay of the stable floor.

But it was all Kane needed.

I whimpered, a knee in my back crushing my windpipe, as I watched Kane, with only one free hand, take out the rest of the men that held him down, easily and with ferocious delight. Snapping, crunching, and squelching rang through the wooden barn, and when I wrestled free for the briefest moment all I could see was a heap of unconscious Amber bodies.

Kane pulled the two men off of me effortlessly, and threw them each into the walls behind us with two stomach-turning thuds. I plunged my sword into a third soldier’s thigh and ran for Halden.

“Arwen—” He pleaded from the ground.

I kicked my ashy boot into his temple hard enough to knock him out. Blood roaring in my ears, I hoped to never hear him say my name again.

Kane got to Leigh before me and the two men that held her let go instantly, backing away from his hulking, terrifying form.

“Smart,” he seethed, and scooped Leigh up in his arms. “Very smart.” Then, to me, “Come on.”

I regarded Halden’s unconscious body with one last look and ran after Kane.

We raced for the castle, but—

It…was gone.

My throat constricted as I inhaled pure ash, and hacked a cough.

The entire fortress was ablaze and crumbling. A billowing black fog of smoke and ash like a thundercloud amid the rolling hills. The crackle of wood echoed through the night.

But we didn’t have time to stare.

Two salamanders crawled toward us with menace, Garnet soldiers atop them, guiding them in our direction.

“This way,” Kane bit out.

Sweating, coughing—I peeked back behind us.

A mistake.

Another herd of soldiers, these in Amber uniforms, were headed for us from behind the stables. They must have seen us as soon as we left Halden and his men. Marching with purpose and flanked by at least fifty more, we were stuck.