A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(26)

It was too late.

The barriers started to rip and collapse.

“STAND BACK,” Ragnhild screamed at the oncoming rioters. “Don’t attack!”

“We want Tejus! The Hellswan swine, Tejus!” the crowd chanted, hurling insult after insult—some including Ash in their rage, some blaming Hazel. It was a deafening roar of hate and confusion, all of their faces contorted with rage. With Benedict at their helm, the Hellswan villagers started to emerge from inside the palace, pushing me further along the side of the patio as they poured out onto the front lawn.

“We warned you something like this would happen!” one of the Hellswan women cried. “You never listened!”

“Listen!” Ragnhild roared to the oncoming horde. “We have women and children here. Don’t attack! We are not your enemies.”

The Hellswan ministers tried to fix more barriers in place, but each time a sliver of translucent blue appeared in the air, the opposing kingdoms would knock it down. The only blessing was that they still hadn’t charged and attacked, keeping back as if there was an invisible line in the ground that they weren’t willing to cross.

I ran forward to Jenney’s side. “They just want to be heard,” I panted. “Just listen to them. I don’t think they’re going to harm us, not if we listen.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” she replied quickly. “They don’t look like they’re going to be satisfied till they have Tejus’s head on a plate.”

The moment the words left her mouth, one of the villagers hurled something in our direction. Without thinking, I stepped in front of Jenney, knocking her out of the way. She fell sideways just as a sharp rock spun through the air, slamming into my forehead.

“Damn,” I breathed, smarting at the pain, before I fell backward onto the grass.





Benedict





Julian’s head jerked backward and his body tumbled to the ground.

“Julian!” I raced across the lawn. “Julian?”

Jenney was kneeling next to him. “I think he’s unconscious.”

There was a cut across his forehead, bleeding profusely. His spectacles, already broken a couple of times since we got here, lay crumpled by his side, both lenses smashed.

I didn’t know if it was the glasses, the pale, unconscious face of Julian, or the fact that my friend had been knocked down yet again, but my temper snapped. My head rushed, red spots dancing in front of my vision as I looked out at the screaming, hysterical crowd of sentries.

“Hey!” I roared. “HEY!”

Everyone from the palace glanced over at me, but the crowd was still paying me no attention.

“None of this is Tejus’s fault. This is Queen Trina! Everything is her fault—and Tejus has done absolutely nothing but try to stop this from happening!”

At the mention of Queen Trina, I had managed to attract the attention of some of the crowd nearest the front.

“QUEEN TRINA!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. It worked. The sentries stopped yelling, and fixed their attention on me.

“She is our common enemy, not Tejus! And if you want to blame anyone, you can start with the last emperor, and the stupid entity that’s been locked in the Hellswan castle for centuries, and is now free! He caused this mess! It’s evil, and dark—and none of us are going to survive this if we’re busy fighting each other.”

“What are you talking about?” one of the villagers called out. “Queen Trina didn’t start this!”

“She’s the leader of the Acolytes. They want Nevertide completely destroyed, and the only people trying to stop her are Tejus and Ash!” I yelled back. I didn’t want to mention that I had suffered at the hands of the queen or the entity. I knew it would only make the crowd more suspicious – there was no way I could make them understand it, not in the short time I had to sway their opinion.

A boy, probably about my age, stumbled forward, his eyes dark and angry. He glanced warily over at the guards who had started to move toward me, but continued walking up to me, stopping a few feet away. His clothes were ragged, torn and mud-stained, his feet bare.

“Queen Trina is the one who told us that Hellswan was behind all this,” he sneered. “And we believe the queen. We’ve lost everything, and yet all you people are living like royalty in another palace! Strange coincidence that a Hellswan palace remained intact when nothing else managed to, don’t you think?”

I wanted to point out the obvious flaw in his logic, that Hellswan castle had been completely obliterated, but I didn’t think he’d listen to reason. If Queen Trina had put them all up to this, then no one would be interested in anything I had to say—not until we had proof of her crimes.

“Please believe me,” I begged the boy, “she’s not to be trusted. She’s dangerous; she’s been lying to you—lying to us all.”

“Why should I listen to you? You’re just a kid, and a human one at that.” The boy crossed his arms, trying to stare me down.

“What kingdom do you come from?” I asked, not willing to back down until I got through to him. The crowd was listening to our exchange, and I felt that if I could persuade him to at least consider the possibility that Queen Trina wasn’t all she seemed, then we had a chance.