Reign of the Fallen (Reign of the Fallen #1)(23)

The nobles scatter at last, momentarily confusing the Shade as they run around the roaring bonfire like a bunch of startled geese. A few trip over their own skirts while others kick spilled goblets out of their paths. A frightened boy in a gray servant’s vest, running hard on their heels, collides face-first with a painting of the Face of Cloud. Leaping, the Shade snaps his neck with a quick twist, making a gleeful, gurgling sound as the boy drops to the ground.

Sometimes they like to eat corpses. And sometimes they just like killing.

A girl near my side heaves a sob, snapping me out of a daze. I throw the knife back down. Blades will slow the monster, but even hacking it into bite-sized pieces of flesh won’t kill it. It’ll pull itself back together and keep eating corpses until someone sets it ablaze.

As the palace guards stream into the courtyard, taking aim with crossbows, and as my friends and I struggle to keep the panicked partygoers away from the Shade, I realize that someone will have to be me.

I sprint toward the open door on one end of the courtyard, where Master Cymbre and Danial are shepherding nobles inside to safety. I’m about to grab a torch from the brackets beside the doorway when a sound freezes my blood: Valoria’s scream.

Snatching up a torch, I turn around, dashing toward the princess.

The Shade has backed her into a corner on the opposite side of the courtyard. Valoria scratches vainly at the stone walls behind her, grinding her nails to bloody stubs as she tries to climb to safety. But there’s nothing to hold on to, and the Shade is giving a telltale growl that means it’s about to pounce.

Evander, reaching Valoria first, plunges his blade into the Shade’s side. Simeon and Jax follow, charging it as it strikes Evander down, barely managing to nick its flesh before it casts them aside. I dodge terrified stragglers as they run for the safety of the palace walls, determined to reach that distant corner in time to help.

A gust of autumn wind whips the warmth of the festival bonfire onto my face as I bolt toward my friends. The Shade flicks its blackened tongue over dry lips, seemingly enjoying the way the princess raises her bloodied fists like she’s prepared to fight to the death. It’s distracted. Good. Time to make my move.

Darting between the Shade and Valoria, I brandish my torch as close to the monster’s face as I dare, startling it into taking a step back, toward the bonfire. I lunge again, sparks from my torch kissing the Shade’s putrid skin, and it takes another clumsy step backward.

The Shade snarls, a bony fist curled at its side. It seems to want to grab the torch from me, but it’s too new and stupid to be confident in its own speed and strength. I snarl back as I shove the torch closer, sending smoke up the monster’s decaying nose.

With a deafening screech, the Shade stumbles into the fire. I quickly step back, but as the monster falls, it manages to grab my free arm. I twist away, but its grip is too tight. It pulls me into the flames with the strength of several men.

Sparks fly as we roll into the heart of the blaze.

We land on top of each other, and as the Shade burns, so do I. Pain consumes me as my flesh sizzles, searing up my hands, my arms, my face. Searing everything. I wish to Death that I could float up out of my body, just leave this burnt shell behind.

I’m not sure which of us howls loudest.

Distantly, Evander yells my name, followed by something with a high, urgent ring to it. But the crackling fire, the Shade’s furious screeches as it burns, and my thudding heart make it impossible to guess the words.

Hands grip my shoulders, tearing me away from the Shade and the flames. Evander’s hands. He’s going to get burned, probably already is, and I don’t want him to know this pain. I try to shove him back, but he hangs on, and together, we free ourselves of the fire. I lie on my back, gasping, letting the cool flagstones of the courtyard soothe my hot skin. My skirts are blazing, and the smell of singed hair fills my nose and throat, choking me. But Evander, despite the burns on his arms and hands, beats out the flames around me first.

The Shade staggers out of the blaze a moment later on bony legs, its scrap of remaining flesh melting off like candle wax. It shrinks farther and farther into the stone floor as its legs burn to ashes on the wind. Soon it’s nothing but a puddle of blackened bone and rubble.

For a moment, there’s silence apart from the hissing and popping of the fire. The crowd collectively holds its breath, not yet ready to believe the monster is really gone.

“I did it,” I whisper to myself, stunned. I’ve killed my first Shade.

When Evander pulls me against his chest and shouts for Danial, I realize I’m shaking.

“You were lucky,” Danial says as he heals my singed face and arms, then turns to address Evander’s burns. “Your dress took the worst of the heat. But I’m afraid it’s ruined. There’s no magic anyone can work on that disaster.”

I nod, but don’t have the energy to talk as I rest in Evander’s arms in the middle of the courtyard. Palace guards rush over with buckets, first to put out the bonfire, then to douse the spot several feet away where the Shade dissolved into a pool of ash.

Gradually, once all the partygoers have been accounted for, my friends and Master Cymbre gather around me.

“That was a completely idiotic thing to do!” Simeon tells me, laying a hand on my shoulder. “Idiotic. Seriously.” He gives me a shaky grin. “Wish I’d thought of it.”

I grin back. “Just another day’s work, right?”