down the side of one woman’s face.
Another guided her children across the kitchen, cradling her obviously broken arm against her body.
Why would Chayce have ordered an attack against women and children? She had to make sense of all of this, to think. But first she had to find a safe place to shelter the survivors. “How bad, Lucas?”
He let the door fall shut behind the last of the victims and strode toward her. “It’s bad. We’re under attack. An army of beasts has invaded the city and portions of the castle. Right now, we are still clear to evacuate parts of the castle. We have to hurry, though, Your Majesty.”
How many people lived in the city? She couldn’t remember. Was she supposed to sacrifice them all? “All right. Evacuate everyone to the human realm.”
“I’d love to. Unfortunately, I can’t.”
Noah hurried through the door followed by Payton carrying Hannah, and Kiara carrying Sadie.
Oh. Right. Noah had once been human and had died in the human realm. He could no more return there than could Payton. Supposedly. “Okay. Evacuate to the mountains. Let’s just get everyone out before it’s too late. We can figure out where to go later.”
Lucas waved the two guards forward.
They nodded and jogged toward the back door.
When they gave the go ahead, Lucas led everyone toward the door.
“Wait. I have to go to my room.” Mia turned and started back.
Ryleigh grabbed her arm, the flare of pain in her hand a stark reminder of the injury the savage had inflicted. “No way. We have to get out of here.”
Holding a hand up for everyone to stop, Lucas cracked the door and peered out.
“I may know a place we can go, but I need a book from my room.” Mia pulled her arm free.
“All right, let’s go then.”
Mia pinned her with a stare. “I’m going alone, Ryleigh. You have a responsibility to an entire kingdom now.”
“My responsibility to you will never change.”
Lucas pushed the door open wide and whispered for their group to stay low and against the wall as they entered the back courtyard.
The children remained unnaturally quiet, their eyes wide with confusion and fear as they followed Lucas’s instructions. An older girl lifted a younger one into her arms and hugged her tight. Silent tears streamed down the little girl’s face as they ducked low and filed out.
Mia lowered her voice to an urgent whisper. “You are my queen, and I respect you. You are my sister, and I love you. I appreciate that you’ve always protected me and taken care of me. But you babied me to death. Was that really for me? Or was it for you? To fill your need to keep me close, to avoid dealing with the pain and grief of losing those close to you.”
“Look, Mia—”
“I refuse to be your excuse to shirk your responsibility to thousands of Cymmeran citizens now. I am your closest advisor. I am Cymmera's new prophet. Elijah trained me to assume that role.”
She ripped her arm out of her sweatshirt, baring a tattoo that circled her bicep. A thin, intricately woven, tribal design, purple and lavender intertwined lines, similar to the one that had appeared on Ryleigh’s arm during Jackson’s Death Dealer ceremony, only instead of white flowers marking her as a queen, Mia’s tattoo held the deepest royal purple flowers. Perhaps marking her as a prophet? “Now… You have your responsibilities, and I have mine.” She started toward her room.
Shock held Ryleigh silent. Was Mia right? It didn’t matter. She didn’t have time for this right now, and right or wrong, Mia wasn’t roaming the castle alone while they were under attack. She started after her.
Survivors still streamed out the back door, their hushed whispers gaining urgency while they waited their turns to evacuate.
Darius Knight appeared behind Ryleigh and shoved a little boy into her arms. “I’ll go with her. Get everyone out of here.”
She shifted the boy’s weight to her uninjured side.
Darius reached Mia in a few long strides, took her arm, and leaned close to her ear.
“I’ll meet you by the dragon caves,” Mia yelled.
Letting Mia go was one of the hardest things Ryleigh had ever done, but she did let her go. No matter how strange Mia had been acting lately, she had to trust her. And she trusted Darius to protect her. They could sort the rest out later. As Mia and Darius disappeared, she wiped the little boy’s tears, held him closer, waited for the remaining survivors to exit the kitchen, and waved the two remaining guards forward. “Let’s go.”
They crossed the courtyard at the back of the castle and slid through the large iron gate undetected.
Black smoke billowed from one of the tower windows.
They descended the back side of the mountain before reaching the next mountain in the chain and starting up. The smaller children struggled to navigate the rough terrain. The adults, many of them injured during skirmishes in the castle, did their best to help, but their pace had begun to slow.
The little boy who’d struggled so wildly had finally settled down. He now trod beside the soldier who’d saved him, head down, shoulders slumped in defeat.
They had to find somewhere safe to rest.
The castle blocked any view of the mountainside below it that held the city of Cymmera, but smoke filled the sky in that direction, so she could only assume the worst.
Ryleigh slid and almost lost her footing, loose rocks tumbling down the mountain behind her. She clutched the little boy closer, biting back a scream as agony tore through her hand. Healing didn’t come automatically to her yet, and she couldn’t focus with everything going on. She’d managed to slow the flow of blood from her side a little, but if the lightheadedness was coming from the blood loss, she was going to have to try harder. She’d see what she could do once they reached the caves.
The boy slipped, and she hugged him tighter.
He whimpered and buried his head against her shoulder.
She didn’t know the child, but he couldn’t be more than two or three, and they had no idea where his parents were. She tried to reassure him he’d be safe, but mostly, he stayed quiet, only letting out an occasional soft cry when she squeezed him too tight.
The boy, he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, tell her his name, clung to her neck, practically choking her.
Savages stampeding on their heels spurred her to move faster than comfortable up the steep incline. Many of the others cast nervous glances over their shoulders. A few soldiers urged the civilians to move faster. Now way could they stop and give the kids a break.
They’d almost reached the dragon caves, but if the savages continued at their current pace, they’d probably overtake them before all of them made it to the caves. If they couldn’t make the caves, she’d have to try to
