bolted out of her room, down the stairs as fast as her bare feet would carry her.
She peeked around the corner; as she’d expected, the grand entrance was now clear and the first floor of the castle mostly empty, except for the guards who usually covered the inner dungeon door. Everyone had joined the crowd out front, waiting for her ceremony to begin. She held her breath and listened intently; by the distant voices floating into the kitchen, she could tell the guards were still at post—and, as usual, not paying attention to a damn thing.
Lilac found it without trouble; the kitchen firewood was stacked in the corner between the pantry and the wall, as it had been for as long as she could remember. Even better, it had recently been replenished—the pile was almost as tall as she.
Now was her chance, the one and only she’d get to save Garin. Heart thundering in her chest, she reached down the front of her dress and pulled out the tiny matchbox.
She glanced left and right, her fingers trembling so terribly that she’d come close to dropping the box while trying to ignite the sticks. The first one she drew broke in half; the second fell out of her hand and was lost in the soot and sawdust at her feet.
She took a long, deep swallow of air to calm her quaking joints. As she slowly expelled the air in a conkorriganed breath, she struck the third match—the tiny flame igniting as fast as it died. Cursing under her breath, Lilac tossed it into the wood stack.
Before she could reach into the box for another, a burly hand landed on her shoulder. “Princess?”
Her heart nearly stopped—then sank.
She hastily stuffed the matchbox back into her bosom and spun slowly.
The blurry lone guard behind her blinked concernedly. “Your Royal Highness?” he said timidly, his cherub face reddening when she spun on him. He hastily removed his arm from her shoulder. He was younger, probably younger than her. And new. “Are you well?”
Lilac sniffed, the tears coming hot now. She eyed the guard, even considering knocking the wind out of him for a fraction of a moment. He was barely taller than her, she could take him. The only thing stopping her was knowing an act of violence—one more disparaging scandal—would surely remove her from the royal picture for good. Then, her journey through the woods, and Garin’s death, would surely have been for naught.
“I’m just nervous, is all.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Though no one would ever know it, every last drop of her tears was for the vampire in the cell.
“My apologies, Your Highness,” the guard said, shifting awkwardly. “They’ve sent for you, and I didn’t find you upstairs in your room. But if you’d like, I can tell them—”
Lilac shook her head to stop him. “I’m ready.”
Silently, she took his arm.
She was ready. To take her position, to rid the Le Tallecs of the power they’d abused time and time again. This time, they’d be held accountable for a wrongful Darkling death. They’d pay.
As they climbed the east tower stairs, up toward the keep, the pair froze. A loud rumble was heard from down below.
“Fire!”
Fire.
The word, bellowed by multiple guards all at once, rang from the dungeon door, across the grand hall, through the kitchen and up the stairs. Choking back a sob, Lilac covered her ears with her palms and bolted ahead of the bewildered young guard.
Garin was gone.
28
Adelaide
Adelaide sat under the window, ankles tucked beneath her. Squinting hard, she ran her hands along the floor in search of another minuscule rock or piece of dried mud to flick at Garin’s head. When he hadn’t moved in the minutes after the arrows were removed, she’d started to worry. Then, the vampire began to snore audibly—something she didn’t miss in the slightest. She then whispered a pretend incantation in gibberish, watching the guards outside her cell shift uncomfortably until they finally decided to take post outside of the dungeon doors.
For some “fresh air.”
The next pebble hit the vampire square in the forehead, and with a loud snort he jerked awake. Sitting up, his expression changed from one of confusion to apt fury when he noticed the bars. Then, his gaze fell upon Adelaide. In a blink he was at his cell door, hands braced against the rusting constraints. They wouldn’t budge.
“What have you done? Why am I in here? And where’s the princess?”