Blinding pain splintered across my back. I gasped for air, but my lungs were frozen. I fell forward, catching myself with my hands before another lash of pain whipped through me.
“Enough!” Malachi yelled. He moved to attack the guards behind me, but his father stepped between them.
Pain was pulsing through me. I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I heard the King say, “Take her and go. I can’t even look at you right now.”
And then Malachi was next to me, lifting me, darkness swarming all around us. Malachi was whispering something, and then we were moving, but I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Pain was splintering through me with every ragged breath that hit my lungs. And I was tired. So, incredibly tired.
Malachi’s wings spreading around us was the last thing I saw.
CHAPTER 27
Malachi
The only thing that was stopping me from ripping my own father’s head off was Jade.
I had to get her to safety. I had to get her out of here.
And then I would come back and kill every single one of them.
“Stay with me,” I repeated. “Don’t fall asleep, stay awake Jade. Come on,” I said as I ran down the hallway.
Serefin was waiting outside my room, his wings immediately flexed at the sight of Jade in my arms.
“What happened?” he asked. I rushed past him and into my bedroom. He followed close behind me.
“We’re getting out of here,” I said, lying Jade down on the bed. Her eyes flickered open, but they shut again without coming into focus.
She didn’t resist as I rolled her to her stomach and ripped the torn shirt away from her sliced skin.
“Saints,” Serefin mumbled. We both froze, just for a moment, as the reality of what just happened sunk in.
My father’s guards had whipped Jade.
And they were still living.
My power flared, and the floor rumbled under my feet.
“Go find Adeline,” I demanded to Ser. “Bring her here and tell her it’s an emergency. Don’t say anything else.”
Serefin left without another word.
I surveyed Jade’s back. The two lashes were bleeding, but they weren’t too deep. It would still take days to begin healing without any help, especially for a human.
I couldn’t believe I let this happen. Jade wasn’t supposed to get hurt.
She was alive, but at what cost?
Were we supposed to continue living in fear, doing whatever my father commanded?
No. I was done with it. I was done with this life. We were getting out of here.
I picked up Jade’s hair and moved it away from her tear-stained face. “Just hang on a little longer,” I whispered. “We’re getting out of here. Tonight.”
Serefin opened the door and Adeline pushed past him, “What in the Saints happened?” she yelled. “Is Jade–”
She froze in her tracks when she saw her on the bed. “Is she…？”
“Still breathing. For now,” I responded.
Anger flashed across her face. She moved to my bathroom, grabbing cloth and running the water.
“What do you need?” Serefin asked me. “What can we do?”
“You can start by killing my father.”
Serefin paused. It was dangerous to talk this way in the castle. People were sentenced to death for treason for far less.
And my father clearly had it out for me. And my wife.
Adeline returned to the room and began cleaning the blood from Jade’s back.
“We’re leaving,” I whispered to Ser. “Tonight. As soon as Jade can walk, we’re out of here. I don’t care if I have to carry her the whole way.”
“To go where? Fearford?”
I nodded. “I can’t think of a better place. At least we’ll be away from here. My father’s uncontrollable. He wants me to suffer and he’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”
“You think he’ll kill Jade?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think there’s any limit to what he’ll do to punish me. He knows we crossed the wall to the human lands, and he knows he can hold Jade over my head. He probably has spies in this castle tracking our every move.”
“But you think you’ll be safe traveling to Fearford? You need guards, Malachi. You need food and shelter and a planned route. That’s days of travel, maybe more. Jade won’t be able to make the trip with an injury on her back like that.”
I ran my hands through my hair, pacing the room. I was desperate. I hated that I couldn’t control this. Every day that Jade stayed here was another day that we risked her life.