I grit my jaw, feeling my teeth creak at the pressure. This guy was directly responsible for Joslyn’s death?
I looked over at Drae. “Promise me you’ll take him out.”
He peered over at me and nodded. “You have my word, Arwen.”
Arwen. The way he said my name made my stomach twist into knots.
We snuck into a side alleyway and let the king lead. He was holding a paper map and consulting it often. Whoever his spy was had given us a diagram that led right to the sleeping chambers of the Nightfall queen’s eldest son.
Her heir.
The gravity of what we were about to do settled into me. Killing a man while he slept, no matter how evil he was, was hard to stomach. I knew now why Drae put me on the extraction team. I wouldn’t be there to see it, and after witnessing Joslyn’s death only hours ago I was grateful.
We reached the side of a large estate, hiding in the alley, and immediately shrank into the shadows as a guard passed by ahead. The guard was bathed in lantern light, and I was relieved to see that he didn’t have the metal wings attached to him.
There was a small window on the side of the house just ahead. Drae made a signal with his fingers to Regina and she nodded. I peered closer to see that it was cracked open! He was going in that window, and then I wouldn’t see him until it was over.
What if Drae died…？ What if the queen’s son slept with a sword under his pillow and a guard at his door?
Reaching for Drae’s hand before he could walk away, I squeezed it.
‘Be safe,’ I sent mentally, unsure if it would work in human form.
He nodded to me, squeezing my hand back, and then left, Falcon and Nox following him.
I was pissed at the bastard right now, but I didn’t want him to die. I couldn’t handle another death.
Without speaking, Regina made a hand signal for Cal and I to follow her to the end of the alleyway. By the time we passed the open window, Drae and the others had already slipped inside.
When we got to the end of the alley, Regina pointed across the street to the stables, and Cal and I nodded. That was where we needed to get to. There was a good chance Drae would end up injured and then we’d have to horse and carriage our way home somehow. Either way, we needed two exits at all times, one by sky and one by land. Just in case.
Regina peeked her head out into the alleyway and looked left and right quickly. She sucked her body back into the shadows and then gave the go signal.
The three of us walked briskly out from the alleyway and towards the stables. Not a full sprint, which would be suspicious to an observer, but not slow enough to be unusual either. It was the perfect walk of three friends trying to hurry home in the late hour after a night of drinking at the tavern.
The second we entered the stables, a guard was there. He’d been relieving himself inside, and at the sight of us he yanked his pants upward. Fumbling, he tried to reach for his sword, but Regina was faster. She lunged, and with the butt of her dagger cracked him on the side of the head. He crumpled into a puddle of his own urine.
“That’s unfortunate,” Regina said softly. We then made quick work with the horses. I hadn’t yet taken proper riding lessons, but part of my pup training meant I’d had to muck out the stalls and tie the saddles, so I knew how to do that now. Within minutes we had two large mares hooked up to a medium-sized wagon that should hold all of us. We couldn’t find a closed-top carriage; they were all mechanical here, horseless, and we didn’t know how to work them. But the wagon, which looked like it hadn’t been used in years, would do. Regina had laid some blankets inside that we could use to take cover if needed. My heart raced as I thought of the king inside the estate right now, carrying out an assassination attempt on the Nightfall queen’s son. It was brazen and dangerous—but necessary.
For Joslyn.
If the queen thought she could just waltz into Embergate and take out the king’s chance at having an heir, she was sorely mistaken.
We kept the horses just inside the stable, waiting for a signal from Drae that he needed extraction.
Instead of a signal, the front door of the house blew off its hinges and Drae was tossed out onto the street in a puff of black smoke.
What the…？
Regina kicked the horse with her heels as chaos erupted into the once silent night. Nox and Falcon burst from the home next, each bleeding from their arms. Half a dozen guards followed them with swords drawn.
I barely had time to process the scene when Regina whisked the wagon beside them and whistled.
The king, Falcon, and Nox launched themselves inside and then we took off.