Her eyes lock with mine.

I have no idea what I look like, but it must be as bad as it feels, because her face pales and she locks a hand on Noah’s arm.

“Grey,” she breathes.

I blink again, and she’s on her knees in front of me.

“Oh, Grey,” she whispers. Her hand finds mine. Tears glisten on her lashes. “Grey, I had no idea.”

To my right, one of the fallen guardsmen is beginning to move, shaking his head vigorously.

I brace a hand against the ground. I need to run.

“They need to get to the infirmary,” says Noah. He’s crouched by Tycho, and his voice is tight with fury. “I think this kid is in shock.”

“They’re waking up!” calls a voice from across the courtyard.

I can’t be taken to the infirmary.

Harper’s eyes meet mine.

“Please.” The word sounds like it’s been ripped from my throat.

She doesn’t need me to say any more. She stands up and starts giving orders. “Carry the prince to his chambers! Boil water and have warm compresses prepared. Take any unconscious guardsmen to the infirmary. Jake! I need you.”

Her brother comes to her side, pushing through the crowd of people. “Harper, what—” He breaks off as he sees me and Tycho lying in the shadows beside the castle. A long breath escapes him. “Holy—”

“Jake,” says Harper in a rushed whisper. “I need you to get them out of here.”

His expression hardens right up. “No way. I get him out of here and we’re never getting home.”

“Look at what Rhen—look at what he—” Her voice breaks. “You think you’ll be going anywhere if he gets a chance to finish the job?”

Jake’s eyes shift to me, and while his expression is grim, he is not kind and merciful like his sister. He drops to the ground beside me, putting himself at eye level.

“If I help you, I want your word that you’ll take me and Noah home as soon as you can.”

“Yes,” I grind out.

“Swear it,” he says. “Swear an oath.”

“I swear it.” I have no idea how I’ll keep this oath, but I’ll swear, and willingly, if it means getting me and Tycho out of here. “I swear to you that I will return you as soon as I am able.”

“Done.” He stands. “Harper. What do you want me to do?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LIA MARA

Chaos reigns in the courtyard.

From the shadows, I watch and wait.

No one notices the two men carrying Grey and the boy out of the courtyard while everyone else is carried into the castle.

No one notices the small wagon being driven from the dark side of the stables, a brown-skinned man clucking softly to the horses.

No one notices Princess Harper staring after the wagon as it disappears into the woods.

And, finally, no one notices me slipping onto the back of a silver palfrey and vanishing into the woods myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

GREY

I wake looking into a fire, lying facedown on a pile of soft blankets. I have no recollection of sleeping, and I recognize nothing. The walls are paneled wood, and the fireplace is small. This is not a room in the palace.

I inhale sharply, and every wound on my body protests. I bite back a cry.

“The last time I stitched you up, you ignored me and went off to fight a monster.” Noah’s voice is low, speaking from the opposite side of the room. “I think this might slow you down a bit more.”

I fight to turn my head. Noah sits curled in a wooden chair in the corner nearest the door, a steaming mug balanced between his hands. To his left is a wide pallet bed. Tycho’s face is buried in blankets, but I recognize the shock of blond hair and the lightly muscled arm that’s fallen to rest on the ground.

Even from here, I can see the stripes of red that decorate his back. My eyes flinch away.

My fault.

Another man lies on the opposite side of the pallet, but all I can see are his boots. It must be Jacob.

I have no idea where we are, but at present, I do not care. I lift a hand to rub at my eyes, and even that hurts in ways I do not expect. “The lash marks required stitching?”

“A few of them did. Tycho’s were more superficial, but not by much. I think they went easier on him.” His quiet voice is thick with disgust.

“You are angry.”

“You bet I’m angry. I know things are … different here, but it doesn’t matter. War and torture are two different things.”

I don’t disagree with him. After everything Lilith did, this feels intensely personal—and somehow more humiliating. My hand flexes on the blanket. On the topic of humiliation, my body has needs.

“Noah,” I say. “I need …”

“What? Oh.” He uncurls from the chair.

Standing takes nearly all my strength, even with Noah hooking his hands under my arms to help lift.

“We have to go outside,” he says. “You can lean on me.”

I don’t want to, but after a few steps, my ears are ringing and my vision goes spotty, so I do. We slip down a short hallway and out a door. The air is cool and crisp, both a relief and an assault on my bare back. Sunrise is a purple promise on the horizon. The hour is early, so Noah eases the door closed behind us. A stretch of grass leads to a small barn, bright in the lingering moonlight.

In a flash, I recognize where we are. The last time I was here, it was the dead of winter, with snow blanketing everything in white.

The Crooked Boar. The inn that offered shelter to Rhen and Harper. The inn where everything changed.

I rub at my eyes again.

He leads me to a small copse of trees. “Do you want me to stand with you?” says Noah. “Or do you want privacy?”

Right now I don’t care, but I appreciate that he’s allowing me a moment of dignity. “I can stand,” I say, though I’m not entirely sure. He moves away, though only far enough to lean against the inn and avert his eyes. When I’m finished, he’s back at my side without my asking.

“You are being kind,” I say to him. “I do not think I deserve it.”

“When I became a doctor, I swore an oath to help people in need.” He lets me lean on him again. “Whether they deserve it or not.”

We approach the door, but I hesitate. Even here, in this innocuous space, the thought of going back into a closed-up room makes my pulse speed up. “I would like to sit outside,” I say.

I expect Noah to refuse, but he changes course to help me to the bench beside the back wall of the inn.

Once I’m sitting, I cannot get comfortable. I settle for bracing my forearms on my knees and gritting my teeth against the ache in my back. We sit in silence for the longest time, inhaling the dawn air.

“What exactly happened?” Noah finally says. “Why did they all drop like that?”

I remember the crack and the flash and the sudden silence.

I remember the panic in my head as I realized Rhen meant to flay Tycho to get to me.

It is a level of cruelty I never expected from him.

“I do not know,” I say.

“I know magic exists here,” says Noah, “but I have a hard time considering that until three dozen people drop like a rock.”