Page 45 of A Broken Promise (the Freckled Fate #1)

45

T he loud clunk of metal pulled me from my deep thoughts. My heart hardened and my neck stiffened. I quickly shoved the papers deep into my bra under the cover of darkness.

“He is already dead so don’t bother,” I bitterly said to whatever soldier was here.

“Well don’t be so gloomy, Freckles.” Priya’s sarcastic voice echoed through the dungeons.

“Priya?! Gods, Priya?! What are you doing here?” My chest rose in surprise. I slid Kaius’s body to the side, getting up to my feet.

“Saving your sorry ass, Freckles, clearly, ” Priya said as she unlocked the gate. I rushed to her, throwing my arms around her.

“ Priya ,” I just mumbled as she pushed me away.

“You are filthy,” she said, taking a better look at me now that we were close.

“There was an explosion and then I went to look for you and I saw him and I…”

“Yeah, I don’t care. We need to go,” she said, glancing over the half open door just a few levels above us and already starting her way up. I glanced over the cold body of Kaius, saying my goodbyes, silently promising him again that his sacrifice was not in vain. I twisted his ring on my finger and clenched my fist.

“Freckles, get your fucking ass going right now ,” Priya grumbled as she moved swiftly up the stairs. I followed.

Priya waited for me as I caught up with her after two flights of stairs.

“Ugh, your daggers are gone. Poison?” She looked over my body again now that the open door to the dungeon lit up the stairs.

“Pins are good, powder just for one.” I mentally recounted the still well-hidden pins.

“Good,” Priya said as she took another look at the open door leading to the castle. At the dead bodies lining the entrance. “Because we have a whole castle labyrinth to get out from underneath of. And the number of wandering guards and Destroyers is not to my liking.” She grimaced as we heard loud steps right above our heads. “Well, let’s go.”

We walked fast, though very cautiously. The castle was now well lit, decorated with beautiful tapestry and statues signaling wealth, yet my heart only focused on two things.

Make it out alive and find Gideon.

I followed each of Priya’s steps as we crept up at a quick pace along the walls, occasionally stopping still behind the large, rich curtains when guards rushed past us. Yet when we passed yet another corridor, I realized that we were just going around the castle blind. Each one of these doors could be another prison, another trap.

“We need to find a wide staircase with large Sunflower art, there is a secret passage behind that,” I whispered to Priya as she paused, calculating which door to use.

“Stairs in a giant castle and a painting leading to a secret passage? Well, that’s helpful, not .” She rolled her eyes, pausing, carefully listening for any indication of approaching guards. “I’ll get us out of this, Freckles, no need to go full Rebel on me with secret passages and conspired works. I think they’ve done enough harm for the day.” She gestured me to follow her, and I obediently did. “Just past this door and we will be good to go,” she said, opening the door, leading down yet another long hallway.

This one was so simple. Servants’ quarters, I realized. The walls were now just decorated wood, the rich statues replaced by tall flower vases.

There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run as the narrow hall only had two doors at each end. Though the hall had lots of windows, none of them were big enough to crawl out of. Priya realized that too, yet she continued walking until the doors opened. Ten worn out guards full of adrenaline and anger poured in. They saw us as soon as we saw them.

All of us halted to a complete stop.

My mind calculated our chances. Two assassins versus ten well trained guards double our size. Priya could take on five, I didn’t doubt that, but could I? Sleep powder on one. Poisons for the rest, I just had to live long enough for them to kick in.

Both of us had to make it out of there.

Dagger, pins, and anger were my ammunition.

The guards pulled their swords out.

“Who are you?” one of them asked, as we stared each other down.

“Your mamma’s boyfriends, that’s who.” Priya grimaced in annoyance, pulling her own daggers out. “Ready, Freckles?” she asked, without turning her head to me, assessing the enemy in front of us. I pulled Heart Piercer out as well.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, dipping the end of my dagger in the small vial of poison.

“Good,” Priya said, throwing her own dagger without giving a guard so much as a chance to blink. She jumped on them like a leopard on a gazelle. I followed. The clash of metal and daggers filled the air, poisons and powders coming out to play.

Quiet numbness took me over. It was comforting. Slash, slice, pierce. Wound all of them first, let the poison work, then finish killing them one by one. Staying alive was the next step of the plan as I dodged another sword. Gods, I was fast, but Priya? She was Death Incarnate. Grunting, she stabbed one after another and another, as vicious and precise as a livid viper.

I winced as a sharp blade brushed over my arm. Six down, four more to go, I mentally tallied up the bodies. I could go a little longer. In fact, I welcomed it. The adrenaline, the sweat, the noise, my body fueled by everything but fear. I rushed and moved until another body thumped on the floor and then another and another.

We finally paused, our breathing rapid, sweat dripping down our brows. We both launched our daggers at the same time straight through the last fleeing guard. Our daggers both hit their mark as he dropped, gasping for air on his knees. Priya strolled to him, kicking him down with her boots, narrowing her eyes slightly at the sight of Heart Piercer wedged deep inside his body.

“Not so fast you rotten piece of shit,” she said, turning him to the side as he gagged on the white foam coming out of his mouth. She paused, staring deep into his eyes. For a minute I nervously glanced over the two exits. Whatever Priya was doing this was not the time to do it.

“We should really go.” I nudged her, pulling my dagger out of the now still body. She sneered but pulled her dagger, sheathing it as well.

But we were too slow.

Another group of guards rushed past the doors, this time I didn’t bother counting. There were more than ten, probably double. I calmed the sliver of panic running through me. The pins and poisons were almost gone and the three daggers between the two of us against twenty guards? My mind didn’t bother calculating our odds.

Exhausted, I gripped my dagger tighter.

The guards stared at the piled bodies around us, pointing their loaded crossbows at us.

Crossbows, not swords.

We could try and run. Terrible idea but in this case, our best option. Maybe if we were fast enough, we could find somewhere to hide. I nudged Priya a bit, as if asking her, telling her to be ready to run. She ignored me. Mentally I gave Priya one more second and then I’d drag her through the castle myself if she didn’t move right then .

“Priya,” I uttered her name with a demand. It had to be now. We had seconds now that the soldiers shifted their fingers closer to the triggers.

“Oh, for fucks sake. I am so over today,” Priya said loudly. Not scared or afraid, not even remotely tense, but more annoyed than anything. Some of the guards shifted on their feet. Uneasy, unsure of who of them would pull the trigger first.

Leaderless. I realized.

Being shot with an arrow in the back tonight was not a part of my plan. My eyes jerked between the guards and us.

“Priya. This is not the time,” I said cautiously.

If she thought we could take them on she was insane. Ten guards were almost too much, but we still had a slim chance. But more than twenty with depleted resources? We would die. Maybe not without taking a life or two first, but we would die.

She glared at the guards without speaking a word.

I gasped. Instead of firing their crossbows they all— all two dozen or so of them—dropped to the ground, squirming and screaming in complete agony as they grabbed their heads, blood rushing from their ears and noses.

Shocked, I stood still watching them all die. Every single one of them. Until the very last screams went out and their blood pooled together. The exit to the hall was now lined with dead bodies.

Priya moved then, stepping across each lifeless man. She was no longer sneaky or cautious. She walked as if she owned the castle. I carefully followed her. She opened the doors, slamming them loudly. Another two guards went down in the same agonizing torturous death within seconds as she cast her eyes on them.

I silenced the familiar shock.

Later. I will deal with this later, I told myself, as I threw my dagger straight through another guard emerging on my left.

Priya no longer hid as she strode open through the castle, no longer doubting which direction to take until we were by the Royal Stables. Two servants screamed in pain, grasping their heads, pulling their own hair out. Blood pooled out of their ears and noses just the same as all the guards in the castle.

Later, I reminded myself.

I saddled a horse.

“Please tell me you know how to ride?” were the only words Priya spoke to me as she jumped on the back of the black mare in the stall next to me. I nodded.

It’s not like I had any other choice as Priya had already galloped across the perfectly cut green lawns of the Royal Castle. The loud screaming of guards followed her, but it wasn’t the guards I froze from. No, it was the smell of the fire, the smoke, as the burning arrows slashed across the black sky, burning bright with the silver Cleansing Fire— Destroyer’s fire.

I stiffened completely, yet my brown mare followed Priya’s as if it knew that my life depended on her. Slashing through the cold air, I begged her to keep going faster and faster, as another arrow landed just a few feet away from where we were seconds before.

We were approaching the large stone wall that encircled the whole estate.

Jump.

The thought came before I could realize what was happening.

Jump.

Ignoring the screaming doubts and any reason, my body obediently followed the command, launching myself off the galloping horse to the top of the bright tall white wall, quickly climbing up and then jumping off into the flower beds below, well hidden by the darkness of the night.