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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Ellery

I understood why Ryker had told me to wait for a minute before emerging from the secret alcove—that apparently wasn’t much of a secret—but I couldn’t stay here, listening to all the suffering while my mother remained out there.

Besides, with all that screaming going on, I doubted anyone was paying attention to anything other than surviving. From closer than the screams, footsteps pounded down the stone pathway as someone fled deeper into the gardens.

I didn’t know how many guests had escaped into the gardens. It was difficult to tell with all the meandering pathways, but at least five or six sets of footsteps raced past.

It might not be the guests out there. It could be whatever is killing amsirah.

And I had no doubt the amsirah were dying. No one screamed like that without a lot of suffering.

My mother is out there.

I wrung my hands together to keep from rushing out of the little alcove. I had to get to her and make sure she was okay. She was tough, but she wasn’t a fighter, and I had no idea what she might have to defend herself against.

I counted to thirty before it became impossible to wait anymore. My hands shook as I gripped the knob and cracked the door open.

With the torches illuminating the shadowed alcove before me, I looked around but saw no one. A cry of alarm came from the garden. A gurgling sound that brought to mind blood clogging someone’s throat followed it.

The blood drained from my face to pool in my feet as terror crept up my spine, but I couldn’t stay here, even if amsirah were dying in the garden too. I slipped out the door and closed it behind me.

I would give anything for a weapon, but all I had were my abilities to manipulate the weather and my lightning. I wasn’t sure how well my lightning would work with all the lightning rods on the earl’s castle and throughout the garden.

It wasn’t like I could use it anyway, not without giving myself away, and then I’d have bigger problems than the ones facing me now. Unless it became necessary for survival, I couldn’t unleash my lightning or fog, as no one, other than my mother and Ryker, knew I possessed those abilities too.

I flattened myself against the wall when more footsteps drew closer. A few seconds later, a figure dressed in black ran past.

They wore a brown sack over their head with the eyes and mouth cut out; a rope cinched it around their neck. I had no idea who it was, but it had to be an amsirah since no other immortals could enter Tempest.

The figure didn’t notice me when they ran past. From somewhere beyond what I could see, someone shrieked.

Creeping to the edge of the roses, I poked my head around the flowers to see the amsirah in black perched on the back of a woman as they dragged her to the ground. Once there, they seized her hair, lifted her off the ground, and hauled her back toward the castle.

When they came my way, I retreated into the roses. Kneeling on the ground, I watched as the hooded amsirah hauled the woman past my hiding spot. With her hands tied behind her back, she bowed her head as she sobbed.

“My father will give you money. Just let me go,” she pleaded.

“Fuck your father and your money,” came a man’s gruff reply.

So, if they’re not doing this for money, then why are they here? And who are they?

After they’d disappeared, I crept to the end of the roses again and slipped out of the protective covering. I stayed low and to the shadows of the trees and bushes while I crept along the pathway.

Some of the torches had been ripped from the ground and tossed aside or knocked over as amsirah fled the attackers in black. Halfway back to the castle, I realized the snow had stopped falling. The earl had either lost his concentration on his ability or died.

I stopped and looked up at the sky with its thousands of stars twinkling through the velvety black night. The moons had shifted position but were still visible.

Taking a deep breath, I stayed where I was while I worked to quell my impulse to jump up, sprint to the castle, and find my mother and Ryker. If I moved too quickly, they might catch me too.

When I was stable enough to keep moving, I slunk through the shadows while trailing the man and his captive. I held back when he pushed her up the castle steps and toward the open doors of the ballroom.

The beautiful music that once filled the air had been replaced by screams, bangs, and the clash of steel against steel. Chaos had descended over the once joy-filled night.

From my angle at the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t see into the ballroom. Desperate to know what was happening and to find my mother, I crept from the shadows when the man and woman disappeared inside.

My thoughts turned to the kids Ianto had saved after immortals in black burned their orphanage. Not all the kids and amsirah running it were lucky enough to survive.

Are these the same amsirah who attacked the orphanage? If so, why did they destroy the orphanage, and why are they here?

I wouldn’t learn the answers to those questions by remaining here. Staying low, I kept within the shadows as I crept up the stairs.

As I drew closer, I also heard the distinct whistle of arrows and the thud of the weapons striking flesh. I gulped as I resisted turning and running away from the death at the top of the stairs, but I wasn’t going anywhere without my mother.

I was almost to the top when a hooded figure appeared in the open doorway. Freezing, I held my breath and hoped the shadows would obscure me.