Page 12 of Blackheart

I strained to hear what the Sapphire was saying to him, but had no success. He reached for a sword, and as the Stonesender smiled, the Sapphire slashed right through his face.

“Mother of Moons!” Luna and I both recoiled. She looked away. I could not.

The Sapphire rabidly sucked blood from the Stonesender’s fatal wound. Luna stumbled away from the window, hand covering her mouth.

It made sense now why they weren’t using blood magic. There would be no prisoners—they were here for fuel.

“We have to do something,” I said.

I had no ideawhatto do, but sitting there waiting to be drained was not ideal.

Luna's lips tugged back as she stared in disbelief. “We need to get out of here, out of the Waywards entirely. We need toleave.”

“And go where?”

They would swiftly catch and execute us beyond the walls, no questions asked. We needed to help secure the Waywards, at the very least, to protect our building. It was all I had.

Luna pointed at the window. “We need to go somewhere these people arenot. I refuse to be a meal for those monsters.”

What she was suggesting was not possible or rational. We’d meet death sooner if we escaped.

“King Clarke created the Waywards for us,” I snapped. “Outside these walls, we are hunted.We are nothing.”

Luna’s arms were at her side, hands balled into fists. “He created a prison! Not something special for us!”

“I’m not denying that, but maybe we deserve it. Maybe this is better.”

I’d laid my guilt out on display. Pain etched across Luna’s soft face as if I’d slapped her. As if she’d thought the same thing, but never said it aloud.

I didn’t want to hurt her, but I’d already said it. Blackheart poison rumbled through me, lurking in my veins. Never far from the surface.

“Last I checked, neither of us had anything to do with Princess Clayvarie, a man did!” she screamed. “Yet every male in the kingdom is not locked behind these walls. Whatever trench your self-esteem has made a home inreeksof weakness. We did nothing wrong, so get your things together. If the gates are open, we are leaving.Now!” Black streams of poisonous tears rolled down her face.

She acted as if I had given my life for the man who’d attacked Princess Clayvarie. LikeIwas the one fucking the men who treated us likeshitin here. I tilted my head, silent long enough to make her shrink a little, then even longer as the tears ran down her neck. “Who died and made you queen?”

“Elora!”

“Luna!” I shouted back.

She wiped her tears away and stifled a pained smile. “Being queen would be nice,” she joked.

“Oh, for Fate’s sake,” I sighed. Only Luna would joke at a moment like this. She took a deep breath, pulling herself together.

“I’m not leaving, Luna. We have nowhere to go.”

She nodded, finally understanding. The only place we could live free was an ocean away in the Bastard Kingdom of Castivian. If it were easy to get there, everyone in the Waywards would have gone years ago.

I glanced back at the window. Three more Dark Natured were being drained on the ground while Sapphires polluted the grim streets.

Witchlord Dronis ferociously roared as he cut through a Sapphire’s abdomen with his sword of light. His brown skin gleamed in the sun, and his white teeth shimmered with a snarl as he headed for his next target.

A frail, redheaded beauty walked up the hill, barefoot and trembling. My heart sank.

“I thought she was dead,” Luna whispered.

There Arielle stood, alive and in the middle of madness. She was so slender that her once full cheeks had sunken in. Trista would be overjoyed her niece was alive, if she stayed that way.

Selfishly, I wanted to know what had happened to her in the castle of Lyonsreach.