Page 33 of Wicked Prince of Shadows (Wicked Princes #2)

Knowing this was our best chance, we ran, our feet pounding across broken marble.

Behind us, the behemoth's roar shook the air itself and made the rocks vibrate. It burned within my body. I locked my grip around Osric’s hand, dragging him over shattered stone, lungs searing as the garden fell apart around us.

A deathbeak shrieked somewhere behind us, its call echoing off the collapsing walls.

Ten feet. Five. The crack was narrow—barely wide enough to squeeze through if we could just reach it.

A shadow plunged over us, blotting the light.

I skidded to a halt so fast Osric slammed into my side. My stomach dropped. A centipede shot up through the crack, its segmented body blocking the crack in the wall, hissing and snarling. Its countless legs writhed as it swayed, preparing to strike.

I stumbled backward, pulling Osric with me and pushing him behind me at the same time.

We were trapped. There was nowhere to go.

Behind us, both behemoths trampled the garden.

To our sides, beetles and deathbeaks closed in.

We were cornered. I grabbed one of the fallen shrubs.

The branch snapped in my hand as I ripped it free, leaves rustling and grey berries pelting the marble as I brandished it like a bat. “Back off!”

The centipede lunged. I swung.

The branch cracked against its head, only for its mandibles to snap the wood in half with a sharp, splintering crunch. The centipede jerked back then, its mandibles whirring as it hissed at me.

Snarling, I seized the rest of the shrub, shoving it forward as the beast reared again.

Osric’s scream blurred into the chaos as I jammed the branches toward the centipede’s face.

It tore through, shredding leaves and wood with terrifying ease.

I braced myself, every muscle locked, waiting for the ripping pain of its strike—

A ribbon of smoke slammed into it. The vapor coiled tight around its body, solidifying enough to grip.

The centipede shrieked, thrashing. An eel shot in and attacked.

More shapes flickered into existence—two, three more—circling Osric and me in rippling, translucent loops, fading in and out of corporality.

"Get out!" Vetle’s command cracked through the chaos above and to the right. “Get around the wall to the western watchtower! Go!”

His wings beat down with great force, pinning us to the marble before he slammed into the behemoth with a sound like mountains colliding. Shadows exploded outward.

The creature roared, the shockwave rattling my teeth, but Vetle was already moving—claws raking its skull as he twisted midair, then plunged his talons deep into its glowing eye socket.

The second behemoth lashed at him, but the heavy claw struck the wall, sending shards of rock flying.

Guards swarmed in, blades and arrows glinting, trying to draw its attention.

The eels surged through the crack, clearing a path. One coiled around a deathbeak, slamming it sideways into the marble. Another tangled a beetle’s legs, sending it sprawling into its companion.

“Come on!” I yanked Osric forward, shoving my head through the fissure. Beetles and centipedes writhed along the walls to either side, swarming toward the guards above. To the west: rubble and the watchtower rising beyond in what remained of the outer wall.

“Change of plans,” I said, trying to sound confident and calm. “We follow the eels to the watchtower. Stay aware. Don’t let go of me.”

The stone scraped my arms raw as I squeezed through, dragging Osric behind. Dust rained down, gritty against my teeth and bitter on my tongue. The wrap snagged and ripped against the coarseness. Behind us, Vetle’s roar blended with the behemoth’s.

The crack narrowed further. I twisted sideways, chest grinding against one wall, back against the other. Osric slipped through easier, small enough to dart like a shadow. Tremors shook the wall, stones grinding above us.

"Almost there!" I gasped, trying not to think of what would happen if the ground shifted and this crushed us like pomegranates.

We burst through to the other side, stumbling onto cracked earth. The outer section of the palace wall stretched before us. My breath caught. That wall had been shattered too, whole sections torn open as if they were made of paper instead of stone.

My breath caught. But the monsters weren’t here. Every beetle, every centipede, even the deathbeaks—they were converging inside the garden, drawn like flies to a corpse, leaving this stretch momentarily clear.

Lightning split the sky again, thunder answering instantly.

"Why are they—" Osric started.

"Don't question it. Run!" I grabbed his hand, and we sprinted across the broken earth toward the western watchtower. The ground cracked and popped, shaking beneath the behemoths’ attacks within the garden. The eels flowed ahead of us, their translucent forms rippling through the air.

Almost there. Just a little faster.

I cast my gaze up to the stormy skies above as lightning flashed again, half expecting to see deathbeaks shooting down at us. The world darkened around us.

Almost to the watchtower. Then what? The behemoths had shredded this wall as if it were dry bread.

Didn’t matter now though. We’d worry about that when we got there.

Osric lurched, his body ripping to the side and toward the gap outer wall. “Sabine!" he screamed.