Aydra didn’t have time to think on their argument. Draven was already starting down the hall. She met the Nitesh’s flared nostrils and blazing eyes over her shoulder as he tugged on her hand, and she followed behind him.
“What’s going on?” she whispered to him.
“It’s fine. She’s being dramatic,” Draven muttered.
“I shall show you drama,” the Nitesh growled behind them. “Freeing the Sun,” she mumbled beneath her breath. “You know—”
Aydra’s head spun. “Wait—what—”
The sun peeking through the window ceased her words, and her stomach dropped. She gripped tighter to Draven’s hand and felt her heartbeat pick up. “Shit,” she cursed.
His urgent eyes met hers. “We can make it.”
They ran through the remainder of the halls.
They opened the last double doors together and burst down the steps to the courtyard. Aydra started to reach our for the phoenix. She could feel it far away, but it answered her call nonetheless. The black of its core filled her, and she inhaled sharply.
“She’s coming,” she managed.
Draven froze at the bottom step. “Balandria—”
His eyes were widened with fear as he looked around them. Aydra’s heart dropped to her stomach. They couldn’t leave without her.
A shadow passed over the sun.
“Go—” the Nitesh urged them. “I will find your Second. Bring her to you. You two must leave.”
The phoenix circled over their heads.
But the noise of armor sounded in Aydra’s ears, and her core froze.
They appeared from every direction, blades pointed at them. Along the top of the catwalk on the walls, the Belwarks drew arrows. Draven dropped her bags to the floor and pulled his own swords. Back-to-back, the pair faced the horde of Belwarks suddenly surrounding them. Aydra’s chest heaved, and she found the face of her brother’s Second coming up beside them.
“Is there a reason you’ve surrounded us as though we are criminals?” she spat at Bard.
“Word of the Venari First and Second inside our walls reached us overnight,” Bard said, his attention on Draven.
“I came for the meeting,” Draven as though it were obvious.
“And now you’re fleeing the kingdom with the Queen under the cover of darkness with the Nitesh in tow,” Bard smarted. “Or should I say kidnapping the Queen.”
“What can I say? She’s a beautiful creature to behold,” Draven smarted. “Thought she’d be better off in my hands.”
Aydra saw a guard move out of the corner of her eye. But Draven was faster. The pommel of the guard’s sword came towards him. Draven shoved his own sword handle into Aydra’s open hand behind him. Draven’s arm pushed out, and he caught the throat of the guard in his fingers.
The guard’s sword clanked on the ground. His gasps for air filled Aydra’s ears, but she didn’t look away from the stare she shared with Bard.
“He’s not kidnapping me,” Aydra affirmed. “I am leaving. For good this time.”
“You’ll have to explain such a desire to your King and the Council. Get their approvals,” said Bard.
“My King is right here,” she smarted. “He approves— don’t you, my love?”
Draven’s hand tightened around the guard’s throat. “Well, you’re a bit annoying, but I wouldn’t leave here without you.”
She couldn’t help the smirk that rose on her twisted lips. If they hadn’t been surrounded by Belwarks and trying to flee, she would have kissed him.
“You’ll be going no where,” came a new voice.
The guard Draven had been choking fell to the ground. Aydra jerked in the direction of the new voice, of the person standing at the top of the steps in the doorway. The amusement she’d held only a moment earlier vanished, and she felt her fists curl in on themselves.
Fucking—
“Ash,” Bard called out. “I did not realize you had arrived.”
Ash’s gaze stared through Aydra to the point that she shifted uncomfortably beneath his stare. The sight of the smirk on his lips made her insides grow cold, and she felt her core drain.
“He knows,” Aydra uttered under her breath.
Belwarks began to shift as Ash started down the steps, speaking with Bard as he walked. Aydra didn’t hear what they said. She reached out for the phoenix and told it to stay where it was, not wishing for it to be slaughtered by the arrows pointed at them.
Nausea crept into her turned stomach. Her chest began to heave, and she felt Draven turn sideways behind her.
“What?” he managed.
“He knows,” she breathed, her voice strangled. “He knows. Somehow. He must have heard—” Aydra grabbed the Nitesh’s arm. “Who else was with you in the Throne Room?”
The Nitesh shook her head. “Myself, the Venari, your Second. There was no one else.”
Aydra’s eyes met Ash’s smug facade, and she grabbed onto Draven’s hand. “He was.”
Ash stopped just before her, and she felt her nostrils flare as she glared at him. “I should have killed you in the Forest,” she hissed just loud enough for him to hear.
Ash grinned. “You should have.” He turned and gave Bard an upwards nod. “Cuff them,” he demanded. “All three.”
Bard frowned. “My orders—”
“The Venari is not kidnapping your Queen,” Ash cut in. “He is running with her.”
“Tell me, Captain,” Aydra growled. “Why would we run?” she said, daring him to speak the words.
Ash took one step in her direction, and his hair fell over his eyes. “Because of the cursed Venari monster growing in your belly.”
The wind picked up.
“My child is not—”
Ash snapped his finger.
An arrow hissed through the air.
“Draven!”
The arrow thunked into Draven’s shoulder, and he stumbled off balance.
Aydra heard the crows in her ears. She could hear the grunt beneath Draven’s breath, see the curl of his fists as he steadied himself. His eyes blazed up through his hair.
The wind engulfed the courtyard walls into a cyclone.
Belwarks fell off balance as it knocked them every way. Arrows flew everywhere but their targets. Necks cracked as some fell over the side of the wall.
The pommel of a
