A Thousand Heartbeats

I unsheathed my sword, leaving Rhett to fume on his own, running behind Palmer as he started up the stairs. “Have they breached the walls?”

“Yes. Guards are on their way. We need to get people out.”

“Agreed. After the battle at sea, they won’t show mercy.”

Palmer nodded. “I’ll spread the word.”

“What do I do?”

I stopped in my tracks, turning to see that Annika had kept pace with us, even in her gown and heeled shoes.

“Your job is to stay alive. Is there a good hiding place? Somewhere only you know about?” I asked.

Her eyes shifted to anger so quickly, it forced me to take a step back.

“You think I’m going to hide? Now? My people are about to die. Your people are about to die. I’m not saving my own life at the risk of any of theirs.”

The way she pooled them all together, hers and mine, gave me the courage to run into battle. And the way she was prepared to sacrifice herself in the most finite way said that her brother was more than justified in leaving her the crown.

“Then you have to stay by my side,” I told her. “You can’t leave me, not for a second.”

She nodded, bending down to throw off her shoes. Taking the sword in her hand, she ran it through a part of her dress, making a slit up it so she could run faster.

Palmer sighed heavily. “I’m heading downstairs. You two stay on the second floor. Hopefully, no one will make it up here, but be braced for it if they do.”

Without another word, he was off, calling orders. In his absence, it was easy enough to believe that nothing was happening at all. It was so quiet.

I turned to Annika. “I’m so sorry I brought this upon you.”

“I’m so sorry you needed to.”

I worked hard to keep the tears back. “I need you to know now that I choose you. Over the land, over the crown. I want you. I longed for Dahrain most of my life, but the only thing I’ve ever loved is you. If something happens, I need you to know that.”

She looked at me, those eyes gliding over my features the same way they did that night in the dungeon: as if she fully intended to never see me again.

“And I choose you.” She gestured around her, an exhausted but genuine smile on her face. “This is how you can know how deep my love for you went, Lennox: I’ve always lost everything I really love.”

The anguish in her voice hit me. I knew the list of who she’d loved by heart, and was honored to find myself on it, regardless of what it cost me in the end.

I closed the distance between us, lacing my hand into her hair and pulling her lips to mine. If I had to die, at least I went to my grave the beloved of Annika Vedette.

She threw her sword to the ground so she could fling her arms around me, and I followed suit, tossing my sword aside. I gripped her to me, so satisfied by how perfectly she fit in my arms. I held her scent, her warmth, her taste all secure in my heart. Whatever came, no one would steal the memory from me.

In the distance, I heard the mayhem. We pulled apart, sparing a moment for one last look at each other. We both went for our swords, and I saw the first sight of danger in the form of a Kadierian soldier backing up the distant stairway. Putting him through his paces was Blythe, perfectly matching his steps without hesitation. I realized it was Mamun on the receiving end of her blows.

Coming up behind them were Palmer and Griffin, and Inigo was facing someone I didn’t know. It seemed the entirety of everyone I knew was here in one ill-fated cluster.

“Lennox,” Annika asked quietly. “Who are we fighting?”

I surveyed the scene once more. “No one if we can help it, but everyone if we must.”

I caught the moment Blythe looked up from Mamun and saw me. And I watched as her eyes flicked over to Annika. The intense betrayal in her face was unmistakable. It occurred to me then that, while I was looking at a friend, she was looking at an enemy.

Mamun took a swipe, cutting Blythe’s arm, but she moved as if she didn’t feel a thing, marching toward me, her glare saying she was ready to make someone hurt as much as she did.

In the second it took me to get over the shock and take my stance, Annika was there, sword up, blocking Blythe in a move I could only call graceful.

“My lady, drop your sword,” Annika pled.

“Move!” Blythe demanded.

Never one for speeches, Blythe was back to moving, and I found myself glued to the floor, unable to pull my eyes from the way they fought. Annika was all form, Blythe was all rage, and when they clashed, it was mesmerizing.

I turned away only when I saw Inigo beside me. Whoever he’d been fighting was motionless on the floor, and now his eyes were on me, too, asking me why I’d gone.

“You were my friend,” he said.

“I am still. Perhaps more so than ever.”

“You abandoned us.”

“I came to save the woman I love, and, in the process, I found a way to save you, too. To save us all.”

There was a split second, a moment when I saw the hope in his face, wanting to believe. But I lost the chance to explain when a Kadierian guard barreled down on Inigo.

“I need to find Kawan,” I yelled.

“Why? What will he do?” Inigo called back, still swinging.

“Kill us all if he isn’t stopped. I swear to you that we can end this without more bloodshed,” I vowed.

“Stand down!” Annika yelled in such absolute despair that I not only obeyed but so did the majority of those surrounding.

Blythe was on the ground. A guard had drawn their sword up her back, opening a long wound, and she’d fallen. Immediately, Annika ripped off a large swath of her dress, pressing it onto Blythe’s back to hold back the blood.

“No,” Inigo whispered. “If anyone was going to make it, it was her.”

I looked over, noting how low his shoulders were held, how loose his grip on his sword was. I’d never seen him like that; it scared me more than the attack.

Annika’s fingers were at Blythe’s throat. “Her heart is beating. We need to get her to the doctor.” She looked up, waiting for someone to do something. In her world, that’s what happened when she spoke.

And I would have thought that surely seeing the high and mighty queen of Kadier on her knees trying to save her enemy would stop the attack.

But it did not.

Griffin may have made his peace with losing Rami, but he clearly had not made his peace with who took her. In the unguarded stillness, he ran forward, sword high. The way it was positioned, it was going to take off Annika’s head.

It was as if my sword moved of its own volition. I lunged forward and plunged it into Griffin’s chest.

He didn’t even make a sound. He merely gasped a little, falling to his knees.

I was the one crying. I was the one making whatever sound that was.

“Griffin,” I breathed out, coming to the ground in front of him. “Griffin, I’m so sorry. I didn’t . . . I . . .”

He reached up, holding on to my hand, staining it with blood. He was shaking violently. After a few labored breaths, he spoke.

“It was too hard . . . to carry on . . . without . . . her anyway.”

I nodded, looking back to Annika quickly, noting the tears in her eyes before turning back to him. He’d been the light in that castle. “That’s how I feel.”

There was a brief flash of light in his eyes, of understanding. “Then . . . I . . . forgi—”

All the tension in his hand disappeared, and my friend was gone.

I recoiled, repulsed by myself. I didn’t want anyone else to die, and his life was lost at my hands.

“Where is Kawan?” I demanded, my voice sinking deeper than I knew it could.

Inigo, Palmer, Mamun, and the nameless soldier stood silent. Annika was still bent over Blythe.

No one had an answer, and it didn’t matter anyway. Another wave of soldiers came up the stairwell, deep in battle, swinging swords wildly. Now there was an added danger as we heard the occasional musket firing. We were all forced to our feet, back on edge. I carefully pulled my sword from Griffin, positioning myself in front of Annika.

“Slow them all, but spare them if you can,” I ordered, though on what authority I couldn’t say. Inigo was on my right and Palmer was on my left. Mamun and the other soldier moved ahead of us, swinging with precision, hitting a thigh, an arm, a hand.

“So, what? Are we allies now?” Inigo asked.

“I have proof,” I said. I saw him turn to me from the corner of my eye. “Proof of the true history of the land. Annika found it.”

He looked to her, and she looked to him, tipping her head.

I had to stop speaking, trying not to focus on what I’d just done, hoping I could be careful enough not to do it again. I honed every sense in my body into the moment, keeping my movements as precise as possible. Annika was by my side, following our lead, her movements so deft it was like trying to fight a shadow.

“What are you doing?!” someone called, shock and rage in his voice. Dear Nickolas had appeared, coming from another stairwell. It didn’t surprise me at all that he wormed his way around the heart of the battle.

“Saving as many as I can,” she replied, her tone implying this was obvious.

“For goodness’ sake,” he said, daring again to contradict her.

“Move!” she yelled, pushing him aside to block another swipe of a Dahrainian sword. She barely succeeded.

“You should be hiding!” he insisted, pulling her again. And this time his foolishness went too far. He moved Annika’s arm so she was defenseless, and the razor-sharp tip of the sword pierced her chest.

“Ah!” she bent, clutching the wound.

My eyes met his, and I was prepared to take at least one more life tonight. He seemed to have the sense to understand what he’d done, and he moved to carry her away.

She cried out when he lifted her, and I worried that the cut went deeper than it looked.

Gasping, she pointed at me and yelled as loud as she could, so everyone—both Kadierian and Dahrainian—would know. “He is your king! He is our king! Save the king!”