Of Blood and Roses

Chapter 36

We edged around the back of the buildings. We were hidden from those within, but not those outside. Only a narrow gold fence created a barrier between us and anyone beyond.

I followed the line of the fence towards the main path that led inside the palace—the one I had rode up in what felt like ages ago with Jourdon when I had arrived in Roche. A few men stood beside the gate, sentient shadows in the darkness. Only their quiet stillness gave away that they hadn't seen us yet.

Jourdon silently motioned for us to stay low as he moved back around the other side of the stables. Sabine and I waited. Where was Darren? Where was he meeting us? The dark of night would only conceal me so far, and it might have been quiet now but it was only a matter of time until word spread about my escape and...

I closed my eyes and slumped against the rough brick wall behind me. Sabine followed beside me. Everything that happened—what still had to happen, swirled in my mind. I was aware of the whispers rising around me, our stillness giving them new life as giggles tittered in my head, jumping from one ear to the other, floating and spinning and twisting until I thought I was going to be sick.

I needed to get home. We could already be too late. My eyes snapped open, and I made to move, but Sabine caught me, pulling me back to the wall. I opened my mouth ready to argue, ready to tell her why we couldn't wait, but then I saw it.

A man came down the main path on horseback. Calls broke out across the gate. Movement flickered along silver armor in the moonlight as a group of men gathered.

I pressed myself back to the wall, close to Sabine, hoping the shadows might swallow us. We waited, watching as the man on horseback yelled orders and the group of men organized themselves into three groups. One stayed at the gates, another moved outside.

And the last one, let by the man on horseback, started right towards us.

I gripped Sabine's hand in the dark. And we met each other's gaze. Where had Jourdon gone? Why wasn't he back yet. My skin prickled, my back burned.

We couldn't stay here.

Sabine, sharing my thoughts, tugged my hand, and led us back around the way we had come. The oil lamp still flickered on the other side of the stables, but it seemed quieter now. Like even the stable boy, too, had left.

She pulled us inside, pressed us to the wall, surprisingly light on her feet despite her injuries. We held close to the shadows as the soft rhythmic tread of boots crunched along the grass, growing nearer.

They rounded into view outside as we ducked across the stalls, past the now abandoned light of the lamp. With nowhere else to hide, we ducked into an empty stall and closed it behind us. Over the side a black stallion eyed us, flicking its ears. It let out a gentle huff but stayed blessedly silent.

"Dumas, check in there, you two, take the perimeter. Be thorough. Word is they had help from someone familiar with the grounds."

"You think is was—"

"On with you! The Rose Witch escapes as we speak."

Sabine and I hovered low, her warm fingers still clasped in mine, holding tight as if we might be able to will them away with the intensity of each other's touch. Boots rustled the hay lining the floor as the tall frame of a man's shadows disrupted the light.

"Hey, who's supposed to be minding the horses? There ain't no one here."

Curses broke out outside the door, and another heavy tread stomped inside.

"Bloody fool." Glass clanged as something—probably one of the stable boy's discarded wine bottles—rolled across the floor. "Couldn't go just one night with his wits about him."