The Archshade

Forty-Three

Biting back a scream, I dive away from the gate, taking shelter behind a stone pillar. I press against the stone as flat as I can and clamp a hand over my mouth, muffling my trembling breaths. Waves of heat crash over my body and force sweat to the surface of my skin.

"Hey! Where'd you go?"

A familiar whisper, calling into the corridor. My eyes widen.

Abandoning my hiding place, I return to the gate. "What are you doing here?!" I hiss. "How do you keep breaking in?!"

Baden's face has a stupid grin on it, and his eyes are alight with rebellious fire. "Your friends made it to the market square and found me."

"Aria and Munir?" I whisper, relief pouring out of me. "They're safe?"

"For the moment," Baden whispers back. "The caravan leaves soon, but they told me you were captured by the prince." He grasps my hand through the bars of the gate. "They showed me the loose stones in the dungeon, and I came back for you."

I give his hand a squeeze. "Baden, listen. There's no time. I've done something terrible, and any moment now, Prince Darcron will raise an alarm. If they find you with me, you'll be executed too."

Baden cocks his head to the side, smiling. "Then we better get out of here." His smile broadens as he holds up a set of keys.

"Where'd you get those?!"

He shrugs, releasing my hand to reach through the gate and unlock it. "Don't look at me like that. A guard came and locked the front gate while I was hiding in here. I saw him slip the keys under a stone."

I frown as he jangles the keys in the lock. "Why would a guard do that?"

"Who cares?" he scoffs. "Lucky for us."

My frown deepens, this sudden stroke of luck not sitting well in my gut. "Baden—"

He interrupts my protests by swinging open the gate and crushing me in an embrace.

"I know you're worried, but we'll be gone before anything bad can happen." Though taken by surprise, I hug him back, letting myself believe him for just a moment.

With one hand clutching the bundle of supplies slung over my shoulder and Baden grasping the other, I'm pulled through the gate. We scamper through the silent gardens like two mice fleeing a watchful owl. The leaves rustle in the nighttime breeze, and the shadows flicker in the boughs of the trees. My bare feet slap against the cold cobblestone as we run toward freedom. The winding garden path leads to another gate on the far side. As we near it, Baden slows to a halt and pulls the ring of keys up to his eyes, peering through the darkness to find the right one.

In a sudden instant, the air in the courtyard changes. Baden tests one of the keys in the lock, but I look away. Something on the inside pulls against me. I begin turning around before he even whispers my name.

"Zahra..."

Looking over my shoulder, I see a dark figure standing rigid on the garden pathway. His eyes are the last thing I want to see, but they're the first thing I do. Green glass so strangled with betrayal they shimmer as if about to shatter. Everything slows.

"It's too late," I breathe.

We linger, staring at each other, but it's only for an instant. All too quickly, his eyes snap back to expressionless and cold, matching his stance. As he draws back his shoulders, the force pulling against me, pulling me towards Daynar, snaps in two. It strikes me like a recoiling whip, knocking the breath from my lungs.

"Hey!"

Baden jumps forward, pushing me behind him with one arm and taking a butcher's cleaver from his belt with the other. The blade glints darkly in the moonlight.