Page 177 of City of Snakes
There was a pounding sound on the prison door, like a bull trying to break free from a pen.
“Where did everyone in the citygo?” I asked Ryn. My heart sank…None of this was right.
He seemed to finally notice how silent the streets outside the walls of the courtyard had become and scratched his head.
Ryn started to say, “It’s as if everyone here...” Then his face paled as he stared up at the sky. I followed his gaze. A gray-rimmed darkness began to cover the moon.
The black moon.
Death’s rise.
Those who worship him will give their lives to become his vessels of destruction.
“It’s as if they are dead,” I finished for him. Cursing beneath my breath, I pulled a dagger from my boot.
Slam, slam, slam.
The giant iron doors of the prison burst open. Bloodcurdling, lifeless screams filled the air as prisoners piled out of the building. They looked ghastly…touched by death. Their eyes gleamed amber, their cheeks were sunken, and nothing separating their grayed skin from bone.
“Ryn…they’re Moirai. He’s here. He’s raised them.”
“We don’t have any chance of winning here,” Ryn yelled to me. The Moirai were deathwalking—traveling in a way much like my ability to travel through Shadows. They couldn’t sustain it far, but it meant they were upon us quickly. With the dagger, I began to cut through those who approached. Ryn covered my back, sword raised, doing the same.
“Retreat to Sahlmsara!” I yelled over the commotion to my men. Ryn was right—there weren’t enough of us to fight off this attack. “Now, go!”
Sybilla. I needed to get to her.
As though I’d summoned her, a familiar feeling seeped into the edges of my mind before I felt her slam in with desperation. I gasped as Sybilla took hold of my mind. Everything grew cloudy and cold. She gripped me only for a moment and images flashed.
White stucco walls, leather sofas, blue flowers. Piles of dust.
“He’s here. Caym is here. Run!”she screamed into the void between us.
When she recoiled and no essence of her was left, it felt like my world shattered.
“He has her! Caym—he has Sybilla.”
“What? How?” Ryn shouted as we struck through the prisoners and ran through the gates and into the city.
“I left her at the flat.” Panic seized me.
Shadowing myself away, I prayed to Desidero that my worst nightmares were not being realized.
It all came back to me in waves.
A wooden box—delivered to the palace gates of Brennax. A note atop it.
“Since your marriage could not be annulled, it needed to be ended.”
Signed by King Toth, Freya’s father. When I’d pulled the nails from that box, the tufts of silver hair had been the first things I saw. Hair, and then so much blood.
Nausea mounted as darkness whirled past.
It was said that once your heart realized you’d lost your Source Match, it never recovered—a wound that could not heal. And yet one woman had begun to make me feel capable of some healing, some warmth, and now she was facing our greatest enemy. Alone.
I burst into the Shadows of the flat. There were two piles of dust on the tile by the sofas. I choked on my fear, spinning around but finding no one else.
“Sybilla!” I called.
