“Poppy,” Kieran whispered.
Nothing was happening.
The shrill shrieking stopped.
Heart cracking, I looked at Arden’s eyes. They remained vacant and without life. His chest didn’t move. I pushed harder, hands trembling as the mist receded and cleared. Blood. There was so much blood.
Kieran’s hand slid off Arden and folded over mine. “Poppy.”
“I wanted it to work. I wanted—” A ragged cry parted my lips.
“Stop,” Kieran ordered quietly, lifting my hands—my blood-smeared hands. He pressed his lips to my knuckles. “He’s gone. You know this. He’s gone.”
I shuddered as Delano turned, nudging Arden’s paw with a whimper. Anguish built in my throat, tart and tangy. It came from them. It came from me as the fur thinned out, and pale, blood-streaked skin appeared. Arden returned to his mortal form.
Pulling my hands free, I rocked back, closing my eyes. Tears burned my throat. I didn’t know Arden as well as a few others, but in Evaemon, he’d become my shadow. I had been getting to know him. I liked him. He didn’t deserve this.
The others backed off a little, all but Kieran and Delano. They stayed with Arden and me as I knelt there, eyes closed as the sorrow—ice, ice-cold—and that hollow place in me—chilly and dark—heated.
“These Craven were servants,” Emil said, his voice rough. “Weren’t they?”
“They were,” came Tasos’ answer. “That’s Jaciella. And Rubens. They were both alive yesterday. So was…” Tasos continued, rattling off the names of those who’d served the Ascended.
“They did this,” Kieran said quietly. His anger, hot and yet cold, reached out to me, colliding with my building fury.
Running my hand over Arden’s arm, I opened my eyes. They were dry. Barely.
The white aura behind Kieran’s pupils glowed vividly, and that taste built in my mouth again. This time, it throbbed in my chest, in my heart, and at the very core of my being. “Locate them,” I bit out, reaching for and finding my dagger. “Find them and bring them to me.”
More servants had been turned, but they’d made it out of the underground chambers, somehow avoiding the sunlight. Valyn and Hisa had dealt with several on the second and third floors of Castle Redrock.
We’d been lucky to have missed them when we entered the stairwell.
Until we weren’t.
I stared at where Arden lay, shrouded in white, next to the guards and the deceased Craven. I counted them. Eighteen. The Ascended had turned eighteen mortals. Some of them looked as if they had fought back. I saw it on the bruised knuckles and broken nails. The turned mortals would be given the same honor as anyone else.
Footsteps echoed through the hall, and I turned from the bodies, seeing Emil and Valyn. “Did you find the Ascended?”
Valyn shook his head. “I believe they abandoned the city.”
Kieran cursed as Emil nodded. “The bastards turned the servants, set the trap, and left.”
My lips parted. “How can we be sure?”
“We’ve checked all the chambers down here, and the homes near the interior rise are being searched to see if any are underground,” Valyn said, his features tense. “But I believe they left.”
Every part of me focused on him, and when I reached out with my senses, the shield around him was even thicker. “What did you find?”
Neither answered for a long moment and then Valyn said, “What I can only imagine to be a message.”
“Where?”
“In the chamber at the end of the left hall,” he answered, and I started walking, Delano close behind me. Valyn caught my arm as I moved past him. “I don’t believe you want to see it.”
Dread blossomed. “But I need to.”
He held my gaze and then released my arm, saying quietly to Kieran, “She shouldn’t see this.”
Kieran didn’t try to stop me, only because he knew better.
The hall was quiet as I walked to the open chamber, softly lit by several candles I could already see placed on the floor. My steps slowed as I neared the mouth of the chamber, and I stopped as I saw inside it.
I saw legs first.
Dozens of legs, swaying gently among crates of what appeared to be wine. Slowly, I looked up. Slim calves. Bite marks at the knees, the inner thighs. I shuddered. Wrists torn open. Breasts mauled. The gauzy white of a veil. Gold chains holding the veils in place—gold chains secured to the ceiling, holding them in place.
Kieran had gone rigid beside me as Delano pressed against my legs. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think or feel anything but the stirring eather, the simmering rage. These people…these girls…
I pressed a shaky hand to my stomach as I saw the words on the wall behind them, lit by rows of candles. Words written in dried, rusty-colored blood.
All you will liberate is death.
The hand of one of the girls twitched.
I took a jerky step back, and Kieran moved then, curling an arm around my shoulders. He gave me no choice, guiding me from the chamber and away from the doors. I wouldn’t have fought him because that was…