Page 12 of Staff of Nightfall

Adelaide reacted without thinking. She ducked toward the middle of the room. A fleshy thunk and then Nolan yelled. He dropped her wrist and backed away. The handle of a throwing knife protruded from Nolan’s shoulder.

Nolan cursed and yanked the knife out. Blood soaked into his shirt. He gasped and fell to his knees as Mother threw another knife into his heart.

“I don’t care if you’re supposedly immortal,” Mother said as she readied another throwing knife. “I’ll kill you if you touch my daughter again!” She threw the knife, but Nolan jumped aside and it bounced off the bookshelf behind him.

Someone banged against the door and men shouted. The guards were trying to get in. Nolan looked toward the door, knife still stuck in his chest.

Adelaide spotted her dagger on the ground and dove for it, but Nolan grabbed her hair as she shot past him and pulled her back. She fell to her knees and her eyes watered from the strain on her scalp. The bookshelf blocking the door teetered as the guards tried to break down the door. She twisted around, yanked the knife out of Nolan’s chest, and stabbed at his throat. He held up a hand, and the blade went straight through his palm. He looked at his hand with wide, wild eyes, and pulled away. Blood ran off the knife still in her hand and streamed out of his palm, filling the air with a sharp metallic scent. Nolan yelled and released her hair as he stumbled away.

The door rattled and thumped against the bookshelf. Adelaide pulled on the bookshelf, straining to move it away from the door.Come on!Why wouldn’t it move faster? Nolan half walked, half fell toward the windows.

“You’ll all regret this!” Nolan pointed at her with a bloody hand. “I’ll be back for you. You’remine. You hear me, Hargreaves? MINE!” He turned and leapt through a window with a crash and a cascade of falling glass.

As three guards burst into the parlor, Nolan ran across the courtyard. One guard hurried to Father and Mother. The second asked her if she was all right. She nodded, and he went to Regulus. The third guard paused only for a moment before heading after Nolan.

Adelaide stared at Nolan and the shouting guard. She scarcely believed how fast Nolan was running for the stables with the blood he’d lost. The guard would never catch him. If he got to his horse, the only way to keep him from escaping would be to make sure the gate was closed before he reached it. She looked at Father, his face pinched as the guard and Mother helped him sit up. Regulus sat against the back of the couch, staring at his broken arm as the guard left him to pursue Nolan. She couldn’t decide which would be worse—if Nolan escaped, or if the guards caught him. Nolan might tear them apart.

Adelaide tried to control her violent shaking as she walked over to Father and Mother. “How bad is it?”

Father straightened with a groan and put a hand to his back. “I don’t think anything is broken. Just blacked out for a minute there. There’s definitely bruising and something is out of place.” He smiled bitterly. “Were I twenty years younger, I’d be unfazed.”

Mother grasped Father’s face in her hands and kissed him. “Don’t you scare me like that,mareh piahre.”

Father tapped her under the chin. “You don’t have enough faith in me. It’ll take more than a traitor under the influence of dark magic to kill this legend,piahre cha mareh gehvam.”

Love of my life.Adelaide smiled and walked back to Regulus as her parents kissed again. But as her gaze fell on the jagged bone pressing against his skin, her smile dropped. She sat next to Regulus. “How are you?”

“Nothing’s bleeding, so there’s that.” He smiled, but the tightness around his eyes spoke to his pain as a cough rattled in his lungs. “Your father speaks Khast, then?”

“A little. Basically all he knows is curse words, terms of endearment, and some flirtatious phrases that make my mother blush.”

“How do you know about that?” Father demanded.

Adelaide smirked. “Because you’re so used to no one knowing what you’re saying, you forget I speak Khast, too!” She rolled her eyes and turned back to Regulus.

“What phrases? Dresden says my flirting needs help.” Regulus coughed and grunted, his face twisting. “Any...good ones?”

Her brows pulled together. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem...oddly calm.” Her own hands still had a slight shake.

“Distracting myself.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the couch. “It’s how I helped my men through bad injuries. Get them to think and talk about anything else.” He coughed and moaned. “Just...talk to me?”

She opened her mouth to ask what hurt the most but jumped when her half-brother’s shout interrupted her.

“Fath—what happened!” Landon stood in the doorway, face pinched and eyes bulging as he took in the chaos in the parlor. “I heard shouting, and a guard said a guest attacked...” He gestured at Regulus. “Who’s this?”

“This is Lord Regulus Hargreaves of Arrano.” Adelaide ground her teeth. “Nice to see you too, brother.”

“Oh. Adelaide. I was glad to learn you’re alive and well.” Landon crossed to Father without a second glance at her.

She clenched her jaw and turned away. Eleven years her senior, Father’s second child and eldest son had never paid her much attention—but neither had any of her other half siblings. Of course, disappearing with little explanation with her mother for several years hadn’t helped.

Questioning concern reflected in Regulus’ eyes. She shook her head and took his broken right arm as Father told Landon that Nolan was a liar and a traitor to the crown. “Maybe I can try—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Regulus shook his head. “What if you use what you have and then it’s gone for good?” He coughed and a bit of blood leaked over his bottom lip.

---