Page 18 of Married By Treachery

Aimes stopped, finally realizing who it was. “Happy to be of service, Your Grace!”

“Open the gate!” Jake yelled at Marix, who stood at the gears.

But Marix did not hear him. He was too busy hacking through the onslaught of Depraved, and Jake watched as another guard—Maribel—was plucked from the watchtower, screaming as guards tried—and failed—to pull her back.

“MARIX!OPEN THE DAMNED GATE!”

Marix looked back then, sweating and dripping in black Depraved blood. He shoved his way to the lever and started pulling it himself. Metal groaned as the gate swung inward, and Jake slipped through, into the mist.

6

To say that Raquel was annoyed was an understatement. She paced before the glowing hearth in Jake’s luxurious bedchamber while occasionally throwing what appeared to be precious artifacts against his welded door. Howdarehe order her around like a dog. Who did he think he was? The King of the Forest?

Raquel stopped pacing, shut her eyes, and clenched her teeth. Yes, well, so he practically was.

That arrogant, heartless, self-centered…

All of a sudden, horrific shrieks blared through the night. Voices yelled, and the air rattled with an explosion.

What in the world…?

Raquel glanced about the room for the…window. Where was it? It had been there a moment ago. Yes, she distinctly remembered Jake striding for it immediately after they’d first heard the shrieking, but there was no window now. The walls were long and blank and stained in soot…

Her eyes narrowed on the little brown cape hanging so innocently from its hook.

Glamour.

On a hunch, she strode to the far wall where she remembered the window. She pressed her palms to the wooden planks and their grooves, dragging her hands along the places she thought the windowshouldbe, until—ah! Her fingers rounded a lip of wood. She couldn’t see it—no—not with her eyes, but she definitely traced the firm symmetrical edge of what was undoubtedly a large windowsill. She slid her hands to the center, and her palms grazed cool glass.

Her lips curled. “You tricky little prince.” Perhaps if she could just find the latch and open the window, she could break the spell…

There.

The latch clicked, she pushed the window out, and…

“Saints in heaven…” Raquel whispered, now gaping at the scene beyond. Her bedchamber had given her a view of two structures and a street, but Jake’s room overlooked the main entry, wall, and gate, which was cracked open like the curtain over a stage, revealing the chaos of battle beyond.

Raquel squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, but the fight was all silhouettes and flying things much too large to be birds, obscured by mist and flashes of strange blue light. Figures moved along the wall, watchtower, and just inside the open gate, fighting against enormous winged creatures that were trying to claw their way through.

And saints, there were so many of them!

A kith man screamed as he was plucked from the gate’s opening and pulled into the mist, and more Forest kith rushed to plug the hole he left behind. She spotted Marix by his braided hair, spinning blades and knocking back vicious wings. Why didn’t they close the gate?

Unless Jake was out there.

If only she could see…

As if the Almighty himself had answered her silent plea, the battlefront parted just enough, giving her a glimpse through the wall and to the battle beyond.

Where an entirecompanyof Forest kith was trying to get through to safety.

Raquel tapped her finger upon the windowsill. This wasn’t her fight. Those winged demons wereJake’senemy, and if they killed him, well, it might just solve a lot of her problems.

Except that horde would probably come for her next.

She wouldn’t stand a chance against so many, and then she’d never figure out how to save Harran.

Another Forest kith was snatched from battle and dragged into the mist with his screams.

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