Elma POV
I made it up the last flight of stairs and the smell hit me before anything else. Smoke. Not fire smoke. Something sharper, burned on purpose. Herbs, maybe. Or a spell.
The main hall was a mess. Servants ran in every direction, some crying, some standing frozen against the walls like they'd forgotten how to move. Two guards dragged a third one past me, blood soaking through his shirt. Nobody stopped me. For the first time since I got here, being invisible worked in my favor.
"Where's the King?" a voice kept shouting somewhere near the front doors. "Someone find the King!"
I pressed myself against a pillar, trying to catch my breath, trying to think. If Xander was really dead, this castle was about to fall apart and I had nowhere to go. If he wasn't, I needed to find out before
