VEIL OF EDEN

ROYAL MISHAP

The next explosion came closer. The floor jumped beneath my feet. Elara screamed. I grabbed her before she could fall.

"Keep moving."

"I—I can't."

"You can."

Another explosion tore through the palace behind us. Dust rained from the ceiling. People were running in every direction. Guards shouted orders. Servants abandoned trays and disappeared through doorways. Somewhere deeper inside the palace, steel struck steel.

Elara's breathing became faster. Too fast. Her hands shook violently.

"Nerezza..."

"I know."

"I can't breathe."

"You're breathing."

"I can't—"

"You are. You're just doing it badly."

She stared at me.

Even in the middle of a palace attack, I could see the confusion in her eyes. I tightened my grip around her wrist.

"Look at me."

She did.

"Breathe in."

She tried.

"Again."

Her breath caught.

"Again."

Slowly, painfully, she followed.

The screaming around us faded into the background.

Not because it had stopped.

Because, for those few seconds, she was listening to something other than the panic.

Then a voice cut through the chaos.

"Elara!"

She froze.

I looked up.

Cassian.

He stood at the end of the corridor.

For the first time since I had met him, the calm expression was gone. His uniform was dust-covered. One sleeve had been torn. There was blood along his cheek.

Not his.

Three men were advancing toward him.

One carried a curved blade.

Another had an Anix shaped like a long-legged creature crawling across his shoulders.

The third didn't have an Anix beside him at all.

That was what made me nervous.

Cassian looked at Elara.

Then at me.

"Stay there."

I almost laughed.

There were explosions happening around us. People were dying. And apparently, the important instruction was stay there.

The first attacker lunged.

Cassian moved.

I barely saw it.

One moment, the man was running.

The next, he was on the floor.

The second attacker came from the side. Cassian caught his wrist.

There was a c***k.

The man screamed.

His Anix surged forward.

Suddenly, the air around us changed.

Cassian's pupils changed to red. Scales appeared along the side of his neck.

It was subtle at first.

A pressure.

Then the entire corridor seemed to tighten around him.

The attacker's Anix faltered.

Cassian drove his fist into the man's chest.

I could see the man's heart.

Then Cassian pulled it out of his body.

I stared.

Elara didn't.

She had already seen this side of her brother.

"Cassian!"

The third attacker raised his weapon.

Cassian looked at him.

Just looked.

The man hesitated.

That hesitation cost him.

Cassian crossed the distance between them in an instant.

The sword fell.

Cassian caught it before it hit the ground.

With one swift movement, he sliced through the man's body.

The man looked at Cassian as if he couldn't believe what had just happened.

Then his eyes widened.

Fear.

Pure fear.

The red-eyed demon standing before him was the last thing he saw.

His body separated into two and fell heavily to the floor.

Cassian turned toward us.

"Elara."

She ran to him.

I just stared.

I couldn't bring myself to move toward him.

His bloodied clothes.

His red eyes.

I had never seen anything like it.

He caught Elara immediately. She buried her face against his chest.

His entire body changed.

The terrifying General disappeared.

He looked normal again, and his Anix finally showed its appearance at his side.

He became her brother again.

"I've got you."

Elara's fingers tightened around his uniform.

"They're everywhere."

"I know."

"They're going to kill everyone."

"They won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm here."

Something about the way he said it made me believe him.

Then another sound came from the eastern wing.

Not an explosion.

A bell.

Cassian's head snapped toward it. His expression changed.

I followed his gaze.

Another bell rang.

Then another.

Three short bells.

Cassian's face hardened.

"That isn't an attack alarm."

A guard came sprinting around the corner.

"General!"

Cassian released Elara.

"Report."

"The eastern corridor has been breached."

The guard was breathing heavily.

"They aren't fighting their way through."

Cassian stared at him.

"They're moving past the guards."

"What?"

"They're ignoring the soldiers. They're heading straight for the inner palace."

Nobody spoke.

I felt something cold settle in my stomach.

The attackers weren't here to kill everyone.

They were looking for something.

Or someone.

Cassian immediately turned to the guard.

"Seal the eastern wing."

"Yes, sir."

"And send Commander Veyra to the lower halls."

The guard hesitated.

"Sir... Commander Veyra is already there."

Cassian's eyes narrowed.

That tiny pause bothered me.

It shouldn't have.

But it did.

Cassian noticed it too.

"Get her."

He looked at Elara and me.

"Take them somewhere safe."

Elara held her brother tighter.

"No!"

I totally agreed.

No.

The safest place was beside Cassian.

Cassian looked at her.

"It's fine. It'll all be over. They're taking you somewhere safer."

She looked like she wanted to protest.

"Trust me."

BOOM.

The palace shook again.

Elara slowly released Cassian.

He nodded at the guard.

The guard looked at Elara before nodding, almost as if to apologize. Then he hoisted her up before disappearing with her.

"What?!"

I looked at Cassian.

"What about me?"

His eyes were red again.

"Go toward the end of the hall. Take a left. Find the royal kitchen. Stay there. he'll come get you."

That was the last thing he said before leaving.

"So, in short..."

I let out a bitter chuckle.

"Try not to die."

"Well, damn you, you bastard—"

I couldn't even finish swearing at him before another explosion echoed through the palace.

I ran.

I made it halfway down the hall before something enormous came flying through the air.

I stopped so abruptly my shoes scraped against the floor.

A massive beast slammed into the wall directly in front of me.

The impact cracked the stone.

I stared.

The creature groaned.

Something moved beneath its skin.

Absolutely not.

I turned.

The royal kitchen suddenly felt very far away.

I spotted an open doorway beside me.

Change of plans.

I ran inside.

The door slammed behind me.

I barely had time to breathe before something sharp stopped directly in front of my eye.

Ice.

A thin blade of it hovered less than an inch from my pupil.

I froze.

One wrong movement and I wouldn't have an eye anymore.

Slowly, I looked past the ice.

A shabby-looking man stood in front of me.

He wore a palace servant's uniform, though it looked like it had seen better days.

His expression was unreadable.

"I mean no harm."

The ice moved closer.

Much closer.

I swallowed.

"I don't even have an Anix."

Silence.

Two seconds.

Three.

Despite the explosions outside, everything seemed to disappear.

My entire world had narrowed down to the tiny piece of ice hovering beside my eye.

I considered several ways to die.

None involved an ice shard.

Suddenly, the ice dropped.

BOOM.

The room shook.

"The kitchen," I muttered.

The servant stared at me.

"Where is the kitchen?"

He looked at me as though I had lost my mind.

"That's the safe place," I said quickly. "Trust me."

The door behind us exploded inward.

The fight in the corridor had somehow managed to reach us.

The servant grabbed my hand and started running toward the window.

He pulled me toward a window..

He shoved it open.

The glass shattered.

I looked down.

Fifth floor.

"You've got to be kidding me."

He jumped.

I screamed.

For a brief second, I saw everything.

The palace grounds.

The black smoke filling the sky.

Flames licking through windows.

Guards fighting creatures I couldn't even name.

Anix screamed from every direction.

People ran through blood and ash.

The smell hit me a second later.

Burnt flesh.

Blood.

Smoke.

Death.

I had seen violence in the West.

I'd seen people beaten.

I'd seen bodies.

But this—

This was war.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Then something cold formed beneath my feet.

Ice.

A massive sheet of it shot outward from the window, carrying us downward.

We slid.

The ice reached the ground.

We landed hard.

The servant grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward.

I stumbled after him.

We ran toward the stables.

A man came charging toward us.

His Anix screamed.

A sharp spike of ice shot through him.

And continued straight through the person behind him.

Both bodies collapsed.

I stopped.

The servant didn't.

He grabbed my arm and dragged me onward.

Inside the stable, he shoved a dead horse aside.

Behind it was a small wooden door.

He lifted the latch.

Then looked at me.

I took the hint.

I squeezed through.

He followed.

The room was barely large enough for both of us.

He closed the door.

Darkness swallowed us.

For several seconds, neither of us moved.

All I could hear was our breathing.

Fast.

Uneven.

Outside, the palace continued to scream.

Then—

A faint glow appeared.

I looked toward the servant.

Something small hovered beside his shoulder.

An Anix.

It was tiny.

Round.

Almost like a floating bubble.

And somehow...

it had the face of a baby.

Two tiny eyes.

A little mouth.

It bobbed gently in the darkness.

I stared at it.

He looked at me, as if trying to study me, not fully trusting me.

I don't know how long we stood there staring at each other, but somehow my mind kept drifting back to that scene, and I knew—

I was royally f****d.