The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 28 🔻 The House of God

I moved to stand in between Crow and the archer's aimed arrows. "Get away from him!"

Beside me, Vale squared off against the king's right hand, snarling, "How did you find us, Reynard?"

The gaunt ghost picked at his nails in disinterest. "How the mighty fall," he mused, side-eyeing Vale. "My predecessor now runs with freaks." His eyes flitted from her to me and then to Webb as he spoke. "An anchored soul and the brainless wonder." He pointed his blade at the last member of our party, who growled like a dog in a snare. "And After's betrayer."

He stabbed his sword into the stone steps and leaned against it with the haughtiest of smirks. "We were following you all the moment you leapt over the wall. Lost your trail in the sandstorm, but we found the prince's lair." He stroked his goatee with his fingers in thought. "I'll admit, I was disappointed there was no one home to ambush. But we did find a whole nursery of fledgling crows. Tell me, Prince, because I'm curious." His smirk grew into a venomous smile. He looked like he had way too many teeth. "Did you feel it when we crushed each one of them into dust?"

Crow's cry of rage was silenced when Clyde pressed his scimitar to his throat.

I had never wanted to pummel a human being more than in that moment.

But no one dared to move.

"Don't worry, monster," Reynard said, laughing down at us all. "We spared one little bird. We needed it to find you."

Clyde pulled a hatchling from his pocket and dangled it by a leg above Crow. No matter where Clyde pointed it, the baby bird kept its gaping beak trained in Crow's direction at all times like a compass's needle.

"Weh, weh, weh!"

"Albrecht. My little one," Crow breathed. He stopped struggling with the arrows in his ribs. He lifted his shaking palms to Clyde like a pitiful beggar. "Please! Do not hurt him! Give him to me. Please."

I looked to Reynard, pleading with my eyes. Please.

For a few agonizing heartbeats, Reynard said nothing as he revelled in the prince's pleas. After's second-in-command sucked his teeth, looking bored. "You heard the freak," he finally said to his subordinate. "Give him his bird."

Clyde didn't bother concealing his disappointment. He dangled the little wiggling bird over Crow's cupped hands, teasingly, just out of reach. Then, instead of Crow's hands, he dropped the chick on the steps. A little piece inside me died when Clyde stomped on the creature and ground it beneath his boot.

"No!" Crow's anguished wail echoed from every tier of the ziggurat.

Clyde just chuckled as he raised his boot. All that was left of the bird was a little cloud of ashes carried away in the wind. He didn't notice the loner hollow's eyes turn red.

My friends and I lunged for the echelon.

Whips of wind, the beginnings of a storm, accosted us, knocking the archer from his perch atop the gateway. Crow was still too weak to fully summon his power, but I didn't need wind as I threw myself at the archer, spear held out straight. I looked the man dead in the eyes as I struck, and I savored the shock in them when my blade pierced his heart, right where his arrows would have hit me if Crow hadn't tossed me out of the way.

If hollows bled, the man's blood would have doused the temple steps. Yet the cold spilling from the man's twitching body satisfied me just fine as I cut into him, ensuring that he wouldn't be able to heal fast enough to survive. But when his body went limp and his eyes rolled back up into his head, another little piece inside me died with him.