Of Blood and Roses

Chapter 42

[cw: death, dismemberment, bodies, blood, violence]

It took some time to make our way to the palace. We left our carriages behind along with our horses, electing to move on foot in order to maintain an element of sleuth.

The Verenician Palace was not built for a siege—an oversight for years past when Rosailles had no reason to worry about an attack when simply the fear of the Great Queen Mother's magic was enough to keep our enemies at bay. Since then, our distance from the border and constant vigilance along the border served us well. Now, faced with the dishonor of Garnette's surprise attack, it is clear that Verenice had lost long before they had arrived.

There was evidence of a struggle, a few Garnetti bodies slumped through the streets as we neared the palace. Roserians—civilians and soldiers, still far outnumbered them. I could sense the growing despair and raising conviction in the soldiers around me as they saw faces they recognized, some barely stifling cries. One soldier discovered her home completely burned.

She did not stop to see if her family had still been inside.

A few eyes peered out at us from the few buildings that remained standing. We saw one completely filled with children, the bodies of plain-clothed men and women outside their door where it was clear they had fought to protect them. It should have pierced my heart. I should have been distraught, sad, terrified.

But the numbness prevailed. My mind stayed cold and distant. The Angels remained with me, stroking my hair, whispering in my ear.

Release, release, release.

I knew what they wanted. A part of me wanted it too. For some reason I hovered around the idea, alternating between imagining the power, victory flashing before my eyes. I could feel it within, locked away in my blood. I wanted it, it wanted me. Still, I paused before fully immersing myself in the thought.

I focused on the task at hand. The city had fought, and I was certain they still were holding on to whatever they could. Blanche and my mother. Despite my problems with what Mother had done, I knew she would not back down without a fight.

Eventually, the dense city fell away, giving way to the large estates that surrounded the palace. The trees provided cover around us, hiding us from the growing number of bodies that lined the ground. More faces peered back at me, more and more looking familiar.

Somewhere under the ice surrounding me, something cracked.

Instead of the plain clothes of the civilians who had fought with all they had, more soldiers made up the dead. Their red Roserian uniforms had gone dark with dried blood, limbs severed, the ground sticky. The air was sweet and pungent with the smell of death.

Silence hung around us as we moved, breaking up to surround the palace grounds. We passed by an estate burned to the ground. A charred skeleton stripped of its gilded gold. Nothing was left untouched, not even its stables where the horses had been locked inside.

Another crack shivered through me, but I kept moving. Darren and Sabine never left my side. I finally allowed my gaze to stray to her. Her bruises were faded to a yellow-green over her dark skin and her curls were wild around her face. Despite her dishevelment, there was a set determination to her that told the story of a woman prepared to fight with everything she had.

Sensing my attention, she glanced at me. Our eyes locked. Another crack, this one bigger, shuddered through me.

I sucked in a breath and looked away, grasping quickly at the whispering Angels in my head.

As we neared the palace gates, more silence greeted us. They stood open, unmanned aside from the bodies around it, blood splattered over the towering rose bushes, painting them red with the wrong blood.