Working For The Prince (BxB)✔

Chapter 39 - Desperate

Asher had no idea how many stone gargoyles were situated around the castle, but he knew they vastly outnumbered the knights. Trevor and his men didn't stand a chance.

Through the hall windows, he could see dozens of the beasts crawling around, searching for new victims. He ducked under a window sill before getting spotted and crawled along the wall until it was safe to stand again.

The clank of metal on stone sounded to his right and he knew the knights were getting more action than they had been wishing in their boredom. Remembering how kind they had been to the servant, Asher couldn't help hoping they all got out of this mess unscathed.

Demeter had been right about the statues, and now Asher strongly regretted dropping that cupcake earlier. If one showed up with pink frosting staining its head, he'd probably toss himself out the nearest window.

Ebonies laughter cackled out from the maw of every gargoyle. She was using them all to speak in unison, effectively terrifying anyone within hearing range.

Asher knew it'd be safer to hide inside the walls, but if he did that, he'd have little to no hope of finding out if Leon was alright. He was most likely in one of the guest rooms since that was where he was leading Elise and her guards, and none of them had secret panels for him to pop in and out of, so he decided he'd risk staying exposed a little longer. 

The guest room doors were all closed, and in his hurry he burst through the nearest one, hoping to find Leon inside. Instead, he found one of the gargoyles tearing up the bed. He stared at the creature, which was sufficiently distracted by the flying feathers, and the servant quietly backed out and closed the door, glad he hadn't caught it's attention.

He was much more careful when checking the other doors, but had no luck locating the Prince.

Between checking rooms, a flash of light caught his eye and he walked up to a window to see what was going on outside.

Down in the courtyard he spotted a glowing purple circle with arcane symbols. In the center was Demeter, gesturing for the knights to circle in. Four of them were already inside the circle, and one looked like he had lost an arm.

Two more men were running at top speed with three gargoyles bounding after them. The men leapt to cover the last bit of distance, then as soon as they crossed the glowing line, a bright flash blinded the servant. Asher blinked, rubbing his eyes, only to find that everyone in the circle had suddenly vanished.

Spacial magic.

So that was how Demeter had planned to escape when Ebony returned. Asher was curious to learn more about such magic, but he had bigger problems to deal with right now, so he turned and continued his search for Leon. As he came to the end of the hall, the servant froze in his tracks as a haunting figure stepped out from behind the corner. 

Ebony was wearing a long black dress that trailed a few feet behind her. The witch's shoulders were exposed and her hair was done up in elaborate braids with baby's breath flowers decorating her head. He also noticed that for some odd reason, the witch was holding a jar with the fattest toad he'd ever seen. 

She stopped and turned, smiling dangerously at Asher before two gargoyles walked out from behind her with murder in their eyes. 

Asher scrambled backwards, away from the danger, only for one of the hall windows to smash inwards, blowing a gust of winter air inside, along with two more stone monsters. 

He was cornered.

Bracing himself for one of the stupidest plans he'd ever thought up, Asher ran head first towards the two gargoyles behind him. Just as they moved to swipe at him, he quickly dodged to the side and leap frogged over the smallest one, then bolted towards the reading room.