The Princess and the Bard (Royals of the Realms #1)

Chapter Fifteen: The Goddesses' Power in Peril

The arrow pierced the thinly paned window, sending shattered glass raining over the cottage's slanted porch roof. They could now see inside the tiny, peaked attic, through the jagged rim that remained on the edges of the window frame. 

Someone– or something– in dark clothes scurried under the shadowed eave, but it wasn't clear if Myka had hit her target.

The demon remained silent, which Alori hoped was a good sign.

Kors cupped his gauntlets around his mouth and shouted. "Announce yourself, or we will show no mercy!"

All was still within the cottage.

"If you see it again, be ready to shoot," Alori told Myka, leaning toward the patroller so that she might be heard over the increasing racket from the guards tending to the injured trio behind them. She wasn't brave enough to turn and ask what was causing the sudden elevation in voices. All she could do was close her eyes and pray, for the briefest of moments, that no one else had perished.

Taelan rubbed his thumb over the backs of her knuckles. "They'll be ok."

How many people would say the same to her today, and how often would it be a lie?

Alori opened her eyes. Maybe, just maybe, Taelan was right, and everyone would be fine. 

A dark silhouette reappeared in the window, standing several feet back from the broken glass. This time it didn't dart away but stayed in place, framed in shadows. It was almost like... like it wanted to be seen. 

Myka's arrow was nocked, the bowstring pulled taut. The shadowy figure raised an arm toward them. 

Alori cried her command, unwilling to risk that the demon was casting more of its dark magic. 

This time the patroller's arrow met its mark with precision. Their target cried out in an obscure wail and buckled forward, falling through the jagged window. The arrow embedded in its shoulder cracked against the roof, separating from its body with a bone-splitting snap. 

The figure grappled for purchase but found no luck on the slick clay roof. It fell into the bushes abutting the porch, its loose black cloak billowing around it. The guards surged forward.

"Princess, you should stay here." Kors commanded two of his men to remain with her and Taelan, before barking more orders to the other guardsman and lightly bounding away, as if he wasn't weighed down by a hundred pounds of plate-mail.

Although she knew Kors' words came from a place of duty and concern, Alori bristled against them. She was an adult now, and she was tired of being left out of the loop by her elders, who also happened to be her subordinates. 

How was she ever going to gain experience as a ruler, if no one let her lead?

"No, I'm coming." Kors was already out of earshot, but it felt good hearing her conviction echo in the still winter air. She caught up to him on the path to the cottage, her gait brisk and determined. 

Myka and Taelan were close at her heels, both silent except for the squelching of their boots over the muddy, blackened ground.

There was no relief in store for them, at least not yet. They hadn't caught Thelix. The person splayed across the prickly holly bushes was much too small. Up close, Alori wasn't sure how no one had realized it sooner. The angle and distance of their vantage point must have been deceptive. Either that, or the black cloak had played tricks on them. 

Alori's stomach dropped into her knees at the sight of the victim, a young woman with long dark hair obscuring slack features on a petite, round face. Blood oozed from the wound on her shoulder, but her chest rose and fell sluggishly.