Siege: A Borrowed Magic Novella, Page 2

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  Fifteen minutes later, Maren ducked into an open doorway and wrapped her trembling arms even tighter around the baby. Then she pulled her hood over her face and tugged her cloak around both of them. It only muffled his tiny cries.

  Something crashed behind her, and she heard a man howl in pain.

  She peeked into the hallway and then started running. She needed to keep the prince safe. Nothing else mattered. Not even her own suffocating pain at her father’s murder. She had to push it away. When the baby was safe, then she could fall apart.

  Footsteps pounded behind her, closer this time, and she veered down a side hallway and headed towards the main doors of the castle. Just a few more turns and she’d be—

  The wall to her left collapsed, the explosion so deafening her ears rang, and she struggled for balance.

  “I believe you have something I want.”

  Kern stepped from the rubble, and she shivered as the darkness around him enveloped her. Then he held out his hand.

  “Give me the child.”

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Kern should have gone after Daric. She pulled Justin closer, as if that could protect him. Either the baby was Kern’s target all along, or Daric was already dead.

  Her eyes darted three feet to her right, to where another hall led back the way she’d come. It was her only hope.

  She clutched the child tighter. And ran.

  Lights flashed around her, walls crumbled, and the ground shook, but she didn’t stop. Not even when a chunk of stone hit the back of her head and blood trickled down her neck. Not even when she didn’t think she could possibly take another step and her lungs burned for air. She concentrated only on running, looking for somewhere she could hide, somewhere they would be safe.

  Sliding around a corner, she peered down a staircase. It went to the dungeons. Not the hiding place she’d have chosen, but the only option she had left. She all but fell down the stairs, and into pitch blackness, clutching the baby tighter.

  Her fingertips slid along the wall, guiding her way, until she felt cold iron. A door. She pulled it open just as something evil and magical grazed her side. She stumbled into the room and tried to push the door shut. Kern shouted words she couldn’t understand, and then there was a flash of light and her shoulder exploded in pain. Her knees hit the ground as she tried to keep her own body between Kern and the baby. And then it was as if the castle disintegrated around her and the world went black.