The horse's hooves clopping on the cobblestone matches the chaotic beat of Alicia's heart as she rides towards the palace.

With the clothes she wore to see Lena stuffed back into her satchel and a pale blue dress as her armour, she tries to convince herself she's ready to face the vultures again.

Alicia is all too aware that she's perhaps already dug her own grave after going to the laboratory and she's only digging it deeper by returning to the palace, but if she doesn't do anything with the information she's found then the queen would have died for nothing. Alicia would have sacrificed the past six years of her life for nothing.

The evidence she has is weak, only proving that the duke is experimenting with Ghuls and that he's searching for a way to control them. But if it gets the council to look at each of his actions with a more critical eye, prove that he's exiling people who haven't been near the Reaper's Curse, then it's worth the risk.

At least, she hopes it is.

"Lady Zalana!" someone shouts.

Alicia yanks the reins and brings the stallion to a skidding stop as she turns. A boy sprints towards her, waving something in the air. He dodges people in the street, ignoring their scathing remarks.

He's out of breath by the time he reaches her. "Lady Nathalia," he gasps, "requests your presence."

"Requests my presence?" Alicia scoffs. "I'm her daughter, not a client."

"She says it's urgent and that you must go to the townhouse."

Alicia reaches down and takes the note, frowning at her mother's neat script. "Damn it. Can't it wait?"

He blanches at her foul language that isn't fitting for a lady, but Alicia can't seem to slip her mask back on fully right now. "I'm afraid not, my lady. She was insistent."

Alicia crumples the note in her fist and gazes towards the palace. She's running out of time. The duke could already be burying his research.

Closing her eyes, Alicia takes a breath. Her family comes first, no matter what. It's a vow she will never break.

"Alright," she says, and nudges her horse towards the townhouse, wondering what could possibly be so urgent.

Alicia and her ma have barely conversed this past year, not since Alicia began getting close to the prince and embarking on her own mission to discover what happened to Samantha Safronov. Alicia can't lie to her ma, it just seemed easier to stop seeing her family so much considering the lies she's had to let fester in her chest.

Alicia reaches the house as quickly as she can and leaps from the saddle. She glances around, frowning when no servant comes to take the horse to the stables. She shakes her head and does it herself, knowing they've already got a lot on their plate having to deal with her ma.

She leaves the animal in the stables, slings her satchel over her head and goes into the house.

"Ma?" she calls as she closes the kitchen door behind her and wanders further into the building. She steps into the foyer and glances up at the landing above, expecting her ma to be floating down the stairs in that elegant way of hers.

But Alicia is alone.

"Your note said it was urgent." Alicia tightens her hand around the strap of her satchel, her gut telling her something isn't right.

"Licia?"

She spins around as he pa exits his office, shrugging into his coat. "Pa."

"I didn't expect you back so soon," he says, moving towards her with a crease between his brows. "Is everything alright?"

"I was about to ask you that. Ma said she has something urgent to speak with me about."

His frown deepens. "That's odd. She said the same to me, I was just leaving for the manor. I had some paperwork to sort for Kieran though. Are you sure she said to meet you here?"

Alicia nods, her gut clenching as that feeling worsens. "Do you think Ma could be in trouble?"

"Why would she be in trouble?"

Alicia pales and she swallows.

Oh gods, what has she done? Lena said the duke could target her family, but she thought their status would protect them. He just murdered the queen. How could she be so stupid?

"We have to find her."

"Alicia." Her pa rests a hand on her shoulder and squeezes, drawing her gaze to his. "Tell me what's going on. Let me help you."

Before she can even think of a reply, pounding fists on the front door makes her jump. Alicia spins around as her heart leaps into her throat.

"Alicia Zalana!" a voice calls beyond the door. "It's the Muovean Guard, open the door."

Alicia is reeling as she takes a step back, trying to understand what's going on. But she can only think of one thing. "Pa, you need to get out of here."

"Alicia, that's the guard. What do they want with you?"

She can guess what they want, and she can guess who sent them. She whirls to her pa and puts her hand on his chest. "You need to go."

"What's going on?"

"I took something. They want it back and I won't let you get caught in the middle of it, so go."

The door bursts open behind them and Alicia flinches. Her pa grabs her and shoves her behind him as uniformed men spill into the foyer, guns already drawn.

"What do you think you're doing?" Pa shouts, standing between her and the guards.

"Alicia Zalana has been infected with the Reaper's Curse," a man says, narrowing his eyes as Alicia chokes on her breath. "For your safety and Muovea's, we must take her into custody."

"To exile her? I don't think so."

"I'm not infected," Alicia forces the words past her numb lips, knowing they'll do no good to deter these men, but helplessness sits in the back of her throat like a rock.

"You need to come with us."

"She's not going anywhere."

Alicia lifts a hand and grips her pa's arm, keeping her gaze on the guards. "I need you to stop," she murmurs, but it's like her father doesn't hear her.

"You," her pa says, jabbing a finger to one of the men. "I know you. You work for the Ronavics."

Alicia's stomach plummets like a sack of stones to the Reaper's den, but not because the man works for the Ronavics, but because his eyes flash and his finger twitches on the trigger.

A shout bubbles from her lips and she shoves her pa as the shot cuts through the quiet. He cries out and then he's stumbling back into Alicia. She catches him in her arms but can't hold his weight and they both tumble to the ground.

Alicia feels the warmth of blood on her hands before she sees it.

"Get the woman," a man is saying but Alicia can't hear him over the pounding of blood in her ears. She holds her father in her arms as crimson blooms on his shirt over his heart.

A shriek tears from her throat as she presses her hands to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Her voice can't seem to capture her anguish as she cries. The pain stays stuck behind her ribs, swelling until it takes over every vessel in her body, filling her up until she's near bursting. But still it doesn't burst, burning her lungs, ash in her throat, soot in her lungs. Water fills her ears, drowning out the noise of everything around her as she stares at her father.

This wasn't supposed to happen. After everything she's done, her family are the ones who are supposed to make it.

Someone grabs her, bruising fingers digging into her arms as they yank her away from her father. She struggles against them, clawing and kicking.

She needs to save him. She needs to fix this.

His eyes stare sightlessly at the ceiling and his chest is still. Alicia has seen bodies. She's seen gazes without the life within them. She knows what death looks like. She knows, but she refuses to let this happen.

She won't let her pa pay for her actions.

She shoves her elbow into the gut of her assailant and is rewarded with a grunt and his hold loosening. Alicia twists around, pushes him away and stands. She faces the guards, her breaths heavy.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be," one of them says. Alicia's gaze flicks over the five of them and her bloody hands curl into fists, slick sliding between her fingers.

It might have been four years since her last fight, but she's faced worse odds.

These men haven't shot her yet, so it's safe to say they want her alive, most likely because of the notebook she still has of the duke's.

The man she elbowed tries to grab her again but she jabs her knuckles into his nose. His head whips back and she yanks the gun from his grip.

She spins, aiming the gun at the other men that advance. "None of you move," she orders, trying to ignore the way her hands tremble around the gun.

One of them steps forward, a sneer curling his lip. Alicia squeezes the trigger. The man shrieks as the bullet tears through his thigh and he drops to the ground.

"I said don't fucking move."

They heed her and Alicia takes the moment of stillness to kneel at her father's side and press her fingers to his neck. She lets her gaze stray from the guards as she looks down at him.

He has no pulse. His blood pools on the floorboards and all she can think in that moment is how difficult it's going to be to get the stain out of the wood.

The gun is torn from her grip and a blow to her cheek sends her to the ground with a choked cry. She fights back like a cornered animal, lashing out blindly with a kick that glances off one of the guards. She's grabbed, pulled to her knees by multiple hands. Another blow connects with her cheek and she spits blood.

"Stop!"

Alicia blinks up at the voice, her vision blurred by tears.

"Gods." Her mother approaches the scene from the doorway, her gaze on the body behind Alicia. "What have you done?"

"Lady Zalana," one of the men begins, still keeping Alicia restrained by twisting her arm behind her back, causing pain to throb in her shoulder.

"He wasn't supposed to be here," she gasps as she stops beside her pa, her hands pressed to her stomach.

"Ma," Alicia sobs and closes her eyes, understanding crashing through her. This was a trap. Her own mother handed her over to the duke.

"He protected her, my lady. It couldn't be avoided."

Nathalia's footsteps approach and Alicia pries her eyes open to look up at her mother. "You wretched thing," she spits and slaps Alicia's across the face with the back of her hand. Alicia's head jerks back and more blood dribbles from her chin.

Her mother's betrayal hurts more than any physical blow possibly could. After everything Alicia's given to her...

Alicia pulls the blade from the belt of one of the guards in one swift motion and plunges it between his ribs in the next. He doesn't manage to let out a scream before she rips the blade out of his ribs in a spray of crimson. She slashes through a thigh, rolls to her feet when she gets the chance, and runs.

She doesn't look back, even as her mother calls for her and the guards begin to chase her. She doesn't look back as she leaves her destruction behind.

Alicia follows her instincts as she heaves herself onto her horse without another thought, sickness churning in her gut. The stallion huffs and rears as she guides him into a fast gallop.

The brick buildings blur around her, a smudge of colours in the corners of her vision as her gaze focuses on the distant shadow of the wall. The beat of her heart jumps to the rhythm of the horse's hooves on the cobble, pounding against her ribs. She focuses on that beat, still not letting herself look back. Until other hooves join the beat.

She tilts her head, managing to see the guards following her on horseback before the first gunshot splits the air. She ducks her head, the heat of the bullet whispering past her ear.

She whips the reins, the horse ploughing through the streets, muscles flexing and jarring. She manages to hold herself in the saddle as she pulls the reins, taking them around a bend and barely avoiding a cart, the driver shouting.

More shots fill the streets, driving Alicia's shoulders higher and her grip tighter until her hands feel numb.

She rides for the west, the streets becoming wider and dense with smoke from the factories. She passes grubby workers, ignoring their shouts as she gallops towards the wall.

The fires of the factories seem to burn away her fear, the roar of the machines drowning out the noise of her pursuers until they fade and she can almost convince herself she's lost them.

She rides across the open space between the warehouses and the wall.

Following the train-tracks that haven't been used in four years, Alicia nears the ancient wall, trying not to choke on her breaths as the shadow of the stone sweeps over the field. A watchful beast. Just another obstacle.

She passes abandoned train-cars but doesn't slow, not even as she nears the dark mouth of the tunnel, the only way through the wall that hasn't been sealed.

Alicia bows her head as the guards at the tunnel turn to her, raise their weapons, and shout for her to stop. She doesn't. She can't, not after what she left behind.

When the guards realise she has no intention of stopping, bullets begin whizzing past her. An order is given to close the gate, but she's already bursting through and into the darkened tunnel, lit only by flickering torches.

Shouts follow her, trailing her through the tunnel, but she focuses on the light ahead.

Freedom inches towards her. Freedom from the capital, from the duke, from the things she had to do to survive. She nearly cries from the relief of it as she gallops towards that light.

The shot breaks through the hush and Alicia gasps as a sharp heat scorches through her stomach, searing her nerves. She slumps forward, her hand jumping to her belly where thick blood already stains her dress. She blinks and struggles to understand what happened.

She doesn't get time to ponder before the light beyond the walls blinds her. She lifts her bloody hand to shield her eyes as the horse continues towards the trees, startled by the gunfire that echoes behind them.

Alicia leaves the walls behind as she exiles herself.