An echoing scream filled my ears. It bounced off the walls of the ballroom, reverberating to appear as if it were several people crying out and not just the one. My voice became hoarse as I struggled to move. I couldn't quite tell if I was screaming because Sabre was now crumpled on the ground, blood trickling down the steps of the dais and staining her once green gown crimson, or if it was because of the poisoned arrow plunged into the side of my abdomen.

The doors at the top of the staircase burst open to reveal several dozen guards ready to defend the royalty they had sworn allegiance to protect. How unfortunate it was to see that they were too late.

Mace pushed me off of him, making sure to twist the arrow already lodged into me for good measure, and joined the rest of his group, preparing to leave. To escape the scene of horror he had left in his wake.

As I rolled onto my side, my hands found their way to my wound, I saw Auron lying on the ground. From what I could see, he hadn't been injured, he had just been knocked unconscious. At least that was one less person to worry about, he would be fine if we all got to safety.

Black spots swarmed the corners of my vision, threatening to take over if I didn't fight back. I needed to get this arrow out of me now, otherwise, there would be no chance of me healing from it. However, as I wrapped my fingers around the wood, ignoring the burning sensation that it caused, I couldn't find the strength to pull it out. It didn't help that the blood now coating it made it too slippery to grip.

The guards chased down the cloaked Icrodeian figures, swinging their weapons with everything they had been taught, but every time one managed to get a miscreant in their grasp, they skillfully avoided capture. Despite being outnumbered three-to-one, all of the Icrodeians fled the ballroom, leaving behind their damage as a reminder and threat of what could happen if they didn't get what they wanted.

Their leader — Mace — turned back before he left to survey the destruction he had caused. He watched the High Fae Queen still fighting to break out of the chains wrapped around her, his fingers inching towards his bow to end her life too. His eyes then dipped down to Sabre, a hint of regret passing through him that I suspected must have been a figment of my imagination, my blood loss causing me to hallucinate. Finally, Mace then turned to me, a small grin appearing on his lips. The Icrodeian only winked at me before darkness claimed me completely.

The side of my body felt as if it had been set alight with the fire that belonged to the Kingdom of Vahan. An inextinguishable flame that could only be put out by its wielder. As I tried to move to look around, to take in my surroundings, that pain became unbearable.

Around me was a room I recognised, four walls I woke up and fell asleep inside every day. Unlike how I had left it, my bedroom had been cleaned and tidied. All of the clothes and books that had been strewn around before were now neatly put away, meaning servants had been allowed in while I had been unconscious. It would undoubtedly take hours to find where they thought my belongings were supposed to go.

Beside me, my mother sat in a chair with her eyes squeezed firmly shut. Her hands shook as they hovered over my wound, every kernel of strength she could find channelling through them and into where the arrow in my side had once been. As I took a closer look, I could notice my skin beginning to slowly stitch together and the Derix Dust that had entered my blood trickled out into what I assumed was a bowl on the floor. It was a lot slower than her magic could normally handle, but I assumed that was the poison's doing.

Every fae born as a female inherited a natural healing prowess that could be used to help aid their people, whether it be for illnesses or injured soldiers in battle. Males, however, were gifted with extra strength and speed.

As High Fae Queen, my mother used to be one of the most talented healers around. Now, she was the only healer left.

I attempted to sit up, using my elbows to help position myself, but the queen's eyes snapped open as I did so.

"Be still, Kay," she warned with a stern tone. "You took in quite a lot of poison considering it was just one arrow."

My mind raced to what had happened, trying to remember how I ended up wounded in the first place, but all I could picture was my fiancé lying on the steps of the dais, a deep red liquid pooled around her.

"Sabre?" I gasped, my voice rougher than I had expected. "Is Sabre okay?"

The queen rolled her eyes. "She's fine. Well, as fine as she can be. The medics have stabilised her condition and I'll be heading over to heal her as soon as I'm finished with your wound."

I let out a sigh of relief and laid back down in my bed, the burning sensation that I had felt now fading away. She was fine. Sabre was alive. "Where is she?"

"In a room that I've assigned for her. I can't have her being treated alongside the other guests from the ball last night as she still is your fiancé, for now at least." She lowered her hands and wiped her palms on her dress.

Our plan had failed. We had been grasping at straws and now a war was going to start. Had it begun already? Surely terrorising a ball held by the enemy was enough to count as an act of war.

"How long have I been out?" I could clearly tell it was the next day as sunlight streamed through the windows, but that gave me no indication as to whether it was the morning or even the afternoon.

"A few hours, just through the rest of the night." Considering I had my naturally quick fae healing and my mother's healing combined, that was still quite a long time to be unconscious.

The High Fae Queen sat back in her chair, sweat glistening over her skin. "The guards didn't manage to capture any of the Icrodeians. Not a single one. They can't even find out how they entered or left, or even how the prisoner escaped the tower."

"Are they still tracking them to try and find them outside of the castle grounds?" If they hadn't then I needed to deploy some of the soldiers myself. As we were surrounded completely by forest, some of our guards had been trained especially to track living beings through the woody terrain.

She nodded. "Several small teams have just gone to search for them. The rest have remained on our grounds to heighten the patrols currently happening around the castle and to find how the Icrodeians managed to enter and escape."

Even if they managed to capture some of the Icrodeians, where would they keep them? We couldn't put them in the tower again as they'd leave just like Mace did. The castle didn't have any other sort of prison either, the Racaea royal family had always relied on the tower.

A knock sounded at the door, beckoning my mother's attention. "Enter," she called.

"Your meal and chambers have been prepared for your rest, your highness." A servant bowed as she spoke. I couldn't help but notice her eyes flickering to the wound on my chest.

"You still need rest for now too, Kay, and your wound shall heal well enough on its own now that the Derix has been removed from it." The queen stood a little shakily on her feet, making her way towards the door. "I will pay Sabre a visit once I've gained back my strength."

While the servant bounded ahead, ready to help the High Fae Queen when she arrived at her chambers, my mother stayed behind, waiting until she was out of earshot.

"Thank you for coming back to intervene and stopping the Icrodeians from killing me." She shuddered at the thought. "If you hadn't, I'd likely be long gone by now."

More memories of last night flooded back to me. The crashes we heard as the chandeliers fell to the floor, trying to peer out of the balcony doors to see what was going on. I shook my head to force them out of my mind.

"You're welcome, but it's not me you should be thanking. Sabre was the one who was determined to head back into the ballroom to stop what was going on." All I had wanted to do was hide like a coward, to protect myself and my friends. My father would be sorely disappointed that the fighting spirit he'd tried to raise in me hadn't stuck. It had been Sabre's braveness and resolve that had gotten us through the evening.

My mother's face paled, one of her eyes twitching, before merely nodding and leaving to get her rest.

After waiting a long enough time so that I knew the queen had definitely retired to her rooms, I also stood and made my way to the door. My head had spun, threatening to tip me over and pull me down to the ground, but I had managed to stay upright. The pain in my side was still there, however, now it was more like a dull ache. A bad cramp you got after eating too much too quickly. It was bearable, even as I walked and my steps pulled at the fresh skin that had formed over the wound.

The queen had mentioned she had assigned Sabre to a room instead of the infirmary, which would make it more difficult to search for her, but there were only a dozen or so guest rooms I had to search before I would eventually find her.

As I wandered the halls, servants gave me concerned looks, murmuring to one another as to whether they should usher me back to bed, though thankfully none stopped me. While I slowly walked down the hallway, I checked each room I passed by. I knocked before peering inside every set of chambers, but nobody was ever inside. The castle hadn't had many people staying in these rooms, the last one being around seven years ago. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were all covered in a thick layer of dust.

When I neared the end of the hallway, two voices emerged. One male and one female. The latter was one I would recognise anywhere: Sabre. However, the other was completely unfamiliar to me. It wasn't Auron, nor was it Trik. So, who was it?

I knocked on the door, not wanting to disturb their conversation in case it was something important I hadn't caught up on. Though, when I pushed open the door and scanned the surroundings inside the room, I only found Sabre sitting on the bed completely and utterly alone.