Rose in Chains (The Evermore Trilogy #1)

Briony thought it was strange that she felt nothing when her brother died.

The crack of the boundary dissolving rattled her ribs, and the stone scraped beneath her fingertips as she gripped the ledge overlooking what remained of the kingdom of Evermore—but she felt nothing in her soul when Rory died.

As his twin, she had tugged on the thread that ran between them many times before—when he was injured, when he needed help. Briony reached for that thread now, seeking out the vein of magic in her chest reserved for Rory alone.

Dark silence was the only response. She supposed she'd had no premonition when her father had fallen four years ago, either, and her mother had been dead already when they'd cut Briony from her body.

But when the dust billowed up like a summer storm cloud just under half a mile away, and the calm that had curled around her and Cordelia collapsed into rumbling chaos, Briony knew that Rory was dead.

His protection boundary around the castle had fallen. He was dead.

And yet her soul didn't wrench in half.

Briony watched the moon slide away from the sun, the eclipse ending as soon as it had begun.

How strange, she thought numbly.

"No…" Cordelia whispered.

Briony looked to her right and found her friend's pale fingertips pressed against her lips, almost translucent. The wind whipped Cordelia's auburn hair around her eyes, as if trying to spare her from the sight.

On the other side of Cordelia, Anna stepped forward to the balcony ledge as if in a trance, her mouth slightly open. The sunlight reflected off the purple rose crest on her armor.

Briony looked back to the cloud of dust and ash that blossomed higher and higher, obscuring the moon and the sun in their dance. She saw the reflection of it to her left in the water of the lake.

The last dragon flapped her spindly wings and soared away from the mess of humans on the battlefield, returning north.

"Stay here," Anna said, turning quickly toward the balcony stairs. She pivoted, changing her mind. "No… You should go inside. Get somewhere safe and wait."

Briony stared at her. Cordelia choked on a sob.

Anna gazed back, and Briony watched the calculations spinning behind her guard's eyes. Anna was supposed to stay by her side; she had held Briony as a baby and promised her father she would give her life for Briony's.

Before she could overthink it, Anna darted down the stairs.

Briony turned back to the dust cloud, wondering if parts of her brother were inside it. Her brother, who was supposed to be the one to end this war. Her brother, who had been foretold.

She gasped then, as if the idea of the failed prophecy was the slap she'd needed.

Rory was gone. Tears filled her eyes on a shuddering inhale, and she imagined what the front lines would be like now. A thousand soldiers realizing that their long-held hope, their Heir Twice Over, was just a man after all.

She shrugged off her cape. It wouldn't help her run. Neither would her slippers or her draped silk gown, but she didn't have time to change.

She had one foot on the stairs when Cordelia grabbed her wrist, tugging her back. "Where are you going?" Panic pinched her voice. "We have to hide!"

Briony laid her hand on her friend's wrist. "If we hide, we'll be the last ones left," she said, her voice flat.

Cordelia's blue eyes widened. The moment Cordelia's grip relaxed, Briony spun and raced down the stairs, her friend's lighter footsteps chasing after her.