I watched as the phoenix forces collided with the dragon ones, the clash of flaming feathers and spitting fire grabbing my attention and taking my mind off what my goal was at the moment.

A phoenix darted past me, the heat from its feathers hitting me hard. It finally shook me out of the trance I'd fallen into, transfixed by the sight. Shaking my head, I turned away and ran towards the door I saw set into one of the walls. As pretty and decorative as Emberich's palace was, it still had the same access points as any structure. Whatever dressing you put on a place, it was still just a building.

Unfortunately, when I opened the door, I hit a real roadblock. Two guards were waiting just inside the door. And I didn't get lucky a second time. They saw me and didn't even hesitate.

I ducked as one of them swung his sword right where my head had just been.

They weren't playing. But neither was I.

I brought out my knives and slashed at the first one's calves as I tried to duck past the second one.

He had a staff that blocked my way immediately. Inconvenient.

He then used it to sweep me off my feet, but I immediately rolled to them and stepped back. But I needed to be closer, close enough to be inside their defenses where swords and staffs would be useless. But where knives weren't. So I rushed back in and stabbed up with both of my knives, straight into the swordsman's guts even as he tried to block me.

His eyes were shocked as I pulled my blades back out, but I immediately shoved him away down the stairs before turning to the man with the staff.

I didn't pause before I threw a knife straight at his eye and hit my target dead on. He let out a short scream and I shoved him down straight after his friend. I couldn't take the risk of their coming after me.

Rushing down the steps, I jumped over their prone bodies, trying not to look. I knew if I didn't get them first they would have killed me. But that didn't mean I liked to see the aftermath of what I'd done.

I ran down the stairs and came out into a beautiful marble-lined hall, the alcoves on each side lit with spotlights to show off the tapestries and paintings of phoenixes doing mighty deeds. Many of them featured phoenixes killing dragons. But others showed them building the city and helping other phoenixes—bringing them food and water, accepting people in need.

That was life, wasn't it?

Complicated.

The palace rocked around me a little and some plaster fell from the ceiling above me, raining down onto the floor. I reached out to steady myself against the wall. The battle was already weakening the palace.

I needed to find Emberich quickly. I wouldn't put it past him to have an escape route planned to save his own life while he left his people here to fight and die for him. People like him could always justify cowardly actions so they didn’t appear to be selfish ones. Not that he would necessarily even need to justify running to himself. I was probably assigning him some kind of moral conscience when he didn't really have any.

In any case, I needed to hurry.

I ran through that hall and into another, past maids and other household staff who were running around in a panic. Why they hadn't already been evacuated I didn't know. Just another example of Emberich's ego. And maybe also his lack of empathy for his own people.

One of the maids came to a halt in front of me, looking down to see my knife, both it and my hand bloody. I couldn't even say it wasn't what it looked like. Her eyes went back to my face, wide and frightened as she backed away a step, her face pale.

"Go," I ordered as I skirted around her, giving her plenty of space. "I'm not here for you."

She nodded quickly and sprinted away, obviously worried that I would change my mind and come after her anyway.

I kept going. It seemed like the fighting had drawn most of the guards outside to defend the palace. The people I saw either were running to hide, escaping from the kitchen or the rooms inside.

I saw plenty of men and women in pretty court clothing, the ornate embroidery and glittering strands woven into their outfits letting me know that they were not prepared at all for this attack. Or likely for anything else real. These were the people who had their noses so far up Emberich's ass that they couldn't even see what was going on around them or read the mood of the populace as they continued to live their life of brown-nosing luxury.

Of course, maybe I was just projecting and they didn't want to be here anymore than Sven had. Maybe it was just survival. Survival or not, none of them tried to stop me as I ran through the palace, simply giving me a wide berth when they saw me. Obviously not people who were tethered to any particular cause other than their own. As long as they didn't bother me, I didn't waste time on them.

I ran through the kitchen, empty now with pots still cooking on the stoves. The people working here had just run away in a panic. Through the residential wing, ducking in to look at rooms and finding only more people not prepared for this attack.

Where was that little weasel?

I stopped in the middle of a hall, pausing to think as I caught my breath. If I was Emberich and I sincerely thought that nobody could best me even in an attack on my own stronghold, where would I be waiting?

It was possible he had gone out to fight with his people, I supposed. But with someone who was so attached to his own head and his own life, I doubted he would risk himself out there when he didn't have to.

Oh.

I should have checked there first. Doing a quick calculation in my head, I turned to my left and ran down another hall. This place was like a maze. I hoped I was going in the right direction.

Where did Emberich most likely feel the trappings were appropriate to his station?

Where I was brought when I first came here to unknowingly turn Omari over to that psychopath of a sperm donor?

The throne room.

I burst out into the front of the palace where fighting was already happening, guards changing into their phoenix forms and launching themselves into the air, others fighting ground forces with swords, some in archer stances shooting up into the air.

I looked up to see the seething mass of dragons and phoenixes battling each other to the death, their wings and feathers combining and confusing the eye.

I wouldn't want to shoot into that. I'd be too worried I'd be just as likely to hit a friend as to hit a foe. But I was sure Emberich gave orders to shoot anyway. As long as his enemies died, I doubted he cared about any kind of collateral damage.

One of the archers saw me and turned his bow to me instead of up into the sky, his face twisted with rage. Not a fan.

I threw my knife at him and it hit him in the shoulder, incapacitating him from doing any kind of accurate bow work. He cried out and dropped his bow, clutching at his shoulder. But I didn't bother to stay and finish him off.

I needed to get to my goal, the reason why all this was happening at all. I avoided the rest of the fighting and made my way directly to the doors leading inside. It was surprisingly easy.

Too easy.

When I walked into the throne room, I was met with rows of guards lining either side of the room, at the ready with their swords and their bows. A good portion of the guards that were most likely assigned to the palace, if not all of them. He'd pulled them in from their stations just to protect him, leaving the palace staff and the rest of his people here to fend for themselves.

Classy.

At the very end, past all the guards, sitting in a deceptively nonchalant pose with his ankle crossed over the opposite knee...sat Emberich.

The reason for all of this.

For the attempts on my life.

For the destruction of my apartment.

For all the talks I had to have with Omari when I had to head into danger.

For the deaths of all those dragons and phoenixes.

I wanted to wring his neck.

All I had to do was get through fifty bows and swords aimed in my direction.

I stepped inside.

No guts, no glory.