Chairs toppled and stone pavement cracked beneath their feet before the earth split open. Dust rose as Bianca stared at the widening fissure racing across the garden toward her.
"Bee!"
Fiona grabbed Bianca by the sleeve and yanked her aside.
Bianca stumbled, her hands trembling at the violent cracking beneath her feet. Fiona caught her hand and dragged her farther away.
But the crack followed them.
"Bianca!" Magdalene’s voice cut through the chaos.
She was already rushing toward her daughter when Richard caught her and pulled her behind him.
"It’s a Rogue attack!"
The words changed everything.
Nobles summoned their familiars from their dormant forms. The peaceful garden transformed in an instant as beasts, birds, serpents, and other creatures appeared around their masters.
Bianca turned toward the enormous fissure.
Two massive antennae emerged first. Then came the claws.
She instinctively looked away.
A terrible scraping sound followed as something enormous forced its way through the broken earth.
By the time Bianca dared to look again, a monstrous centipede-like creature had emerged from the ground.
It was easily three times the height of a man, its enormous body covered in overlapping plates of dark brown armor. Dozens of legs clawed at the shattered earth, each movement sending tremors through the garden.
Its mandibles plunged into the ground and tore out a massive chunk of earth. For one breath, it seemed to swallow the soil before its jaws snapped open and sent a barrage of jagged stones flying.
"Defend!"
The summoners raised their familiars.
A wall of water surged upward. Flames roared across the garden. Blades of wind sliced through the dust.
The stones tore through all of them.
Several familiars were thrown backward, and nobles scrambled out of the way as chunks of earth smashed into the pavement.
The King himself summoned his familiar and joined the fight. The strongest men in the garden attacked from different directions.
Fire struck the Rogue’s armored back. The plates glowed red, then cooled without a single crack.
A Sovereign-Tier beast lunged at one of its legs, claws digging into the armor. The Rogue swung its enormous body and sent the familiar flying across the garden.
"What is that armor made of?"
"Keep attacking!"
The Rogue answered with a deafening roar. Its legs slammed into the ground. The earth beneath the summoners surged upward. Men and familiars were thrown off their feet as ridges of stone erupted beneath them.
Most of the women had only Sprite-level familiars, barely enough to defend themselves against a creature of this magnitude. Even the stronger familiars could do little against its armor.
Bianca could only stare.
Dust filled the garden. Earth shattered beneath claws. Spells exploded against the creature’s body, only to vanish beneath its thick armor.
The ground would not stop shaking.
This was not a battle Bianca could fight. She had no familiar and no power that could help anyone or even herself.
Fiona seized her arm. "Bee, we need to get out of here."
Bianca nodded immediately. They turned toward the thick line of trees at the edge of the estate.
"Bianca!"
She knew that voice. Her father’s.
Bianca pretended not to hear him. She ran faster.
"Bee, your father is calling you!" Fiona pulled her to a stop.
Bianca turned on her, breathless. Fiona looked apologetic. Bianca reluctantly turned. Richard stood several paces away, his expression hard as he watched the battle.
"Now would be the time to summon Fenrath," he shouted. "Lightning can paralyze it!"
Bianca pressed her lips together.
Did no one else have a lightning familiar?
She looked around. Dozens of familiars were fighting the Rogue, but none possessed Fenrath’s Sovereign-Tier lightning affinity.
Her eyes searched the crowd. The Marquis and Marchioness were absent. Their familiars would have made a difference.
"What’s holding you?" Richard demanded.
Bianca stared at him. She could hear the resentment in his voice even over the roar of the battle.
Then Genevieve spoke. "Father, His Grace took away her ring."
She sounded almost pleased to be the one delivering the news.
The garden seemed to go silent around Bianca. Every nearby face turned toward her. Isolde’s lips curved into a satisfied smile.
Bianca’s heart pounded.
Richard slowly shook his head. Disappointment. That was all she saw in his eyes.
The pity came next... Then the whispers... Some looked at her with sympathy. Others with contempt. A few looked almost entertained.
Bianca lowered her head.
For one terrible moment, she was no longer standing in the middle of a garden. She was back at the altar, back in that suffocating silence, surrounded by people who seemed to pity her for having nothing to offer.
The same helplessness. The same shame. The same certainty that everyone was looking at her and thinking the same thing.
Worthless.
A violent crack split the air. The ground exploded.
The Rogue swept its enormous body sideways. A wall of earth surged across the garden. People screamed as nobles, familiars, and furniture were knocked from their feet.
Bianca stumbled backward. "Fiona!" She searched frantically through the dust.
Fiona’s husband had one arm around her, dragging her toward the estate entrance.
"Bee!" Fiona reached toward Bianca. Her husband pulled her back.
Another tremor shook the ground. Bianca ran after her. A fissure split open directly in front of her. She skidded to a halt.
The crack widened.
Behind her, another explosion of earth sent dust rolling across the garden. There was no way back.
Bianca turned toward the trees. The thick line of trunks and branches stood beyond the garden, untouched by the fighting.
Trees... They had to be safer than this.
She gathered her skirts and ran. She didn’t look back. But then... she saw the shadow.
Bianca glanced ahead. Through the swirling dust, something enormous was moving above her.
She looked up. A giant mass of earth was falling straight toward her.
Bianca froze.
Her heart nearly stopped. There was nowhere to run.
Is this my end?
A strange, rapid clicking sound came from somewhere nearby.
*Click*
*Click-click*
Bianca barely had time to turn.
A sheet of silvery spider silk shot through the dust. It spread across the falling mass of earth, wrapping around it in an instant.
The enormous chunk jerked to a halt. Then it crashed harmlessly to the ground several feet away, breaking apart beneath its own weight.
Bianca stared.
Spider silk.
Her eyes widened.
She knew that familiar.
Slowly, she turned toward the source. Through the settling dust, a figure emerged. A man stood among the broken trees, one hand still raised.
Bianca’s breath caught.
She knew that face. Those dark eyes. The eyes that had once looked at her as though she meant everything to him, before he left her alone at the altar.
Her lips parted.
"Julian Pembroke?"