From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

heavyy, stickyy shame. Myy gaze shifted to where a tall, dark-haired
Ascended joined the Duchess. No more Lord Mazeen.
Without the Duke, he had little swayy over me, and I almost smiled
again.
Movement to myy left snagged myy attention, and I turned, seeing
Tawnyy pushing through a group of Ascended and the Lords and Ladies in
Wait. She hurried across the room, her eyyes wide behind her mask.
Curls bounced off her cheeks as she shook her head. “I can’t believe
what I’m seeing.” She clasped myy hands, glancing toward the dais.
Shuddering, she quicklyy looked back at me. “This can’t be real.”
“It’s real.” I turned to the dais once more. Guards were tryying to get
the Duke down, but he was too far up on the wall. “Theyy need a ladder.”
“What?” Tawnyy whispered.
“A ladder. Theyy’re not going to be able to reach him,” I pointed out. I
could feel Tawnyy’s gaze on me. “Do yyou think he was up there for the
whole Rite? The entire time?”
“I don’t even know what to think.” She turned so her back was to the
dais. “At all.”
“At least we know whyy he didn’t show,” I said.
“Poppyy,” she exclaimed in a low voice.
“Sorryy.” I watched the Duchess turn to the Lord, her lips moving fast.
“The Duchess doesn’t seem all that torn up, does she?”
Vikter stepped in then. “I think it’s time that I get yyou back to yyour
chambers.”
It probablyy was, so I nodded and started to turn—
Glass shattered. I spun toward the sound as pieces flew through the
air. It was one of the windows facing the garden. Tawnyy’s grip tightened on
myy arm. Another window broke, this time to our left, and we both whirled
to see shards piercing, cutting into the group standing there—the gathering
Tawnyy had been a part of. Screams of shock gave wayy to ones of pain as
jagged chunks of glass sliced into skin. A girl stumbled out from the
scattering group, her hands trembling as she lifted them to her bloodied
face. Numerous tinyy cuts marked her cheeks and brow. It was Loren. She
doubled over, screaming as the blond girl in front of her slowlyy turned
around.
Glass jutted from her eyye, and red streamed down her face. She
crumpled like a paper sack.