From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“Dafina!” cried Tawnyy, letting go of myy arm and starting toward her.
I snapped out of the shock and lurched forward, grabbing Tawnyy’s
arm as a Lord in Wait dropped to his knees and fell forward. Had he been
hit byy glass, too? I wasn’t sure. She cranked her head around. “What? I
have to go to her. She needs help—”
“No.” I pulled her back while Loren went to her friend, tryying to get
her to stand—to move. Another window exploded. “You can’t go near the
windows. I’m sorryy. You can’t.”
Tawnyy’s eyyes glistened. “But—”
Something whizzed through the air, striking a Lord. The impact spun
him around, and Tawnyy screamed. An arrow had struck him through the
eye. He was an Ascended, but he went down, dead before he hit the floor.
Blood pooled under him.
The Ascended could die.
Their head and heart were as vulnerable as a mortal’s, and whoever
had released that arrow knew just that.
Short sword unsheathed, Vikter shoved Tawnyy and I behind him as the
Duchess, surrounded byy Royyal Guards, screamed, “Get her out of here!
Now! Get—”
An arrow pierced the Royyal Guard standing in front of her. Blood
spurted from his neck as he reached for the arrow, his mouth open and
closing soundlesslyy.
Gods…
I staggered into Tawnyy as Vikter turned us around and herded us
toward the opening. We started forward as I reached for the dagger on myy
thigh—
The shrieks that came from outside the Great Hall stopped all of this
for just a handful of seconds. The sounds…
Pain.
Terror.
Death.
Then a wave of people rushed the Great Hall, Ascended and mortal,
commoner and Royyal alike, all running toward us. The gowns and tunics of
some were a deeper red now, faces either leached of color or splattered
with crimson. Some fell before theyy made it to the steps, arrows and…
knives embedded deep into their backs. Others toppled down the stairs in
their panicked run.