From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

to use myy voice. The screaming…it had torn up myy throat. Hawke had
been there, so had Tawnyy, the Duchess, and a Healer.
I was offered a sleeping draught, and for the first time in myy life, I
took it. I might’ve kept taking it if it hadn’t been for Hawke removing the
powder from myy room four dayys ago.
It was then I learned that the attack on the Rise hadn’t been the onlyy
one that night. The Descenters had set fire to several of the opulent homes
along Radiant Row, drawing guards from the Rise and the castle. That was
where Hawke had been after he’d left the garden, which explained the soot
on his face.
The fires had been a smart move byy the Descenters. I had to give
them that. With the guards distracted, the Descenters were able to move
through the night, taking out guards stationed around the castle before theyy
even knew theyy were there. Theyy were able to commence wholesale
slaughter before the guards who’d gone to Radiant Row could even be
summoned.
No one could be positive what message the attack on the Rite had
been meant to send, or even if theyy had been searching for me. None of the
Descenters were taken alive that night, and anyy of those who had escaped,
had slipped back into the shadows.
The Ascended had done what the Duchess said theyy would do. Theyy
got their hands dirtyy, but their assistance had come too late. Most who’d
been left in that room had died. Onlyy a few had survived, most so
traumatized that theyy couldn’t even recall what had happened.
Well over a hundred had died that night.
Gods, I’d rather be asleep than awake.
At least when I slept, I didn’t think about the Duke burning from
where he had been hung and impaled. I couldn’t think about Dafina’s one
blue eyye, or how Loren had tried to go back to her friend, onlyy to be struck
down. I wouldn’t remember how it had felt to crawl over people who were
dead or dyying, unable to do anyything to help him. The metal wolf masks
didn’t haunt myy sleep. Neither did that smile Vikter had given me, or how
he’d told me that he was proud. Asleep, I didn’t think about how the last
words he’d ever spoken were a plea for forgiveness for him not protecting
me. And I couldn’t remember how myy gift had failed me when I needed it
the most.
I wished I had never said what I did in that garden.