The attack came on Marcus's eighth day of life.
I was in the nursery feeding him when the alarm bells started ringing. Not the normal change of guard bells, but the emergency ones that meant the castle was under threat.
Kael burst through the door, his shade already manifesting. "Get the children. We're moving to the safe room. Now."
"What's happening?"
"Shadow beasts. Dozens of them. Inside the castle walls somehow. They're tearing through the east wing." He grabbed Arianna from her crib while I clutched Marcus. "Move!"
We ran through corridors that were filling with smoke and screams. Guards rushed past us toward the fighting. Servants fled in the opposite direction, some carrying children or elderly nobles.
A shadow beast materialized in front of us. Bigger than any I'd seen before, with eyes that burned red and claws that looked like they could tear through stone.
