“Welcome back, angel,” Kaiden murmurs as he places a soft kiss on my forehead. I almost melt into it, then I remember he spoke to me in my mind, back in the square. No, that’s crazy. It was only a hallucination, right? It had to be. Surely it was my conscience trying to reach me in any way possible.
“Was I out long?” I croak.
“Only a minute or two,” he answers, then shouts to Rhett, “How much time do we have left until the portal opens?”
Rhett takes out his compass. “Less than ten minutes.”
The gargantuan castle looms over us in all its garish glory. We’re so close. As we take a sharp left turn, soldiers on top of horses start pouring from the other end of the street. They rush at us—swords at the ready.
Rhett sends a blast of air, stopping their momentum while Malik kicks the door open and jumps. He shifts mid-air. A majestic nine-foot panther lands into a nimble crouch in his place.
Sam’s jaw is on the floor. “Holy Hecate!”
Malik jumps over the carriage to meet them. He roars. The horses throw off their riders and scatter. More than half of the soldiers take their lead, and the remaining ones form a wall, but they shake so violently that they resemble leaves in the wind.Whatever spell Malik cast still affects our horse, which remains oblivious to its surroundings. He only forges forward.
It seems Mother Draia has finally approved of our business here in Faerie.
Sam lifts her hands. Leafy vines shoot from the ground, parting the soldiers like Moses did the Red Sea while immobilizing their bodies and pinning them flat to the houses on each side. Malik continues to run in front of the carriage in panther form.
The iron gates of the castle come into view. Archers shoot at us from their outposts, but Kaiden turns the arrows to mere ashes before they can reach us. Rhett blows the gate open with a tornado, so we zip through the courtyard as Sam puts up hedge walls between us and the incoming soldiers. When we reach the stairs, Kaiden helps me down, then does the same for Thalia and Sam.
“You trust me?” He crouches before Thalia, locking their gazes.
She nibbles on her lower lip before nodding.
“Good, we’re getting you out of here, kiddo. I know this is scary, but I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
I never even considered having kids until this moment. But seeing how gentle Kaiden is with Thalia has me yearning for a future I know is out of the realm of possibility for me—us.
I take a fraction of a second to mourn that unattainable future, then shove it down alongside all my shattered hopes. He picks up Thalia and we all dash toward the stairs as Rhett joins us from the front of the carriage. Malik is already waiting in front of the gargantuan door.
Sam flicks her wrist to open it. A human woman holding a broom pales at the sight of us spilling over the threshold.
“Where is the entrance to the towers?” I ask.
She points a trembling hand to her right before scurryingaway. Our hurried footsteps echo loudly against the ornate plastered walls. The corridor goes on and on and on. Sam is panting; she’s doing everything she can to keep up, but she’s running behind.
“Malik!” I shout. He slows down. “Can you give Sam a ride?”
He offers what resembles a human nod, then stops and bends his knees.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?!? I’m not doing that!” Sam spews, throwing daggers at me with her eyes.
“It’s either that or I give you a piggyback ride,” I snap.
“Three minutes,” Rhett cuts in.
She sucks on her teeth. Snaps her eyes closed. Opens them. “Fine.” She hops onto Malik’s back and circles her arms around his neck. She lets out a surprised squeak as Malik bolts. A wooden door greets us at the end of the corridor. Rhett kicks it open before we ascend the spiraling stairs of the tower. Heavy footfalls resound behind us, and Sam puts up another green wall at our back.
Despite having my enhanced strength and speed back, I’m about to hack out my lungs from the effort when we finally reach the top of the tower. I welcome the powerful gust of wind that cools my overheated cheeks and makes the strands of hair that escaped my braid flail about.
Malik lowers his body for Sam to jump off before shifting back. We all bend over the stone banister to look at the ring of fire that punched through the cloud right below us. The soldiers still using their swords to hack through the hedge walls Sam erected earlier resemble ants from this height.
“I’m going last and I will use air to push you toward the portal like we discussed, okay?” Rhett says.
There’s a collective murmur of approval.
Malik is the first to jump. He makes it through without a hitch.
