“Take me there now!” I say frantically to Dommik.
When he doesn’t, I start running, but after only a few strides, Dommik snatches me up from behind. “No!” he growls in my ear as I flail. “It’s too late!”
He’s right. I watch as the fae king’s magic starts smashing through every layer of my defense. Through every layer of my hope.
I’m not good enough. Everything I’ve tried to do has fallen short. I’m not as powerful as them. Not as skilled or knowledgeable in magic. These fae make it seem like everything I attempt is child’s play.
Tears fill my eyes, but Dommik suddenly jerks behind me, his arms going lax. We both fall, pitching to the ground. The breath gets knocked from my ribs as he lands heavily on top of me, but I manage to roll out from under him. When I push myself up, I see he’s face down in the snow, unmoving.
Alarm clangs against my chest, and I shove him on his side. “Dommik!”
But then I freeze when I see two familiar fae standing over me.
The twins, Fassa and Friano. Thick black hair past their shoulders, brown eyes and smooth faces—faces that used to look at me with charming attention but now stare down at me with disgust.
“Queen Malina,” Fassa says, the mole on his right cheek indenting in with his sneer. “We thought we might see you again. We were sure to be ready, in case you returned.”
I hold up my palms to attack, slices of ice springing up, yet he grips my wrist and clamps something over it. My arm drops with the abrupt weight, and the magic that was collecting in my hand shatters away.
There’s a sensation of a heaviness pressing over me. As if something beneath my skin is damming up the access to my magic. The suppression radiates from this smooth gray cuff he’s placed on me.
Desperately, I try to pull it off, but I can’t slip it past my hand.
“Who’s this one?” Fassa says as he kicks at Dommik’s unconscious body.
“Don’t touch him,” I hiss, but when I try to lurch forward, Friano stops me, gripping the back of my neck like a collared dog.
“You’re the reason for this little frozen blockade?” Friano tsks, while the sound of cracking and crashing continues behind us. “You are a nuisance. The king isn’t pleased.”
My eyes narrow. “How are you on this side of the bridge?” I demand, glancing back toward it. The Stone King is making quick work of the layers, but that doesn’t explain how they’re already on Orea’s side.
He ignores my question and, instead, pulls me upright. “Let’s tie them up,” Friano says to his brother. “Then we’ll find out what the king wants to do with them.”
I try to wrench away, but he’s so much stronger than me.
To my utter disappointment, Fassa snaps another one of those shackles around Dommik’s wrist too and then bends down to haul him up and over his shoulder. With Friano’s grip on my arm, we are dragged into Cauval’s ruins and bound to a cracked and fallen pillar.
The stone digs into my back as Dommik gets tied on the other side. I can only see him if I strain to look over my shoulder. The twins search Dommik’s lax body, yanking out his weapons one after the other, while they ignore my attempt at getting myself free.
They’ve bound me with thick leather straps that look like horse’s reins. I struggle to get out, but the reins bite into my skin. No matter how hard I try, I can’t call up my magic either.
When they’re finished, they walk out, just as another crack crashes through the air outside. Deep in my bones, I know that sound marks the final barrier breaking.
Orea is wide open.
If I’d been here right at the beginning, if I’d had time to see them coming, Dommik and I could have attacked. I could have been ready to fortify, to throw ice magic at them from this side.
Instead, I was tucked in Dommik’s arms, sleeping with a peace I did not deserve.
When will I stop failing Orea?
I glance over my shoulder and call Dommik’s name, but he doesn’t stir. Worry mangles my insides. What if they hit him too hard and he doesn’t wake again? What if they struck him so hard they killed him?
My worry turns into panic. “Dommik!”
He stays slumped, his hood thrown back, but then I see his shoulders lift slightly with a breath, and I exhale in relief.
I try to get myself free from the bindings again, but the straps are looped tightly around me with barely any give. Instead, I focus on the strange cuff around my wrist that seems to be affecting my magic.
