There, beside the almost blinding light rising from the metal plate, were two pendants, hammered discs of metal engraved all over with intricate spirals of runes.
He had seen these before. He had seen them in the drawing of Felix and Drifa, each of them wearing one around their neck. And now here they were again. Had Hayn found them in his search for augmenters?Werethey augmenters?
As he snatched them up, he saw they rested on a sheet of paper, a quick note scrawled in his uncle’s hand:
Use them well.
—H
Anders threw one around his neck, and turning, stared up at Rayna for a heartbeat. He couldn’t get the augmenter around Rayna’s neck. But perhaps pressing it against her skin would be enough. He ran back to her in three quick steps, shoving the leather necklace through the nearest part of her harness, intending on tying it there, hoping it would stay secure.
But as if it knew its home, before his eyes, the necklace simply melted into her skin, vanishing, perhaps to the same place her clothes and the contents of her pockets had gone when she transformed.
He threw himself onto Rayna’s back, and even as he wedged himself into the straps and prepared to transform again—though his icefire, he knew now, would not be enough—she was launching herself back into the safety of the air. They spiraled up, and as another wave of cold air hit them, the Sun Scepter blossomed with heat—a new, burning heat that forced Anders to turn his face away. It seemed hotter than ever. Was it the augmenter around his neck? Could he...
He got no further in that thought. The next moment, a huge explosion of ice and frost billowed up from the Wily Wolf below, as if in answer to the challenge of the scepter. As if the Snowstone itself had exploded—and perhaps it had.
And tucked into Rayna’s harness, a moment later, the Sun Scepter gave a deadly quiver of warning.
And then the Sun Scepter exploded too.
Rayna went whirling down toward the rooftops, the force of the detonation tossing her end over end in a terrifying cartwheel. She kept trying to spread her wings and stop her fall, only to be thrown around once more.
Anders held on to the harness with teeth and claws, with everything he had, and together brother and sister tumbled to the ground and skidded across the green of the rooftop meadow. He was flung free of her, arcing through the air, not knowing which way was up or down. His breath was knocked out of him as he connected with the grass, and he and Rayna tumbled over and over until they came to rest against a sloping roof.
Anders staggered to his four feet, forgetting his pain, the heat, the cold, the battle around him, forgetting everything as he scrambled toward his sister.
She wasn’t moving.
As he reached her, standing up on his hind legs to press his paws against her side, she groaned and raised her head.
Her straps and her scales were burned out where the Sun Scepter had been, and there was no sign of it. Had it truly exploded, burning out the last of its essence in an attempt to fight the Snowstone? Had the Snowstone done the same?
Dragons were wheeling overhead, the sky orange behind them, and in his daze, Anders wasn’t sure if it was the sunset or if the whole world was on fire.
He turned and saw a huge lone wolf racing toward them over the rooftops. He howled at Rayna, willing her to stand up, to be able to fly again.
In a rush of air, Ellukka and Lisabet landed beside them, Lisabet shouting a warning over the chaos and pointing at something.
He whirled around, and from the other side he saw a group of wolves leaping across the rooftops, running toward them in an arrow formation.
It was his classmates! He saw Sakarias in the lead, with Viktoria, Jai, and Det behind him, and Mateo’s hulking form bringing up the rear. They were racing toward them at top speed. For an instant, Anders’s heart insisted they were coming to help, and his head told him he had to be careful, but he had no more time to wonder about it than that.
Sakarias yipped a greeting, and then his friends were taking up positions around the twins, facing out, ready to defend them.
On his other side, the lone wolf was drawing near in big, powerful strides, and—his heart swelling to have his friends with him once more—he ran to take his own place in the formation. Hehadto defend his sister, but he didn’t want to hurt any members of the Ulfar pack in the process. What was he going to do?
Ellukka bellowed a challenge, standing over the injured Rayna, swinging her head back and forth as if threatening to breathe flame on the first wolf to come near their group. Anders wasn’t sure if she’d really—that she’d really kill someone—but he knew the Wolf Guard wouldn’t hesitate to throw a spear at her.
Lisabet’s voice somehow carried over the howls and snarls and roars, the crashing noises of a breaking city all around them.
“Stop!” she screamed, sliding down Ellukka’s side and running to stand between Sakarias and Mateo, facing the lone wolf as it drew closer.
Anders had no idea what she was going to say next, but he didn’t get a chance to find out. For suddenly the lone wolf had reached them, and even as she ran, she transformed, pushing herself into human shape.
And then Lisabet and Sigrid were face-to-face.
“Lisabet, what are you doing?” The Fyrstulf’s voice was sharp, furious, her soot-stained face white with rage.
