Slade’s eyes widened. He understood.
He let the nobles go and dissolved into shadow so violently his form blurred.
Heliconia snapped her fingers.
Ice spears erupted from the ceiling. Twenty of them. Maybe thirty. All aimed at us as they fell.
“Aurelia,” I yelled.
I seized her waist. Shadow roared beneath my skin.
Slade dropped into existence beside Callan in a spill of darkness, grabbed his arm?—
And winked out.
Heliconia shrieked.
She pivoted toward us, eyes blazing with enough stolen power to crack the realm itself.
“Where is he?” she roared with enough power that the entire throne room trembled.
“Oh, she’s pissed,” Aurelia whispered, eyes bright with what we’d just done.
“Is she? I hadn’t noticed,” I said.
Heliconia threw up her palms. Frozen spears exploded outward. I shoved Aurelia behind a toppled pillar just as their pointed ends obliterated the marble where she’d been standing.
My shadows buckled under the impact.
“Now!” I yelled. “Slade—NOW!”
For an agonizing heartbeat, nothing happened.
Heliconia gathered power—far too much power—and flung it at us like a tidal wave of frozen death. Snow and ice so thick there was no seeing through it. No melting it. No stopping it.
Aurelia slammed into me. I wrapped both arms around her and spun, ready to take the hit?—
Slade burst into existence behind us.
“Hold on,” he warned, putting a hand on each of us.
The avalanche hit.
Or—it would have.
But we were gone.
The throne room snapped away in a violent crush of shadow and cold. My stomach twisted. The world folded, then unfolded in a blinding rush?—
And light vanished.
Everything went dark.
Everything went still.
Aurelia’s fingers dug into my coat.
My arms stayed locked around her.
