Guards rushed toward us, yelling, their waves of magic surging toward us, intended to maim, trap, or kill. My white light and Rowan’s earth magic shot out at the same time, deflecting the onslaught.
Rowan and I burst through the garden doors into a botanical nightmare.
“The fairy ring is in the deadliest part,” Rowan informed me.
“Shit.”
The fairy forest spread before us in carnivorous glory. Lethal flowers tracked our movement, petals peeling back to reveal rows of teeth. Branches coiled, roots twitching, ready to ensnare.
Rowan chanted in the ancient fae tongue, and the forest stilled, parting reluctantly for us.
“This way,” he said, tugging me toward a grove where silver bark gleamed under moonlight. “The fairy ring is close.”
Behind us, the shouts increased as guards followed the trail of blood Rowan was leaving, a crimson map, despite the healing I’d poured into him the moment our hands touched. He’d lost too much blood. I hadn’t had time to do more.
“Sy,” he breathed, labored. “If they catch me, leave me. I’ll hold them back. You’re what matters. You can’t fall into my father’s hands. Or anyone’s.”
“Not a chance,” I said, half-dragging him between grasping trees. “Together or not at all. And they won’t catch us—because if they try,” I flashed my fangs in a savage grin, “I’ll show them what happens when you piss off magic older than their entire civilization.”
“No one can know who you really are. Not yet,” he urged. “Only the heirs.”
“I won’t hide forever,” I warned.
“I’d never ask you to,” he said. “But wait. Until the realm is safe. Until Ruin falls.”
“There’ll never be a safe time,” I replied. “There will always be enemies.”
The fairy ring shimmered ahead, reality worn thin as silk. I could feel it calling to the magic in my blood. Power recognizing power.
“Almost there,” Rowan breathed.
An arrow sang past my ear, bouncing off my shield of light. Then a rain of arrows shot toward us. Rowan hurled his magic at the pursuers, sending them flying into the thorny trees.
I grabbed him and threw us both into the shimmering ring. Starlit night swallowed us whole. We spun through the space, refusing to let go, until we tumbled out onto the academy grounds.
“The heirs,” Rowan mumbled against my shoulder. “Need to find them…warn them…”
“We’ll go to Barbie and Killian,” I said, hauling him upright as I moved us toward the House of Chaos.
Chapter
Twelve
Barbie
Out of the frying pan, I dove into the carnage. Same old, same old.
I landed in a crouch, palm flat on the wet marble. Still dazed, vision blurred and stomach churning from the portal’s violent exit, I found myself surrounded by scattered bodies, most wearing the uniform of the House of Chaos. If I lay down and painted myself with blood, I’d blend right in.
Clearly, shit had gone down here while I was gone, while all hell was still breaking loose in that damned Underworld maze.
I threw up my hands in a defensive stance. Good policy when you land in a room full of corpses. Dark flame twirled between my fingers, lovely and lethal, though it wouldn’t be so loving when it met enemy flesh.
Then the roar came, shaking the marble beneath me. I crouched lower, staying small and safe, hoping the glass overhead wouldn’t shatter and rain down on me. A second later,my head cleared, and it hit me as another roar sent everyone but me dropping to the floor.
Dragon. My dragon.
Shit, he wasloud.
