Razel shifted, her bloodied fingers curling tighter about the moonblade. Was that fear in her eyes?
“Let me handle this,” she hissed.
Res let out a low call. Images of lightning and hail flickered through my mind. We’d practiced enough with wind that he might be able to turn the arrow aside fast enough.
My fingers tightened about my bow, the string digging into the leather of my gloves.
Beneath the tree, Ericen stirred. He blinked slowly as he woke. I stepped toward him, then forced myself still.
Razel’s eyes widened with delight at my concern. “Or I can kill the prince.”
“What?” Shearen lurched forward. “You said you’d pardon him. You can’t—” He fell silent at a look from Razel, her expression dangerous.
Ericen had gone still, assessing the situation carefully. “You don’t have to do this, Shearen,” he said carefully. “I know you. I know what you’ve done in pursuit of becoming Valix, and I know it was never what you wanted. Your father’s approval, my mother’s respect—it’s not worth this! I’m not the only one who thinks so. Illucia is tired of this fight. It’s gone too far.”
“Too far?” The words bubbled out of Razel in a laugh. “Oh, Eri. I knew you were weak, but not like this. You’ve betrayed your people, and now you seek to bring them down with you?”
Ericen pulled against the ropes. “You’ve lost your mind,” he snarled. “You’ve thrown our kingdom’s future into this pointless war for what? Revenge?”
“Yes!” The queen rounded on him. “Is that not a good enough reason for you? You think I should let them live happily and peacefully after what they did to me? To my family?”
“You’ve already taken enough from them!”
Razel laughed. “It will never be enough!”
“Mother—”
“Enough!” she screamed. The wood swallowed the word, drowning the air in silence. Razel’s chest heaved, her hands drawn into tight fists. “You weren’t there! You didn’t see their bodies torn to bloodied ribbons. You weren’t forced to watch!” Her pale skin had turned white as ash. “You didn’t have to listen to the people you loved beg for their lives.”
I thought of the dead mercenary in the dining corridor. Of her quiet, lifeless eyes and the blood on Malkin’s lips. My stomach turned.
“Eri,” Shearen began, but Razel cut him off.
“You aren’t worthy of the Illucian crown,” she said, voice utterly void of emotion. “You never were.” She didn’t look at Shearen as she spoke. “Kill him.”
“No!” I lurched forward.
Valis lifted his hand, spreading the fire between his palms like a string.
Thunder boomed, and the sky split open.
Lightning erupted in the clearing. It struck one of the Vykryn and sent the others scurrying for cover. Where it singed the grass, flames leapt to life in its wake, casting the glade in a deathly orange glow.
My arrow struck the rope binding Ericen to the tree. It snapped, and he leapt to his feet. One of the Vykryn released an arrow, but Res’s wind lashed it away even as his feathers turned metallic. Ericen seized an arrow from the second archer’s quiver and drove it through her neck. He seized her bow, nocking an arrow and aiming at Razel.
“You’ve gone too far.” Razel’s voice trickled out from the darkness. “You’ve betrayed your kingdom.”
Ericen’s face was a cold, rigid mask, the light of the full moon casting sharp shadows across it. “I’m going to save my kingdom. From you.”
Razel’s snarl mixed with the ring of metal as she drew her moonblades. “You’ve let this foolish girl corrupt your mind.”
I expected Ericen to snap back, to defend himself as he always did. Instead, he turned away, his bright gaze falling on me, and his eyes widened. “Thia, behind you!”
I whirled. At Res’s back, a hooded Sella had emerged, daggers of ice in his hands. I caught his first attack with the limb of my bow, dodging the second. As I spun out of the way, Res released a bolt of electricity at the Sella.
A wall of earth rose before him in defense, exploding as the lightning made contact. A second Sella stepped up beside the first.
My mind raced.
