“I see it,” Python said from where he was leaning against the wall, looking between Kaelan and Endreas. “It is true.”
Endreas swiped the blood from his lips, his nose swelling at the bridge. He glowered at her.
And then he drew his second sword.
“Magda, what’s happening?” Kaelan breathed from close behind her.
“You must kill him,” Python ordered her, inching away from Endreas towards the back of the room and a small, dimly lit door.
From some place deep down, a tremble worked through her as she held Endreas’s gaze.
Kaelan’s tone was perplexed. “Magda—?”
“I’ll tell you what’s happening, brother,” Endreas said without looking away from Magda. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Endreas surged forward.
She sprang to meet him, slicing into his upper arm under the scale of his pauldron. His forward sword clattered to the ground. He didn’t move to attack her. Her wolf blade slashed down through the leather bracers and into his right wrist. His second sword fell too.
Before she could pin him fully, he slammed his shoulder down into her and flipped her up and over.
So that’s why he’d let her get so close.
She expected to land on her back, but instead she landed on her butt... on the ledge, her legs dangling, her shoulders tipping forward...
“Magda!”
. . . and over.
Her daggers scraped the cliff face as she tumbled out and down.
A glimpse of white water, of jagged stone, of brilliant stars, head over heels, cold sea air biting at her skin, stealing the breath from her lungs, she plummeted.
The roar of the wind in her ears was matched only by the ocean waves crashing against the cliff below.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Someone slammed into her, spinning her into a whirlwind of shadow.
She blacked out.
SHE SHOT UP,gasping, shredding the sheets with her daggers.
“It’s all right, Magpie,” Endreas said from the other side of the room where he stood before a mirror. He leaned over a bowl and washed the blood from his face.
Icy starlight poured into the room through arching glass panels, so bright that none of the wall scones had been lit. Towering rectangular alcoves built into the walls were filled with books, armor and weapons, paintings and sculptures. Double doors lurked in the shadows to her left. The dressing table, a huge halved tree trunk, cradled an asymmetrical mirror in its gnarled branches. The stone floors shone like black ice. Across from the bed, the fireplace was a corkscrewing column of smooth river stones that appeared frozen in the midst of a tornado ripping them from their streambed. A small pond trickled at the far end of the room, running under the glass wall that overlooked a vast expanse of darkness.
At the sight of the emptiness beyond the windows, memories of her fall rose up and seized her.
Her knives dug deeper into the bedding. She lowered her head between her knees, lungs grasping for breath.
A moment later, Endreas’s cool hand skimmed her neck.
A calming wave washed through her. She shuddered as the panic loosened its paralytic hold.
Too soon, Endreas’s fingers slid away from her as he stepped back.
“Where are we?” Her breathing resumed something near normal, but her pulse kicked, still frantic.
