He put himself in harm’s way. The stubborn, pigheaded fool.
I push the thoughts aside. I need all my wits about me if we are to survive this.
“Take him into custody,” my mother commands. Her voice doesn’t waver. “My daughter stays with me. The bounty on her head is no more.”
Sebastian turns his head. His eyes find mine.
Something passes between us. I give the smallest of nods, which he returns. There is no way I’m allowing him to be taken into custody, and there’s no way he’s letting the Ruler General get her claws into me.
We move at the same time.
I throw my hands forward, and shadow erupts from my palms. It slams into the two guards on the left, sweeping their legs and sending them crashing into the wall. Their swords clatter against the stone floor.
Sebastian is already on the other two. He drives his shoulder into the first guard’s midsection and rips the sword from the male’s grip in the same motion. A sharp crack echoes as his elbow connects with the second guard’s jaw. The male drops.
The first guard scrambles back, reaching for a dagger at his belt. Sebastian doesn’t give him the chance. He spins the sword and brings the flat of the blade against the guard’s temple. The male crumples.
One of the guards I knocked down is staggering upright, calling shadow magic to his hands. I hit him with a burst of fire before it can take shape. Orange light floods the chamber, and the guard staggers, slapping at the embers on his armor.
There is the scent of smoke and burning.
“Let’s go,” Sebastian says.
I’m already moving. I sprint for the window, throwing the shutters wide. Night air rushes in. We’re high up, but that doesn’t deter either of us.
Sebastian is right behind me. He slides his arm around my waist, and I grip his shoulder.
“You know how this goes,” I say, and I don’t wait for a reply.
I leap.
The ground drops away beneath us. Wind tears at my hair and clothing. For one wild, weightless moment, we are falling, and there is nothing beneath us but cold air and cobblestones.
Then my magic catches hold.
Shadow solidifies beneath my feet, forming a narrow platform of compressed darkness, wrapping Sebastian to me. The air responds to my firefae blood, generating a current that pushes upward, slowing our descent and carrying us sideways toward the nearest rooftop. I don’t need silks anymore. I don’t need ropes or hooks or anything except the magic burning inside me.
We land on the sloped tiles of an adjacent tower. My feet hit, and I’m already launching again, shadows forming stepping stones beneath us as I carry us both from one rooftop to the next. Sebastian holds on without a word, his body moving with mine, adjusting his weight as I twist and turn through the night.
The power flows through me like water finding a path downhill. I know what I am, and I know what I can do.
Sebastian knows it too. He moves before I do, leaning right when I need him to lean right, tucking low when I drop altitude. We don’t speak. We don’t need to. His body reads mine, and I adjust to him.
Behind us, my mother’s voice tears through the night.
“Sound the trumpets! Sebastian is here! He must be caught!” She keeps ringing the bell in sharp, piercing clangs.
The trumpets answer soon after. Three long blasts that rip across the castle grounds. Torches flare to life along the battlements, and shouts echo from every direction.
I launch us from the tower roof, arcing over a wide courtyard. Below, guards spill from doorways like ants from a kicked mound. Orders are barked. Horses are brought out at speed from the stables.
I angle toward a lower section of the castle, a run of connected rooftops above the kitchens and servants’ quarters. My feet kiss stone for a fraction of a heartbeat before I push off again, shadows spinning out from beneath me, fire warming the air currents to give us lift. Sebastian adjusts his grip, drawing me tighter against him, and together we soar over a large gap.
I come down hard on the far roof, my knees absorbing the impact. Sebastian rolls off me and into a crouch, scanning the darkness.
“There!” a shout from below. “On the rooftops!”
Two bolts of shadow magic streak past us. One misses wide. The other clips the edge of the roof, and the tiles explode in a shower of shards. I throw up a shield, and the next bolt, aiming straight for us, deflects off it, spinning into the night.
