“Leap,” I breathed, hope leaping in my chest. If Leap was here, that meant Einar and Mavlyn were too. Quickly, I fumbled the key from my skirt pocket, then inserted it into the tiny hole in my right manacle. The piece of metal popped open, and let it drop to the floor before I went to work on the other.
“Friends of yours?” King Aolis sneered, his gaze fixed on the sky. “That’s no matter. Even if they make it past the defenses, they’re no match for my shadow magic.”
I shot out a hand, and King Aolis jumped back with a shout as I unleashed a gout of flame at him. The hem of his robes caught fire, but he quickly summoned a gust of wind to snuff it out.
“How did you get your manacles off?” he demanded, eyes flashing.
“I have my ways.” Smirking, I stalked toward him, my arms engulfed with flames, ready to unleash them on him. “What’s wrong, Aolis? Are you afraid?”
“Of you?” he scoffed. “Hardly.” He raised his arms, and tentacles of shadow streamed from his body. My skin crawled as dark magic permeated the air, and Gelsyne coughed from behind me. “I would snuff those flames out, Adara. Someone is liable to be hurt.”
“Threatening my mother won’t make me agree to marry you,” I pointed out. “In fact, it’s guaranteed to ensure I won’t.”
King Aolis scoffed. “You seem to think you have more power here than you do,” he said, circling me. “I can kill Gelsyne any time I like—you’ll still fold eventually. Someone like you would never risk the lives of the entire kingdom for the sake of your own freedom.”
He shot a tendril of shadow toward Gelsyne, and I flung out my hand in response. A whip of flame snaked through the air, catching the shadow, and a wave of satisfaction filled me as my fire burned the shadow tendril into nothingness.
“That’s an interesting development,” Aolis said, surprise flickering across his handsome features. “I didn’t realize your fire alone was enough to stop my shadows.”
“Guess you learn something new every day.” Giving him a mean smile, I stalked toward him, summoning more flames to my hands. I felt powerful, magic surging to my fingertips as I finally gave myself the freedom to let loose. The flames around me rose higher and higher, and I allowed them to swirl around me, licking at my skin the way a puppy dog might lavish attention on its master.
The fire was mine to command. And I was going to destroy him.
King Aolis sneered at me, and he made a slicing motion through the air. I jumped to the side, but not before something invisible sliced through my sleeve, and I hissed as a long gash appeared along my forearm.
“You forget I am a master of both water and air,” he taunted. “Do you really think a fledgling fae like you can keep up with me?”
I squared my shoulders, cursing myself inwardly. How had I been so foolish as to forget he had other weapons at his disposal? “I guess we’re going to find out,” I said.
Aolis sliced his hand through the air, but I was ready and waiting this time. I dodged the air attack, then tried to summon an ice stake and fling it at him. But the flames that roared around me were too hot for me to pull any moisture from the air, and I didn’t dare let go of my fire magic. The moment I did, Mother was dead.
Instead, I grabbed a steak knife off the table, and flung it at Aolis. He used his air magic to knock it away, but the distraction allowed me to get in close, and I swung a flaming fist at his face. He caught the punch, then howled as the flames seared his skin, and I grinned viciously as I brought my other hand around in a right hook.
“That’s enough!” he roared, blasting me back with a wave of air magic. The blast upended the dining table, sending food, dishes, and cutlery flying, and I cried out as a knife sliced into my upper thigh.
But somehow, I still found the strength to move, to put myself between Aolis and Mother.
“You’ll have to kill me if you want to get to her,” I said between clenched teeth.
Aolis laughed, his eyes glittering with something bordering on madness. The abyss that lurked within his pupils had expanded, engulfing the whites of his eyes completely. “If I have to kill you, I will,” he said. “But is that really what you want, Adara? To throw your life away so needlessly, when you have the power to deliver our kingdom from the darkness?”
I opened my mouth to shout at him thathewas the darkness, but just then the doors opened with a bang. We turned toward the sound, and my heart leaped as two familiar faces raced into the room.
They’d come. For me.
34
Einar
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” I demanded as we puttered along through the sky on Leap’s cloud familiar. It had been a full day since we’d left Wynth, and Kaipei was only just now appearing on the horizon. “If I were flying, we would have been there already.”
“This thing has a name,” Leap warned as Cirra rumbled ominously beneath us. “And feelings.”
“All right, all right.” I reluctantly patted one of the cloud’s fluffy swells. “Cirra. Can’t Cirra go any faster?”
“She could if it was just me she was carrying,” Leap said, “but you two are heavy, and Cirra is stretching herself thin to make herself wide enough to fit all three of us. This is the best she can do.”
“I think Cirra is doing a fantastic job,” Mavlyn said, stroking the cloud fondly. It immediately ceased its rumbling, and instead started up something that sounded remarkably like a purr. The first few hours of travel had been rough on Mavlyn—earth fae weren’t exactly fond of their feet leaving the ground—but she’d acclimated quickly, and looked as comfortable as any air fae. Her auburn hair streamed out behind her like a banner, and her cheeks and the tip of her nose were pink with cold. “And besides, even you agreed that you can’t fly us to Kaipei. You’re far too visible in your dragon form during the day, and we don’t have time to wait for nightfall.”
