“Not to mention that riding Cirra gives us the element of surprise,” Leap said. “They won’t see us coming until it’s too late.”
I sighed. “At least this gives us the opportunity to conserve our strength,” I said, my gaze firmly fixed on Kaipei. It wasn’t hard to spot—the dark clouds looming overhead drew the eye straight to the capital city. Kaipei was built on a mountainous island in the center of a vast lake, with massive, fortified walls that rose at least five stories up, enclosing the town that made up the lower part of the city. The castle itself perched at the top, with bridges running between the larger main building and the smaller sections. Lightning rods identical to the ones in Wynth topped its many towers and turrets, and I noted similar ones along the walls.
“How close will you need to be to take those towers out?” I asked Leap.
“At least fifty yards,” he said. “It’s harder to accurately aim lightning at distances greater than that.”
“And you’re sure you’ll be able to subdue the poison vines?” I asked Mavlyn. Because fae from all four houses had ruled the castle, it had built in defenses from all the elements. Water and air would be the strongest, since those were Aolis’s elements, but that meant the earth and fire elements would be underpowered.
“With ease,” Mavlyn said. There was a beat of silence, and then she added, “you never did explain to us exactly how you’ll know where to find Adara. Kaipei Castle is bound to be huge—she could be anywhere, and the longer we spend running around trying to find her, the bigger the risk we’ll be captured or killed. The everbright potion will only last us a couple of hours.”
“I’ll be able to track her by scent,” I said, the lie rolling easily off my tongue. I wasn’t about to tell them the truth—that the mating bond was like an anchor hooked into my chest, the chain tugging me inexorably toward her. There was no place in Eidira where Adara could hide from me, no matter how treacherous or remote.
“By scent?” Leap asked, looking incredibly skeptical. “What, like a dire wolf?”
“Exactly,” I said. “Dragons have to hunt for our food, you know. We’re excellent trackers.”
“Uhuh,” Leap said, not sounding even remotely convinced. I couldn’t blame him—dragons spotted our prey from the sky, after all. We were almost never close enough to track them by scent.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me since the shadow guard attack,” Mavlyn said. “I don’t know if you two noticed, but Slaugh called Adara “princess”. And I don’t think he meant it as a term of endearment.”
“Did he?” Leap frowned. “I don’t remember that.”
“I do,” I said quietly. I hadn’t examined that piece of information too closely while we were in Wynth, but I’d had plenty of time to think about it since we’d been stuck on this cloud for hours. “If Adara really is a princess, then that means she is Olette’s daughter.”
“Olette? The dead water fae princess?” Mavlyn demanded. “But Olette was killed during the wedding feast. Everyone knows that. King Aolis mourned her publicly for months afterward. All the stories say he was deeply in love with her.”
“She should have died the moment Daryan was killed,” I said, “since the two of them were mated. But I was there. I saw her being dragged away by her lady-in-waiting, an earth fae noble. If she was pregnant at the time, the babe would have kept her alive. Long enough to see it born, in any case.”
“But…but wouldn’t that mean Adara is half-dragon?” Leap asked, his face scrunched up in confusion.
“Giant’s teeth, itwould,” Mavlyn gasped, her eyes popping wide. “That would explain why she has fire magic! And why her mother wanted to keep it a secret!”
I gritted my teeth as I looked at the castle again. We were getting closer now, maybe an hour away. I was itching to see Adara again, to take her in my arms and reallylookat her. She favored her fae heritage so strongly that I hadn’t noticed, but there would be traces of Daryan in her features.
My best friend. Adara was my best friend’s daughter.
And the Radiants had made her my mate.
“Blast it all,” I growled, balling my hands into fists. This wasn’t supposed to happen! How could I possibly return to my role as a sleeping guardian, knowing that Daryan had a daughter who was not only alive, but also carrying the fate of the world on her shoulders? He would never forgive me if I abandoned her, and truthfully, I didn’t think I’d be able to bring myself to leave her side once we were reunited.
“Are you okay, Einar?” Mavlyn touched my elbow, pulling me from my thoughts. “You look like you’re ready to launch yourself off Cirra’s back.”
“You’re not far off,” I muttered. The desire to fly straight to the castle so I could tear it apart, find Adara, and stake my claim on her, was incredibly strong.
But instead of doing that, I grabbed my satchel and checked the contents. The explosives I’d spent the last couple of hours preparing nestled safely inside, just waiting for me to ignite them. I pulled one out and rolled it between my palm, the smooth glass ball comforting against my skin.
It had been a long time since I’d practiced warfare, but it was second nature to me.
“All right,” Leap said, and Cirra slowed her pace. We were less than half a mile out now. He raised both of his hands, and lightning began to crackle from his fingertips. “Get ready, you two.”
He stood up on the cloud, and I tensed, noticing that the guards on the wall facing us were looking up at us. A few of them were air fae, which meant they would be able to engage us in the sky. Leap pointed one hand at the lightning rod closest to us, and another at a rod higher up, close to the top of the castle. I sucked in a breath as he drew more lightning to his fingertips, building the energy in his hands into massive, glowing blue-white balls that hissed and crackled. This close, I could feel it snapping at my skin, and I winced a little at the pain. If Leap lost control for even a single second, we were all dead.
But he didn’t. Instead, he snapped his fingers, releasing the charges. The guards shouted as massive bolts of lightning streaked through the sky, hitting their targets unerringly. The entire energy field lit up with a shriek as the lightning zig zagged through it, then abruptly went dead, the two towers Leap had hit charred and smoking from the overload.
“It’s down!” Leap shouted. “Hurry, before they get it back up again!”
I snatched Mavlyn by the waist and leaped from the cloud, my dragon wings already bursting from my back. A volley of arrows sang through the air, narrowly missing me, but I didn’t stop to worry—Leap was covering us, using his wind magic to knock the arrows out of the sky and distracting the guards. I lit a couple of bombs and dropped them in strategic places, blowing up two bridges, one guard tower, the stables, and the courtyard outside the main entrance to the castle.
