“Run!” My scream tears from my throat as I fight the water’s drag against my legs. Catching the nearest woman around the waist, I propel her along with me. “Run!”
Screams erupt around me as heat billows at my back, a blast so intense, it’s consuming everything in its path, evaporating the water in the rock pools and turning the rock itself into molten lava.
Streams of melted stone spread through the water I’m splashing through, and panic swells within me.
I’ve been touched by fire like this once before. The scar on my upper right arm is a testament to it.
Never again.
Water splashes up around me as I push myself to move faster, pulling the woman I’m supporting off her feet as I launch myself over the final rocky ledge and onto the sand.
Behind us, the flames consume the rock and finally—finally—they disperse, but not before turning the stone to lava, which flows back into the water.
Up ahead, men and women scatter across the beach, many running toward the village that’s sheltered behind a long row of trees, others scooping up their small children, who wereplaying on a shady patch of sand while their parents hauled ripplefish from nearby boats.
My heart thumps harder at the villagers’ panicked cries. “It’s the Ember Fae!”
The woman I was helping breaks off from me, sprinting as fast as she can in her high boots, headed for her terrified, screaming little girl.
I fight every instinct in my body that wants to help the families carry their children to safety.
But I can’t take the risk. Not if the Ember Fae might be here because of me.
My father’s long-ago warning rings in my ears.
You would be the kings’ ultimate weapon against each other. They would kill anyone to get to you.
If these Ember Fae have come for the Oracle—if they’ve come forme…
I would only draw more danger to those families.
What I don’t understand is how the Ember Fae could know I’m here.
How, how, how?
For the last twenty-five years, my father and I have assimilated into villages up and down the coastline, blending with the lowborn fae. It was an easy enough task, given that our appearance matches theirs. Our hair is a dull black, and our eyes are faded blue. We have nothing of the brilliant coloring of the highborn fae, who are the most magically powerful.
Of all the places we could hide from the three kings, Father chose the coast because none of the three kingdoms has gained a foothold here. A treacherous mountain range sits between the coast and the mainland, stretching all the way from the north to the south. Trade occurs through several safe passes, but they’re far too narrow for an army to march.
And so, the three kings have left the coast in peace.
A peacethat has now been broken without warning.
I don’t stop running, my arms and legs pumping as I push myself to sprint faster in the direction of the village’s northernmost point, where my father works with the carpenters.
My boots may be a blessing in rocky water, but their weight is a detriment now. Despite slowing me down, I don’t have time to stop and take them off.
Another blast of magic washes over me a heartbeat before a golden serpent shoots into view overhead. It’s flying high, its rider leaning out from the saddle and into the air.
I make out the Ember King’s royal insignia on the serpent’s saddle as it soars toward the ocean, while the fireball forming in the male rider’s outstretched hand makes my heart sink.
If he aims his fire at the fleeing villagers…
My jaw drops when he casts the fire back in the direction from which he flew.
The fireball blazes across the air, past the tops of the giant palms that stand at the edge of the village. The fire’s trajectory takes it up, not down, as I expected.
My eyebrows pull together. What is he aiming?—
