They form obedient ranks behind her, and she stands at the front, pride glittering in her eyes. The armored soldiers—the Dreadknights, she’d called them the last time—stand at attention holding blades and bows. She twirls a short and slender sword in each hand. Her goblins chitter excitedly at the back; thankfully, this lot isn’t burning with green flame.
Though, I’m not sure that’s going to make much of a difference right now.
The Nightingale steps forward. “Well, this could not be any more perfect. Your dear prince seems to be having a hard time. Perhaps he’d like to be put out of his misery?”
A thorn erupts beside me, “I’ll never let you hurt him.”
She throws her head back. “This is so fun! Here I was thinking we’d be playing cat and mouse all night. But your little thorn trick led me straight here.” She gestures to the thorns I created to stifle the hallucinogenic pollen. “Now, I get to watch your face as I bleed your prince out, prick by prick.”
My heart careens in my chest, and I stagger backward. Ezryn is completely oblivious to their presence, still trapped in his nightmare, pacing and muttering to himself.Farron!I cry out in my mind.Help!
Rose?His voice is faint in my mind.Are you okay? We’re heading up the mountain. Hold on—
Hurry!
The Nightingale’s sharp laughter interrupts my thoughts. “It really is my lucky day.” She flicks a look behind her at her knights and the goblins. “Hold position. This one’s mine.”
I need to get us out of herenow. I snatch my necklace and quickly, desperately, feel for my connection to Castletree. The air before me shimmers with pearlescent waves.
“Come on, Ezryn! We have to go home now!” I cry.
But Ezryn’s fallen to his knees, staring up at the sky, a low-pitched keening coming from his throat. What is he seeing in the depths of his mind?
I run over and heave on his arm. “Come on! Come on!” But he’s too heavy.
Thorns it is, then. Using my bracelets from Caspian, I summon a surge of thick briars to shoot up toward Ez—
An oily black vine smashes on top of them, pinning mine down.
What?The only people capable of wielding briars are me and Caspian.
“Not so fast,” the Nightingale chides. “I’m not nearly done with you.”
She bolts toward me. There’s no time to do anything before I’m backhanded so hard, I collapse to the ground.
I struggle to my elbows to see her pacing over me. I can’t even compare her to a predator because a predator is grateful for its prey. She instead looks down at me with such disdain, hurt blossoms in my chest.
“That necklace should not belong to you,” she snarls. “You do not deserve it. Look at you. Soft. Weak. You disgust me.”
“Yeah, well,” I murmur, slowly sending one of my vines to creep up behind her, “I don’t really want to be besties with you either.”
My briars snag her around the waist and whip her hard against a tree. Despite that, she’s standing within seconds. That playfulness gone.
“I will fucking kill you!” she screams.
Every maneuver Dayton taught me during our training flies from my brain. I turn and sprint, but she’s so much faster, bowling me over despite her smaller frame.
I hit the ground, twist to my back, and she’s right in my face, driving those thin blades down. I barely roll out of the way.
“Look at you, dressed like a little doll,” she snarls, scrambling after me. “That’s all this is to you, isn’t it? Castles and dress-up?”
I duck around a tree and heave a burst of briars up to throw her back. “You forgot to mention the delicious food.”
“You spoiled brat,” she screams. With a roar, her own iridescent black briars surge up, destroying mine.
With a yelp, I take off running. What am I going to do? My portal to Castletree has closed, but even if I had a moment to summon one again, I can’t chance this lunatic following me there. And if she can destroy any of the briars I make, I’m trapped here.
Ez,I cry out.Please wake up.
