Her thorns snake up from the ground and wrap around my body. I don’t know where in the seven realms she plans to take us, but anywhere is better than?—
“Stop them!” Emberlash screams, his voice crazed. A fireball flares in his hand. He draws back his arm, then throws. Heat engulfs us as Wrenley’s briars burst into flame. The force sends me flying, and I slam against a building. Gems shower me, falling out of their sconces in the wall.
“Wrenley!” I rasp, forcing myself up. She’s face down in a pile of rubble. Her body twitches, and she blinks, staring down the street. Emberlash throws his head back and laughs, then surges toward her.
Drawn by his horn, other figures appear in the streets and doorways around us. Their tattooed faces and heads and filed teeth mark them as more of Emberlash’s company. A pack of them emerges from an alleyway right beside where Wrenley collapsed.
“Watch out!” I cry.
Wrenley grits her teeth and hisses. Her eyes shine with feral intensity. She leaps to her feet, stares down the pack heading toward her, and draws the bow.
I knew Birdy wielded the Bow of Radiance in Summer. Knew her queen’s blood would allow her to do so. But I had no idea what it would be like to see my sister draw back the bowstring on a weapon forged for a living goddess.
Light illuminates Wrenley’s body, basking her in a glow. Her short hair blows back, and her eyes seem to burn with a holy fire. Without hesitation, she releases radiant destruction upon her enemies.
The glowing arrow slices through the air like a comet, leaving a golden tail in its wake. It strikes the center of the pack and detonates in a burst of light, brighter than a noonday sun. The force ripples outward, vaporizing the nearest attackers in an instant, their screams drowned out by the roaring energy. Where once stood men, there is nothing but scorched earth in their place.
Wrenley doesn’t lower the bow. Another arrow materializes in her grasp, and with a flicker of determination, she takes aim again, spinning to an attacker running up the street toward her.
The shot finds its target, striking just beside a building. Impact reverberates through the towering structure of obsidian and gemstones, a crack forming at the base. A deep groan echoes as it splits further, blasting shards of emerald, ruby, and sapphire into the air. Slivers catch the light like fragments of a shattered rainbow. Part of the wall collapses with a deafening crash, sending a kaleidoscope of glittering debris raining down on the streets.
I stagger to my feet, shuffling over to Wrenley, who already has another arrow nocked, this one aimed for Emberlash. “Stop.”
She doesn’t even turn to me. She pulls back.
I grab her elbow. “Wrenley,stop.”
A look of betrayal flashes on her face as she stares between me and the charging Emberlash. “I’mprotectingyou!”
“This is my city.” I gesture to the crumbled wall. “You’ll bring it to its knees.”
“So?”
So?How can I convey in a single look the pain that Cryptgarden has suffered? That this is a city already destroyed and rebuilt? That I trusted Keldarion, and his best friend brought a reckoning here?
“Briars,” I urge. “Get us out of here.”
Wrenley lets loose a scream of frustration, then stows the bow on her back. Prismatic thorns erupt around us once again?—
Acrackrings out as Emberlash’s whip strikes. Wrenley’s briars ignite, curling into ash under the flames. Smoke billows upward, choking the air with the acrid scent of burnt foliage.
“Trying to escape, are we?” Emberlash laughs, snapping his whip. Sparks fly, falling over our skin. “Finally, Sira’s brats are out of tricks. And Mommy’s not here to save you.”
“Run!” Wrenley tugs my arm, looking back at me with a cat’s grin. “I’m not out of tricks yet.”
I hobble after her. “You better have a good idea.”
“I do,” she says, tugging me faster. “We lure him into the tunnels, then shoot the fuck out of him with the bow.”
“Simple. Classy. I like it.”
Every step is agony as I force my body to respond, trying to keep up with my sister. We bound over the fallen debris from the building, heading to my castle on the hill. Wrenley drags me up the stairs, the crack of Emberlash’s whip at our backs. From up here, we can spot the white stone bridge that leads into the tunnel system out of the city.
Emberlash blows his horn once again, tearing me from my thoughts. Swarms of his soldiers come to the call. He leads the pack, sprinting after us. The boom of a thunderclap sounds behind me, and I know his whip is only inches away.
Wrenley doesn’t look back, feet flying across the cracked obsidian pavement. I grit my teeth and push harder, but the stinging heat of Emberlash’s whip bites too close, forcing me to dodge sideways. A shower of gemstone shards explodes near myhead as the whip strikes a wall to my right. My lungs burn, each breath searing, heart hammering against my ribs.
The bridge looms ahead, a slender span of white stone suspended over the deep abyss that borders Cryptgarden. The soldiers’ footsteps grow louder, echoing across the cavernous expanse.
