“Don’t!” I slam an attacker into the ground with the hammer. “You’ll never get past him.”
“I don’t need your permission,” she snaps, already moving.
Damn it.
“Come on, Cas!” I call and charge, running at Emberlash full-on.
Wrenley sprints faster, this time feinting left before rolling to the right. Emberlash’s whip strikes the spot where she was, leaving a molten scar in the stone. Before he can react, I hurl the hammer at his chest.
Emberlash staggers under the impact, but he cracks his whip out, the flaming barbs heading straight for Wrenley.
A dark mass slithers across the ground. A shadow.Emberlash’sshadow, detaching from his side and rising behind him like a giant cloak. It ripples in the gemlight, limbs twisted and stretched. Emberlash looks over his shoulder, grin faltering before his expression becomes one of complete and utter fear. “Sira?”
“No, sweetling,” Caspian says. “If only you were so lucky.”
Caspian has his arms outstretched, face beaded with sweat. I remember the feel of those shadows pinning me down.
“Turns out my mother’s magic rejuvenates a lot faster down here,” Caspian grits out. “Not as pretty as my thorns, but you’ll forgive me, won’t you, Ez?”
“I’ll add it to the list of things to forgive you for,” I mutter.
The shadow engulfs Emberlash, wrapping around his legs, his arms, snaring him in place. He thrashes, his whip snapping, but the darkness clings to him, tightening with every movement. Caspian’s face is pale, beads of sweat dripping down his temple.
“Wrenley,now!” I yell, my voice echoing through the cavern.
She doesn’t hesitate. With a burst of speed, she dives for the bow, her fingers closing around it as Emberlash lets out a furious roar. The weapon bursts to life in her hands, the prismatic glow illuminating her skin. Emberlash recoils, his whip flailing.
Wrenley rises, the bow already drawn, her eyes blazing with power. The prismatic arrow forms, its light refracting through the gemstone-laden rubble like a broken rainbow. A stillness descends, as though time itself is bracing for what’s to come.
“Burn, bastard.” Wrenley releases.
The arrow streaks through the air, a blinding cascade. It strikes Emberlash square in the chest, and the explosion that follows is deafening. The last of his men are flung by the blast, smashing against the walls and falling in heaps. The prismatic energy swallows him whole, his whip falling lifeless to the ground as the roar of magic drowns his scream out. When the light fades, nothing remains but ash.
I stagger back, my chest heaving, and glance toward Caspian. He’s leaning on a chunk of rubble, his face pale but victorious. “Told you that you could trust me.”
I grunt, too exhausted to argue. “Don’t get used to it.”
Wrenley doesn’t stop to bask in the victory. Already, her briars are rising, twisting through the rubble to carve an escape path.
A prismatic vine slithers up my leg, and I step back.
She rolls her eyes. “Do you want to stay here?”
I’ve gotten this far. I take a breath and let her vines wrap around me. Then with a sharp tug, I’m yanked into the earth with the Nightingale and the Prince of Thorns.
15
Caspian
The world is a blur of light and shadow as Wrenley’s prismaticbriars yank us through the earth. My stomach flips, my body weightless one instant, crushed the next. I’m used to this sensation, but Wrenley’s a little less graceful than I am. When we’re spat out, I hit the ground hard, snow biting into my bare skin.
I groan, rolling onto my back, the cold sinking into me like a thousand tiny needles. My breath clouds the air, and I take a moment to register where we are. Around us, towering firs stretch skyward, their branches heavy with snow. Beyond the trees, a jagged stone wall rises, crowned with frost and flanked by narrow towers that gleam like blades in the pale moonlight.
We’re outside the walls of Keep Wolfhelm.
And then I feel it—her. The bond hums in my chest, like a string plucked just once. Rosalina. The thought of her sends warmth coursing through me, cutting through the ache of exhaustion, the gnawing hunger, the sting of cold. I’m battered, starving, and I haven’t had a minute of rest in days, but none of that matters. She’s close. For the first time since this nightmarebegan, excitement flickers to life within me, pushing back the darkness.
I haul myself up, shivering as the chill burrows deeper, and hug my naked chest. But this cold is familiar. These trees, these walls. I’ve stood outside this gate hundreds of times before, when snowflakes didn’t sting and the cold was the best company.
