“I told you things got weird up here,” Riyan said, using his left hand to hold on to me and his right to swat at the birds in the sky. “Go away! We don’t haveany food!”
Both ravens squawked and screamed as they flew aroundRiyan’s head.
“Se-ra! Se-ra!”they called.
Riyan cried out as the larger raven bit hisright ear.
The ravens talking to me and knowing my name made me so exposed, so vulnerable, so seen, that my chest shook and my stomach opened up into another hollow pit. I slammed my hands over my ears to shut out the ravens, closed my eyes, and buried myself as deep in Riyan’s hair asI could.
Riyan’s voice was close enough that I could hear him through my blocked ears. “If I can’t kill these things, I’ll have tooutrun them.”
He reached up and held me again and then his body lurched forward. His hair flew back behind me as he sprinted faster than any human or animal could travel. I kept my eyes squeezed shut and braced myself in his hold, gripping any bits of his hair I could snag inmy hands.
The cold mountain air whipped me in the face. The muscles in Riyan’s neck throbbed against me. The only sound that touched my chilled earlobes was his panting breath that shuddered with each of histhundering footsteps.
After a few minutes, Riyan slowed down to a trot, then his shoulder loosened as he slowed down again. I shivered from the chill of the run, even with my wool cape still wrapped around my shoulders. Riyan lowered his hand from my back, but I still gripped onto his hair withiron hands.
“You’re going to want to open your eyes now,”Riyan breathed.
I cautiously fluttered my eyes open and tilted my head up toward columns of golden light. We reachedFraleigh’s palace.
The sun kissed the horizon and illuminated the gilded splendor of the home of Fraleigh, the Great Sorceress of Nordingaard. A field of tall white flowers surrounded the palace, the last breath of green with nothing but snow and rock further up the mountain. The field was bare except for the palace and the flowers. Nowhere for anyone, oranything,to hide.
The palace had three tall gilded turrets topped with the golden spires I had seen earlier. The only apparent entrance was two doors and the front of the palace painted in beautiful swirls ofgold leaf.
Riyan’s chest was at the level of the thick stone arch above the palace doorway, which had “Ipse Dixit” carved into the stone and embellished with gold paint. On each side of the huge double wooden doors were two knockers in the form of ugly troll’s heads with a golden ring in each oftheir mouths.
Riyan gently placed me on the ground in front of the doors. I stumbled and wobbled as my feet touched earth again. The gold and grass spun around me and my head buzzed. My body bore the toll of not sleeping fortwo days.
We had no time to rest, though. I shook my head and pulled my eyes open wide. I would sleep after Fraleigh made Riyan the size ofa man.
I looked up at the doors. As huge as they were, Riyan could not fit through them, even if he crawled. A cold breath escaped my lips and my hands curled intoshaking fists.
I had to faceFraleigh alone.
Riyan knelt down and eyed the doors. He gave me another sweet half-smile and hooked his finger around one of theheavy rings.
“I believe in you, Sera.” His satin voice wrapped around my heart alongside our magical bond that glowed brighter than the palace in frontof us.
Riyan let go of the ring and it hit the wooden door with a loud boom. The knock echoed inside the palace. One by one, footsteps pattered toward the door from theother side.
My palms started to sweat in my fists. Myheart pounded.
I had one chance to convince Fraleigh to help us. One shot to makeRiyan normal-sized.
And if I failed, I belonged tothe Duke.
I held my breath as the door of Fraleigh’s gilded palace opened.
I expected to see Fraleigh’s golden eyes and luminescent skin, but instead a young woman with warm brown hair peeked around the heavy wooden door. The woman’s crystal blue eyes grew wide when she saw Riyan kneeling in front of the palace doors but still towering overus both.
“Riyan?” askedthe woman.
Riyan smiled. He held up his massive hand and gave her a wave. “It’s been a longtime, Rosaline.”
Thorny green vines crawled through my veins as Riyan’s eyes flashed like he took note of Rosaline’sfull-figured frame.
Rosaline’s voice was more casual than I expected. “Fraleigh wondered when youwould come.”
