A warm hand pushed on my shoulder. “You too, Serafina.”
I turned. Rosaline was waiting with an outstretched hand.
I accepted her help and seated myself on the back of the horse. I wanted to tell Rosaline where I was going and what I was about to do…but I could not let Annalisa and Brietta hear me.
I could not poison their first sip of freedom with the knowledge I was about to give mine away.
“In case I may never see you again…” I said. “Thank you for everything you showed me.”
Rosaline’s eyes shone and her soft cheeks rose with a somber smile. “Thankyou,for saving him.”
I swallowed all else I wanted to say, letting her read the truth I would never write down.
Rosaline nodded toward Merri, who guided Brietta onto the other horse. “Daigen is going to get us out, but he will be at the fortress when you arrive.”
Why would Merri help us commit treason? Before I could ask, I had my answer as Annalisa ran into Merri’s waiting arms. Merri stroked her curls before kissing her on the cheek.
“Run,” Merri said, a single tear rolling down her face. “Run because your mother couldn’t. Run because Ilsa couldn’t.”
Annalisa set her jaw and raced back to her horse. She had tied her garters around her skirt to form makeshift pants. She leaped onto the saddle behind me and swung her leg on the other side of her horse.
She grabbed the reins and flicked them. “Go, Diana!”
The horse trotted out of the stable. Annalisa’s heartbeat pounded against my back as she shouted, “His name is Apollo, Brie! Just kick him and follow us!”
I gripped the horn of the saddle with both hands as Diana galloped through the palace courtyard toward the gate.
Guards shouted around us. I looked back—Brietta had a white-knuckled grip on Apollo’s reins as he caught up to us.
An arrow whizzed past my face.
“Not near the Duchess, moron!” a guard shouted. “Don’t let them leave!”
The iron palace gates started to swing closed.
I reached out my hand and only the smallest sparkles of magic in the air responded. My power was nearly exhausted and the iron held no water, no magic tears. They were going to trap us.
Suddenly the gates froze in place, leaving a wide gap between them, as a pained cry echoed from the gatehouse. “My eyes! It got my eyes!”
A flash of black flew out of the gatehouse. The sheen of dark feathers rippled in the moonlight. Only when we were a second away from the gates did I see the spot of pink on a beak.
Erik.
I counted the pounding of hooves against the gravel until we raced through the gap in the iron.
I let out a breath and smiled. Brietta laughed behind us.
We were free.
Erik dipped through the dark sky, flying in front of Annalisa and I as our horses raced through the city. His pink beak pointed the way through the streets of Hyton, past all the brick houses and shops, until we met the stillness of the countryside.
The moonlight sparkled on the waves of Odeneye lake and the river below as we approached the bridge into Bloodstone province.
More hooves thundered behind us. I dared to look past Annalisa to see the Lycaster cavalry chasing us down the hill to the bridge.
Derrick had sent the army to drag his Duchess back.
Diana’s and Apollo’s hooves clapped on the stone bridge as we raced across. I had to stop the cavalry somehow. I could destroy the bridge, but my magic could do nothing against stone.
