I nearly pulled myself out of my skin. Why did Mother want me to wait? Someone needed to help them!
Derrick shakily rose to his knees, using the Conqueror’s spear for leverage. Mother cried through her gag. Horses screamed in the distance.
General Hyton turned to Derrick and gripped the hilt of Traitor’s Bane.
This was not a staged deposition, it was anexecution.
This was the final Alastar trial.
The little red ember in my heart blazed, sending a blast of warmth through my body. The blood in my veins twisted with a swirl of color and light.
Ihadto save him.
I reached out into the air. Magic sparkled around me.
Traitor’s Bane gleamed in the torchlight as General Hyton shouted, “Time to end the madness!”
Magic dragged against my skin with a scream and then my arms wrapped around a breastplate.
Ragged breathing filled my ears. Then steel sang as it thudded in the grass.
I looked up. General Hyton stood over me, his eyes down at his fallen sword and his right arm twitching.
I had finally stepped through the air.
I was on my knees with my arms around Derrick. His eyes were squeezed shut—he must have thought he was already dead.
General Hyton looked from me to my Mother. She smiled wickedly beneath her gag and uncurled her fists. The crescents her fingernails had dug into her palms leaked out beads of black blood.
She shared his food and drank from his cups—the Viper had struck the heel of the General. She had poisoned them both with Thornebow thistle.
The General was never going to harm Derrick. The poison made him unable to swing his sword and it was slowly killing him.
But would the magic of Mother’s blood bond save her?
A cacophony of screams echoed in front of us and I looked up. The princesses were free of their bonds and hauling themselvesonto horses. Lycaster soldiers with slit throats littered the ground. Sapphira had knives in both hands, slashing red ribbons into every soldier who came near them. Rubia leaned over from her horse and yanked Sapphira up to ride away.
A soldier ran amongst them. Though his uniform was stained with blood, he appeared unharmed. He must have freed the princesses.
General Hyton’s shoulders trembled as he turned toward the chaos. “Do not let them get away!”
Arrows flew through the air, but the princesses broke through the ranks, their horses running into the forest around the fortress walls. The lone soldier did not follow them, but instead took his own horse and sped toward us. His helmet fell and his hair seemed too silver to belong to a normal soldier…
General Hyton’s head spun back around and his black-lined eyes strained. “Hold formation!”
“Run, Little Ember!” cried the soldier.
That was no soldier…it was my father.
Mother screamed behind her gag as Father reached down and scooped her up onto his horse. Derrick shifted, as if he had just realized he was still alive, and turned to face me.
A chill washed through me as soon as my eyes met his furious ones. I had lost his mindandhis heart.
My white flame surged as General Hyton approached. I flung my arms around Derrick again and pushed us through the air back to the fortress.
We both landed in the courtyard with a thud. Dozens of footsteps crunched in the grass.
My chest met the curve of the Taurus shield as Derrick shoved me off him. I gripped the grass and tried to catch my breath as he glared down at me.
