For one exquisite moment, I closed my eyes. The wind rushed through my clothes, cold and wild. The world below vanished. It was just me and the sky. Then I tucked my head and spun forward, catching the tree branch I knew would be there. I swung around it, then launched to the next ledge.
I didn’t need to see. I knew exactly where the best path downward was. I’d mapped it by feel long ago. This part of the land was as familiar to me as my own hut.
I loved heights—the higher, the better. This was what I did when I woke in the middle of the night, shaking from dreams, though I could only remember the screams and fire. This was where I went when my chest ached from wanting answers I didn’t have.
This was where I felt free.
There was a flurry of stones and dirt above me. To my surprise, Blake and Flame had followed me. The tyger was sliding down the steep cliff face almost as quickly as I was, although, as I watched,he slipped on a patch of ice. He hooked his sharp claws onto a clump of roots and pulled himself and his rider up onto a narrow ledge before leaping to another outcropping.
I wasn’t going to let this tyger kill me like so many other Azures had been slaughtered.
I stopped and turned, my blade already in my hand, and threw the sleek dagger at him. It sank into the tyger’s left shoulder. He roared, the sound shaking the night air.
Blake shook his head and glared at me as he yanked my dagger out. “Brilliant move,” he snapped.
“Leave me alone,” I shouted. “I’ve done nothing wrong!”
Something official and cold took over his expression. “To injure a tyger is a crime punishable by death.”
My vision whirled.
“You have damaged royal property. By order of the Dominion of the Silver Tyger, you’re under arrest.”
I turned and scrambled as quickly as I could down the path, jumping to the next ledge.
Blake uttered a stream of curses behind me as he struggled to keep his seat on the tyger.
“Enjoying yourself?” I called, unable to resist, as I bounded downward.
“I. Hate. Heights,” he bit out. “You must submit to questioning.”
“Sure.” I dove again, clearing a vicious outcropping of sharp rocks. “Why don’t you shoot me what you’ve got? I’ll be right back.”
I needed to lose them in the town and then circle back in secret to help Edith.Please let her be safe.My mind spun. Was I just being hopeful, or had there been no blood on her dress? It had been too dark to see clearly.
Not now. Focus. Breathe.
I was almost at the bottom of the ravine. As soon as I reached the trail at the base, I took off. I could feel them gaining on me. On flat ground, they had an advantage. The only reason I’d made it so far was that the terrain was unfamiliar to them.
I spared a moment to look back.
They were terrifying, the warrior on top of a raging tyger racing toward me, both sets of eyes ablaze. Blake rode low against Flame’s neck. The tyger’s paws barely touched the ground as he carried Blake after me, his muscles bunching and releasing like a storm in motion, his enormous fangs glistening.
I kept moving, heart pounding. I wasn’t getting arrested. Not for stabbing a royal tyger. Not for dancing. Not for having some small, strange weak magic that irked Blake Axefire.
Flame roared behind me. I could still make it if I just—
A low growl behind me. Then a blur of movement.
The tyger leapt, landing in front of me, his massive form blocking the trail, eyes glowing faintly in the dark. I skidded to a stop.
Too late.
Blake jumped from the tyger’s back, his hand catching my arm, his grip like iron.
“Going somewhere?”
“You scorchhole,” I snapped, yanking hard at his grip.
