“About fucking time,” Ravin murmurs as he wipes blood from the corner of his mouth. He pulls himself to stand with the help of a nearby gravestone. “I was wondering when you’d finally show your true colors to the whole world.”
Kaelis doesn’t answer, his gaze lingering on my bruises and gashes. I think I see the miasma of shadow around him darken as he turns back to Ravin.
“You can’t protect her, brother. You can’t even protect yourself—you’re a dog on a leash for Father,” Ravin says, seething.
Kaelis is utterly unbothered. “You are not my brother, you fucking abomination.”
Ravin roars, and both men move at the same time. Kaelis is a blur. I can’t tell most of the cards he’s casting because the majority are reversed. Every one unleashes something horrible, though.
But Kaelis doesn’t move toward his brother; he comes for me, keeping Ravin at bay. His hand closes around mine, and the sensation of awarm bath overcomes me. I recognize the Queen of Cups as my wounds mend.
Locking eyes with mine, Kaelis issues a single command. “We’re taking the main bridge.Run.”
I do. My fingers locked with his, we run toward the academy gates. They open without a card or clear command from Kaelis. Ravin and the other Stellis are close behind.
“I don’t have any cards!” I shout to him over the howling winter winds off the sea that whip hair into our faces and pull tears from our eyes.
“Just keep running.” Kaelis is focused only ahead.
I trust him implicitly.
When we’re halfway across the bridge, Kaelis stops, swinging around. Momentum throws me a few feet ahead as his fingers release mine. I turn in time to see him kneel, palms pressing against the stone of the bridge.
Purple-black flames illuminate grooves hidden in the mortared edges that I didn’t notice once in nearly two years of looking at this bridge from the academy’s spires.
Violet light illuminates the design of the Ace of Wands just on the inside of the graveyard gate, and within a second, the back half of the legion of Stellis chasing us are immolated in a wall of flames. The front half are nearly knocked off the bridge as it folds up like paper, the Ace of Coins design barely visible in front of us before it contorts.
Kaelis spins and begins running. I shake the shock of what just happened, close my slack jaw, and pick up speed at his side.Wands…then Coins…Swords are next. The hidden form of the Ace of Swords carved between the stones of the bridge summons a gale that pushes the legion back, away from the academy. The Ace of Cups is the final hidden card etched into the bridge. Kaelis activates this one when we’re past the threshold of the massive doors, and a wall of ice begins to form in jagged growing spears.
The doors close in front of us with a solemn, ominousclang,and ice seals them shut along the seam.
“That won’t stop them for long,” Kaelis murmurs.
“What the…Could you always do that?” I blink. I’ve never seen magic like it.
“This is the seat of my ancestors—my castle by birthright.” He grins and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. The movement is gentle, affectionate even, and so jarring coming from the man who just wreaked terror upon countless individuals. “There are secrets still that can protect us, but they won’t hold forever.”
I know what he’s saying, and my stomach plummets.
“Retrieve the cards from my apartments. Ink the vessel. Get your sister to make her gold card.”
“Where are the gold cards?” I can’t ask more than that; my throat is in knots I can’t swallow.I’m not ready. She’s not ready.But we never will be. Sometimes, we must do what terrifies us most before we’re even sure we’re capable of surviving it.
“I’ve kept them safe with the second most precious thing to me in the world.” The adoration he looks at me with tells me I am the most precious thing.
“Your…crowns?” I guess.
He laughs and shakes his head. “Priss, of course. Check under her favorite spot.” Why is doting on his cat one of the most appealing things he could do? “Go, Clara. I’ll hold them off as long as I can and lock down the school.”
I grab his hand. “Kaelis, you can’t hold them off alone.”
“Let me show them why they all fear me so deeply.” He smiles sadly, and I merely stare. I stare at the brilliant night he exudes, a darkness so pure that it could swallow me whole. Yet…glittering. Sparking with a thousand tiny violet stars of magic so raw and primal that it’s as terrifying as it is breathtaking.
I pull his face to mine with both hands and plant a firm kiss upon his mouth.
His forehead presses against mine, and he draws a shuddering breath. We steal one last second. Even as the sounds of magic begin to roar beyond the doors. Even as the academy begins to wake to chaos and confusion.
Kaelis pulls away. “Go.” And he turns to the doors, pressing his palms against them.
