Hurtling over a boulder, she dove beneath a low branch and whipped toward the left as the crackle of dragon’s fire exploded into the tree behind her and sent it plunging for the bottom on the hill.
She couldn’t outrun a dragon. Couldn’t climb trees and leap through the forest when the dragon could just light her on fire the second she was in range.
There was only one way out of this, and the power was already flooding her veins.
She skidded down the rest of the hill, her pulse beating a frantic tempo against her skin as the dragon roared and fire strafed the ground behind her. The heat licked at her skin, and she rolled forward, coming to her feet at the bottom of the hill where she was surrounded by smoking chunks of the trees the dragon had destroyed.
She wasn’t going to die here—incinerated by Irina’s pet dragon while the queen stayed safe and sound in her castle, content in the knowledge that she’d destroyed the last of the Diederichs.
Kill overgrown lizard. Eat the eyes, tear out the heart. Sasha’s thoughts, vibrating with rage, broke past the thunder of Lorelai’s heartbeat and sent a shaft of panic down the princess’s spine as the gyrfalcon, returning from her morning hunt, streaked through the air, heading straight for the dragon.
No! Lorelai tore off her gloves as the dragon reached the bottom of the hill, the wind from its wings slamming into Lorelai until it was hard to keep her footing. Don’t attack. Don’t come closer. He’ll kill you.
Kill it first. Sasha shrieked and dove for the dragon.
No! Lorelai screamed, but Sasha ignored her.
Her bird was going to die, and then she was going to die unless she changed her odds. Lorelai locked eyes with the dragon, magic burning like lightning in her palms, and sprinted straight for the beast.
The dragon’s eyes became slits as Sasha slammed into its head, and it shook her off as easily as a horse dislodges a fly.
Smoke poured from the beast’s nostrils as Lorelai closed the distance between them, and it opened its mouth.
Fear tore at her, threatening to turn her thoughts into a whirlwind of panic, but she was acting on instinct now. She twisted to the side, kicked off the ground, slammed her feet against the closest tree trunk, and launched herself into the air. Arcing, she flipped and landed on the dragon’s back, just behind its head.
Sasha flew at the creature’s face, aiming for its eyes, and narrowly missed getting incinerated. Heat from the fire that poured out of the dragon’s mouth warmed the scales beneath Lorelai, and she grabbed its neck with her bare hands, her mind frantically scrambling for an incantor that would force the dragon’s heart to obey hers instead of Irina’s.
The dragon’s skin shuddered, a ripple that nearly dislodged Lorelai.
Sasha banked hard and shrieked as she came for the beast.
Something crashed behind Lorelai, and she glanced back to find two additional dragons smashing through the trees—a silver and black dragon that was slightly smaller than the one Lorelai clung to and an enormous all-black dragon whose wingspan was wider than a peasant’s cottage.
Sobbing a desperate prayer that she could somehow figure out how to defeat three dragons at once, Lorelai dug her fingers into the scales on the dragon’s neck, an incantor on the tip of her tongue.
Except she wasn’t gripping scales.
She was gripping skin that was rapidly softening into something human.
The dragon dropped to the ground, sending Lorelai tumbling. Its ridges and wings receded, and its bones made an awful grinding sound as its body shrank.
Sasha slammed into the dragon-turning-human and knocked him to his side. The silver dragon roared and lunged toward the bird, but then a boy with wild red-brown hair picked himself up off the ground and held up his hand, palm out.
The other dragons slowly settled onto the ground, their eyes watchful.
Sasha settled onto a branch and watched them as if waiting for one of them to make a wrong move.
The boy turned to face Lorelai, wearing nothing but a strange collar of thistle and bone. The breath left her body as the sun glinted against his wild hair. His amber eyes locked on hers, and the empty space carved into her by Leo’s death filled with fury as she stared at the Eldrian king she’d rescued from the mob in Tranke.
“You!” She spat the word at him as she raised hands that shook with anger, power sparking in her palms and begging for an incantor that would send her magic into the boy and kill him where he stood.
“You’re the princess?” He sounded shocked and horrified.
Every part of her trembled, and there was a buzzing in her ears that made everything but the need to hurt him seem inconsequential. She stalked toward him, her eyes locked on his. “I should’ve let the villagers kill you. Or let you break the treaty by shifting into your dragon so that Irina would have nothing to do with you.”
“I didn’t know when I agreed to hunt down the lost princess that it was you.” He held his hands up in a placating gesture as if somehow his words would make amends for anything.
“You were with Irina in Nordenberg.” Magic burned against her skin, and incantors designed to punish and destroy balanced on the tip of her tongue, desperate for release. “You were hunting us there.”
“I didn’t know who I was hunting—”
“Leo died there!” Her hands slammed into his chest and sent him to his knees. “My brother is dead, and you were there helping Irina to kill him.”
The black dragon roared, smoke pouring from its nostrils, but Kol held up a hand to stay it. His eyes were stricken as he stared up at her.
Lorelai leaned down. “Oh, you’re going to want his help. Not that he can save you from me. You owe me your life, remember? And now you owe me for Leo’s, even though it was Irina’s spell that killed him. What do you think my brother’s life is worth, Kol? Is it worth the life of a king who would enslave himself to a monster and kill the innocent?”
“I’m so sorry.” He breathed the words, every syllable full of pain and regret.
Lorelai’s heart pounded, and magic seared her veins with the power to make him truly sorry. To make him pay for his part in Leo’s death.
Behind him, the black dragon began shifting to his human form, but Lorelai ignored him. Let him plead for the life of his miserable king. Let him threaten to kill her for laying a hand on Kol. Lorelai didn’t care. The terrible pain that had filled her when Leo died had found a purpose in hurting the king of Eldr. It would be justice, and Leo deserved that.
No one is going to give you what you want, Lorelai. You have to take it for yourself. Use your power and take it. Take it!
Irina’s voice, quiet as a breeze but hard as iron, filled Lorelai’s memory as she flexed her fingers and held Kol’s gaze. Beneath her anger, beneath the awful need to make him pay for Leo, a voice whispered that she was on a precipice. If she took the leap—if she used her magic to take the life of a boy simply because her pain begged her to without first making sure that it was justice, how could she look Irina in the eye and say that the queen was wrong for doing the same thing?
“Nothing I say can make up for the loss of your brother,” Kol said with quiet sincerity. The grief in his voice matched the pain that lived inside Lorelai. “Or make up for the fact that I was trying to kill the girl who saved my life.”
“No, nothing will ever make up for losing Leo,” she said, and though anger still shook her, she slowly curled her hands into fists, ignoring the burn of her magic. “My first mistake was to rescue you. My second was to believe that you had honor.”
“I didn’t mean to violate the debt I owe you. As soon as I recognized your bird, I put my human heart back in control and shifted. I don’t want to be a killer.” There was desperation behind his words. “I don’t expect you to believe me after all that’s happened, and I have no right to ask you for mercy—”
“No you don’t.”
“I don’t ask mercy for myself. Only for Eldr.” His amber eyes held hers as the black dragon finished
shifting and became the enormous boy—Trugg, if Lorelai remembered correctly—who instantly started running toward them. “You’re a mardushka, like Irina. You could save Eldr. You’re a good person—you wouldn’t have helped us in Tranke if you weren’t. Please, do what you want with me, but say that you’ll save my people now that Irina won’t.”
She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t hurt him.” Trugg threw himself between Lorelai and Kol, his arms held wide to block her from being able to touch his king.
“He tried to kill me.” She glared at Trugg. “And he is part of the reason my brother died.”
“He had no choice. Not really. Irina twisted her words—”
“I can speak for myself, Trugg.” Kol put a hand on the boy’s shoulder and then slowly climbed to his feet, his eyes still on Lorelai. Still full of regret. “But if it’s okay with the princess, I’d really like to put on some pants before we have this conversation.”
For the first time, Lorelai realized that she was facing two boys who didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. Her cheeks warmed. “Yes, please put some pants on.”
Kol turned toward a bag that was still strapped to the back of the silver dragon, but Trugg stood there, his arms crossed over his chest, staring her down as if convinced she would hurt his king the second Trugg turned his back.
“Pants.” She flapped her hands at him.
“I’m good.”
She glared. “I’m not.”
“Trugg, get dressed. We need the princess’s mercy, not her wrath.” Kol returned with clothes for his friend while the silver dragon began to shift into the girl with the short dark hair and narrow green eyes.
Lorelai took a step back and looked at Sasha, still perched on a branch, her thoughts a steady litany of death threats toward every Eldrian in the clearing. Just behind the Eldrian girl, Gabril limped toward them, his sword out, his expression the kind of icy calm that meant someone was about to die.
“Why are we worried about her wrath? We can shift and kill her if she becomes a threat,” the girl said.
“If she becomes a threat?” Gabril reached the bottom of the hill. “Do you have any idea whom you attacked? There isn’t a single moment that she isn’t a threat. The only thing keeping her from bringing this entire mountain down on your miserable heads is her commitment to becoming a just queen.”
Trugg and Jyn bristled, but Kol inclined his head toward Gabril. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to explain my actions.”
Gabril gave Kol a long, cold stare. “You’d better pray she accepts your explanation. Dragon or no, I will kill you for putting my princess in danger.”
“Understood— Hey!” Kol whipped his arms above his head as Sasha swooped low and yanked at his hair with her talons.
Let him speak, Sasha. I want to hear what he has to say, Lorelai sent, and Sasha reluctantly left Kol and perched on the princess’s shoulder instead, her black eyes locked on the king.
“Thank you,” Kol said to Lorelai.
“I don’t want your thanks. All I want is an explanation for why you tried to kill me and why you’ve asked for my mercy for Eldr.”
He straightened and met her eyes. “Eldr is overrun with ogres—ogres that are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The dark enchantress who has ensnared the kingdom south of ours let them out of the mountain where they were imprisoned, but it also changed them. They’re huge, bigger than our biggest dragon, and nothing we do stops them. Their skin is impervious to fire, to boulders, and to blades. My army was simply slowing them down, not stopping them. Even our best warriors—like Trugg, who is a beast in the sky—”
“Ladies.” Trugg raised his brows and gave Lorelai and Jyn a little smirk.
“This is not the time,” Lorelai said as Jyn muttered, “You’re a pig.”
Kol took a step toward Lorelai, and she raised her hands.
“So your kingdom is in trouble,” she said. “That doesn’t explain why you got in bed with the devil.”
He flinched, but held her gaze. “Here’s the truth.” He swallowed hard, and closed his eyes for a long moment before finally looking at her again. His voice was quiet as he said, “I was never supposed to rule. My father was a strong, fair ruler, and he was training my brother to follow in his footsteps. I wasn’t even a very good prince. I spent all my time pulling pranks and skipping school. But now . . .”
His voice broke, and he looked at the sky.
“Now I’m all that’s left. Me and my little sister. I’m all Eldr has, and I can’t save my people. I can’t stop the ogres. Every week brings a new flood of refugees from southern Eldr into the capital. Every day brings the ogres closer to the capital as well, and we have nowhere left to run.”
Despite her anger with him, a small thread of compassion entered Lorelai’s heart. She knew what it was like to be desperate. To see the people you were supposed to protect lose everything and to be powerless to stop it.
Kol looked at her again. “I was out of options. I can’t fight magic. So I came to Ravenspire to offer Queen Irina a deal—enough of my kingdom’s treasure to buy food for her people for the next ten years in exchange for using her magic to seal the ogres back into Vallé de Lumé.”
Lorelai’s voice was grim. “You made the mistake of believing Irina cared about the fate of her people.”
“Yes.” Kol reached up and ran a finger along the thistle and bone collar that wrapped around his throat. “She made a counteroffer.”
“My life for the life of your people.” Lorelai held his gaze and dared him to justify his choice.
“No.” He shook his head. “She told me to return you to the castle. That’s all I agreed to do. But then she required a blood oath, and she changed the wording to say that I agreed to do whatever she asked of me—”
“You made a blood oath with Irina?” Lorelai asked sharply. “Do you have any idea what she can do to you if she thinks you failed to uphold your end of the bargain?”
Kol’s shoulders drew back, his chin lifted, and suddenly he looked every inch a king. “I die. Horribly. Which is why I’m asking for your promise to show mercy to Eldr.”
Jyn’s face paled, and she stepped forward. “Kol—”
“I’m not going to hold up my end of the bargain,” Kol said. His expression was resolute. “I’m not going to cut out the princess’s heart and give it to Irina. Which means Eldr still needs someone to save it from the ogres.”
“It means you’ll die,” Lorelai said, “and Eldr will be without a king.”
“Better that than for Eldr to have a murderer on the throne.” He knelt before her and touched his forehead in a gesture of fealty. “I have nothing to offer you. I will spare your life no matter what your answer. But I beg you to use your magic to stop the ogres in Eldr and save my people.”
“You aren’t going to die,” Jyn said, her small frame vibrating with anger. “I’ll kill the girl myself, and—”
“Try it, and you’ll have a sword through your heart before you can even finish shifting,” Gabril held his blade steady.
“You can’t kill two dragons in one blow, human,” Trugg sounded furious. “And if you want to hurt either Jyn or my king, you’ll have to go through me.”
“This is the only way.” Kol sounded stoic, but his hands trembled, and Lorelai could see the fear in his eyes as he looked at her. “Please. Promise me you’ll save Eldr.”
The others erupted into arguments and protests while Lorelai’s thoughts raced. If she promised to help Kol with her magic and let him die for betraying his blood oath, Irina would know that her huntsman had failed, and she’d search for another way to find the princess. Lorelai didn’t need the distraction of staying one step ahead of the queenwhen what she really wanted to do was put into place her plan to honor Leo and take Irina down.
She needed a way to make Irina believe Kol had succeeded in killing the princess. If Irina believed Lorelai was dead, she’d send her magic through the used-up, dy
ing Ravenspire ground into Eldr, which might weaken the queen, and that would give Lorelai an advantage she couldn’t afford to pass up.
She studied Kol, his eyes full of determination and regret, his spine straight though his hands shook, and admitted that while she was furious with his choices, she couldn’t truly blame him for them. She didn’t like him, but he didn’t deserve to die for Irina’s treachery.
“All of you, be quiet. Quiet!” Lorelai whipped her hands into the air, and white light blazed in her palms. Jyn’s mouth snapped shut. Gabril hefted his sword a bit higher and watched his princess. Trugg stared at her hands and whispered a curse.
“Nobody is going to die,” Lorelai said. “And Irina is going to honor her side of the blood oath. Now listen carefully. I have a plan.”
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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EIGHTEEN
KOL WATCHED LORELAI pace the clearing, her bird swiveling its head to maintain eye contact with him no matter where the girl went. Skies, the bird’s unblinking gaze was creepy. He looked away from the gyrfalcon and asked, “What kind of plan do you have?”
“We’re going to trick Irina,” Lorelai said without looking at him.
“That’s suicide,” Jyn said, her voice rising. “At least for Kol. Nobody tricks a mardushka—”
“Except another mardushka.” The princess gave Jyn a look that would’ve made a lesser Draconi tremble.
The gyrfalcon caught Kol’s gaze and snapped its beak at him, its intentions clear. He did his best to ignore the bird, but he couldn’t ignore the mess he was in. He had been reluctantly willing to honor his blood oath when he’d thought Irina was Eldr’s only salvation. But he wasn’t going to kill the girl who’d saved his life. And he wasn’t convinced she could trick Irina. He appreciated her attempt to once again spare his life—the thought of dying made his hearts ache miserably—but what he really needed was the princess’s promise to help Eldr. He had no leverage, nothing to offer, but he’d seen the rage in her eyes when she realized he’d been in Nordenberg helping Irina the day her brother was killed. He’d seen the sparks of power glowing in her palms as she stalked toward him while he was defenseless.