Page 123

“Well, alright then.” Azura glanced at Leto, who stood just off to the side, and shrugged in confusion. “Begin,” she trilled, clapping her hands.

The familiar rush of adrenaline shot through her, but Taly held it in check. The sound of bells tinkled on the wind as the first 20 wisps charged the arena.

Taly nudged her aether, and her Sight painted the landscape in a heavy wash of gold. There was a ripple to the north, a slight wrinkle to the east. The fairies were scattering, making decisions only to immediately change their minds. It was a common tactic when fighting a time mage with the Sight. If the variables were always changing, it became harder to predict the future.

Not that it mattered.

Taly had been studying their tactics for weeks now.

Yawning and giving a long stretch, she sunk to the ground, leaning back on her hands and turning her face to the sky.

“What in Shards’ name…? Did the girl hit her head?” she heard the Queen mumble to Leto.

There was a tickle at the back of Taly’s mind, an unscratchable itch that crawled across the skin of her neck. The fairies were in range now, and they circled the perimeter of the arena, confused, chittering back and forth in that strange language of windchimes and bells. Their bodies flickered with faint pulses of light and energy.

Please work, please work, please work

Because Shards this was going to really hurt if it didn’t.

The fairies began to laugh, and she bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, forcing her shoulders to relax as she closed her eyes.

Complete, absolute boredom.

She still had her eyes closed when she felt the first spell snap and release. Several other pops of magic followed in rapid succession.

The tinkling laughter that had been circling her, strangely predatory as it drew closer, abruptly ceased.

Taly opened her eyes.

Twenty orbs of fairy fire stood frozen just inside the perimeter of the training yard, fenced in by a slight shimmer of magic that circled the area. The world beyond swayed and shifted, and through the veil, she could see the Queen. Unmoving, eyes wide, mouth agape. It was the same expression the woman had made the day Taly had not-so-accidentally eaten all Azura’s favorite cakes at teatime.

Taly grinned, a manic giggle bubbling up and out. Her trap had worked!

It had worked, and Shards, it had all been so irritatingly simple in the end. Don’t use crystals, the Queen had said, which for the longest time, shehad taken to mean that she wasn’t supposed to rely on crystals to help her cast.

But crystals, Taly had finally realized, could be used for more than just focusing talismans and spell training. They could be charged with active spells.

So, she had spent most of her morning tethering spells to crystals and burying them at key points, each one chosen after several weeks of studying the fairies’ movements. A simple ceasing spell was all she’d needed to capture the fairies, but triggering the release… that had been more difficult.

Air crystals, stolen from the armory and then wired together in such a way as to create a thin, nearly imperceptible wall of air around the perimeter of the arena. It was crude, and Skye and Ivain could’ve done far more in far less time. But she’d still managed to rig something together—an invisible snare that would trigger her trap when the fairies crossed into the arena.

The brief shower lasting exactly four minutes and 13 seconds that occurred every morning at two minutes past the fifth bell had quickly washed away any evidence that she’d been digging, making her trap virtually undetectable.

Simple. Easy. And she hadn’t even had to cheat.

“I win,” Taly chirped, hopping to her feet and dusting herself off. “And technically, I didn’t break any rules. You said I wasn’t allowed to use crystalsduringthe game. You didn’t, however, say anything about using thembefore.”

When she turned to the Queen, Azura’s lips were pressed into a thin line, and Leto still stood off to the side, head tilted, shoulders shaking withbarely suppressed laughter. The fairies that had come to watch the daily beat-down were whispering amongst themselves.

Taly gave a mocking bow, delighting in the low growl that carried across the training yard. “I beat your game.”

Azura’s anger was all the evidence she needed to confirm that she’d never meant for her to win.

Azura closed her eyes, and when she opened them, that heaviness, that depthless power that Taly knew the Queen commanded, even if she’d only seen it demonstrated a handful of times, settled over the arena.

The fairies whispering hushed.

“That means I’ve earned my freedom,” Taly said, still standing in the middle of the arena, her feet set defiantly.