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“Jeseida.”

“I must say, I’m surprised you’d walk right into a trap after everything you’ve experienced. Itisrather entertaining, though, to have you here yet again, magic gone and your friends in my power.”

“I’m sorry,” Royad grits out. The guard standing by the end of the bench steps forward and punches him in the side of his face. I flinch at a crack that means a bone must have snapped.

Royad doesn’t even whimper. He’s endured worse at the hand of my father. We both have, and we both have lived through it.

I’m here. We’ll get you out.

“Tori!” I shout, fighting the beginning symptoms of magic loss. My head swims, my legs are weak, and nausea racks through me. “Tori, run!”

He’ll know what to do. He’ll grab Kaira and Silas, and together with Clio and Tata, they’ll site-hop out of here.

When he and I talked in private before this mission, we swore to each other that we wouldn’t abandon the battlefield unless all hope is lost. We’ve made it this far. We defeated an army immune to magic. Yet, hope is dwindling as the guard who punched Royad picks up a bow and arrow and aims at the fairy general.

Not again.

“Now. Tori.” My voice is too weak, but Tori has already spotted the danger—and shakes his head at me.

He’s too weak to site-hop.

So, I do the only thing I can think of. I gather what strength I have left and leap at the guard with the bow just in time to block the arrow. It doesn’t gain enough speed to tear all the way through my body, but it’s enough to pierce the flesh above my heart an inch. It’s enough to make me stumble backward, catching my breath.

“I’m all right,” I say to Royad, whose gaze finds me the moment I double over, bracing my hands on my knees. “It isn’t deep.”

“I can make it deeper,” says the guard, stepping forward.

Jeseida holds up a hand. “We need him alive.”

I want to ask what for, but my vision is blurring, and my legs are buckling. Instead of grabbing for the arrow, the guard catches me by my injured shoulder where my healing power has stopped working on sealing the wound. With a laugh, he pushes me to my knees next to Herinor, blade at my throat, and mutters into my ear. “If you think you’ll ever make it off this battlefield alive, you think again.”

I don’t have time to process. Tori and Clio are standing ten feet from the wagon, Silas beside them. There’s no signof Kaira and Tata, and I pray to the gods that Ayna won’t return either.

“What do you want?” The tip of Tori’s sword is braced on the ground while, with his free hand, he’s swirling droplets of molten rocks above his hand. Beside him, the ground at Clio’s feet is frozen. Silas is the only one not displaying any sign of magic, but I recognize the tells of the pending shift in him. He’s ready to take off and bolt if I tell him to. He’s ready to stay and fight just the same. One word from me and he’ll launch into action.

“Nothing much.” Jeseida sounds like a girl despite her age. The Flame Matrone tosses her hair over her shoulder like a curtain of smoldering fire and steps to the edge of the platform. “King Erina of Tavras requests the return of his fiancée.”

My blood is boiling with rage. “He can’t have her.”

Jeseida laughs a wind-chime laugh I’m used to from Clio when she’s the deadliest. It drives a shiver up my back. “There is nothing you can do, Crow once-King. I have your friends at my mercy. I have you at my mercy. Wolayna will come forward to save you whether you want her to or not. After all, that’s what mates do, isn’t it?”

“No.” It’s my final word. I won’t allow it. “I’ll come willingly, but I will not be traded for her.”

“I fear you don’t have a choice, Myron.” Jeseida leans down as if sharing a secret. “If she doesn’t trade places with you, we’ll take you back to Meer, and this time, Erina will make sure you don’t fall unconscious during your little … talks.” She pauses, letting the words sink in. “We have improved the serum, and the side effects are almost gone. You’ll not have a minute of rest. And your mate will know you’re suffering. That bond that hasn’t broken? It will be the death of both of your sanity.”

From the corner of my eye, I notice Tori twitch. It isn’t much, but it’s a tell. Whatever he’s planned, it better be good. If Jeseida manages to get the serum on them, we’re defenseless, and Ayna will have no choice but to give herself up.

I’ll bury that arrow deep in my own heart before I let that happen.

Tori’s eyes lift behind me to the sky above the platform, and I think I hear a pair of wings in the distance.

No. Fly away, little Crow.

The flutter vanishes, and I can breathe.

Ayna

I sawTata grab Kaira’s arm and disappear into thin air. Thank the—I’m no longer sure what to call the deities once named theGuardians. Despite Vala’s warning, I used my water magic. Nothing happened.