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Panicking, she banks hard, rising high above Avalon Tower’s tallest spire. My stomach lurches at the sudden ascent.

Talan shouts a command, and Tarasque dives, plummeting straight for Merlin’s Tower. This is madness. Reckless, chaotic madness. Utterly uncontrolled.

Wind tears at my face as we drop, and my thighs clench around Tarasque’s neck. Every one of my muscles goes taut.

When I came up with this plan, I’d envisioned a slow, cautious flight. Gently gliding by the balcony, easily jumping on.

But this is anything but slow or cautious.

The ivory tower rushes toward us too quickly. My heart is going to explode because we’re going to hit it. We’re going to die. This is how it ends, with wind and stone and bones crushed to dust, and a dragon’s roar.

But there’s no time to second-guess at this point.

As we swoop by the balcony, Talan leaps. A half heartbeat later, I follow, but I’m a second too late, and my body is angled wrong. My foot slips, and I plunge backward off the railing, arms flailing for purchase. Talan’s hand clamps around my arm, and gravity yanks me down. An arrow thuds into the wall beside me, but he doesn’t let go.

He lifts me onto the balcony, and I tumble on top of him. Smiling and shaky, I take a deep breath.

The moment of peace doesn’t last long. Overhead, Tarasque’s roar rumbles through the skies, sending a chill through my bones.

“Let’s go.” I jump up, already reaching for the door. “We’ve got one minute. That’s it.”

I turn the handle on the balcony door. It doesn’t budge.

“Locked,” I say.

Talan kicks the door, and it splinters open, one hinge breaking completely. “Faster than a lockpick.”

We rush into the tower, crossing the corridor to the hall of the Round Table. I’m relieved to find it unguarded, but it won’t be for long. I open the door and enter the hall, racing across thestone floor to Merlin’s portrait. Quickly, I find the switch to open the secret door. It clicks open, and Talan moves to take a step.

“Wait!” I say. “Iron. And viruses. I’ve already built up an immunity. Let me do this. You stay here and kill anyone who comes close.”

I dash to the iron mesh and pull it aside. Inside the secret room, I cross to the desk and remove the vials of viruses, sliding them carefully into my padded bag. The vials are still in their wooden holders, and I take care not to smash them against each other, fighting the urge to jam them into my bag. That would kill Talan and all the demi-Fey here.

As I close the bag, I hear Talan’s voice. “Nia, you need to go faster.”

And yet, if one of these breaks…

I gingerly tuck the last vial into the bag and exit through the iron mesh curtain.

“They’re almost here,” Talan says.

“Fuck.”

“We might have to fight our way out.”

I swallow and nod, but we rush for the door anyway. I grab Talan’s hand, and we race into the hall, where I guide us to an ancient, narrow passage. If anyone comes looking for us, they’ll probably head straight for the hall of the Round Table.

We follow the twists and turns of the corridor. I cradle the bag gently, relief washing over me at every step. All we need to do is get this bag somewhere that Tarasque can land, and we’ll summon her to us.

Talan and I step into a hallway with a high stone archway. Light streams in through stained glass windows, illuminating the portrait of my father wielding a bloody sword.

“Hi, Dad,” I say quietly.

Talan goes still. “Footfalls,” he whispers. “Someone is about to turn the corner.”

I pull a dagger from my sheath, ready to hurl it at whoever I see.

But in the next heartbeat, I find myself staring at my ex-boyfriend covered in blood.