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‘Queen Sylara has gone to them to see them all out.’

‘Ethan,’ Imogen repeated.She was leaning against me, her legs unsteady.I did a quick calculation, weighing up risks.Getting her to the surface meant she wouldn’t be at risk of being buried any longer, so that was priority number one.She wouldn’t go without Ethan.But she’d be without my protection if I sent her on ahead without me.

‘Alright,’ I replied.‘I’ll get him.Help her, Marietta.Get her moving.I’ll be right behind you.’

Marietta nodded, slinging an arm around Imogen’s waist, and it took everything in me to let them head off without me, to turn and head back to the room we’d left Ethan in.I found him slumped against the wall, barely conscious.I muttered a string of curses as I bent to lift him, my head swooping.I tried to steady him on his feet, but his legs just gave out again, so I looped his arm back around my shoulders and began to drag him.He roused as we got through the doorway and began a stumbling gait alongside me, supporting at least some of his weight.

‘You know,thisis how you wind up covered in glitter,’ he said, the words slurring together.

‘Yeah, I know.You’re lucky Imogen loves you.Now get yourself together because we need to catch up to her.’We staggered along, following the last dregs of the rebel forces down a narrower tunnel, this one that sloped in a spiral upwards.But tremors continued to rattle the ground beneath our feet and debris kept shaking loose, falling in clumps around us.‘Come on, Ethan,’ I urged, and he tried to quicken his pace.But too much damage had been done.The lesser fae court was caving in on itself, I could sense it.The floor seemed to be in a state of slow-motion disintegration, shifting beneath our feet.We weren’t fast enough.It opened up and swallowed us.

Chapter 33

Imogen

Myheadpoundedandthe copper taste of blood coated my lips.Marietta was carrying the brunt of my weight as we clumsily made our way out of the tunnel, moving as fast as my feet would allow us, terrified to imagine more black flames were behind us, creeping ever closer.I’d never seen such a thing before, monstrous and destructive andhungry.I wanted to look back, to know that Tarian and Ethan were following us out, but I didn’t have the strength to do that and walk.

‘We’re almost there,’ Marietta said, encouraging me even though she herself was injured.I could feel her limping as we stepped over stones and avoided holes that had started to open in the ground.The place was coming down around us.

Finally, I felt the fresh air on my face, cool and welcoming, and I breathed deeply.But the relief was short-lived.Waiting for us as we escaped the underground were High Fae dressed in leathers with breast plates and wrist guards made of gold or silver.

‘Marietta—’

‘I know,’ she said.

But the forces that had assembled didn’t look like an army, not the kind you’d see in the movies.We were most definitely outnumbered, but not hopelessly so.I felt a spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, we could regroup as more of the rebels reached the surface.

And then I saw him.

Solas was standing at the head of a group of gold-plated soldiers, watching with a sinister glee as lesser fae scurried from the collapsing tunnels.He was like a kid playing with an ant nest.He raised two fingers, then dropped them quickly.Archers released arrows, some of them alight with flames.

‘Take cover!’Marietta shouted.

But there was precious little to take cover behind.

The arrows soared through the air as if in slow motion.My heart hammered in my chest.Suddenly, I felt that presence in the soil beneath our feet, calling out to me, to my magic.

Tree roots shot out of the ground, tangling together to form a shield in front of us, halting the arrows raining down.Several of them embedded in the shield, but others found their marks, striking down rebels who hadn’t managed to find someplace to hide.I cringed at the sight, closing my eyes against the horror.

‘Imogen, you have to let go,’ Marietta said, and I realised my shield was still growing, stretching slowly wider.Part of me wondered if I should ignore her advice, if I could keep going and stretch the shield around the entire court and keep those remaining safe.But my body trembled with the effort and the pounding in my head grew stronger, warning me that a move like that could kill me.

‘We need to at least get the injured behind this,’ I said through panting breaths.

‘We can’t risk it,’ Marietta said.‘The archers will be waiting to strike again.The best chance anyone has is to stay hidden.You can’t die here.’

‘My life isn’t worth more than theirs.’

‘Yes, it is.’There was no room for argument in her voice.‘Solas doesn’t want you dead, he wants your power.That gives us leverage.If you want to save them, that’s how you do it.’

‘You think I should offer myself to Solas?How long do you think that would really hold him off?’I asked.Did it matter?What would Tarian do if I went with Solas a second time?What would he do if he knew it was against my will?

Was this the choice I had to make?Risk the lives of the lesser fae rebels or Tarian?

‘Not exactly.But we can buy ourselves some time to think of a better plan.’

Was there a better plan?No matter how I thought about it, I kept coming back to the same conclusion.We were outnumbered, we’d suffered losses already, and we had a vulnerability the High Fae didn’t—we had women and children locked beneath the ground.What if they couldn’t get out?

Silence fell around us, eerily stretching across the plain.A nervous energy began to buzz through my body as I listened for anything besides the groans of pain coming from the injured lessers we couldn’t reach.