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We emerged on a pitch-dark cliff this time, the purple-and-orange glow at the western horizon the only source of light. Four steps away from us, the world seemed to end in nothingness as the jagged edges of stone broke off sharply towards the sea. Below, waves roared against the rocks with that loud, primal force that broke ships and pulled men into its depths, never to be seen again.

‘What are youdoing?’ I hissed as quietly as I could while still being audible over the noise. I didn’t seem able to look away from the edge.

‘We can speak here,’ Beyla said, although her eerily thin voice wasn’t much louder. ‘This is the other side of the Cobalt Court. Thank Orin’s merciful heart that I took the time to climb the cliff last time I visited the island – don’t know what we would have done if I hadn't been able to fade here.’

I threw a glance at the cliff and swallowed, suppressing the urge to step away from it as I turned around. On the other side, both majestic and broken in the starlight, the Cobalt Court rose from the rocky ground, the walls on this side of the castle still mostly standing. Five feet away, the shield shimmered silvery between me and the bindings – between me and the lives of my friends.

‘Right,’ I said, drawing in a deep breath to steady myself. Thysandra’s voice still echoed in my ears –Your surrender …Would she have surprised us so easily if we had not all been thoroughly occupied with untangling our messy love lives? ‘Let me make sure I understand your plan. We try to break through the shield here, get rid of the fae who’s waiting for their sign to destroy the bindings, then take down Thysandra and the others?’

‘That sounds like a plan, yes.’ No matter how much she may have disagreed with me all day, there was no trace of annoyance on her face now – only calm, ruthless resolve. ‘Creon seemed to think you could get inside.’

‘I’ve managed with an apple.’ My voice was a hair’s breadth away from cracking. ‘Not with any living creatures, let alone two.’

Alyra pecked at my ear with a furious squeak.

‘Oh, fuck – three.’ I shook her from my shoulder and glared at her as she flapped into the air. ‘But you’ll have to promise me you’ll beextremelyquiet. If I hear so much as a single squeak from you to warn that bastard with the key, I’ll … I’ll …’

‘Pluck you like a soup chicken?’ Beyla suggested without a spark of humour in her eyes.

‘Find someone with larger wings to accompany me on future adventures,’ I finished instead, to be rewarded with a quiet squeak of outrage. ‘Do you understand?’

Alyra grumpily fluttered back onto my shoulder and pointedly jutted her closed beak into the air.

‘Good.’ I rubbed my left hand over the velvet of my dress as I stepped closer to the shield.Softness for movement.Thank the gods for Creon’s presence of mind, providing me with that extra source of magic the moment our opponents appeared ready for battle. But it was only a single dress, and I would not be able to restore the plush surface myself …

One attempt. No time to mess this up.

‘Stay just behind me,’ I muttered to Beyla, lifting my right hand. ‘I’ll try to get us both through the shield. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to return to our luggage and get every woollen piece of clothing we can find for another try.’

She nodded, face nearly as pale as her silvery braids. ‘Understood.’

I closed my eyes and thought about apples.

Thought about the magic I’d woven around their blushing surface that afternoon, in what seemed to have been another world entirely – Creon by my side, laughing and joking, as if he wouldn’t tell me half an hour later that he was over and done with my waffling. Thought about motionlessness, a magic trick to fool the shield into believing we weren’t moving through it at all.Stillness, stillness, stillness…

Power trickled up my arm, drawn from the lush velvet of my dress, seeping from the fingertips of my right hand as I drew the magic around me.

I stepped forward and met no resistance.

Another step. Another flow of magic. Iwasthe key now – I was moving immobility, not so much breaking through the wall but rather oozing in, as invisible to the shield as it was for those around me … One more step, and a deafening silence closed around me, as if the thunderous sea and the whispering breeze had all at once ceased to exist.

At the same moment, the magic dried up beneath my fingers.

I staggered forward and tore open my eyes, barely able to believe what I had done. Before me, the wild gardens of the Cobalt Court stretched out, no shield left between me and the crumbling walls of the castle. Behind me, a thin, silvery dome rose all the way overhead to cover the granite ruins of the court on all sides.

And Beyla stood on its other side.

No!

I almost cried out her name, then recalled just in time I’d threatened Alyra over the same mistake and snapped my mouth shut. In the pressing silence beneath the dome, the slap of teeth on teeth reverberated jarringly loudly.

A single glance down confirmed what I’d feared – the softness of my dress had been exhausted.

It took an effort to keep down a string of curses. Beyla’s lips were moving on the other side, but not a sound came through, and I could only read loose words from the shape of her mouth.Reach you. Too fast. Alone.

Alone.

In a spur of inspiration, I raised my right hand and formed the familiar shapes with my fingers, much more slowly than Creon by lack of practice.I can’t hear you through the shield.