Page 1 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

Chapter

One

Get back, Ashlyn. This betrayer will be purged.

The words slammed into my skull, not like the velvet purr I was used to from Siergen, but something colder, commanding, ancient.

Siergen. How did you…

I hadn’t even heard him arrive. How the hell had he gotten past both Solei and me? We were trained. Alert. Ready.

Solei lunged before I could react, her dagger a silver flash aimed for his throat.

A burst of fire erupted from his mouth as he snarled.

It slammed into her mid-strike, sending her flying backward. She hit the stone wall with a sickening thud and slumped to the ground. Smoke curled from her singed leathers.

The shock in her wide blue eyes was unmistakable.

She hadn’t missed a mark since she was fourteen.

Rage and disbelief warred inside me. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Solei, the woman who trained me to fight, who taught me the hand signs of the Order, who told me never to say “I love you” unless I meant it with my last breath, lay dazed and burned on the ground.

Siergen stepped from the shadows like a nightmare with wings. He seemed bigger, and his scales glinted like shimmering blood under the moonlight. His scaled throat expanded again, a rumble building there. But it wasn’t the fire I feared now.

It was his voice inside my head.

Move away from the betrayer.

I staggered backward a step, bile rising in my throat.

Betrayer?

My heart rebelled, clawing against my ribcage. She helped raise me. She protected me. She had accepted me as a sister. How could she be?—

I would never trust her, but I still loved her.

I screamed, the words bursting from my chest before I could think. “No. Don’t hurt her!”

His massive golden eyes turned toward me, slitted pupils narrowing.

I didn’t run. I didn’t bow. I didn’t flinch.

I stood in front of Solei’s crumpled body, with my hands outstretched in front of me.

And prayed he wouldn’t make me choose.

Solei groaned as she pushed herself up on one knee, wincing against the pain. Ash streaked her cheekbone and her braid had come partially undone, but her gaze was clear, sharp as ever.

“You spared my life.” Her voice was quiet. Almost shocked.

I swallowed hard, the heat of Siergen’s body beside me grounding me more than comforting. “I love you, Solei,” I said, meaning it more than I ever had, “but if you ever come back here without an invitation… the dragons will kill you.”

She stood fully now, spine straight despite the pain. “I owe you a life debt. I will never come for you again.”

“I know.” My throat tightened. “But Cyran will send someone else.”

Her gaze flicked to Siergen, who clicked his talons against the stone, sharp, deliberate. The sound echoed, like a warning.