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CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

TZAIN

T IME STANDS STILL.

Everything I know dissolves at once. The strength I’ve fought to build evaporates, cut off from its guiding source.

Zélie’s silhouette hangs suspended as she stabs the bone into her own heart. Blood leaks from her chest in ribbons. Her silver eyes bulge as she chokes.

I failed you.…

All the air in the world evaporates. In a heartbeat, my entire being shifts. I hear the laugh I’ll never hear again. I see the day Zélie was first born, the purple blanket Mama wrapped her body in.

The moment Mama first placed her in my hands, I didn’t know what to feel. Then Zélie grabbed the collar of my shirt. Her tiny nose wrinkled as she pulled me close. I pressed my forehead against hers and looked into her silver eyes.

I didn’t know one day she would become home.

But now…

A cavern opens up inside me. Shame rips at what remains of my heart. All the vows I made to protect her crumble into dust.

My little sister is gone.

The lightning that rages around Zélie’s body flares out of control. A giant charge emanates from her medallion as her body falls limp. The blast strikes King Baldyr square in the chest.

“ Vernie Foeur Stormanna! ” a Skull yells from the crowd.

Baldyr howls with the pain. His arms fly back from the force. The threads of magic swirling around him come to an abrupt end. The king’s mutilated body hangs suspended between god and man.

More yells echo as the ritual falls short. Confusion spreads through the masses below. Baldyr twists through the air, plummeting into the sea of Skulls.

With Baldyr down, Zélie and Mae’e fall to the altar. Their bodies roll against the hard stone. The ring of fire around them dissipates. The fur-clad galdrasmiear descend.

“Leave her alone!” I scream. I snap Nailah’s reins. My lionaire gallops as fast as she can. Amari and Inan hold tight behind me as we race.

Nailah leaps from ledge to ledge, bridging the space between us and the altar. Troops of vineweavers flank past us. They use their rolling vines to catapult themselves through the air.

A group of Baldyr’s galdrasmiear walks into our path. The rectangular runes on their masks start to glow. With one swift arc, Amari drives her obsidian blade across each galdrasmier ’s chest. Crimson splatters at our feet as Nailah makes her final leap.

When we land on the mountaintop, I jump from Nailah. I fall to my knees, taking my sister in my arms. Her silver eyes hang open. Her body grows colder by the second.

Even as I hold her, it doesn’t feel real. I put my hand over the wound in her heart. Her warm blood coats my fingertips. I pull Zélie to my chest.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her white hair. I feel every single person I’ve lost.

Mama.

Baba.

Zélie.

I have no one left.

Inan stands over me. He can’t bring himself to speak. Around the altar, the battle rages. The Skulls fight to recover the girls. Their vicious yells ring as they charge. The Green Maidens enclose us in a circle of spinning vines. The warriors who try to get through are flung off the mountain.

Within the circle, Amari runs forward. She shuts her eyes and raises her hands. Blue light pours from her palms in waves, bringing the remaining galdrasmiear to their knees. But more Skulls race through the caves with every passing second. Far too many for us to fight.

“We have to go!” Amari shouts at me.

Though everything feels numb, I force myself to rise. I clutch Zélie in my arms and return to Nailah, pulling myself up to her saddle. Inan and Amari follow, both lifting Mae’e’s body up.

With a unified twist of their arms, the Green Maidens expel the circle of vines. They clear the way for us to run.

We ride away from Baldyr and his army of Skulls, scaling back down the mountain rock.