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“We’ll need to test the earth fire on sea water as well as flesh and scale.”

Nix shuddered, her tail whipping the blooms off a salt cedar.

“Way to ruin the mood.” Vahly pinched his side. She reached over his arm to pat Kyril before the gryphon loped to a bunch of grass, where he crouched to hunt some small simplebeast.

“Nothing can ruin this.” Arc smiled, his gaze pulling Vahly’s attention to him.

She had the urge to kiss him right then and there, to press her mouth on his and celebrate this new magic in the best way.

Fire blazed where Nix had stood, and suddenly, she was in her human-like form.

Vahly started to pull away from Arc, but his hold on her body tightened as if in request. Vahly swallowed as Arc’s chest moved against her in a heavy breath.

Nix waved her fingers over her shoulder as she walked away. “I’m going to grab my backup dress while you two take a moment. We created some grand power between us.” She disappeared into their cave.

Towering above Vahly and Arc, Kyril tugged a strand of Vahly’s hair, his wide eyes pleading. She pressed her palm against his beak, and he cooed. He narrowed his eagle eyes at Arc as if in warning, then turned and followed Nix.

The ocean crashed in the distance, and the chirp of distura birds filled the air.

Arc’s tree sap scent tantalized Vahly’s nose. The sweep of his hand down her spine heated her better than any fire.

“If you keep that up, elf, I might burst into flames right here. Then where would you be?”

He raised an eyebrow and whispered against her forehead, his breath hot. “So you wish for me to stop?”

Goosebumps ravaged Vahly’s arms and sides. “I suppose I could tolerate it for a few minutes. Though you know we have work to do.”

His fingers slid into her hair and mussed the already falling braid.

The touch of his fingers turned her joints to pudding, and she fought to retain an ounce of dignity, not certain if he felt as strongly as she did.

Perhaps this was just a nice bit of fun for him.

It was not so for Vahly. Arcturus, royal elf and alchemist, had become her dear friend.

Her confidante. The face she longed to see first each sunrise.

“What is it?” Arc smiled and brushed a thumb over her cheekbone.

“I just realized I’m rather fond of you.”

“Just now? I puzzled that out weeks ago.”

Vahly nipped Arc’s neck. “Don’t forget who is alpha over here.”

He laughed. “Never, my queen.”

His eyes grew serious, the flirtatious gleam fleeing as he pressed one hand against his own heart. It was as if a chill raked him, and for a moment, he paled.

Vahly gripped his surcoat, the cloth bunching. What was happening? “Arcturus?”

He took one of her hands, opened her palm, and traced a symbol there. Magic billowed in smoky plumes of amethyst, lapis lazuli, citrine, and gold.

“Take this spell, Vahly of the Earth. If you use it, it will die, but you will live.”

The magic hovered over her palm like a whirlwind. “What is this?” Golden flecks dazzled her eyes with their intensity. Although the spell floated, it weighed down her hand like a sack of coin.

Arc pressed her hands together between his own.

The magical whirlwind disappeared between her palms. “If you’re in dire need, if your death shows its face, do the following, and know you will live.

” He stepped back, put his palms together, then breathed into them.

“You must focus on this moment and what the magic looked like to you before it faded. Then the spell will give you your life back.”

“This is too much. Is this hurting you in some way? You went white as a moon moth when you gathered the energy to cast this. I’m not going to use a spell that can hurt you.”

With a hand, he slapped his chest once. “You can see that I’m hale and healthy. No harm to me, my queen. It is a difficult spell. That is all.”

She sighed. “Thank you, Arc. Truly.” She poked him in the ribs. “So I’m pretty much immortal now, hmm?” She wiggled her eyebrows. Earth Queens were known to live a very long time regardless, and with this spell…

He grinned. “Unfortunately not. This spell will only work once. And it doesn’t always function correctly. You merely took a year from my life.”

Vahly’s heart seized. She reached for him, then fisted her shaking hand. “Take it back. I can’t accept that. Take it back. That’s a command. From your queen.”

“Apologies.” Arc bowed his head. “The spell cannot be undone. I have had many years. I’ll have many more, if our plans go well. If not, one year will make no difference.”

Vahly’s chin dropped, and she stared at Kyril’s huge paw print in the sandy dirt beside Arc’s black boots. Heart swelling, brightening, she met Arc’s gaze. “I’m a smuggler, a liar, a gambler, and at times, a thief. Nonetheless, the Source has rewarded me with you.”

“The Blackwater weighed your soul. You are balanced.”

Vahly shrugged. “You could come up with a better line than that, couldn’t you?” She huffed. “ Balanced .”

Arc’s fingers danced down the side of her neck. Her pulse ticked faster and faster. “Perhaps I should simply show you how I feel.” His half-lidded eyes studied her face, his gaze like a touch on her lips, her ear, the hollow of her throat.

Kyril and Nix emerged from the cave with supplies.

Nix’s bag dropped to the ground. She shrieked—frozen in terror.

The world tilted.

Arc flew backward, struck by an unseen force.

Kyril galloped toward them.

Before Vahly could even turn to look, arms grabbed her from behind and a cold spear’s edge bit her neck and the salty, sour smell of the ocean swamped her nose.

Holding the Earth Queen tightly, Ryton angled the spear just under her chin. With one move, one small jab of that sharp steel across her artery, she would be dead, and the war would be over. The dragons could never win without her. Astraea was too powerful.

But then Ryton’s gaze drifted over the Earth Queen’s messy braid and Selene’s voice pierced his mind. A memory of her at eight years of age gripped him. Selene’s hair had been braided just like this, chaotic and drifting around her ears.

Memories assaulted him.

“I want to try out the dragon language on dragons,” young Selene had said long ago, her chin raised defiantly at Ryton. “It would be a real test of what I can do.”

He had gone to his knee and grabbed her little arms, panic lashing his heart like a stingray’s tail.

“Never. They’re murderous beasts. Filthy and vicious.

Their only true passion is to spill our blood.

Are your tutors not explaining the truth to you properly?

Perhaps we need to visit and remind them of their duty. ”

Selene kissed his nose with her tiny lips, then pulled away, a spark in her eyes. “I’m not afraid. And if I could talk to them, maybe they would be nice. You don’t know. You never tried.”

“Many have tried. And were burned to death for their efforts.”

“That was a long time ago. Now is now,” she had said with all the ignorance and optimism of youth.

And here Ryton was in the present, with Selene dead and her optimism gone with her.

When Ryton slayed this Earth Queen, there would never be another chance for talking as Selene had first wanted to do as a youngling.

It would be over. Astraea would reign, and everything here on land—the elves, the small simplebeasts, the mountains and trees—it would all be drowned forever. Gone.

Ryton’s killing blow waited.

He could do it now. Return a hero.

Or he could wait.

Just a while. And try to talk to others about the possibilities here, the finality of the whole thing.

It would not hurt to pause, to consider.

He would take her prisoner. Maybe he would kill her tonight. Maybe not.

Arms clenched around the Earth Queen, he leapt backward.

As Vahly was lifted and went soaring over the cliff’s edge, she saw three things: Arc’s magic flaring, sun-bright and shadowed, chasing them; Nix’s dragonfire rippling in time with the ocean’s crash; Kyril wailing and taking to the sky.

And then the sea swallowed Vahly and her captor whole, and she knew no more.