Page 50

LYSANDER

E zra is asleep on my chest. I smooth dark strands of hair off his forehead, my heart full.

Plato and Lilian lounge next to us, chatting about Lilian’s family.

Orion and Felix are showing Larch how to play some human game that involves catching and throwing a flying disc.

One of my pink books lies abandoned in Ezra’s hand and a faint snore sneaks out of him.

It’s the perfect moment.

As the shadows lengthen, I start to get antsy. I should wake Ezra, but I long to hold onto this peace for just a few more minutes. Tension creeps into the others as well — Plato pretends to be relaxed, but his shoulders tighten as the conversation dies off.

“It’s almost time,” I murmur.

Plato nods shortly. Lilian sits up, the orange light glinting off her glasses.

“I still think you should leave,” I tell them.

“Ezra would kill me for leaving you alone.” Plato’s dark eyes are fierce. “We stand by you. That was the plan. More of us means more magic, and that’s what they want.”

“If you get hurt —”

My cellphone pings loudly and I jolt, scrambling to open it.

They’re here.

I meet Plato’s eyes. “They’re here already. We were supposed to have more time.”

He gets up and heads across the clearing, signaling to Orion.

Lilian inches closer. “Is it happening?”

“Yes.” I’m torn — putting a wildling in danger goes against my very instincts, but it was her choice to stay. Instead of revisiting my worries, I shake Ezra awake. “Ezra. You have to take Felix and go.”

He groans, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. What time is it?” He looks around. “Shit, Lys, we need to get you out of here. It’s almost dark.”

“Get Felix,” I tell him. “Go to the truck.”

“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.” He gets to his feet, pulling me along with him. “What’s the matter? C’mon, I’ll drive you home.”

“It’s too late.” Orion appears out of nowhere.

“If they hurry—“ I protest.

“There’s no time! We need to get to the pool house.”

“What’s going on? Are the Watchers coming?” Ezra looks around. “Where’s Fitzie?”

Felix’s sharp exclamation slices through the clearing. “What the fuck are those?”

I don’t even have to turn and look to know, but I do. No — not with Ezra still here.

Orion hisses a curse. A shudder rolls up my spine.

Azeroths.

Not just one or two — a mass. Moving like one entity, they stream through the trees at the far end of the field.

Orion grabs the knife Ezra used to cut the cake and yanks his amulet off. Shadows burst out of the illusion like billows of smoke, filling the clearing. The knife lengthens into a shadowed blade. Orion’s inner fire ripples down its edge.

“To the pool house, now, ” he booms, his voice expanding with his shadows to fill the entire clearing. Felix’s choked gasp sounds somewhere off to the side.

“We need to get Lysander to safety!” Ezra says.

I seize his shoulder. “You have to go! Get out of here.” This wasn’t the plan. I left it too late. I’d just wanted him to have one good day in case everything blew up in my face, but he was never supposed to be in danger.

“No way in hell I’m leaving you,” Ezra growls. His gaze slices across my face briefly, and the fierce protectiveness in his eyes sucks the air out of my lungs. The next second Plato is ushering us up the hill.

“This way.” He sweeps up the bags from the picnic table. “Quick!”

The world spins as Ezra lifts me like I weigh nothing, and I grab onto his shoulders. “I can walk!”

He ignores me.

Orion’s wall of shadow hides the azeroths from sight as we climb the hill. The pool is locked, but Plato snaps the lock easily with a jerk of his shoulder and ushers us into the fenced-off area.

“Inside,” he grunts.

“What the fuck is going on?” Felix demands, bouncing on his toes, the current of fear obvious below his brash tone.

“Those are the guys who’re after Lysander.” Ezra sets me on my feet and looks around. “We’re trapped.”

The pool lights come on behind him. Three familiar figures emerge from the water, dressed in sleek battle gear. Water streams from their long, dark hair.

“ Belle ?”

Sleek interlocking plates made of hard, shiny scales cover them from the neck down. They each carry a spear whose tip glows blue — even Belle.

She gives Ezra a tiny salute. “Human.”

“Not trapped,” says someone behind us, and my heart begins to pound. Owyn Maddox steps through the gate, his glasses glinting blue. “Bait.”

A fairy comes through the gate behind him.

Only Ezra’s arms keep me upright when I see her.

Her face is almost as familiar as the one I see in the mirror every day.

Her long, corn-silk hair is bound up in a braid at her crown, impeccable and practical.

Her wings are like mine, but a deeper, richer color, shimmering with fairy dust in the light from the pool.

“Oh my god.” Felix’s whispered hiss reaches my ears.

Ezra looks between Maddox and I. “You’re using yourselves as bait for the azeroths? Are you guys nuts?”

“Get into the pool house, all of you,” My sister commands. “Ann and her sisters will protect you. Quickly!”

I don’t have a choice but to do as she says.

Inside the pool house is dark, and furniture clatters underfoot.

I turn to catch one last glimpse of the scene, and I see Ann, Daphne and Belle surrounding the building.

Beyond them, my sister’s wings lengthen and thorns sprout from her claws as she summons her ur-form.

Then the door slams shut, closing us inside.

“Tell me what’s happening,” Ezra growls.

“It was my plan.” I was a lot braver when I proposed it.

Now I’m shaking hard enough to shed my wings.

“Ann told me they needed to get all the remaining azeroths in one place, and Maddox agreed that using me to lure them in was the best way. Then Orion caught wind, and everyone got involved before I could stop them. I didn’t mean to put you or Felix in danger. You were meant to leave.”

“There’s no chance I would’ve left.” He runs a hand over his hair. “Was that your sister?”

“Yes,” I breathe.

Felix raises his hand. “I don’t know what’s going on, but if Ez is involved then so am I.”

“I’ll have a word or two for Maddox after this,” Ezra bites out.

“If we survive,” says Lilian.

“We’re not going to get killed. Orion and Maddox know what they’re doing.” Plato moves the plastic furniture away from the window. “Besides, none of us were about to leave you to face this alone.”

My throat tightens. Even Lilian gives a wide-eyed nod.

Plato cracks the curtain. “They’re here.”

The hairs on my arms stand up. I pull away from Ezra. I need to see.

Orion’s shadows surround the pool house, hiding the park from view. Figures move inside his shadows, through them, reaching the fence and beginning to climb. My stomach turns. I look away, a hand over my mouth.

“It’s gonna be fine,” Plato murmurs.

“How do you know?” I gasp.

“Orion told me. Just watch.”

I force myself to look again. My sister climbs the ladder of the diving board, the thorns of her ur-form gleaming. She looks fierce — but frighteningly small. A single figure, alone.

Maddox stands at the bottom of the ladder.

Even from here I can make out the pinched worry on his face.

The first azeroths make it over the fence before Elsabeth reaches the top, and the fear that seizes me is unparalleled.

I thought I’d been afraid before, but this is jolting, sinking its claws into me, shredding my insides.

My breath flees. Ezra comes up behind me, leaning in to see, and when his hand finds mine I grip it so tightly he grunts.

The azeroths hurtle toward Maddox and my sister.

Maddox is completely unarmed, but he doesn’t run.

And as they reach him, something explodes into being between him and them.

The azeroths rear back as the towering figure’s dark wings snap open and a gleaming whip materializes.

The whip slices past them with a crack that makes me jump. They scatter.

“That’s a night-terror ,” Plato hisses. “What the fuck?”

“It’s the Watcher.” Everyone turns to Ezra in surprise. “The fucker who showed up at Maddox’s office. The one in charge. It’s him.”

“Jesus,” Felix breathes. “Is this what you guys see all the time?”

Ezra’s right. It’s the same Watcher as before, only this time he’s ready for battle. The Watcher shields Maddox with his body, staying between him and the azeroths. I don’t get the sense he’s protecting Maddox simply because Maddox is a human.

Elsabeth reaches the top of the tower. Below, the gate flies open. The azeroths outnumber us now. They stagger toward the gate house, only to be stopped in their tracks by flashes of blue. The riiga drive them back, their spears more deadly to the azeroths than even the Watcher’s whip.

A normal weapon can’t kill them, but Ann’s potion can.

The riigan sisters alternate, one taking on an azeroth, then another. Those that are hit, crumple.

They catch on quickly. The fairy inside the pool house is guarded by deadly riigan weapons.

The fairy on the diving board… is not.

Almost as one, they turn toward the pool.

“What’s the plan?” Ezra hisses.

Plato speaks up. “Maddox has dragonstone doctored with a riigan potion.”

Lilian’s hand goes to her mouth. “What will happen to Her Highness?”

“She’s jumping!” Felix yelps.

I straighten just in time to see Elsabeth spring from the board, and my heart stops. She enters the water seamlessly, disappearing from view. The azeroths leap after her, their hideous faces illuminated by the pool light. A strange thought strikes me.

They’re as desperate as us .

Without fairy magic, their unnaturally prolonged lives will be over. And there are only so many fairies left after they hunted us to near extinction. Their own greed has been their downfall.

Ezra’s hand tightens on my shoulders. “Lys,” he whispers. I realize my fingers have turned to claws and the windowsill is splintering under them. Thorns gleam on my knuckles. Maddox is climbing the ladder now, and I can’t see into the pool, everything a mass of churning, glowing water.

Where’s Elsabeth?

Maddox scrambles to the end of the board, holding something aloft — a craggy chunk of stone that flashes like a torch in the dusk. It’s about the size of a dragon’s fist. He heaves it into the water. It winks a brilliant blue on the way down.

Elsabeth breaches the surface. She bursts into the night air, wings propelling her upward. Crooked, patchwork hands thrust after her, but the azeroths are too slow. The dragonstone slams into the water. Everything goes blue, the color of the sky, the color of a fairy’s eyes, then white.

I shield my eyes. Thunder rattles the pool house and the window shatters inward.

The force of the explosion slams into me and steals the air from my lungs.

I’m flying, tumbling into the plastic furniture, scrabbling for purchase as I stumble to my feet.

Shouts ring through the aftermath. When I can see again, we’ve been exposed — the explosion tore the whole side of the pool house open.

At first there’s only dust and debris fogging the air.

Ezra .

Relief pulses through my muscles when he slowly gets to his feet in front of me.

His eyes find mine. Beyond him, a figure staggers toward the pool house.

The sigil on its robe is cracked and dim, but its burning eyes are desperate.

It happens quickly. The azeroth reaches for Ezra with a wordless snarl.

I lunge. My ears are already ringing, my blood sizzling, my ur-form bursting out of my skin. My anger explodes out of me with it.

The azeroth lurches at me. Instead of running, something breaks in me.

They stole everything — my family, my home, my freedom. Now they want my magic, and it doesn’t matter to them who they kill to get it. Once I’m gone, they’ll go after Elsabeth. Then my people. When will it end?

I thought I was still a coward, unable to see past my own fears. I’m not. I’m scared, but I won’t let it stop me anymore.

I’ll give the azeroth what it came for and more.

A noise I don’t recognize tears from my throat. I attack, momentary satisfaction ripping through me as my claws sink into flesh. Then a sick tug in my gut makes me heave as the sigil squeezes some of my magic free. I stumble backward. The azeroth cackles in triumph, pressing forward.

“Lysander, get back!” Ezra tries to tug me away, but I’m done running and hiding.

I dart forward. The patchwork face twists in sudden fear and the azeroth puts its arms up in defense. That only infuriates me. Everything the azeroth is, it stole from other monsters. My claws slice through its ragged flesh again and again.

Every blow makes me weaker, my head fogging as my magic wicks away. Confusing voices assault me from all angles. I lash out at them, too, trying to clear the debris. Trying to finish my enemy.

Something restrains me. I don’t have the strength to rip free, no matter how hard I struggle.

Blue fire erupts out of the azeroth’s chest before my eyes, and I snarl in frustration.

Thwarted! The loathsome creature howls, claws curling around the spear that stands out from its body.

Other monsters’ faces flit by. Proud minotaurs.

Kind fauns. Haunting sirens. Blurring, melting together. Finally free. My knees waver.

The voices rise.

The azeroth’s disguise of many monsters sloughs away, revealing nothing but dust.

Everything goes dark.