Page 58 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

As we had planned, Tomás, Fenix, and Tana pushed their chairs back and stood. They approached Francie and the guard, and the former hissed at them, seeing them as another threat. Meline and the Queen entered another staredown, and even the mountains watched. Waited.

My queen slid the bracelet, deftly avoiding the platters between she and Queen Sarya, until it landed right before her.

At the same time, the Queen nodded, and the guard holding Francie stepped back, allowing for Fenix, Tomás, and Tana to take each of her arms. She bucked, snapping her jaws, kicking her feet and screaming.

Tana did not have her magic here, something the Folk may have suspected but we did not mention, but her knowledge of the body was more than sufficient for her to stand behind Francie and press harshly against the side of her neck.

Where the large vein delivering blood between head and body ran thickly.

A few seconds, and she slumped between my brother and the Vyrkos, head lolling back into the cradle of Tana’s palms.

“Well. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, and we appreciate your hospitality. We will be going, now.”

And, really, we had hoped but not trusted our departure would be that simple, which was confirmed by the delighted grin of the Queen of Pyrestan. The satisfaction on her children’s faces. “I did not say you could leave, Raouga Em.”

“Well.” Meline adjusted the cuffs of her blouse, where I knew she had two knives hidden.

It was also our signal for this version of our plan.

Fleeing through the trees. “There are many who call me a queen where I am from. Certainly, you must understand that queens do not take orders from anyone, especially not lying, cannibalistic hags such as yourself. So, if you’ll excuse us. ”

When she stood, the guards inched closer. More entered through the open door. I felt the faint gathering of Death beside me. But if what I had access to was similar to her, it would not be enough.

Before coming to the palace, we’d each snuck off on our own, as best we could, and hidden our packs in the forest beyond the bridge.

The guards had watched us, absolutely reporting our movements back to their queen.

Perhaps they were still there, in the hiding location I’d chosen as the first to go. Perhaps not.

I assessed the guards again, in a flick of a glance and decided to deviate from our plan. To give us more of a chance of escaping with everyone’s lives.

I rose swiftly, rounded the table, and grabbed the Prince of Pyrestan.

The only change in Sarya’s demeanor belying her confidence was the tightening of lips.

But more of my focus was on the Prince in my hold.

His hair in my fist and throat against the tip of my dagger.

He thrashed, trying to maneuver away, but a trained Shadow, he was not.

I sliced through the membrane of one of his wings, shredding it to the sound of his high-pitched wailing.

Without my needing to command them, the others inched toward the window while I had the attention of the room. Meline faced the Queen and her children who were standing, their knives and glowing palms at the ready.

Slowly, I began to walk toward Tom, Fenix, Tana, and Francie. The Prince was digging his heels in while bleeding all over my leathers. Only the Queen’s raised hand kept her children and Captain of the Guard from attacking with their magic and weapons.

Blackwood was still sitting at the table, mouth open and eyes bulging.

“Should we make another deal, Sarya? Our safe passage to our realm for the life of your child? He is the heir apparent, is he not?” He was the one who’d been sitting closest to her in the throne room, so it was an assumption.

One that appeared correct. No one but me and the Prince moved, until we were with the others.

“You understand my new aversion to making deals with Raouga.”

“Are you also opposed to the death of your eldest?” I sliced another length of his wing, but his cry of protest was noticeably fainter.

Leaning against the table, murky stare on all of us, the queen smiled. Slow, slight. “Walter Blackwood, you will stay here,” she commanded at just the moment he tried to stand. His body threw back into his seat, struggling against an invisible force.

“What is the meaning of this?” He rattled the wood, making it groan.

“You would not survive leaving Tyrgard, anyway. My people have told me how much of our food and drink you’ve enjoyed. I’ll decide what to do with you later.”

Only Meline and I remained in the royal dining room, our companions already having escaped through the window and running across the grounds, toward the bridge.

Sarya’s shut her eyes, becoming a vision of serenity with her silk gown, beads, and jewels. Meline surreptitiously pushed me toward the window first, and I reached the edge, ready to jump to the trees below with the Prince fighting unconsciousness in my arms.

“I suggest you run quickly, Raouga.”

And she whistled.

High, sustained, and echoing across the forest, the valley, and the mountain.

Meline and I crashed through the leaves and branches awaiting below, and our feet had barely met the ground before we were running with all the Lylithan speed we possessed.

Our paced breaths and the whoosh of the wood around us was not loud enough to drown the piercing, shrill call that seemed to fill the whole realm.

I winced as I ran, carrying the bleeding prince with my queen keeping step beside me. We dodged thick foliage, leapt over anything in our path, and closed the distance between us and our companions.

“We can’t get through!” Tana shouted as we neared, standing before nothing but unable to pass all the same. Like the unseen barrier between the flying Folk outside and the throne room, I wagered another guess and crossed the barrier with the Prince.

“Keep contact with him, and we will cross.”

Quickly, we did just that, ears popping as we crossed a similar magic to the one that skirted around the Shadow Well. To keep intruders out of the palace grounds.

Another shriek cut through the land, now louder, closer, and we wasted no time, legs pumping as we circumvented the city.

Her lights shone through the trees as pinpricks of white, but we kept our focus on the bridge.

The howl of wind, in the valley between Pyrestan and the wood housing the entrance to our world.

A wall like rocks and pearls awaited us when we finally broke through onto the cliffside, a few yards away from the bridge.

The guards in armor of grays and whites leveled their weapons, and I heard the drawing of bowstrings, arrows aimed at us.

I could not hold another weapon with the Prince still in my grip, our only means of bargaining out of this place, but the others were ready.

As a trained fighter, Tom’s shamshir reflected the light of the gargantuan moon above as he started cutting down those who charged. My brother immediately pushed himself into battle, cutting through armor and flesh as fluidly as air.

Tana, who balanced her staff between both her hands, moved with expert quickness, whipping away weapons and batting down guards for Tomás to finish them off. And Fenix, with no formal training but speed and strength on his side, carried Francie between them, avoiding blows and keeping her safe.

My queen and I fought, back to back with our weapons and nothing else. The prince did not try to escape me, too shocked by the shredding of his wings to flee, but his howls of pain and outrage joined the battle cries. The clanging of steel against steel.

But we were four fighters amongst an army of immortals just as strong, just as equipped.

The scent of Lylithan blood began to mix with that of Folk’s, but I had not the time to worry which of us was injured.

We tried to press closer to the bridge, to avoid the arrows raining down, but as one grazed my side and a sword nicked my arm, I had the clear, sobering thought that we may not make out of this alive.

With no access to my Flames, Tana without her magic, and my queen?—

I had looked to her—to help, to savor—and I witnessed Meline take a pointed breath, just one. In the space of time, between inhale and exhale, our eyes said more than we ever could with words. We will fight. We will get Francie to her mate. I’ve got you .

A third, final shriek sounded above the treetops, and my queen and I broke our stare to find a?—

A monster. One with wings impossibly large, flying with Queen Sarya grinning wildly on its back.

I may have been imagining the Queen’s laughter, but what was assuredly real was the bird larger than what should have been possible. Its wings were extended, broad and straight and faintly blue under the black sky.

We did not wait for it to move any closer. We’d no choice but to continue fighting the guards, to try our best to cross the bridge, and to retreat under the cover of trees on the other side. The only advantage, it seemed, was that this bird seemed no faster than its more natural counterparts.

A pained yelp reached my awareness, one in Tana’s voice, and after sinking my blade into the throat of a guard, just between helmet and breastplate, the hair on the back of my neck quivered. Chilled.

Again, I glanced to Meline, but now, my queen had stopped fighting. I watched, terrified, as she lowered her blades and cast a disdainful glare to the sky. With flicks of her wrists, she sheathed her daggers at her belt, raised her arms, and screamed.

She did not have enough, she could not have , but somehow, she scraped the bottom of her well of power, sending out snaking ivy of Death, a tangle that smelled of cool, quieting decay.

She parted the guards, as if stroking expertly through an ocean wave. And more strands of her power shot behind us, upward to the archers tasked with taking us down from above. Bodies thudded as they fell to the ground, some flying over the edge of the cliff into the pure darkness awaiting.

The others reacted immediately. Fenix, as inexperienced as he was, took his task to heart, darting fearlessly with Francie in his arms, making it over the bridge with Tana behind to protect them.

Tomás and me took the opening my queen provided, and I tried my best to not think of the swaying wood beneath my boots.

I looked over my shoulder when Tom made it to the other side where Fenix and Tana waited for my queen and I to cross. Not leaving us.

I’d no time to celebrate my own reunion with steady ground, turning already to ensure Meline was truly behind me.

And she was, but.

She was stopped, less than ten paces from me and facing the white bird, large enough to carry the giant elephants of Banfas in its talons. The Queen cackled, hair flying behind her with no regard for her fallen guards. Her attention was on my queen.

“Meline!” I bellowed. Why was she not coming? Why was she not running with us?

Tana shouted her name as well, begging her to come, but my queen. My queen, she risked one look over her shoulder. Her curls shifted with the breeze, calm like the sigh of the Mother, content in the cycle of lives beginning and ending. As they always had.

Blood trailed from her nostrils, painting her lips a bright red, and my heart stopped. It stopped as Meline looked at me, wordlessly telling me—us—to go.

And my heart shattered as she turned away, black shadows churning around her hands she was now raising toward Queen Sarya diving for her.

No .

The giant bird of prey flexed its talons, opened its beak to reveal rows and rows of sharpened teeth, and I ran away from the forest. I ran toward my queen, and my brother’s familiar presence at my side assured me he was here. We did not speak, we had no plan, and yet, we moved fluidly.

Shoving away his fear of my queen and her power, Tomás grabbed Meline by the waist in the same moment I threw the Prince over the bridge.

It was the Queen’s turn to scream in the outrage of a mother, low and visceral. I encouraged the monster to ignore us with an arc of flame that lit the night. All remnants of my Flames went into the blast, and it shrieked as its belly burned.

As an extension of her, the beast changed course to fly after the Prince who was already disappeared beneath the clouds. Singed feathers rained down on us, Tomás shouted, a sound of pain , and we ran.

I took my queen from him, supported him with his arm slung across my shoulders, and we ran .

My muscles burned, my heart lay in pieces with Meline exhausted and bleeding in my arms, and we continued on.

The initial walk to the bridge had felt so long when we’d arrived in this world, with the realization my power was all but gone. Now the journey was short as my feet carried the three of us, meeting Tana, Fenix, and Francie at that confounded tree.

And as planned, taken from his home and bound, the Folk who first stepped through the trunk was glaring at Tana as she held her knife to his throat.

“Open it,” she demanded, all kindness gone. In the sharpness of the witch’s command, I saw my queen. The one I loved who, just moments ago, had fully intended to leave me.