Page 51

Sav

“J ack?” His eyes were bright, fae bright, and my stomach flipped as he shredded his bars and stepped through them.

“What is this trickery?” Sage demanded, backing up. “He’s no human son of the AFF leader.”

Jack prowled forward, leaving scorched footprints in his wake, crossing the distance to stand before me.

Kaspar moved, blocking his path.

I’d felt the heat in his skin before; thought it was adrenaline. But this… this was magic.

Jack lunged. Kaspar raised a wall of water with a snap of his fingers—mist hissed, steam rose, and the air between them crackled as fire and water collided.

“Raine,” Sage shouted. “Guards!”

Kaspar raised his arms and fog poured from his skin like smoke. It blanketed the hall in seconds—cold, dense, disorienting.

Then his hand gripped mine. “Run.”

“Jack. We can’t leave Jack.”

“I’m here,” he said in the dense fog. “Sav. I’m sorry.”

I shuddered, not entirely sure if he was apologizing for lying about what he was or for getting us into this mess. Something in my chest loosened now that Jack was free of his cage.

I jogged, knowing the way even without sight. “What about Hazel?”

“Here,” she called from behind me.

Safe. We were all safe.

“Saaaaaaaaav.” The walls groaned. Roots burst from the floor, thorns gleaming with poison as the castle came alive with Sage’s rage.

“Kaspar,” I breathed. “You have to get him out of here.”

He glanced at me and nodded, shifting quickly into his kelpie form. His shimmering turquoise hide disappeared into the mist, and I heard more than saw Jack’s shout of protest.

Sage’s magic bled into the land, feeding her court, and it responded, coming alive.

She may not be as fast as me, but her magic was so much faster, especially when I couldn’t reach mine.

Vines writhed along our path, blooms growing heavy with her magic.

Tiny thorns twisted over every surface, spiking along the walls.

Purple poisoned tips gleamed in the light as the last of Kaspar’s fog dissolved into nothing.

He could have done more, could have called on the might of the lakes surrounding the castle to aid us, but to use such offensive magic in her court would have been considered an act of war.

And after all he’d done to secure an alliance between our kingdoms, I knew he wouldn’t be willing to throw that away for Jack.

Jack…Who was showing all the signs of coming into his magic for a high fae turning twenty-five. But it wasn’t possible. Unless he was…a changeling. Those eyes had been alight with flame, sparking red, a sign of the autumn court, or of a fae coming into their fire magic.

A memory of when I had gained my magic flashed through my mind. Unlike the heat that radiated from Jack’s fingertips, I’d set an entire room on fire the first time I lost my temper. The control it took to keep your fire at bay when it first manifested was nothing short of extraordinary.

Jack had said very little about his mother. Could she have been a fae hiding in the human realm? But he shared so many of his father’s traits. It made no sense.

A sunflower the size of a shield tilted its head toward us. Its golden center opened like a mouth and spat a stream of seeds in rapid succession. One whizzed past my ear.

Hazel blurred past on all fours, a flash of white and black fur. I bolted after her, spiked vines a breath behind.

We weren’t free yet.