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We tumbled head over feet on the snow and cobblestones, painfully crunching a different part of my body with each strike. The barrel soared through the air, crashing on Riordan.
“I hope he was your lover, whore!” The gorilla man guffawed. “Enjoy watching him burn!”
Roaring, I seized my dagger and smashed the butt into his skull—bouncing his head off the stone.
He flopped flat on the ground, not laughing anymore.
“Riordan? Riordan, no!” I dropped to my knees, sobs wracking my chest.
He was my friend. In the end, the truest friend I ever had. He saved my family not once, not twice, but three times. And his reward was to die under a burning pile of compost.
“Oh, Riordan, I’m so s-sorry. I was supposed to save you. I was supposed to save all of—”
“Calli?”
I choked, blinking through the haze as the smoldering mound of fruit peels moved.
“Calli, is that you?” The trash blew off him. Riordan rose up, clutching a crystal in his hand. “What are you doing here? Wait— Did you come with them?” he barked, shouting at me for the first time in our life. “I can’t believe you, Calli! Someone tells youfaeriken are monsters and you just believe them? You used to be someone who judged based on action, not reputation! Fucking shame on you—”
“Riordan, can you save the scolding on prejudice for after I save my husband and everyone here from the beast curse, and no, I’m not going to do it by hurting anyone.” I got to my feet, swiping away my tears. “This curse was born of hate. More hate was never the answer.”
“You’re going to what?” All of the angry bluster whooshed out of him. “And who is your husband?”
“Alisdair, obviously.”
He blinked at me. “I’ve missed something very important, haven’t I?”
“Yes, and it can all be summed up with this—body-switching spell.”
Understanding dawned even as his eyes bugged. “So the whole time... it was you.”
“Yes, but we don’t have time to get into the details,” I shouted over the melee. “There are flowers everywhere! If the mob gets to Alisdair, they’ll be able to hurt him. Kill him! We can’t let that happen. You have to help me get to him first.”
“What can I do?”
I pointed at his crystal. “You can use magic. I can’t. Just help me get to the castle, and I’ll take it from there.” I made to run, then stopped. “Wait, is your wife safe?”
“She’s visiting her family in the Yararill Caves, and thank Meya for that.”
“Then let’s make sure you get back to her. We’ll stick together, yes? Have each other’s backs?”
He snorted. “I learned a long time ago that the safest place is by your side, Volka. Let’s go save Lumenfell.”
No more talk was needed. We took off for the trees, trying to avoid the crush as much as possible. Skirting around the outeredge of the village, Castle Riagin loomed over the horizon—swaying through the stinging, teary haze of smoke.
Flying figures surrounded it—pummeling the windows, walls, and doors with fire spells. But just as many flying figures faced them with weapons of magic and bronze—the proud uniform of the Lumenfell Army on their backs.
“Hold out a little longer,” I whispered. “I’m coming.”
“Riordan, what happened?” I called to him. He ran from my left side to my right and back to my left, keeping an eye out for anything that might come from the light, or the dark. “It’s taken centuries for the curse to bleed over the borders of Quatassa and Sarabai, but now it rips across two thousand miles and transforms half the people in Lyrica within a week? I asked Treasa to trigger the spread, but I didn’t expect this!”
“I don’t know who Treasa is, but I do know what happened on the day the temperature in Lumenfell dropped a life-crushing fifty degrees, and the sky grew so dark, not even the orblights could brighten our days.”
“What?” I asked, keeping my dagger out in front of me as I ran. “What happened?”
“The kingdom received word that Queen Emiana, ruler of Wind and Wild, had died.”
I tripped. Stumbling over a tree root, I pitched forward—knife flying out of my hand. Dazed, the pain took longer to reach me, because his words had first.
