I’ve walked through this part of the royal garden more than once since that first night in Islor, and yet now I am here again, my heart pounding in my throat. But at least I’m not alone this time.
“Go on!” Gesine goads, her words ragged between pants. “I will put up a shield from behind us if any guards should appear.”
“We’ll put one up together.”
She smiles at me through her labored breaths. “Who knew … you would be … such a quick learner?”
“I could have told you that. But it helps that I’ve had a good teacher—”
A whistling sound cuts through the air, a second before Gesine gasps and falls.
I gape at the arrow protruding from her back, stunned for long seconds, before a “No!” tears from my throat, drawing the others back. But my attention is already behind us, on Boaz, who stands maybe fifty feet away, another arrow nocked and aimed at me. He never misses.
Footfalls close in behind me. Zorya and Jarek rush in on either side, swords drawn.
“Gesine!” Zorya calls out, anguish in her voice. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard the warrior use her name.
Gesine doesn’t respond.
Doesn’t move.
“Where are they?” Boaz’s voice booms and it instantly transports me back to the tower cell months ago.
“Where are who?” My fury bubbles beneath my skin with my affinities. I’m not the helpless prisoner I once was.
“The exiled king and his traitorous princess. I warned His Highness they would draw the armies out so they could steal the throne, but he did not listen to me.”
He thinks we’re behind this mess in Cirilea? It makes me want to laugh despite my dark mood. “Zander is at the rift trying to keep Neilina from taking Islor. Didn’t Atticus tell you that?”
“Who do you think you are, to use their names so freely?” Boaz spits.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you’d recognize me.” I slide my mask up. “I’m the traitorous princess you’ve been looking for.”
His eyes flare with a mix of hatred and shock.
But Gesine’s still body fuels my rage. I’m not afraid of him. “Isn’t this the rose garden you killed me in the first time? Because I’d like to repay the favor.” With a primal scream, I hurl a blast of woven energy toward him. A flash of blinding silver light explodes much like it did the night of the grif, only I don’t lose consciousness this time, indulging in the satisfying rush as I draw more and more from this deep well inside and channel my pain. Boaz has played judge, jury, and executioner for too long, eagerly delivering death while answering to kings and queens. He betrayed Zander. This world will be a better place without him.
“Romeria! Stop!” Jarek shouts in the distance.
I could continue this forever, and yet I need to save some sliver of affinities to get us back to Ulysede. I relinquish my hold and the brilliant light dims, leaving me to survey the damage I’ve caused. Boaz is gone as if he never existed, but so is the thick foliage, the hedges, the trees, the statues. Nothing remains but a charred path at least twenty feet wide leading straight to the castle. I’ve razed a large swath of the royal garden.
Zorya drops to her knees beside Gesine. “Save her!” she demands, snapping the back of the arrow off and flipping the caster over. The pointed head protrudes from her chest. Her eyes are vacant.
“I can’t unless she has a pulse.” My voice cracks over the words.
Zorya presses her fingertips against Gesine’s neck. A pained cry of anguish erupts from the warrior’s lips a moment later, confirming what I already know.
Just like that, Gesine is gone.
“They’re coming.” Loth nods toward the castle. The blast of my affinities must have drawn attention. Guards spill out of the castle and rush toward us, the path cleared for them. There are at least twenty, with more dripping out of the doors, one at a time.
“I don’t think I have enough in me,” I warn. “Not to fight them and get us home.” What felt like an endless well inside is now hollow.
Zorya hops to her feet, drawing a second blade, her teeth bared. “I will give you a head start.” She swings both swords, preparing.
“We are not staying to fight,” Jarek barks. “You will die, and I am not losing another person today. Let’s go!”
The warrior doesn’t move.
“That’s an order, legionary!”
With a roar of discontent, Zorya sheathes her swords and hauls Gesine up over her shoulder. She rushes past, her teeth gritted. A streak of tears mars her cheek.