I pulled my hands through the sleeves and smoothed the front down my rib cage. “Where did this come from?”
“I bartered pirate shit to the innkeeper’s wife for it,” he said, tugging a thick shirt over his own head. He tossed me a pair of pants and began tugging on his own. “I can lace up the back for you. Won’t be as pretty as when Lady Selena does it. I’ve never laced a dress before.”
A smile played at my mouth as I turned.
Two people ran down the hallway from opposite sides, meeting just outside our door.
“Vojna. Calder vyhlásil vojnu,”a male voice said in a rush, both of them running again. My eyes slid to Kye. His mouth gave a small pop. He looked as though he’d been hit over the head with a candle stick.
“What is it,” I said flatly.
He grabbed the entirety of our belongings and shoved them in his bag. “War. We have to go.”
I vaulted off the bed as he chucked a pair of boots at my feet, sewn from the thickest pelt of fur I’ve ever seen. The softest, too. I slid one on, heat already radiating across my toes.
“It’s otter fur. Stroke them later; we can’t stay.”
“I wasn’t stroking them,” I shot back, though I clearly had been. He circled the air with his finger, instructing me to turn around, and I did, listening as shouts came from outside our window.
“Come on.” Kye gave a final tug on my laces, tucking them in. Then flung his pack over his shoulder and grabbed my hand. He yanked our door open, and I watched his boots as he led me down the hall, promising myself the narrow passage was too short to worry about. But at the end, he stopped and suddenly began pushing me the opposite way. I glanced up in time to meet the eyes of the guard from the market. Kazimir.
Back in our room, Kye slammed the door shut. “Fucking innkeeper,” he muttered, ramming a chair under the handle as I crossed to the window and flung it wide. A burst of frosty air crashed into my face, blowing my hair from my neck. The doorknob jiggled, then someone pounded the wood from the other side. “Open up.”
At the window, Kye laced his fingers over his knee, offering me a step. I climbed up without a second thought, plunging my legs through and pushing out to fall from the opposite side. The delicate layer of snow did little to cushion my arrival. Kye scrambled after me, landing in a low crouch and straightening his knees in a single movement. He reached for me, but I flung my hand toward the window instead. The cold moisture in the air protested my call before it blasted the window shut—just as an angry face appeared from the other side.
The guard pushed on the glass a moment too late. Veins of ice slithered across the pane, sealing it closed. I flexed my fingers, thankingMihaunathe shield weed ash had worn off.
“Play with the children later, Leihani,” Kye said, grabbing my arm. We hurried around the length of the building to find three more waiting for us next to Sero and Kolibri. Kye growled, fingers wrapping around the hilt of his sword. But it was me the Riveans watched with wary eyes.
“To je ona,”one of them leaned to another to say.
The man nodded.“Carodejnica.”
“Iama witch,” I ground out, not needing Kye to translate their words. “Now, move aside.”
They drew their blades instead. Air crackled around my hands as I bared my teeth.
Kye stepped in close to my shoulder. “Move the fuck aside.”
The Riveans didn’t.
My brows furrowed as I called to the water in the air. But the snow held most of it trapped. My summons flitted through the space around us, searching for the presence of water, only half as strong as it usually was.
Half was enough. I closed my fingers together, wrenching my arm as I expanded the molecules apart. Shards of ice followed the arc of my arm, flying like arrows through the air, landing in a jagged line. One struck a guard in the shin, another on the hand. They jumped away from our horses as their comrades leapt forward.
The closest made for Kye, the other for me, crossing in front of Kolibri. The black mare bit his arm. She reared her head to the side, dragging him off his feet and throwing him aside. I clambered up into my saddle, sending icy projectiles at anyone who wandered too close as Kye fought his way to me. He grabbed Sero’s pommel as more guards ran toward us from inside the inn, and I leaned across him to unknot Sero’s lead from its hook.
“Go, just go,” Kye ordered, knuckles white as he held on.
My eyes shot forward. “Fly, Kolibri.”
Her body rippled at the words, throwing her mane back with ecstasy as she surged forward in a single pull. The jolt in speed whipped me back, wind and sudden inertia hammering me to the bone, but I forced myself to hunker in close as every vertebra screamed in protest, burning with the effort to hold on. Somewhere behind me, Kye climbed onto a running Sero’s back, barely keeping pace with Kolibri. But Sero’s hoofbeats rang in my ears, and when I glanced back at him, Kye was there, rooted in his saddle as though he’d been there the whole time.
The inn fell away, the guards with it. Signs marking the mountain passClosedblew into view, a guard stationed on either side of the road. We flew past them. One raised a hand, as though that could have stopped us—then they both watched helplessly as we raced through.
A wild laugh bubbled out of my throat. I stretched my spine and pushed into my stirrups. Kolibri conquered the world with beating hooves, and I did nothing to stop her. There was nothing I could have done. She claimed the road like a Naiad claims the sea, a birthright in her powerful body, in the speed written into her marrow.
We ran like falling stars, fierce and insatiable, chasing the last strands of doubt from my chest. Ahead the mountains watched and waited.
