I darted a glance back. The remaining soldier jumped across the gap, charging at me.
He’d almost reached me when another man jumped from the ridges of the cliffs above us.
Brogan Ragnall.
He attacked the soldier who had crossed over, and I turned my attention back to Lucia.
The chains are suffocating her.
“Don’t let go.” I’d have to crawl dangerously close to the edge to get a better grip on her.
“I can’t breathe,” Lucia cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t!”
A body went flying from the cliff—the last soldier.
Where in the hell had the Vangar commander gone, though? I hadn’t seen him go down.
Then Brogan was at my side. He lunged for the front of the chains, grasping it farther down. Together, the two of us pulled, hauling her up the cliff and over the ridge.
Brogan pulled his wife into his arms. “Oh, my love,” he murmured as she wept.
My shoulders heaved, my muscles aching. A sound rumbled above us—something shifting in the shadows of the cliffs. I barely had time to process it as I turned to stand and find the Vangar commander when Brogan tackled me. “Get down!”
A dagger whizzed past the tops of our heads as my forehead connected with the rock.
“Brogan,” Lucia’s voice whispered behind us.
The dagger had speared deeply into her chest.
Horror spread through me as Brogan gave a cry, releasing me to catch his wife before she fell backward again.
I whirled to see the Vangar commander standing on the other side of the gap, ready to throw yet another dagger, a wicked smile on his face.
An unexpected growl came from above me. From seemingly out of nowhere, a black flash leaped from the top of the cliff above us, landing on the commander and pinning him down.
A vuk.
The dagger tumbled uselessly from the commander’s hands as the vuk’s enormous, sharp teeth dug into his neck and ripped out his throat.
The guard went limp as the vuk raised its head, still growling, flesh in its teeth. Blood dripped from his snarling spittle onto the rock below it. The vuk’s eyes met mine, holding them, something familiar in its gaze.
Could it be?
I took a step toward the vuk, holding out my hand. It swallowed back the flesh in its jowls and then came toward me, leaping across the gap easily, its tail fucking wagging.
I palmed the top of its head, leaving a trace of blood from my fingertips on its black scales.
My uncle was long gone—no doubt hidden safely within Emberstone, but I wasn’t here alone.
Turning slowly, I faced Brogan and Lucia Ragnall. Tears streaked his face as he cradled her in his arms.
Brogan Ragnall, who had participated in the murder of my entire family.
“Brogan,” Lucia whispered, her lips a deathly shade of blue. The color had drained from her face and a bright spot of blood pooled in the corner of her mouth. “Brogan, you came back.”
“Don’t speak, Lucia. Don’t speak. Save your energy.”
“King Calix …” Lucia held a hand out toward me, her movement still restricted by the chains.
