“No,” I whisper, chills racing along my arms.
Four’s icy-blue magick swings toward Alderic. Without a word, the king surges to his feet, crystal-blue eyes beaming. In one swift motion, he pulls a sword from the nearest guard’s scabbard. The blade glistens in the rain like morning dew on grass as Alderic charges his mother and knocks her down. She bounces against the wooden planks and lies still.
“Majesty!” Marion cries out, rushing to her side.
McDougall lunges for Alderic, but another guard steps in, knocking him out cold with a swift blow to the head. The amphitheater erupts into chaotic screams and shouts as the townspeople flee in every direction and nobles scramble from their seats.
A gleam of silver catches my eye, and I spin around, searching for the weapon in the sea of frenzied bodies below the stage pushing and shoving to escape.
There it is again, like a minnow darting through a school of fish.
Without a second thought, I leap down, weavingthrough the stampede of panicked bodies. I manage to grab the dagger, my fingers curling around the slick hilt.
“Kane!” I call, rushing back to the stage just as Alderic swings the sword at him with relentless, mindless fury.
Kane sidesteps and grabs for the arm that holds the blade with constrained movements that will subdue but not damage.
“Here, use this!” I slide the dagger across the wooden planks, the blade glinting as it skids toward him.
He slams his foot on the dagger, halting its slide, and quickly picks it up as Alderic lunges at him again. The king’s face is pale, yellow rings of sweat stain his shirt, unbuttoned and open, revealing peeks of the velvety gold scar across his stomach, but his eyes shine an otherworldly blue that nearly stops me in my tracks.
The crowd’s screams fill the air, the sound of panic all around us. I glance at Queen Lockhart, now on her knees and clutching her arm with Marion beside her.
Four’s magick continues to spark bright blue from his palms.
His face twists, desperate to maintain his hold over the guards and Alderic. “You’ll never win, Blackthorne! Pentacles will be mine!”
Kane blocks another strike from Alderic, the clash of metal ringing through the air. He glances at me, a brief moment of connection, and I understand his unspoken message.
We need to break Four’s control.
I move around the edge of the stage. Every muscle in my body is tense and ready. I keep low, my eyes locked on Four. If I can get close enough, maybe I can disrupt his concentration.
Alderic swings again, and Kane deflects the blow, stepping back to draw him away from the queen and Marion. “Your fight is with me, Four. Leave them out of this!”
Four sneers, his hands trembling with the effort of maintaining his spell. “You deserved to be alone and isolated. You never should have returned.”
I’m almost there. I can see the sweat and rain on Four’s brow, the blue sparks of his magick flaring and flickering. Just a few more steps—
Someone grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me backward.
I gasp, struggling to regain my balance as Ivy spins me around.
We face each other, rain pouring, the ground turned to mud beneath our feet. Ivy’s beautiful, she always will be, but right now she’s more Ursula than the Little Mermaid.
“You can’t stop him,” she snarls. “I’ll make sure of that.”
She lunges at me, her fingers outstretched like claws.
We collide, our feet sliding in the mud. I shove her back, but she’s relentless. We fall to the ground, rolling and slipping in the muck, neither of us able to gain the upper hand.
My fingers find her hair, pulling hard as she pins my arms to the ground and digs her nails into my flesh. Blood blooms in crescents against my skin, and I cry out.
“I told you to go back to where you belong,” she hisses and grabs my throat.
I tear at her arms, twisting and slapping until I finallythrow her off. I scramble to my feet, and she follows, her dress torn and muddy, her green eyes wild with fury.
We circle each other, my lungs burning, my vision dark around the edges.
