My fists curl, and flames lick my knuckles. I can only snarl in response.
Lightning splits the sky overhead.
“Well, as fun as family reunions are…” Luther chimes.
His rebels have used this little chat to get ready for the fight. I’d say there are fifty of them to twenty, which aren’t terrible odds. Given the choice, I’d rather stick with the Tidecallers.
“Kill him if needed, but the witch must be taken alive,” Lillivere barks, and the Reds surge forward as one.
The Tidecallers charge to meet them, steel crashing against steel.
The magic holding me captive wanes as Luther collides with the Red Queen in a savage blur of steel and magic. He fights like a storm given flesh, all reckless charisma and raw force, while Lillivere draws a colder, steadier power from the earth, her movements quick and lethally precise.
“Max!” E shouts from somewhere to my right.
I zero in on his voice and run toward it, but five Reds are coming for me, Riley among them.
Nick roars into the fray, both daggers drawn.
He’s been aching for this moment all his life. Training for it. Dreaming of it. The chance to sink steel into the Reds who stole everything from us.
And he’s good—Gods, he’s good.
He moves with ease, ducking beneath one Red’s strike to drive a blade toward her ribcage, spinning in time to parry another attack with his off-hand dagger.
He’s incredible, but there are too many of them.
The Red warriors converge on his position, moving with inhuman speed and discipline, their katanas flashing through the rain so quickly my eyes struggle to track them. One forces Nick back. Another cuts off his escape. A third joins the circle, and suddenly, my brother isn’t attacking them, but surviving.
E tackles the one closest to him and steals her blade. The katana hangs in mid-air, too big to be swallowed by his invisibility. The intensifying rain allows me to make out the vague outline of him, his footprints marking the wet soil as he joins the fight.
Riley strides toward me empty-handed. Rain slicks her crimson leathers to her body, her dark hair plastered to her face. She moves with the confidence of someone who doesn’t need a weapon to ruin my day, and the smug smile curling her lips boils my blood.
Even armed to the teeth, I’d be no match for her, but I ache to stab her anyway. I want to make her bleed and get revenge for the hurt she caused me. The humiliation. The tears I never wanted to cry over her.
“Still drawing fairies in your notebook, Max?” she taunts.
A sharp kick slams into my ribs before I can get my flames under control, sending me staggering sideways through the mud.
Bitch.
My throat tightens around all the hate I harbor for Riley.
And for the first time in my life, I want to kill.
I blast fire from both palms, hitting her stomach hard enough to melt the red silk and leather there.
Riley glances down at her burnt clothes and slightly-singed skin and laughs. “Oh, we’ve got so much to catch up on.”
She goes on the offensive with martial precision, every strike designed to disable, not kill. Elbow to my throat. Knee to my stomach. Palm strike to my nose.
I manage to block the first two, but the third lands.
Blood fills my mouth.
She sweeps my legs out from under me with terrifying efficiency, and I hit the mud hard enough to see stars.
She straddles me and pins my wrist. “Oh, come on,” she says breathlessly. “We survived Anatomy 101. We know where it hurts.”
