Page 76 of The Fifth Heir

That made her the only person qualified to give the order.

I closed my hands around the flame and extinguished it.

The flame disappeared.

My torc burned hot around my throat, reacting to the abandoned power. The Fire path shook beneath me, and part of the bridge broke away behind my left foot.

“Tell me what to do,” I said.

Talia released a breath through the connection. “Don’t light the third brazier. Rafe needs to reverse one of his vanes first.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

The bridge shifted again.

“That answer needs improvement.”

“I’m working with four paths and no instructions.”

“Tell him to move quickly.”

The fire between us faded.

I looked at the Crown Gate.

I had been raised to recognize opportunities and take them before another soldier did. Delay cost ground. Hesitation cost lives. In the Trials, both would cost the crown.

But firing without understanding the field cost more. A commander who ignored the only scout with a view of the battlefield did not deserve the victory waiting in front of him.

I had learned that once.

I would not learn it again over Rafe’s broken body. No crown was worth carrying out of the mountain over another heir’s corpse.

The second brazier flickered.

Cold seeped through the bridge beneath my boots. Leander was freezing the lower channels again.

“Talia.”

No answer.

“Talia.”

The fire in the trench bent, but her voice did not come through it. She was speaking to one of the others.

The stone supporting my right foot cracked.

I moved toward the second brazier. A section of bridge collapsed between us, leaving a gap too wide to cross in human form.

The trench burned below.

I could shift, but the path was too narrow for my full body. My wings would strike both walls, and the heat rising from the trench would catch beneath them before I could gain height.

Partial shift offered more strength but no additional distance.

I backed up as far as the remaining bridge allowed.