Page 14 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

Hauling him upright and casting him across my shoulder, I tell myself I can control my flames.

I will carry my cousin safely to clear air without hurting him.

Through the trapdoor I run, my legs pumping, my grip on Kaiba unwavering.

Around me, a terrible silence has fallen.

Hadrian told me I would hear my people’s screams, but instead, there is only a strangled quiet, broken by the sizzle of flames, the popping of fire against stone, the rush of wind carrying the black smoke farther across my kingdom.

On I run, catching sight of my golden serpent, who soars toward me from the clear air, but I rage at him. “No!” He was supposed to be sheltering in a sand dune by now. “Stay back!”

I will not allow him to die in this smoke.

Finally, I’m clear of the dark pall, and I run up the side of a shallow dune behind which I can find some small shelter.

I lay Kaiba on the sand, rip the cloths from his face, and check his throat.

Not visibly burned out, but he isn’t breathing.

Thumping my fist against his heart, fighting the danger of my fire, I will him to live.

“Breathe, cousin!”

Across the distance, the Ember Towers are clouded in smoke.

Crimson rivers of oil and iron dust spread across the sand, bringing blood-red flames and more smoke with them.

The memory of Thyra’s first command to me beats down on me.

Come for me when the sun turns bitterly cold, and the sand bleeds iron. Come for me only then. Not before. You must earn what you desire, Maxim, King of Ember.

The second of her conditions is met: the sand is steeped in bloodied oil creeping beneath the bodies of my warriors.

But where is my bitterly cold sun?

I tip my head back to the sky. To the still-burning rays of a heartless sun.

My people are dying. My home will bleed.

And still, the Oracle is out of my reach.

“Is this not enough?” As I thump my fist onto my cousin’s unmoving chest, I rage into the choked silence, roaring for Thyra, even though she can’t hear me. “Thyra! Is this not enough?”

Chapter Four

Thyra

Blood sprays as Lilis slices her dagger across Stellen’s throat.

And then I’m on her.

I strike hard, fear and desperation giving me strength as I knock her away from Stellen, my body driving into hers so furiously that we gain air.

I don’t know if she completed the cut.

I don’t have time to look back.

All I can do is count heartbeats.