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Leo yawned. “I’ve grown tired of this visit. You two can see yourselves out, yeah?”

Adrian guided me gently toward the door, not allowing another breath of mine to be wasted on Leo.

But when he reached for the door, he paused, throwing his hand out to halt my steps.

I looked at him, confused, but before he could open his mouth to explain, I felt his cool night air wrap around me as his ribbons flew from him, moving us from where we stood at the door, back toward one of the cold gray walls, right as the door exploded into a thousand pieces, purple flames burning the wood to ash.

Adrian kept a shield of night around us as he pushed me behind him.

Daylight spread down my fingers reflexively. The doorway clouded by deep-purple smoke that moved like liquid when Sigrid stepped over the threshold.

I stood there, dumbfounded, while Adrian launched himself at her. His orange flame meeting her purple, their colors melting together, creating a pool of russet-colored paste on the floor.

“Bryn, run!” Adrian shouted. But I couldn’t move.

I lurched forward, Leo’s power like an invisible hand fisted in my shirt, yanking me toward the floor. I tried to use my powers to fight against its hold, but my light recoiled at the darkness.

Leo slammed me face-first into the ground, the side of my face smacking the hard stone.

I groaned as a metallic taste filled my mouth.

I tried to push up on my hands but couldn’t move as blood pooled beneath my tongue.

“We’ll be waiting for you,” Leo whispered in my ear before stepping over my contorted body glued to the floor.

I cried, trying to swing my arm out to hit him, but my chest pulled tighter, the darkness inside me trying to pull me through the cold floor. I screamed, as my rib cage groaned from the force.

Then I felt Adrian next to me right as the weight lifted.

“Are you okay?” His voice was anxious, his hands moving over my body, checking for injury.

I winced when he touched my ribs.

“Shit,” he hissed, lifting me up so I was cradled in his arms as he rushed to the door.

I looked back over his shoulder, at the gaping, purple-tinged hole at the center of Leo’s now empty cell.

He was gone.

Sigrid gone with him.

Adrian ran down the hallway, jumping over the unconscious guards outside the many dungeon doors, and up the stairs, taking two at a time, kicking a door open at the top that brought us back to the main level. The light of day making my eyes water as Cal rushed toward us, Charles close behind.

“It was Sigrid!” Adrian yelled.

“I know,” Cal exclaimed, his face sunken and shocked. “Bryn . . . she’s taken Hunter.”

I cried as blood clogged my throat, my ribs cramping from the pain.

“Take Bryn,” Adrian said, transferring me to Cal’s arms.

“Adrian,” I whimpered.

He grabbed my face, gently touching the side that was soon to be bruised from being crushed into the floor. “I’ll bring him back, Princess.”

And then he was gone.

His ribbons snaking around him as he disappeared.