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Aster took in a shuddering breath, then said, “Run for it, and I’ll hold them off—” He gazed deep into my eyes, and he saw… everything. “Then, go, live the life that you claimed all those years ago when no one was watching. You know it’s the only way.”

“But…” I wanted to scream at him that I wasn’t going to leave him, that I couldn’t. The indecision kept me frozen to the spot.

“Do what you have to…” His eyes closed, and he took another rasped breath. “To survive.”

A phoenix screeched behind me, and I snapped around to see a white bird dive-bombing Torran’s black phoenix.

Even more guards hustled into the space.

“Let’s go!” I took most of Aster’s weight under mine and drag-pulled him to the place he’d said the FootPaths door was. As we moved, so did most of the guards, their swords raised.

They had no idea why we were heading deeper into the room, slipping along the back wall. When we had come far enough, I sensed the hum of the FootPaths and pressed the amulet to the wall. This time it opened in seconds as at least twenty guards stopped watching and stormed towards us.

And the FootPath closed before we could get inside.

Aster leaned back against the wall, pulled out some powder from his cuff, and poured it onto his tongue. “Will stop the pain… for now… I’ll fight them… you go.” The Ruckus really did have a way with herbs and spells.

“Stop!” shouted the nearest guard, his face covered by his black leather helmet with a slit for his eyes. Eight others drew their silver-tipped bows and pointed them at us. They had come to shoot down the rogue phoenixes. If this was what they did every Yule, it was no wonder they were becoming extinct.

My shoulder burned, and for the very first time, I didn’t ignore it. I pressed into it. Danger was already upon me, and unless I caused enough of a distraction or got rid of the guards, Aster would never get out of there. His body couldn’t take another blow, no matter the pain being dulled.

“If we open it and try to both get through, they’ll have this.” I pressed the amulet into his palm. “Make sure the Ruckus are on our side when…” Our eyes locked, and I stepped towards the FootPaths opening.

Aster gripped his side, but he seemed to have regained some strength now. “We can fight them and then…” His hand wrapped around my wrist, his thumb making a circle on my pulse. And a lump built in my throat.

“They’re almost on us and…” We don’t stand a chance against twenty or thirty guards.

In the distance, three red phoenixes approached.

I had always known that fleeing Craven City could end in my death if I were caught. But no version of the plan had ended with Aster bleeding, hurt, captured.

No version of the goals my cousins and I sought had demanded this in payment.

Leaning forward, I brushed my lips over his. “I’m sorry…” I whispered against his skin. He gripped my tunic and tugged me closer… just for a second, our lips crashed together. Salty with my tears. And then he pulled back to look over my shoulder.

It meant they were nearly on us.

His gaze locked on mine, and all his sorrow, his guilt… his resolve filtered into me. “You don’t have to.”

But I did.

Tracing his cracked bottom lip with my thumb, I tried to smile as my heart shattered, and I turned to face our enemies. “I can give you time to get through…”

I wasn’t strong, but I was fast. I shoved him back towards the FootPath entrance just as he was trying to hand me the amulet. And with a lump in my throat so big I couldn’t breathe, I ran across the room, dodging the grip of the nearest guards, to the very edge of the immense room where it was open to the endless night sky.

Some of the guards paused as if I were about to throw myself to my death. And perhaps I was. But the only way Aster would survive was if every guard in the rooms was stopped before they got to him.

And there was only one choice left… the one that I had told myself I would never make unless there was no other way.

And now there was no other way.

I stretched out my senses and chanted: Life, Death, Rebirth, come to me.

With the warmth of his lips still on mine, I turned to face the swarm of Northlands and Barren guards, half of them trained on me and half on Aster.

The stone floor shuddered as the three Barren Fire Phoenixes landed at the far end, and within seconds fire illuminated their fingertips and lit up their faces. The air vibrated with YuleMots.

“Step away from the edge, Princess!” one shouted.