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They had Sharlyne. My little sister, who I’d protected and cared for since our mother had been taken from us, whose identity I’d kept hidden, had been taken. And they were using her to lure us out.

Well, they’d get what they fucking wanted, and may the gods have mercy on them because I certainly wouldn’t.

Three breaths, each deeper and harder and sharper, and I stood to draw my sword. I was so focused on the giant image of her face that I saw nothing else as I marched toward the open ground of the hills. I nearly decapitated Leuruna on instinct when she popped out of nowhere, palm outstretched as if she could stop me.

Rage flared along with fire that burned my eyes. She’d just put Nyah in as much danger as she had herself. Didn’t she understand nothing could stop me from freeing my sister?

Visions of my mother being tortured by Balram exploded in my head. Fire magic crackled as it crawled over my skin like lightning. My forearms combusted into flame. The evil bastard had destroyed my entire family, and he would not have Sharlyne. The air quivered around me, distorted from the heat of the roaring inferno consuming me.

I couldn’t control it if I wanted to. It was as natural as breathing, as instinctive as rage.

“Move, or I could do something we’ll both regret,” I ground out, not slowing my pace.

The princess backed up a step for each I took forward. Torvo tried to pull her aside but jerked away when he touched her. She must have turned up her fire magic so she wouldn’t be incinerated when I got too close. Smart. But not smart to be in my way.

“You’re acting like my father.”

Her words stopped me short. They were perhaps the only thing that could have. The flames on my arms burned hotter, turning blue as I growled. I looked and sounded like a monster. But⁠—

“I am nothing like him.”

“Aren’t you? He thinks only of himself and what he wants. Who he wants. You’re about to kill us all, Nye included, and couldn’t care less, because of what you want.”

I flinched.

She moved closer, glaring up at me. I’d seen Nyah glare at me like that. They were becoming more alike by the moment. I shook off that thought and glanced up at my sister’s tortured face to rekindle the spark of wrath that had ignited my soul.

“I’m doing this to save someone I love. Balram knows nothing of love.”

Her palm found my chest, and every muscle in my body clenched. My fire moved to lap at her hand but caused no harm, leaving me both relieved and angry. The overload of emotion at the fact she still held Nyah hostage, whether intentionally or not, nearly blinded me.

“She’s wearing one of those collars,” I said, the words a plea to let me go to her. I knew the pain of those awful things too well.

Leuruna swallowed, still glaring hard. “We will rescue her. I promise. But we do it right, or she’ll die right along with us.”

We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, as her words wormed their way into my head. I tried to call on my own sanity, but when Sharlyne was suffering so close by and I wasn’t rushing to help, it was far from easy. She was the only family I had left, and I’d already failed my mother.

“You’ll go try to burn them all to the ground,” Leuruna continued, “but they’ll be ready for that. They know your abilities. They know all our abilities.”

“We can’t waste our time,” Devira crossed her arms, coming as close as she could without being burned.

I turned my ire on her. “Luckily you don’t get to decide whether my sister lives or dies. Leave if you don’t like it.”

Devira pulled a set of daggers. Torvo grabbed her by the wrist before she could try anything, and Devira whirled on him. “So, your sisters can suffer for the cause? Is that it? But his—” Devira looked about ready to combust even without fire wielding.

Torvo released her but did not back away. I saw the flinch, though. His sister had hit him where it hurt. But that wheedled its way into my brain as well. Torvo didn’t want to abandon his family any more than I did. I recalled the way he was ready to take on Balram the night his mother had been murdered and how Nyah had talked him down by explaining we could win.

If we worked together.

I lowered my sword and extinguished my flames. I was a hot-headed idiot. Leuruna was right. “We will save them all,” I said, swallowing back the pain. “We start with Sharlyne because we can. We will free your sisters as well, as soon as we gather enough force and fulfill my mother’s dying prophecy.”

Leuruna smiled, relaxing and removing her hand from my chest. “Yes. I think I know a way. They can detect cloaking illusions and the like, but if I focus on one smaller illusion—one that’s not threatening to them—and put everything into it, they won’t be able to tell. They never could. But if I do this, I won’t be able to help with more. It’ll take every ounce of my energy to keep it up.”

I blinked. The fact that she was willing to try it for the sake of someone I cared about softened my feelings for her, slightly. Maybe she really was trying.

Twenty minutes later Galan and I crawled along the furthest hill from the enemy camp, while Torvo and the others led the princess over the closer hill. It wasn’t really her. The real Rune was hidden beneath a tree at the outskirts of the forest. The one marching with the others was so detailed that I wondered again at the veracity of the claim she couldn’t bring Nyah back, despite her insistence that this illusion took all her concentration and energy.

The moment they crested the hill a dozen guards appeared, swords drawn. I watched as I crept forward arm over arm. Torvo and the others circled the fake princess, back to her as though protecting her from all sides, weapons drawn as well. The guards fanned around them, closing them in.