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“I am the chosen one!” Wynter roared.
Kerrigan snorted. “Chosen for what?”
Fordham actually chuckled. It sounded good on him, and it threw Wynter off-balance. “Your cult followers can’t make you the next queen.”
“No,” she agreed, her eyes narrowing. “All I have to do is kill you.”
Wynter put her hands to her chest, tipped her head back, and threw her arms wide. Black ink released from her chest like a torrent. Kerrigan dropped to the ground as it enveloped the whole of the docks in a burst. Fordham didn’t move. He stood stoic in the darkness of Wynter’s magic. The magic that had kept his family in power for thousands of years.
Kerrigan could barely breathe in the flood of night. She had no idea how Fordham could stand it. Let alone stand against it. But he put one foot in front of the other until he was directly before his sister.
“You have long lived in the shadows. You have let them consume you when you should have been looking to the light,” Fordham whispered through the roar of her power.
He took that final step and thrust the sword toward her. Wynter’s eyes widened, and at the last second, she jerked away but not fast enough as the sword sliced through her shoulder. She screamed. Her black shadows intensified, sending Kerrigan facedown onto the docks. Then, the shadows disappeared in a rush.
Fordham yanked his sword from Wynter’s shoulder. He hesitated for the span of a second. Even though Wynter deserved death, he still hesitated. And in that second, Wynter pulled a knife.
Kerrigan gasped. Without thinking, Kerrigan sank as deep as she could go and pulled on that place where she entered the spirit world. It snapped to attention, and she shouted, “Fordham, down!”
Fordham didn’t hesitate at her command. He dropped to the stones, and Kerrigan unleashed. A boom shook the docks as her spirit energy collided with Wynter. She was thrown backward, her body crashing into the stone battlement. To Kerrigan’s shock, the rocks moved with the force and began to crumble. Shouts sounded overhead as the entrance to Lethbridge collapsed. Soldiers fell from their posts, and Wynter was buried under the rubble.
“No,” Fordham shouted and began to dig through the stones to get to his sister. “We deserve justice.”
But Kerrigan wasn’t looking at the wreckage. Her eyes were fixed beyond—to the hundreds of soldiers who had waited on Wynter’s command and were now forcing their way through to attack.
“Ford, we have to go,” she shouted.
“What in the gods’ names was that?” Roake asked.
Kerrigan whipped around to find Audria already on Evien’s back with Alura cradled against her. Roake rose slowly to his feet. He’d never seen her spirit magic, and every instinct in her body told her that she couldn’t tell him. They couldn’t know. Kerrigan opened her mouth, having no idea how to explain to them what she’d done.
“Some help over here,” Fordham interrupted.
Kerrigan grabbed his arm. “We have to go. Look.”
His manic gaze shifted to the Lethbridge gates. His face paled. “Gods.”
“Call Netta. Let’s go.”
Kerrigan tugged on the bond with Tieran, dragging Fordham away from the advancing soldiers.
“Was it one of those magical artifacts?” Roaked asked in confusion.
“Yes,” Kerrigan said, glad to have been given an out.
Fordham frowned. “Kerrigan and I have seen them back home.”
“Good thinking,” Roake said.
Roake narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t see you holding anything.”
Kerrigan shrugged. “I picked one off of the first group before you landed. I knew what it was better than they did.”
Fordham shoved his sword back into its sheath. “We’ll come back for my sister when this is over,” he promised. “She’ll pay for what she’s done.” And then he ran as Netta approached.
“Head back to camp. We’ll regroup from there,” Kerrigan yelled as Roake got on his dragon.
Kerrigan felt shaky, like she might pass out. There was no way that she could do a running mount. She let her current feeling flow through Tieran, and he responded in turn, diving down toward her and picking her up. They soared over the river before he released her on the bank. She climbed onto his back and collapsed forward.
They made it into the skies when the sound of wings carried across the wind. Hundreds of dragons flew in formation in the distance, heading toward them. Kerrigan’s heart soared. Reinforcements were finally here. The stomp of feet drew her attention away from the Society. Then, a line of navy-blue soldiers crested the hill toward Lethbridge. Her heart caught as she recognized the Bryonican uniforms. Her people had heard the call and come to help.
The fight had only begun, but the odds were turning.
Reinforcements swelled their camp from a meager forty to thousands. Kerrigan barely registered the difference because as soon as her feet hit the ground in the clearing, she passed out. Hours later, she gasped awake, rushing out of her tent to find dozens of campfires still lit.
