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Ashamed of her hesitation, Juliana bolted, leaping up the stairs and into the throne room. She spotted Serena on the dais at the end—
And a cool, blue cloud gathering at the centre of the room.
A shadow formed before she skidded to a halt. A wave of his black staff sent her flying back to the doors, shock pouncing through her bones as she hit the floor. Vines reached out to protect her, but thorns tore through them, snaking down the steps, tearing through the grounds, wrenching weapons from her allies, gripping their ankles, twisting around their throats—
Miriam struggled, yanking and pulling, slashing and hissing. Her armour and strength protected her from most of the attacks, but the thorns grew tighter and more monstrous until she was more black than white, until they’d almost covered her eyes and blood streamed down her cheeks. Everyone else had stopped moving.
“Stop!” Juliana screamed, as Ladrien approached her. “Stop! Please!”
Ladrien’s icy eyes screamed at her. “You again,” he hissed. “I was a fool to let you live. I will not make the mistake again. I will wipe you and your infernal kind from the Earth—”
“I’ll help you!” she shrieked, desperate, unthinking. “I can help you do it if you let them live!”
Ladrien scoffed. “What have you to bargain with, little mortal? You have nothing I cannot take from you.”
She could offer him years of service. She’d seen mortals pledge their troth to many a creature before, in return for wishes or riches. Her own father had bargained with him. But skilled as she was, she knew that Ladrien would likely laugh in the face of such an offer. He would not want a mortal servant, not now. Not one who had obliterated most of his army.
What he wanted was power. And there was only one thing she had left to give.
“My mortal soul,” she said. “And my human heart. That you cannot drag from my corpse. But I offer it to you freely if you beat me in single combat. No magic.”
It would be too much to ask him to break the curse. He would never agree to it. But a freely given mortal soul… it was a tempting offer.
She could see him mulling it over. It was a potent thing, an ingredient he could enact numerous spells with. A part of her shuddered at the thought of being reduced to aningredient,at the evils her soul could be used to create. Would she be conscious of it? She had no idea how such magic worked.
Could she even beat him?
The quick answer that came to her wasno.He was an ancient faerie, and even without his magic, he would be a formidable foe.
She couldn’t beat him. She was just buying time. Time for someone to come up with something better, time for the others to escape, maybe even get Serena upstairs—
“I will let your comrades live,” Ladrien interrupted her thoughts, “if you beat me, but no more than that.Ifyou beat me, fragile child.”
“No magic?”
“I will not use magic against you,” he promised. “If anyone else tries to intervene—”
Juliana nodded. She would not get a better offer.
“Then it is done,” he declared.
He snapped his fingers together, and the flock of sluaghs spiralled closer to Miriam’s forces. “In case anyone gets any ideas.”
He threw off his cloak, his white skin glistening, as pale and watery as ice. His wings widened, growing to ridiculous lengths.
She’d not banned him from using those, or his horns, which seemed to be growing longer and longer by the minute.
Ladrien dropped to the floor, wings spasming. His back rippled, like some creature was trying to break out of it. Juliana flinched, extending her sword. “We agreed no magic!”
“No magic?” came Ladrien’s voice, but it was a deep, twisted version of it. “This is not magic,girl.This is who I am!”
His nose stretched into a long snout. Blue scales ruptured at the tip, coursing over his muscles, to the tail sprouting at the base of his spine. Fangs blossomed in his gums, a forked tongue slithering out between them.
Snake,said Juliana’s mind, going blank with fear, before being reminded that snakes did not have wings, nor the monstrous black talons sprouting at Ladrien’s fingers.
His limbs grew longer and wider, his body stretching, growing hideously, grotesquely,until it seemed he could have wrapped himself twice around the entire castle and his wings were large enough to block out the sun.
His skin, now shimmering and blue, dripped with moisture.
