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“Who’s there?” I rasped out. “Show yourself!”
But no one materialized, and I stood in the gardens with bated breath, my pulse thudding dully in my ears for a moment.
Slowly, I backed toward the palace, gaze darting around the courtyard, the stupidity of my actions seizing me in a torrent. What had I been thinking, dodging my guards? They had been assigned to me for good reason.
“Hello?” I called out again. “Is someone there?”
Only silence met my plaintive call, but the presence was overwhelming now, and I choked slightly as the night’s darkness crept in around me. Without warning, I turned to flee, knowing intuitively that I was in danger.
One of my slippers fell off as I stumbled, and another whoosh of air encircled me, the cold permeating my soul.
I batted around myself, fear overtaking my primal instincts, the inability to see my attacker more terrifying than the attack itself.
Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?
The black tornado whirled around me, consuming me fully, and spun me off my feet, a cry emitting from my mouth, but it froze there as the puff of ebony closed against my throat.
Evil radiated in this cloud, and I fought with my senses to react, to use my own magic and counteract whatever it was that was happening.
They waited. They’ve been watching and waiting for me to be alone. All this time.
The hold on my windpipe closed tighter, my body elevating against the whirlwind, lifting me higher into the night sky. My hands swung out, hoping to reach onto something—a cloud, the moon, anything—to hold, but the effort was futile. My assailant was nothing more than a spell, not a physical being. Someone guided it, but the cloud itself was not alive, despite the way it was murdering me.
I kicked violently against it, my breaths squeezing out of my lungs. Black and red spots danced in front of my eyes as I ascended higher. I willed the weather, calling to it, summoning it as life dissolved.
“STOP!” someone howled from below. “LET HER GO!”
I struggled to focus on the caller below. I was already losing consciousness.
“Call for Aradia and the King!” the guard shouted, and suddenly, the courtyard was alive with commotion. Floodlights and sirens wailed, voices shouting in all directions.
As the last of my sight slipped away, my eyes closing as the air escaped fully from my body, the apparition released me, and I began to fall. In my half-conscious state, I saw the turret fall past me, the balconies, and then I was in a sea of pure ebony nothingness.
But no one could possibly survive a fall like that.
I’m dead. I’ve died,I thought, and that was all there was.
Chapter19
Cade
Isat up abruptly, cold sweat dripping down my face. My head whipped wildly around in the darkness of my suite, but even when I recognized no danger, my pulse refused to return to normal.
Throwing the covers aside, I leaped from the bed, willing myself to calm down.
It was just a nightmare,I told myself, but I hadn’t had one of those since I was a child, since the war. If it had been, I couldn’t recall any of the details, and a heaviness clutched my chest, making it difficult to breathe. I couldn’t accept the simple explanation, not when the feeling wouldn’t shake and only appeared to build the longer I kept my eyes open, the remnants of sleep fading away to nothingness.
I was fully alert now, sniffing the air. Danger hung around me, but I couldn’t identify it easily, and I stalked toward the door, my hand on the knob when Aradia appeared before me.
“CADE!” she bellowed, confirming all my fears even before she gave me the details of her hysteria. “Come at once!”
“Zephy!” I breathed, knowing without her saying. The enchantress nodded once, gesturing with her head for me to follow, and I rushed after her, my throat closing. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Aradia admitted. “There’s a curse on the palace.”
“No!” I challenged her, rushing after her. “You enacted a shroud around her. She had guards—”
“She evaded the guards, and the shroud didn’t hold. I warned you that the magic was dark, and that there were too many forces at play.”
