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Incinerate this hideous creature in front of me.
Torin emerged from the castle doors, hands hidden in her sleeves, her face pale.
I swung my leg over the back of the gray gelding, holding back my rage as I studied this foul thing who had trapped us so neatly. “You will regret this.” Just words, perhaps, but a promise, too. “There will come a day when I will make you pay for everything you have done.”
“A thousand males, far more powerful than you have made that very same threat, yet none of them managed to keep it.” Her hideous black grin widened. “Mark my words, girl. You will be no different.”
A thousand males might have tried and failed, but maybe it took a woman to accomplish the impossible. The idea was something to hold onto, anyway.
Raz kicked his horse between us. “We ride for the Caverns; we can make it in time, but it’ll be close.” Raziel jerked his head to Tristan, once again the commander of an army, albeit an army of four.
“Once we reach the bottom of the mountain trail, we have to ride hard.”
Tristan had his bow and what looked like a hundred arrows strapped across the back of his saddle. “I’ll find high ground when we get into position. What’s your plan?”
“I’ll explain on the way,” Raz muttered, and the Oracle’s cackle sent my hackles rising, her foul scent stuffing up my nose, even out here. “You want this done, we’ll do it my way,” Raziel snarled. Then every thought emptied out of my head when Tavion loped out of the front doors of the castle, his silver fur gleaming, pale eyes landing on the Oracle with a raw, primal rage as he bared his teeth.
He was magnificent in this form, a sleek killing machine, even the Oracle spinning to keep him in view as Raziel kicked his horse into action, flying to get in between them. But Tristan was already there, pushing Tavion back a step.
Thank the gods.I had no doubt if Tavion sprang, she would kill him. “Tavion,” I growled across the drive, “stand down. This will get us nowhere.”
I jerked in surprise when something touched my leg.
“Anaria. There’s something I have to tell you while he’s keeping her busy.” Torin stared up at me with her bleak, milky gaze, then headed toward the far edge of the courtyard. I reined my mount away from the escalating situation, half hoping Tavion did rip the Oracle’s head off.
“What do you want?” I snapped, flipping the hood of my cape up over my hair. “We’re well and truly trapped, thanks to you selling Zor out to the king. Are you happy now?”
“I’m not at all happy,” she admitted quietly. “Which is why I’m helping you.”
I glanced back at Raziel, hissing threats at the Oracle, who only looked amused, while Tavion paced back and forth, searching for an opening. “It’s a little late for a warning, I would think.”
“Did you find it?” she murmured.
“Find what?” I said innocently, widening my eyes, refusing to give her the satisfaction of knowing I’d fallen for her trap.
“The stone,” she hissed. “Did you find the stone I left you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I jerked the reins, moving the gelding away from her. She could fuck right off. She’d picked her side, and it was not ours.
“Don’t be difficult, Anaria. Isawwhat’s waiting for you down there,” she whispered. “I can’t help you directly, not with her watching. The stone was the only thing I could risk giving you. A powerful gift, to use only in the direst of times.” Her dead eyes began to glow, and I brought my horse to a halt.
“We are all caught in this now,” she explained quickly. “That part was not a lie. But just because you are caught, does not mean there is no escape.”
“Tell me, then, how do I stop this?”
Despite everything, my voice broke at the end, and Torin’s face softened. “There is no stopping this. Every time you use your magic, you bind the five of you tighter together, as the Oracle intended. Today will be the final step in that transformation.”
“But why?” I asked helplessly. “I don’t understandwhy.”
“Because once you have bound these males to you, the Oracle will control you all.” Out of the corner of my eye, Tavion leapt straight toward the Oracle. She knocked him out of the air with a flick of her finger, sending him rolling across the ground.
“How?” But dread shivered through me, the memory of that horrible, impossible vision swallowing me up.
“Through you.” We both watched Tavion scramble to his feet, Raz and Tristan moving to intercept, the Oracle’s face gleaming in anticipation as Tavion leapt again, only to be flung through the air once more.
“To save Zorander, all of you will have to fighttogether. Once you spill blood today, you will be forever bound together. Once you are bound…if you die, the others die. That is the nature of the Oracle’s trap.”
The shouting, Tavion’s snarls, even the Oracle’s cackling faded away. “We already know that.”
