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“It’s me, I’m here.”
“I can’t contr—” But his words were cut off. With a pained cry, he pressed his hand against his forehead, writhing as he tried to fight the invisible forces overtaking him. “The moonspar—” he gasped, tearing at his hair in agony.
The moonspar?
Suddenly, I remembered what he’d told me.The Magi tribe hates moonspars because they mess with their magic and spells.
Thunder crashed over our heads, and Jeddak’s eyes became hollow and cold again.
“You think you can beat me,” the White Widow said, kicking Jeddak to the side like a disobedient dog. Her voice was shards of ice. “So naive. Iwillfind the stone and with it, I will become the most powerful Magi who ever lived. And once I control all the magic, I will reunite the Magi tribe and take back everything that was ruined by our worthless forest queen long ago. The tribes of Eastlandra will bow to us. The Rathalans will be our slaves. And the Zaviens will wither and die, leaving none to oppose us.”
She broke a long, jagged icicle from the balustrade and raised it to strike like a dagger.
At that moment, I yanked the moonspar out of my pocket. Light poured out of the stone like the rising sun breaking on the horizon.
The Magi shrieked and threw her arm across her face to shield her eyes. The raging snowstorm waned like it was losing power. The ice underneath us formed a web of cracks.
I snatched the suli map out her hand before she staggered back. Then suddenly, Skyler appeared, hurling his full weight into the White Widow’s chest, the force knocking both of them over the side of the balcony.
“No!” I screamed as I watched them tumble over.
I ran to the railing, gripping it as I peered into the blackness below. There was no sign of him.
“Skyler,no,” I rasped, sinking to my knees. The harsh wind of the mountain blew my words away.
48
Jeddak
Iblinked slowly, gazing at my hands. Mere moments ago, they had betrayed me, fighting Averee, almost killing Raven. Worse, I’d witnessed them do it, unattached and unfeeling, like watching actors in a stage play.
Now, I saw it all play back, scene by scene, every act of treachery unfolding with excruciating clarity and pain. I dropped to my knees on the terrace, clawing my hair, silently begging it to stop.What happened to me?
Inside the great hall, I watched Kah bound toward the dais and rip a necklace off my father’s throat. Moments later, the king was giving orders for the Kovak guards to seize the remaining Rathalans and restore order to the hall.
From here, I could see that my father’s expression mirrored my own, like he was waking up from a horrible dream in which he’d played the villain. It all became clear then. Lila—no, theWhite Widow—had been poisoning his mind with a spell in that necklace since the moment she arrived in Askeland after my mother died. All this time, she’d been using the Kovaks to track down the Azurstone for her. She’d given me a necklace too, but when it didn’t work because of my protection mark, she must have devised a way to get around it—through the blood oath.
I swallowed the acid rising in my throat. How could I have been so stupid?
I looked over to see Raven on her knees at the end of the terrace, gripping the balustrade like it was a lifeline. I knew why she was there. I’d seen Skyler fall, tumbling over the edge into the dark abyss. That should have been me. I should have been the one to protect Raven, when all I’d ever done was put her in danger.
“Raven?” I breathed, approaching her cautiously. I didn’t know if I trusted myself near her, not after what I’d done.
She flinched away from me. “Go away.”
I looked her over to make sure she wasn’t injured. Blood dripped from the flimsy bandage on her right hand, and I noticed the map was now embedded in her left hand. Aside from a few other cuts and scrapes, she appeared unharmed.Thank the goddess.
“Let me heal your hand,” I offered.
She shook her head, not looking at me.
When I moved to kneel beside her, a furious flap of wings sounded above my head, and suddenly, I was being violently shoved backward. “Stay away from her!”
“Skyler!” Raven cried out.
Skyler knelt beside Raven, and she fell against him, burying her face into his chest as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Skies—I thought—” Raven breathed into his shirt.
“I’m all right,” he whispered, resting his chin on her hair while not taking his eyes off me. “I have wings, remember?”
