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“You’re not a?—”
“We don’t have time, Ayna. The blood isn’t going to break the curse.” Crimson drops spill from his lips. He wipes them away with the back of his hand, and I lay a finger over his mouth, preventing him from speaking.
“I’ll try again once you’ve defeated the Flames. I’ll come back and—” I’m really doing this. I’m really considering running—and returning to finish what I’ve started. Past Ayna would warn me not to be foolish, that an enemy like the Flames couldn’t be outrun. And that the Crows couldn’t be trusted either.
“I don’t need you to return, Ayna.” He captures my other hand, removing it from his mouth after a soft kiss to my palm, and the shiver running through me has nothing to do with fear of what it might mean to make my way through the forest again. “I need you to live.” He brushes his thumb over my knuckles as he leads my hand to his heart, placing it to feel its steady beat.
“The curse will kill me anyway.”
Myron shakes his head. “Not when I’m dead, it won’t. I need to know that you’ll be safe so I can die in peace when the Flames tear us to shreds.”
Guardians—“No.” My voice is less than a whisper.
When he kisses me this time, it isn’t the fiery sensation I’m used to; it’s a harbinger of the end—and I can’t bring myself to tear away even when he does. My mouth follows his until he’s pulled himself up to his full height and his lips are out of reach.
“It’s time.” He doesn’t wait for my response before opening the door with a flick of his fingers.
Outside, the stench of singed flesh fills the air, and caws turn into screams where Crows are burning.
Thirty-Nine
The last timeI’ve felt fear like this wasn’t when I was running from the palace and the traitor Crows hunted me down, or when I’d run for the lake when they attacked Myron. In the former incident, I was only fretting for my own life, and in the latter, I thought Myron could handle himself for a while, even with the poison impacting his ability to wield his power.
This is different. Not unlike in the first Flame attack when wildfire consumed everyone and everything in its path, just more controlled. Where Crows were fighting last time, today what few guards were stationed on this floor have already turned into charred, featherless corpses.
“Too late to get out.” I pull my shirt over my mouth and nose to block out the stench of burning flesh as I try to find one Crow—just one—who’s still alive and fighting.
There are none.
Myron ducks around the corner, tugging me along into the same alcove where I’d sought shelter the last time—and where I was captured by a Fire Fairy. Goosebumps rise on my arms and neck at the mere thought of such a powerful creature getting ahold of me again. Even Myron is afraid of them. He doesn’t show much on that composed face of his, but I know him well enough by now to spot the tiny tells like the tense lines bracketing his mouth and the way his gaze darts back over his shoulder to check on me more often than he should when his fingers are locked around mine and he can feel me right behind him.
Because I can’t bear to watch you die now that I’ve come to love you.His words wrap around me like a blanket of safety, and all I want is to forget the Flames exist. All I want is to have one last moment where I can show him how much he means to me because I can’t get myself to tell him in words how far I’ve fallen for him, or my heart will be wrecked beyond repair if anything happens to him. As long as I don’t speak the words, they aren’t true, and I don’t … and I don’t feel for him what I do.
“How did they get in here so fast?” Myron seems to be asking himself more than me. “They were halfway into the forest the last time I checked.”
“And you didn’t think to send out an army to stop them?” It’s not my place to question his war strategies. The most I know about battle tactics is from the loots with the Wild Ray, and that was on water and the biggest challenge usually was to sneak up on the target ship close enough so we could enter with ropes or planks. This is an entirely different caliber of battle.
“I don’t have an army large enough at my disposal to smother them in open grounds. The palace is easier to defend.”
We both stare out at the burning banner waving from the opposite wall, my mind racing toward the sacred chamber where a possible ally is slumbering.
“Royad should be arranging defenses at the ground level,” Myron explains, his magic racing across the hall where it snuffs out the fires within reach. At least, there are no new ones flaring up. “They must have gotten in through one of the abandoned wings.”
He points at the dark corner where the balcony serving as a hallway two levels up from the entrance hall meets one of the alcoves. I’ve never noticed it as anything other than an extended alcove, but then, I’ve never had much opportunity to explore the palace.
“Not so easy to defend after all,” I utter under my breath.
Myron shakes his head, face grim and violence in his eyes.
“There are a few places in these halls that have been sealed off for good reason after the last Crow War.” His magic curls around the top part of the banner and slices it off so only a sliver of burning fabric glides to the ground. “I’d hoped my magic would keep them inaccessible for anyone. Apparently, I made a mistake.”
“Apparently.” My fingers curl as I shut out the stench and the smoke trying to climb down my nose while Myron swipes clear the upper level for us to cross to the stairs.
“We need to get you out before they send a second wave of fire.”
My head whips toward him. “You mean this was only the first attack?”
I haven’t spotted a single Fire Fairy, and yet, there is no Crow alive on this level of the palace. The Flames wiped them out with a giant arm of heat. My stomach turns, and I have to swallow the bile to keep myself from emptying my last meal at Myron’s feet.
