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Hector stood. “One more thing. The dagger he gave you has iron at its center. The hilt is harmless to a fae, but the unsheathed blade will silence our magic at close range, and a single stab can kill us. If you are ever in danger, use it.” He walked back toward the horses and began checking all the buckles on his tack.
I glanced at the jeweled hilt sticking out of the saddle bag on Phantom. Rafael had given me a weapon that could kill him.
Soon, we were on the road again, and I was riding atop my new horse, pleasantly alone in the saddle. My eyes kept darting back to the golden dagger. Of all the gifts Rafael could have offered me, all the ways he could have sought forgiveness, he’d chosen a weapon capable of ending his immortal life.
My lips parted in a quiet gasp. “He does love me,” I breathed quietly to myself.
I scanned the plains, searching for the massive bear. He was plodding along a short distance from the road. His enormous head lifted, and he noticed me. I heard his voice in my mind as clearly as if he sat beside me.
I told you some things were unforgiveable.
* * *
The road wore on, and my body ached more acutely with each passing hour. We stopped only so I could sleep. Fortunately, the magic of my companions made setting up a luxurious bed inside an elaborate tent as easy as a few spoken words. The second full day of travel passed even more slowly than the first. My only entertainment was an occasional chat with Everence and the endlessly bizarre landscape. Stacks of rocks so high I couldn’t see the top. Moving rainbows that twisted horizontally along the ground. Mushrooms large enough that homes had been built on top of them. Marshes made of purple liquid. I saw a deer with antlers so large they nearly dragged along the ground at his sides and hawks as large as draft horses with riders buckled on their backs.
We couldn’t enter the Sun Palace while Rafael was a bear, which meant we would have to enter at night, and we had only one more day to cover the distance before we’d miss the coronation ball entirely.
On the third night of travel, moonlit vineyards rolled by, and a glistening river wound its way alongside the road. Dawn was near and blue light silhouetted the trees to the east. Sinsorias remained high in the sky above us, making sure we remained on course. Rafael rode Lily at the head of our little caravan.
“What’s that?” I asked, squinting up at the starry sky, where a dark shape wove among the thin clouds.
Everence followed my gaze and stopped humming. “That is a Shadow lord.”
My throat constricted, and I couldn’t ask for clarification. Instead, I gaped at the approaching figure. He rode a winged creature, black as night, that dove and flew nearly flat against the ground, moving fast. With one massive beat of its wings, the thing—a dragon—soared up and over us.
Everence reached for me. “Get off the horse!”
I obeyed. She beckoned me toward the long rows of grapevines near the road. Heart racing, I huddled under the overhanging vines beside her.
“They hate the Sun Court, and any with the power of the sun. They’re tormentors. Pests. They usually don’t bother Rafael, as he has so little power now, but being brother to the Sun Sovereign must be reason enough to attack.”
The dragon swooped over Rafael’s white horse and lifted him in its claws. I whimpered as I watched the horse gallop away, riderless. Rafael crawled up the dragon’s leg, knocking the rider to the ground. From higher than the nearest trees, they fell hard. I cringed as I imagined the pain. Then they were wrestling, and my fists were tapping nervously on my upraised knees.
My muscles tensed, and I remembered the dagger in my saddle bag. “The dagger!”
Everence’s hand on my shoulder made me jump. “Stay here.”
The dragon rider sliced at Rafael with a knife that glinted in the moonlight. He was fast, but not as fast as Rafael. Hector was there, lunging at the shadowy figure. The attacker was hard to see, almost as if he were part of the night, the darkest of shadows from head to foot. A second dark figure leaped, seemingly out of the first—where there had been one man, now there were two.
Hector and Rafael now each fought a separate foe, though the two shadowy men moved with such mirrored movements that it was like watching the same man fight in two different places. My brain couldn’t process what it was seeing.
Rafael howled as he took a hit. I flinched. Hector was pushing the other figure back, but Rafael had put his back to us and stood his ground. He was protecting us—protecting me. Everence hissed at me to stay put and darted forward, little ribbons of what might have been ice crystals carving through the air before her. The predawn sky had lightened, illuminating the grim scene.
The shadow figures were now outnumbered. Within seconds, the Starfell fae had driven them back, and, to my horror, the two shadow men merged once more into one man. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The foe had already mounted his dragon and was climbing into the sky. Rafael slumped to his knees.
I choked on my next breath and stumbled out from the shadows of the grapevines. Rafael collapsed onto his side, his knees curled up to his chest, as a small moan issued from his lips.
“Help him!”
Everence and Hector stood by. Everence had her arms neatly pressed to her sides, while Hector bent over panting, still holding his blade.
“Step back, Talia,” Hector warned.
“He’s bleeding!”
“Get back!”
As the first bright shard of sunlight broke over the horizon, Rafael’s body lurched.
