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Rafael
Talia rode the horse I’d bought for her. She’d climbed into the saddle without a word, and despite the fact that she’d witnessed the attack by the Shadow lord, she kept her head high and her shoulders back, unafraid, as we proceeded toward the town that hugged the outside of my brother’s castle. Her presence beside me alleviated the pain burning in my side.
She’d admitted that I’d succeeded. Which meant…she loved me.
But she’d glared at me with such hatred on the road back there. Even I had no idea what would happen to her, given she both loved and hated me. Fabian’s curse didn’t dictate what would happen in that case.
At a bend in the road, the Sun Palace came into view, and Talia’s lips parted.
The buildings that abutted the Palacio del Sol—a city in its own right—glittered like sun-struck snow and clung like icicles to the massive walls of the pale sandstone rising in the center, tall as a mountain. Light shone from the walls and stood in a bright column that stretched up to the heavens. My brother always did have a flair for the absurd. Even from the womb, when he’d entered the world hanging onto my ankle so that we’d both be named firstborn. The hatred had begun then, but it would end soon.
Sinsorias’s ridiculous flower carriage soared over our heads toward the palace. Finally, he was leaving us.
From his saddle, Hector looked down at me. “Remind me again why we’re doing this? Fabian has infinitely more power than you and an entire castle full of people who adore him for it.”
I snorted and pawed at the ground.
Hector let out a mirthless laugh. “I know. I’m not saying we should back out.”
The windows in the whitewashed stone buildings gave the town a skeletal feel, despite the many flowers and impressive fountains. This part of the town had been designed by alojas, with walls that curved and flowed, and the roofs were domed like skulls rather than flat like boxes. Aloja architecture created a somewhat dizzying effect.
Everence walked in front of her horse, more at ease on the ground than in the saddle. She explained the architecture to Talia. “The alojas rose to prominence as architects not long ago, when Fabian took one as a wife. Two hundred years ago, this city looked entirely different.”
I snorted. I hadn’t faced Fabian in nearly a century, and still it was too soon.
All around, fountains sprang out of the walls, cascaded from the rooftops, and soared to the skies in all manner of shapes and forms. Glowing colored tiles shot rainbows of light into the arcing fountains.
For so much beauty, the place twisted my insides with dread.
We had traveled too slowly, my pace slowed significantly because of my wound, and already the day drew to a close. The royal palace likely already teemed with guests, as the coronation ball was set to begin at one hour after the last light of day. The party would proceed until dawn, when the fallow month would officially expire and my father’s former crown would fall to my brother.
Meandering through the narrow streets of the lower city, I smelled the hounds for the first time that day. On the open road, the wind had been on our faces, hiding the scent of the dips, but the city walls stopped the breeze and trapped the scent of our pursuers.
Everence tapped Hector’s leg, whispered something up to him, and then climbed back into her saddle.
Hector stopped his horse, waited for Talia to catch up, then spoke to her in hushed tones. “If we don’t arrive by the time the ball starts, the dips will hunt us down, and the prince will unleash all manner of beasts on us.”
And if we did arrive on time, and my brother detected my affection for Talia, he would dismember her in front of me, so I could carry those memories into my dismal eternity.
Hector grunted. “We’re out of time.”
“Is that an inn?” asked Talia, pointing at a building with a door that moved like a woman’s mouth and sang about sweet dreams.
Everence chuckled. “No. That is a harpy’s house.” She turned all the way around in the saddle and lifted a brow at Hector.
Hector’s jaw worked, but he said nothing to Everence’s pointed stare. Instead, he cleared his throat and announced, “After the change, we will proceed to the palace.”
Talia frowned. “We can’t go straight there?” she asked.
“Best not to arrive when he’s a bear,” Hector said. “Rafael has almost no magic in this form. As a man, he can at least speak his magic and wield a blade.”
Talia’s hand brushed the dagger she’d strapped to her waist. After the attack from the Shadow lord, I was glad to see her carrying a weapon. This place was full of danger.
The sun dropped below the rooftops. I loped forward, searching for a place I could change with as few witnesses as possible. After another turn, I hurried across a wider avenue, hoping the lanes on the other side would be less crowded.
Alojas in thin, watery dresses and high fae in silken ballgowns streamed toward the palace. Duendes, with their gnarled faces and tiny eyes, sneered and pointed at us from upper story windows as we passed. Few of the duendes would be present at my brother’s coronation, since they were confined to the houses they served, but they were apt at insults and tossed them out like leprechaun coins. The harpies wore next to nothing, but their charms didn’t work on me in this form. I darted down a narrow alley, sniffing the wind for threats.
“Find us a place!” Everence yelled at Hector.
