Page 40 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

Relief floods me, so intense that my legs buckle slightly. After all this time, and everything we’ve been through, we’re finally right on the precipice of what had once seemed an unachievable goal. At this point, I might hand over the realm to Avonia without a fight if I could just sit inside by a warm fire and enjoy a hot meal. My mouth waters just thinking of it.

We ride throughout the day until the sun begins its descent toward the horizon. I still can’t see anything, but I know the Court of Memory will pop into view at any moment. It can’t be much farther. I look over at Zyren as we ride, just a momentary glance. If we can convince the people here to fight with us, there’s a chance this crazy plan could work. We could defeat Avonia and win back my throne. We could save Valaron. And then I can find a way to Eldare to save Lilette.

It’s as the last thought passes through my head that I feel them. A swarm of nightmares twice as big as the one that nearly caught us outside the ice forest.

“No,” I gasp, spinning in the saddle and looking behind us. Not like this—not when we’resoclose. Is the world really that unjust?

Of course, I know the answer to that question. I know it quite well.

“Nightmares,” Zyren growls, turning in the same way. He must have sensed them, too.

“There’s nowhere to hide this time,” Merla says softly, her eyes the size of moons.

“Then we fight,” Sarielle growls.

Chapter Twenty-One

Zyren

The nightmares swarmtoward us across the sky, but this time there’s nowhere to hide. We’d endured the torture of the ice forest and the demon within, all for nothing. All to die here, within an hour’s ride of the Court of Memory. The injustice of it feels like a spear to the chest.

I know one thing with complete certainty. If I’m going to die here, in the frozen wasteland of the north, I’m going to take as many of Avonia’s pets out with me as I can, until the snow is black with their blood.

“Get behind me,” I growl to Sarielle.

“No,” she says.

I whip my head around to look at her, but she just calmly dismounts her horse as I level my fiercest gaze at her. She smacks the horse on the rump, and it turns and gallops away.

“What the hell are you doing?” I growl.

“You can’t do this alone,” she responds. “And I’m not hiding any longer.”

Owyn pulls his horse up alongside mine, Merla on the far side of him. “She’s right. If we go to the great beyond, we go together.”

A cacophony of raucous shrieks hits my ears as the nightmares begin their descent toward us, flying like a sea of deadly spears, darkening the sky with their approach. I let out a howl of rage and get off my horse, too, sending him away like Sarielle did. I stalk over to her, and we lock gazes for several long moments.

“I’m sorry I failed you,” I say, grinding the words out between my teeth.

She reaches up and cups my cheek with her hand for a moment. “You’ve never failed me, Zyren. Not once.” I drop my gaze, but she reaches out and digs her fingers into my shoulder. “As your queen, I command you to heed my words.” When I nod, slowly, she smiles. “Now, let’s fight.”

As the words leave her mouth, shadows begin to spin around her, and inky swirls of black move across her golden eyes. The strength of her magic sends a tremor out across the earth, sending snow spiraling into the air. As the magic rises up and around her, whipping her hair back, it changes from the dyed black strands to her natural pale silver. Wings of shadow flare out behind her, like the feathers of a phoenix.

The nightmares give a final collective bloodthirsty shriek and plunge from the sky.

My own inner monster comes roaring out of me. Shadows burst forth, and I can feel my eyes change, my fingers lengthen into claws, my wings bursting forth. My ravens shoot out of me and launch skyward, spreading out to meet the onslaught of nightmares. I send a wave of darkness into the sky that merges with Sarielle’s power. Shadow and magic and monster meet with a deadly clash directly over our heads.

Bodies begin to fall from the sky as the first wave of our magic takes its toll. Owyn hurls his purple spears into the enemy oneafter the other; Merla calls wind and snow, wielding it with deadly force as she separates clusters of nightmares from the charge and hurls them to the ground. The roar of wind and magic and the screams of the flying monsters fill the air. My blood boils with the rage of the darkness within, fully unleashed. I don’t try to control it. There will be no returning to myself because I will die in this form, which is perhaps the truest form I have.

Next to me, I see Sarielle unleash one of her shadow phoenixes, and it rips through several of the nightmares above, spraying blood across the snow. The hum of the magic around her is more powerful than anything I’ve ever felt. Slowly, she begins to hover off the ground, twisting upward into the sky as she releases blast after blast of shadow. I cannot see the sun or the sky anymore. All I see is darkness: the nightmares, and a vast expanse of roiling shadows.

We’ve taken down dozens of our enemy, but there are dozens upon dozens more. They spread out and swoop around behind us until we’re encased in a dome of darkness and death. One of the creatures dives into Owyn, knocking him from his horse, and another flies by Merla, scraping its claws along her cheek. Another breaks through my ravens and knocks me backward into the snow. It is taller than I am, with leathery wings like a bat, and six arms, each ending in a set of claws. I manage to get my hands around its throat as it snaps for my face, its deep red eyes locked onto mine. A putrid stream of saliva falls from its mouth and hits my cheek, burning like flame.

I roar in pain as it digs its first set of claws into my shoulders. Hot blood pours across my skin, and I feel the scrape of claw against bone. Its second set of arms scrape down my chest and abdomen, cutting me into bloody ribbons. I blast my shadows outward, and the thing shudders and loosens its grip. Anotherpulse of magic, and it bursts into ash and flame, bits of burning flesh falling into the snow all around me.

My eyes scan the scene. Owyn is still battling the nightmare that knocked him off his horse, and two more have joined in. Merla is on the ground now, her horse half crushing her, two nightmares advancing on her. And Sarielle is floating directly overhead, almost invisible in the swarm of nightmares coming for her, their primary target. Their queen, their oppressor. I climb to my feet and stretch out my wings, launching skyward to join her.

That’s when I feel it coming.

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