Page 222 of Of Nine So Bold

Crackles like lightning crawled over the glass, joining his light. Inside the glass, the princess shielded her eyes. Through the strange connection we all now shared to her power, I could feel her magic pouring from her outstretched hand, aimed at the glass.

“Come on,” I urged between gritted teeth, spinning out of the way of a diving harpy. “Break, you fucking?—”

An icy wind suddenly whipped over the courtyard, driving me backward. The harpies scattered and the green-skinned men stopped, struggling to stand in the face of the onslaught. Casimir staggered, fighting to hang onto the wall and his spell alike.

The wind faded. A chuckle carried through the silence in its wake.

“Oh, I think that’s quite enough.”

A thumping pulse went through the glass. Casimir flew backward, thrown from the globe like he’d been hit by a battering ram. Before he hit the ground, he shifted and turned, twisting in midair and then landing on his feet.

The queen paced calmly around the side of the misty globe. “Impressive.” She regarded Casimir. “You have the look of the Zeniryan royal family. I’d heard one of my sister witches devoured you all. I didn’t realize one of you remained for Gwyneira to turn into apet.”

She chuckled to herself like the words were some secret joke. Her blond hair gleamed in the sunlight, but so did her skin, the latter with a faintly silver sheen that made no sense. Her black dress seemed to absorb the light completely, swallowing it whole and letting nothing return. When she smiled, her fangs glinted between her red lips while her blue eyes were as soulless as a doll’s.

“Release the princess,” Casimir growled.

Queen Melisandre made an amused sound. “Suchloyalty. Risking so much for my pathetic stepdaughter and her idiotic crusade. As if you’d find any other outcome than simply watching her die.”

The demon’s snarl tore the air. Claws at the ready, he charged.

Her hand caught him around the throat, stopping him in his tracks. The demon’s eyes went wide as he struggled and couldn’t break free.

“No, no,” she chided. “I have somethingspecialplanned for you.”

The air warped. Gaps in reality suddenly appeared between them, tearing across his chest and arms like invisible claws.

The demon screamed.

Metal flashed at the corner of my eye. With a roar, Ozias hurled his ax through the air. The blade spun end over end, flying for the space between the demon and the queen.

A heartbeat ahead of when the blade would cost her an arm, she released him. The demon crumpled to the ground, hunched over the wounds on his chest and arms.

The queen’s eyes turned to Ozias. She smiled, the expression brutal in its satisfaction.

Dread gripped me, but she didn’t attack. “Keep them here,” she said to the Voidborn calmly. “And save the winged one for last. I need to have a word with my stepdaughter.”

She turned away and walked through the glass like it wasn’t even there. Inside the globe, Gwyneira retreated, her eyes locked on her stepmother.

As one, the Voidborn charged.

57

GWYNEIRA

Like something out of a nightmare, my stepmother passed through the glass wall. Her eyes never left me. A satisfied smile was fixed upon her face.

And her eyes were so calm, they made my skin crawl.

“You’ve run for so long, Gwyneira, desperately pretending to be something you’re not. But that ends here.”

She walked closer. The light reflected strangely from her skin, as if she was made of scales and metal, not flesh. As she moved, the air warped and rippled, tiny new fissures of darkness shedding from her like feathers falling from a molting bird.

My eyes darted to the demon. Beyond the misty glass wall, he was on the ground but, thank the gods, alive. Niko was with him, sword slashing to keep the harpies and green-skinned creatures at bay.

“Do you want to know what I’m going to do to your allies, Gwyneira? How they’ll suffer because of you?”

Shudders rolled through me, but as I pulled my gaze back to her, I tried to fight them down. She wanted to hurt me. Scare me. Get inside my head.

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