Page 143 of Cursed Crowns

The witches laughed as they fed their power to the blaze, the serpent growing ever larger as it herded the Arrows, its tail twisting around them in a mighty circle.

And then, suddenly, they were trapped. With nothing betweenthem and death but a wall of hissing, spitting flames. They cowered together. Some passed out in fear, while others tried to leap through the fire, only to fall, burned and howling, to the ground.

Rose skidded to a stop on the riverbank. “Wren!” Even from here, the heat was relentless. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be trapped inside the blaze. “WREN!”

Reluctantly, Wren turned from the flames and jogged toward her. “Why do you look so scared? We’re winning!”

“At what cost?” demanded Rose. “For goodness’ sake, what were you thinking making that awful creature?”

Wren jutted her chin out. “They’ll never rise up against us again, Rose. Not after this.”

Rose’s hands were trembling. Her heart, too. “I don’t want to rule with fear, Wren. Fear leads to hatred, tothis. We’re no better than they are.”

“Maybe not, but at least we’re stronger.”

Rose grabbed her sister by the shoulders. “A just ruler shows mercy. There is a better way than this. A smarter way.”

“This is the smart way,” said Wren.

“No. This is the way of Oonagh Starcrest.”

Wren recoiled from the name, from what it meant.

“We promised ourselves we wouldn’t be like them,” Rose went on. “That we would lead with unity. Withpeace.This is our kingdom, Wren. What good is it if it’s built on fear?”

Wren hesitated. Rose could see the war behind her sister’s eyes—the old ways that Banba had taught her battling with the new, the thirst for revenge slowly giving way to thoughtfulness. She glanced at thefire, then back at Rose. “All right,” she said on a breath. “What do you need me to do?”

“Just follow my lead.”

Rose threw her hands to the heavens and walked on, toward the flames.Eana, wherever you are, please send us your strength, she begged her ancestor.We need it now more than ever.

“What are you doing?” said Shen. “You’ll get hurt.”

Rose closed her eyes, channeling every drop of her magic into summoning a new storm. Beside her, Wren did the same. The wind came first, kissing their cheeks as it toyed with their hair. Then thunder rolled across the sky, bringing a heavy gray cloud with it. It was the biggest rain cloud Rose had ever seen, and still it swelled, casting Anadawn in its shadow.

The wind picked up as it rumbled through the sky, until Rose could feel static on her skin, in her hair. The cloud stopped above the riverbank, and for a moment, everyone looked up.

“NO!” shouted Rowena. “Don’t spoil all the fun!”

The snake lashed out, burning another group of Arrows. They screamed as they dropped to the grass.

Wren grabbed Rose’s hand. “Let’s end this.”

“Together,” said Rose, squeezing her sister’s hand.

With an almighty sigh, the heavens opened. Sheets of freezing water poured from the storm cloud, drenching everything and everyone below it.

The snake hissed as it burned out, its tongue turning to putrid black smoke before their eyes. The twins walked on, into their storm, calling down another hail of rain until it hung from Rose’s lashes and turnedthe world blurry. She was soaked to the bone, her clothes sticking to her skin, but with her sister at her side and their magic flowing in perfect unison, she had never felt so powerful.

As the last of the fire snake curled up in a plume of gray smoke, the Arrows fell to their knees, looking to the sky with wonder as though the Protector himself had come to deliver them from death.

That would not do.

Rose summoned a gust of wind and used it to cast her voice across the riverbank until every witch and every Arrow, and all her soldiers—the good and the traitorous—could hear her.

“Put down your weapons! Call back your power!” she cried. “Stow your fear and your anger. This battle is finished.”

“There will be no more blood spilled on this soil today,” shouted Wren. “No more lives lost.”

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