Page 119 of Burning Crowns

‘Stop that!’ She raised Night’s Edge, swinging blindly at the branches, but the sword was oddly heavy now, and the hilt was ice cold. Wren froze in the undergrowth. She looked for the silver cloud but it had disappeared deeper into the forest.Still floating. Still searching.

Rose tripped over a branch, falling to her hands and knees. ‘Help me,’ she said, with a whimper. ‘I can’t get up.’

Wren’s heart lurched, the urge to help her sister as strong as ever. But the sword weighed her down, stopping her. Wren was beginning to understand why. She didn’t go to her sister, didn’t speak another word. She waited for Rose to raise her head, to see if her creeping suspicion was true.

When Rose finally looked up, her eyes were cruel and mocking, her sickly smile far too wide.

‘Good,’ said Wren, staring down at her. ‘But not quite good enough.’ She raised Night’s Edge. This time, the sword almost floated into position, eager to be wielded. ‘Hello, Oonagh.’

Rose blinked, and the facade fell away, revealing the haunting face beneath. ‘Little bird.’ Oonagh smirked as she stood up, her eyes turning as red as the blood on her teeth. ‘You really are predictable.’

Wren’s sword glinted menacingly as she stalked towards her ancestor. ‘Time to die, Oonagh.’

‘For whom?’ Oonagh cocked her head and all around her hundreds of red eyes flashed in the dimness. By the time Wren noticed the beasts, it was too late.

She was already surrounded.

Rose

CHAPTER 40

As Oonagh left the clearing in search of Wren, Rose was overcome by a terrible rising dread. The beasts went, too, their red eyes fading from the shadows as they followed their leader through the trees. Towards Wren.

Rose bit back her scream, growing desperate with panic. Wren wouldn’t stand a chance against Oonagh. All those beasts would savage her before she had half a chance to defend herself. No. Rose wouldn’t stand for it. Shecouldn’t.They had come too far and suffered too much to lose it all now. Rose and Wren had earned their thrones and their kingdom, and Rose refused to let Oonagh snatch it from them at the beginning of their reign.

She steadied her breath. She ignored the sweat dripping down her spine and the tears prickling in her eyes. She had to do something.Anything. But despite her determination, her hands were bound behind her back. So, too, were her feet. Rose was stuck. She thrashed and struggled, but the vines only bit into her wrists, drawing more blood.

‘Help!’ she hissed to the weeping trees. ‘Please! I have to save my sister!’

The trees stood motionless, watching her struggle. She was alone in this vast place, with no one to help her.Then she glimpsed a glowing seed, floating high among the canopies. A new breeze stirred, caressing her cheeks.

‘A witch of Eana is never truly alone,’ it whispered. ‘So long as she has her magic.’

Rose stilled as an idea occurred to her. If she could find a way to cast an enchantment, she could loosen her binds and wriggle free. But she needed earth, dirt, mulch, anything. She twisted her body, scratching feebly at the bark behind her. But the tree was too hard and her fingernails came away without purchase.

‘Come on,’ she muttered, digging into the trunk.

It was no use. She blew out a breath then closed her eyes, tipping her head back until it touched the bark. There were more seeds glowing in the dimness now, and Rose felt her ancestors looking down on her. She sensed they wanted to help her. That perhaps they simply didn’t know how.

‘Please,’ she whispered to the spirits of her ancestors. ‘I just need a little earth. Something to offer for my spell.’

At first there was nothing. Just Rose’s heart thundering in her chest and the distant thrum of growling beasts. They were getting louder, angrier.

Oh, Wren.

Then there came a faint rustling from above. Rose looked up to see a single leaf floating down from the canopy. It listed like a feather, gentle and slow, until it came to land on her shoulder. Rose twisted her hands behind her back until her palms were facing upwards. Her wrists screamed at the unnaturalness of the movement but she pushed the pain away, carefully tilting her body to one side. The leaf tumbled from her shoulder.

It floated to the ground but Rose jerked just in time, catching it between her forefinger and thumb. She curled it in her fist,eyes streaming with tears of pain and triumph. ‘Got it,’ she said, with a sob. ‘I got it.’

With the leaf safe in her hand, she closed her eyes, summoning an enchantment. Her voice shook as she whispered it to the forest: ‘From earth to dust, I ask these vines, to free me from their wretched binds.’

The leaf warmed in her hand. She released it, casting her offering alongside the spell. The leaf disappeared as it fell. With remarkable quickness, the vines snapped, uncurling from Rose’s wrists. She pitched forward, falling on her hands and knees as the vines released her legs. And then, at last, she was unbound.

There wasn’t a moment to lose.

Rose grabbed a fistful of dirt from the forest floor and scrambled to her feet. She might not have a weapon to fight Oonagh but she had her magic and it had not yet failed her. And better still, Rose felt the forest was on her side, too.

She set off in the direction of the growling beasts just as a shadow came darting through the trees towards her. In a panic, Rose fired her handful of mulch.

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