Page 105 of Fae Crown

The sounds of plodding footsteps crunched closer, and then so many things happened at once, I couldn’t decide which way to look.

Roan and Pru entered the sliver of clearing. Reed came after. Next, Xeno, leading a scarred but very-much-alive Bolt.

“Put ‘em down, I told ya,” Roan repeated, this time in a stern command. “Now.”

With Saffron clinging to my back, I found myself in Xeno’s embrace, so firmly I could barely draw breath.

Edsel, West, and Hiroshi were deposited unceremoniously back on land—dropped from at least ten, maybe fifteen, feet up. They landed with groans, grunts, and crackling crunches.

A humongous figure crashed through the trees, sending branches and even trunks to the ground with loud, echoingcraaa-aaaa-aaaacks.

Take that, arbosauruses!

My breath stuck in my throat as a full-grown adult dragon materialized from the shadows.

Xeno clutched me harder, whispering, “Wyn. Wyn. Wyn,” over and again into my hair, as if his nickname for me were a desperate mantra.

Then … oh then, before I could make sense of everything that was happening, register that so many of my friends were unbelievably with me again, a voice sliced through the creaks and crunches and relieved whispers, overtaking the night.

“How quaint.”

Xeno stiffened against me. I sensed everyone else cease whatever they were doing as the awful realization hit us all at once.

That voice, its chilling, punishing tone … it belonged to the very monster we were out here trying to evade.

A snap of fingers—the queen’s, presumably—and the night grew bright as twilight.

She sat astride Azariah, whose wings, mane, and tail drooped morosely, as if wet. Ivar was mounted atop his own steed, one of those horses with dragon scales instead of a fur coat.

She snapped her fingers again, and more trees flattened to the ground in an outward circle around her and us, as if caused by a blast.

Beside me, Zafi squeaked invisibly.

The queen dug her heels into Azariah’s side and he trotted forward at her command. Ivar followed.

Azariah peeked up at me from beneath those thick, luscious lashes. I’d seen the unisus nervous and frightened, and still frightened yet boldly courageous. Butnever had I seen him like this: ashamed, defeated, and downtrodden.

“How dare you?” the queen began in an imperious tone that demanded we all listen and obey.

Urgently, my thoughts racing, I tuned her out. I knew, with complete certainty, that I wouldn’t make it through the night with my life if I didn’t do something totally unanticipated—and quickly. Before the queen could suspect what I planned to do.

The idea arrived in a flash so sudden, so unexpected, that I dared hope it might be magically guided intuition instead of a futile act of desperation.

The queen shouted … something, and I took advantage of her apparent fury and volume to whisper, “Everyone, right now. Touch me if you’re close enough. If not, grab on to someone else, as long as that one’s touching me.”

Most of my friends’ heads swiveled toward me. Those who didn’t soon did when another relayed my message.

The queen’s volume pitched higher when we didn’t meet whatever she’d just demanded of us.

“Hurry, hurry,” I said urgently. “Everyone, link up with me. Zafi and Bertram too. Black dragon, you too.”

Would the towering dragon understand me? Would it deign to do as I asked and touch me? Would the ranucu arrive in time? I didn’t know, but if my plan had any chance at working, I had to act before the queen interfered.

“You’ll all submit to me now,” she roared, loudlyenough to send creatures nesting in the treetops scattering into the no longer peaceful night.

I thought Zafi’s hand touched my neck around Saffron’s and Xeno’s arms, but I couldn’t be certain. Edsel, Pru, Reed, Roan, Hiroshi, Ryder, and West touched me directly or indirectly.

“Bolt,” I barked. “Him too.”

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