Page 22 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

“Not you,” Heliconia said. Her gaze swung back to mine. “Her.”

The guests standing nearby seemed to shrink away from me. I couldn’t blame them. Callan remained, but I felt him tremble as Heliconia’s attention settled on me.

“I have nothing to say to you,” I told her.

“The Fates think they can stop me, but they are wrong,” Heliconia said, hatred dripping from her voice. “It took me a long time to learn what they’d done with you. Mostly because I wasn’t bothering to look. Silly me thought the Aine would never betray their sacred laws.” She snorted. “My mistake. Although, I’m not sure it matters now that I’ve seen what you are—and what you’re not. Yours is a foolish destiny, girl.”

She strode forward, and I braced for whatever attack she would launch. More guards would be coming, but it wouldn’t be enough.

The worst part was that I wouldn’t be enough, either.

I had no idea what she meant about my destiny being foolish, but I knew for sure, standing in her presence, that I would die for it before I’d had a chance to live.

“If I’m not a threat to you, why bother hunting me down?” I asked, buying time—for what, I didn’t know. Prolonging the inevitable maybe.

Heliconia’s eyes flashed with pure fury. She didn’t like being challenged. “Why does a cat hunt a mouse?” she shot back. “The fun of the kill, I suppose.” She lifted her hand, dark magic sparking from it?—

“Heliconia, stop this,” my mother commanded, her voice trembling now as she was nudged back behind her guards. “You’ve made your point. Leave. There’s no need for violence.”

But Heliconia only laughed. Low. Cold. Her eyes glittered with cruel amusement. “You’re the ones who bred a weapon for my destruction. And for that treachery, violence is precisely what you’ll get.” She spread her hands wide, and power shimmered around her. Dark, ancient magic. It radiated through the thick air, sending shivers down my spine.

Unlike with the Obsidian, there was nothing about this dark force that appealed to my strange hunger.

The smoke veil over our heads began to descend again, clogging my throat. I choked on it, my eyes watering as I bent over to try to breathe.

“Aurelia!” Sonoma’s voice came from somewhere above me.

Hope speared through me, and I straightened, straining to see her and the other Aine through the swirling blackness.

“Come and fight us, bitch!” Amanti’s voice rang out.

I felt the pulse of their magic as the Aine desperately attempted to break through the wards Heliconia had used to seal them out.

Desperate to do something, I picked up a broken plate andhurled it upward. It bounced off the barrier and slammed to the ground at my feet, shattering into tiny pieces.

Callan flinched.

The great and terrible general, the warrior of Autumn, stood and simply cowered.

“The Aine will save us,” someone uttered behind me.

“The Aine are weak. They cannot save you now,” Heliconia hissed.

I turned slowly, dread pooling in my gut. Around me, several fae had begun whispering prayers to the Fates, pleading and begging for their help.

“The Fates will not intervene,” Heliconia declared. “Their time ruling this realm is finished. Mine is only beginning.”

People gasped at that. Some began to sob.

Heliconia’s words thundered inside me. If she were telling the truth—if the Fates had abandoned us—even the Aine couldn’t stop her now.

“Take me,” I blurted. “Leave them alone. I will go willingly or do whatever you want. Just leave them be.”

“Princess Aurelia,” she said, her voice dripping with venom. “The girl who was never supposed to be. The warrior meant to destroy me. I’ll happily take your life, but it won’t spare theirs.”

“She is not a threat to you,” Sonoma’s voice rang out through the veil. And I felt the cut of her words slice all the way through me.

Heliconia glared up through the shadowy ward she’d erected against the sky. “Did you think I wouldn’t know?” she demanded. “That the forest wouldn’t whisper what you’d done behind my back? Concordia spilled all your secrets to me.” Sonoma snarled, but Heliconia only seemed more pleased by it. “I found your cabin. The scent of your little family is still there, you know.”

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