Page 31 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

And we were running out of time.

Seven years later, Menryth was once again living on the brink of invasion.

A collective breath hold. That’s what Amanti had called it. Lesha claimed that was dramatic, but Amanti wasn’t one for subtlety.

For seven years, Heliconia had reigned from her stolen throne in the north. According to Amanti’s sources, the power Heliconia had used on me that night had drained her nearly to death, which meant that, instead of invading the other courts after she’d cursed ours, she’d been forced into hiding to recover.

While the dark queen licked her wounds, her Obsidians had continued threatening the other courts with war unless they bowed to the self-proclaimed queen. But even though no one had officially given in to her demands, she hadn’t called them on it.

Yet.

It was only a matter of time until she was strong enough to come down from her mountain and take her vengeance on them. At least, she hadn’t been able to look too closely at the Summer Court. Amanti claimed Heliconia still thought she’d succeeded in killing us all that night.

I had no idea if that was true—we couldn’t take the risk of infiltrating her northern camps to find out. Instead, we concentrated on searching for others who could help heal our people and break their curse.

The barrier Sonoma constructed had kept us hidden from prying eyes and given the citizens of Rosewood a place to rest. It had taken us weeks to get them all into the castle, and a few more still to organize them so they weren’t lying piled in the halls. But we’d done it.

My people were safe. And alive. Even if they weren’t really living.

If Heliconia found out that we’d deceived her—that we’d found a way to save ourselves—she’d come for us. And she wouldn’t fail a second time. Not even my furyfire, honed and sharpened over these last years, would be enough to take on Heliconia at her full strength.

It was plenty, however, to protect Lesha’s back.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” I said to her now, the words rushing out too quickly to be anything but desperate. “I’ll go with you. We can search together?—”

“No.” Lesha turned from the window, her eyes fierce with determination. “We can’t risk you being discovered, Aurelia. You know that.”

I sighed, unwilling to rehash old arguments.

“This is for me to do alone,” she added. “Besides, there’s something you can do while I’m gone.”

I sat up straighter, eager to have a mission. “What is it?”

“I have a lead on a healer hiding out in the Broadlands, near the Trolech Forest. She studied under the Verdant, which means she knows about the old magic. She might know something that can help.”

The Broadlands was the only thing that stood between Summer’s borders and the foothills of the Concordian Mountains. It was ruled by no court and filled with deadly things. Out there, lawlessness reigned, and there were worse things that prowled than Heliconia’s Obsidian scouts. But we couldn’t afford to ignore the ancient magic the Verdant had possessed. It was the one lead we’d managed to uncover these last years. The one place where the magic to save us might still exist. It’s why Amanti had gone to Vorinthia, a lost kingdom thought to be deserted for nearly a thousand years now. If someone in the Broadlands knew something, I had to try to find them.

Sonoma was already frowning at me when I caught her eye, but I nodded at Lesha. “I’ll do my best.”

“This is a fool’s errand,” Sonoma said, and it took me a minute to realize she was speaking to Lesha and not me.

Lesha stood her ground. “I have to find her, Sonoma. We need her magic to keep the wards strong. Besides… Vorinthia is the one place where the veil could still be thin enough.”

I looked between them. “Thin enough for what?” I asked.

Sonoma looked away, scowling.

Lesha said softly, “To make contact with the Fates.”

Sonoma and I shared a look of irritation at the reference to the missing goddesses. In this, we agreed.

“They don’t want to help us,” I grumbled.

Lesha’s chin lifted. “If they won’t speak willingly, I’ll make them.”

“Make them?” Sonoma echoed from across the room. “They’ve been silent for seven years. What makes you think they’ll listen to you now?”

“I don’t have a choice.” Lesha stepped closer, the thin lines in her translucent wings reflecting the firelight. “We’re running out of time. You feel it, don’t you? The way the curse is changing—tightening its hold on the land. On us.”

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