Page 83 of Wings of Cruelty and Flame

Another wyvern seized with a cry and dropped from the sky, my husband whittling the enemy legion’s numbers to single figures. How many were left now? Eight? Six? I searched behind them, scanning the mountains for the other wyverns who crept up on us, but found nothing. He’d killed them, too. Varidian was capable and dangerous and all the things I loved and—and he didn’t need me.

I’ll be more helpful in the next battle,I tried to convince myself. I would perfect my mounting, learn to guide Raheema in battle, practise all those manoeuvres the legion could do. I’d be useful. I’d never have to run from another fight. But now, this time…

I hated it, but Raheema and I retreated. She hated it too, bristling beneath me, sky-blue wings cutting angrily through the air, her tail lashing like a furious cat’s. I stroked her scales with a gloved hand, my heart a painful knot in my chest.

“A-lalla,” Sabira hissed, her wyvern lurching suddenly closer. It was the title more than her proximity that sent a rush of diamond-bright alertness into me. I straightened in my seat.

When she had my attention, Sabira pointed to the edge of the wall, where solid tan stone met the rugged knives of mountains, far enough from the watchtowers that the dark shadow of the wyvern perched on the tower failed to see what we did: a broad, spiked ruby clawing its way up the face of the wall, talon by talon, until it reached the top.

Sneaking into my city, my home, to threaten my people.

“We stop them,” I decreed, meeting Sabira’s eyes. My voice came out in the cool, hard tone Varidian had used when commanding her. “We donotlet them enter the city.”

We hesitated a moment too long. The ruby wyvern clawed its way to the top of the wall, and in a vicious slash, raked a wicked-sharp talon across the fragile underbelly of the guard wyvern.

Guts spilled, pouring down the wall, a stain on gold stone. The wyvern’s scream echoed all the way to the skies, sending me forward in my seat.

Both mount and rider crashed from the wall and the ruby didn’t even pause to watch dispassionately, instead jumping down the other side of the wall. Into the Red Star.

Intomykasbah.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

AMEIRAH

Ifixed my jaw, urging Raheema into a lightning-fast flight, taking whatever scraps of air I could into my lungs as we shot past mountains and rocks and rugged ground. Sabira kept pace beside us, her presence the only thing that stopped my breathing spiralling into a jagged mess.

A wyvern had made it past the wall and all I could think about was how many children were in the kasbah, how many innocent lives could be lost. All the people I’d seen walking through the streets, shopping at the souk, milling around the tiled square… would I watch them all die?

We soared over the wall, and I was glad when Sabira waved and yelled to get the attention of the watchmen, but I couldn’t think of anything but that spiked ruby and all the damage it could do—to homes, livelihoods, places of sanctuary, sacred spaces, but especially to my people.Mypeople.

Raheema rumbled a warning growl to anyone who got in our path, feeding off my rage and determination. Varidian didn’tneed me. But the people of the Red Star only had five house guards and a dozen riders, no compulsion magic, no decades of experience fighting enemies at the wall.

I glanced to my left, checking Sabira was still with me, and urged Raheema to drop down on the other side of the wall, as low as we could fly without skimming the rooftop gardens of nearby homes. A glance at the wall showed the guards had leapt into the air, wyvern wings beating the air as sharp eyes scanned the wall. They’d been complacent, I realised, even with the city on high alert. They believed no one, wyvern or rider, could get past the Legion of Fyrevein. Or maybe they believed Varidian alone could hold them off.

My chest pulled tight, restricting air flow. I had to trust Sabira to guard my back as Raheema and I wove in and out of buildings, searching for deep red scales, vicious black spikes, and slit-pupiled eyes.

“Where did it go? Can you sense them?” I asked Raheema.

Her growl of frustration was enough of an answer. She couldn’t hear them, either. It was like they’d disappeared.

A shadow passed above and I flinched, snapping my head back to scan the sky, but it was just the old guard on his battle-scarred wyvern patrolling the wall, searching like us for the one who slipped past.

“How did they get through the shield?” I yelled at Sabira as we ducked and wove along streets, our search taking us further and further from the wall. There were a thousand different places to hide—the sprawling glue factory, the tree-covered parks, the dark alleyways between rows of sturdy shops and crowded houses. A determined rider could even conceal a wyvern in the tall tents that ringed the merchant guild, the unsanctioned vendors expanding against Varidian’s best attempts to keep them controlled.

“The shield keeps out wyverns in flight,” Sabira shouted behind me. “This one was clever.”

But… no wyvern even attempted to fly over the wall. Theyknewabout the shield, knew they’d be killed on impact with the magic if they flew. Theyknew,which meant someone inside the Red Star had told them, or they’d been planning this a very long time. Long enough to infiltrate circles of power with that information, to infiltrate legions.

My heart sank so fast I expected it to rip a hole through me and fall to the ground.

Someone had been planning this long enough to infiltratemylegion. Someone who’d given information to Kalder, who’d betrayed us all. Naila had told them how to attack the Red Star.

I was going to be sick.

Raheema threw a sharp growl over her shoulder.Get your shit together.

I straightened in my seat, leather creaking, and pressed my hand to my stomach as it roiled, but I focused on what was important—not my cousin’s betrayal but the immediate threat to the city.

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