Page 101 of A Legacy of Storms and Starlight

“Zack!”

“Ah, there she is. You shall not escape your punishment a third time,” the king spat.

I didn’t mean for him to die.But there was no use telling Arnir that. His son deserved what he got. Zylah looked at the rope Arnir held, the other end tied to her brother, and her attention fell on Arnir’s hands. Instead of the gaudy jewels he’d worn at the festival, he wore only one ring this time. A vanquicite ring.

“Do you see the jewellery?” Zylah said quietly for the others.

“Fucking coward,” Rose murmured under her breath.

Kopi cried out again, and the forest floor seemed to erupt with movement.

Saphi held Zylah back with enough force to split open one of her wounds. “I’m sorry, Zylah. You’ll only be in their way like this.”

Holt, Raif and Rose moved together as one unit, swords raised. Raif and Holt used their abilities to complement their swordplay, while Rose moved about Arnir’s men as if she were dancing. As if she could see every move before it was made.

Zylah didn’t know where to look, but Saphi kept a firm hold on her arm as they stood on the deck of the cabin. She kept pushing at her magic, testing it to see if she could reach Zack, but she felt nothing.

A soldier knocked Rose’s sword from her hands, but she was already one move ahead of him, launching onto her hands to swipe a kick at his chest with her blade leg. Crimson stained the soldier’s chest as he fell, and Rose touched down on her foot, then her blade, swiping down to gather her sword.

Holt used the forest to fight. Tree roots and branches did his bidding, wrapping around soldiers and holding them in place as his weapons did the rest. He cut through three soldiers as if they were nothing.

Every soldier Raif touched turned to ash. Zylah wondered if he’d used his weapon even once. She was certain she felt eyes on them all, watching through the trees, and she knew, somehow, that it was the sprites. But still, they didn’t intervene. Kopi flew down to her shoulder just as Raif turned another soldier to ash.

They didn’t stop until every soldier was dead.

Arnir’s laugh cut through the silence. “Marcus told me you were good.”

“Shame he couldn’t join you,” Rose spat.

“I had another task for Marcus today. But my request still stands. Her, for him.”

Nobody moved.

Arnir drew a sword from the sheath at his belt, the black stone of the blade glinting in the last of the light through the trees. More vanquicite. “Last chance. The girl, or he dies.”

Zylah stepped forwards, just as Arnir made a pained sound, and blood pooled at his chest.

“Zack!” Zylah called out, but Saphi held her back.

Blood dripped from the corner of Arnir’s mouth as he dropped the rope holding Zack and pressed a hand to his wound.

The king looked up at Zylah, his lips moving but no sound escaping them, and fell to his knees.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Zylah blinked once. Twice. She was looking at a ghost. She had to be. Beside the lifeless body of Arnir stood Prince Jesper, wiping his hands clean on a pristine piece of white cloth he’d pulled from his pocket. He wore his finest purple jacket, his golden hair perfectly smoothed back.

“Impossible,” Zylah breathed.

Jesper looked right at her as if he’d heard her. He smiled, revealing two perfect fangs pressing against his lips, eyes as dark and empty as a starless night.

Zylah watched in horror as the prince leaned over his father’s corpse, pulling off the vanquicite ring and sliding it onto his finger, admiring it as if it had just been gifted to him. The dancers at the festival wove through Zylah’s thoughts, masked figures spiralling through the crowd, and at once she knew Jesper was one of those monsters created by the gods.

“Vampire,” Saphi murmured beside her. “You didn’t kill him, Zylah. He just faked his death to preserve his identity.”

The colour drained from Zylah’s face. All of this, everything she’d been through, was because of a lie. Zack shuffled back a few steps in the snow, but Jesper didn’t seem to care. His gaze was fixed on Zylah, his dead eyes taking her in. She held her breath, pushing and pushing against her powers, but there was no response.

She hadn’t needed to though; Holt disappeared and reappeared beside her brother, just as Jesper moved impossibly fast and pressed a hand to Zack’s shoulder. “He stays with me.”

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