Page 21 of Crown of Darkness
Fire’s my natural gift from my mother’s bloodline. Asturians are heat and summer and roaring wildfires that engulf enormous forests.
I lash out behind me with a controlled whip of flame, ignoring the howl of surprised pain. Lysander will heal. I won’t if he gets his claws into me.
A branch hangs low. Two strides and I’m up in it, hauling my body behind me.
Teeth clash at my boots, almost catching my heel.
Close. Too close. “Anytime you want to work your illusions!”
“Climb higher.”
Darkness punches into being, drowning us both in shadow like a squid squirting ink into the water around it. Lysander roars and the branch beneath me shakes as he swipes at it.
Biting down on a squeal I crawl along the branch. The writhing mess of shadow covers the forest floor, but I can just see.
“Stay still and quiet,” Thiago orders.
I become one with the forest. One breath eased in and out like I’m balancing a plate on my head. Two.
Something loud crashes through the undergrowth. Lysander stills and then he launches after it, leaving a wake of trembling bushes.
I didn’t know he could do that—craft illusions with enough weight to them to disturb the world around them. “Thank you.”
Demi-fey hiss at me as I climb higher, unnaturally bold for such small creatures.
“Stay there. I’ve sent Baylor and Finn after you.”
“What are you doing?”
There’s a silent pause. “Nothing.”
“Thiago.”
“Can you see them?Finn will take you back to the Hallow. Baylor’s going after his brother.”
“No. I want answers.”
“Vi—”
“Andraste warned me to run.She knows what they did to him. And she knew he was going to attack me.”
“Good luck getting answers out of her,” he growls. “She’s refusing to say a word to me.”
I freeze, gripping the tree branch as Baylor crashes through the forest below me. “Just what are you doing right now?”
A whirl of disorientation and then I’m looking out through his eyes and down into my sister’s stubborn face, one hand curled around her throat and the other pressing the tip of a knife to her carotid.
“Negotiating,” he says.
* * *
The tent isa writhe of mayhem when we return.
I sent Baylor after Lysander, and found a pair of Evernight guards awaiting me at the edge of the forest with Finn.
And while Finn wanted to obey Thiago’s orders, I told him he could either carry me kicking and screaming toward the Hallow, or he could accompany me back to the tent.
Andraste’s voice rings out. “Get your hands off me—”
