House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

She opened her mouth to admit defeat when she felt a tug on her magic. She jumped in surprise but couldn’t remove her hand from the barrier. It was as if the spell itself were alive. A bright, blinding light filled the space. The one that Wynter must have seen all along. Kerrigan could suddenly see the entire golden glow of the barrier in all of its glory.

It pulled harder.

Her eyes flew wide. She could hear Wynter’s panicked questions. Fordham tried to cross the barrier, and it refused him. He jammed his shoulder against the thing that had once let him out. His eyes were terrified. All of his fears realized once more.

The barrier sank its claws into her. She tipped her head back and screamed, collapsing onto the cold, hard balcony floor. Her vision went black at the edges. The last thing she saw was Fordham’s desperate attempt to reach her.

Then, everything went dark.

A girl stepped up to Cavour. Her wide, dark eyes looked at the empty village with pity. War had not been kind to the once-beautiful village. Dragon fire had destroyed nearly half the place in one go. Only the mountains had saved the people within, leaving the humans and half-Fae to fend for themselves against a war they didn’t want.

“I am sorry,” she said.

“Mei, are you sure?” a voice asked behind her. “These people… they don’t deserve this.”

“They don’t.” Mei whirled around to find a handsome young man before her. Her heart constricted.

Trulian had been the first to believe in her. His resistance meant that maybe even she had crossed the line.

“Can you even do it?”

She bit her lip and ran her hands back through her nearly black hair. “I don’t know, but what other choice is there? You know what they’re going to do if we don’t stop them. You were in the meeting, Tru.”

He glanced off to the mountains beyond her head. “This can’t be the answer. They’re monsters, but …”

“It’s the only way. I’ve seen it.”

“Seen it?” He frowned. “Again? You didn’t tell me.”

“Oh, Tru,” she whispered, all the secrets that lay between them clogging her throat. All the visions she never dared to tell him about as her mind shattered day after day along the campaign.

“Please,” he pleaded.

“Step back. I must work,” she said. “To save our very souls.”

And then, before Trulian could talk her out of it, Mei lifted her brown arms toward the tri peaks of the House of Shadows. A bright, blinding light built between her palms, and she unleashed.

“Kerrigan,” Fordham said, cradling her head in his lap.

He must have made it across the barrier after it disgorged her. Her eyes fluttered open. Everything hurt. Her magic was barely a flicker within her. She’d never had a vision like that before. Never known that she could glimpse the past and not the future.

“Ford,” she croaked.

“I’m here.”

“You did it!” Wynter cried. “You made the crack bigger. I can stick my entire hand through.”

And for the first time in a thousand years, someone other than Fordham Ollivier stuck their hand through the barrier wall.

“Let’s keep trying!”

Fordham ignored Wynter. “We’re going to get you to a healer.”

“Ford,” she repeated uncertainly.

How were they going to get back to the other side of the barrier and through the mountain tunnels? No one would let them pass. Just thinking of it hurt her head.

She heard a sound that was all too familiar. Wings beating on the wind. She turned her head and found Netta flying toward them. Fordham lifted her into his arms and carried her to his dragon, taking off without a backward glance.

13

The Plot

ARBOR

Arbor stepped forward out of the gloom of the chamber. Her bright blue eyes cast toward the dragon flying away from their home. Her cousin and their salvation strapped on its back. She dropped her hood, revealing the quintessential raven hair braided back out of her face.

“He stole her from us!” Wynter screamed, seething.

Aisling put a hand on her shoulder, the closest she would come to revealing the true nature of their relationship. But Arbor knew the thing that Wynter could not reveal to her court. How her heart longed for her bodyguard and attendant. Such things were not allowed in this court. Especially not of a royal.

“You were right,” Aisling said comfortingly.

“Of course I was right,” she snarled. “I can feel the night air. It’s coming down.”

Already, the carefully placed guards within the crowd were herding everyone out of the room so that no one would see Wynter’s meltdown. But not Arbor. Never Arbor.

“They’ll be back,” she said finally.

Wynter whirled on her, dropping her hand from where it’d crossed the barrier for the very first time. “And how can you be sure?”

Arbor lifted her chin, not bowing to Wynter’s moods. It was why she had first begun to keep her around. Everyone else complied with all of her madness. Her unruly tempers and tantrums and outrageous fits. She was a visionary—that much was certain—but with no one to temper that madness, to hone it into something valuable, she would fizzle before it could get anywhere.