by Jodi Meadows
Denise was kneeling in the muck, silently gasping, but recovering. I moved toward another black-knifed soldier, freeing him while Tobiah had Prince Colin distracted.
“You planned this.” Prince Colin shuddered as heat blasted through the street. “The coronation. Patrick Lien’s release. The wraith destroying us both.”
“We didn’t plan anything.” Tobiah’s voice was firm. “Do you really think I want to see another place become wraithland?”
“I wish I could believe you.” Prince Colin edged away from the shimmer mist, closer to a shop where vines grew around columns. Leaves fluttered and fattened, reaching for him. “But you’re dressed as a vigilante and keep company with a flasher.”
Tobiah moved again, not blocking me anymore, but herding Prince Colin away from the vines that slithered down from the buildings. Like green snakes, they crossed the walkway, heavy leaves catching air like sails on a boat. “Come back to the castle with us,” Tobiah said. “Someone will help you. Is your arm broken?”
“I won’t go anywhere with you.”
Quickly, I freed two more of my soldiers, whispering for them to stay close. I had to assume the wraith would solidify again when I moved away.
“Come on, Chrysalis,” I muttered.
The soldiers crowded behind me as I moved toward the edge of the wraith shimmer. Those still trapped looked at me, pleading with their eyes. They were afraid I was leaving them. “I’ll free you,” I whispered. “I swear it.”
Near Prince Colin, the vines reared up to throw themselves around him. Tobiah brought his sword down with uncanny speed, cutting the thick greenery in two just before it reached his uncle.
There was no time for relief; another vine zipped in from the opposite direction. “Watch out!”
My warning came too late.
The vine wrapped around Prince Colin’s throat and tightened. His sword fell to the cobblestones as he tried to tug off the wraith vine, but more twisted around his body, pinning his arms in place.
Tobiah lunged forward, drawing a dagger to free his uncle, but Prince Colin’s face was already red and purple. He writhed in place, struggling against Tobiah and the vines.
I had to help. “Hurry,” I called to the soldiers, and we started to run. As soon as they were away from the wraith shimmer, I sprinted toward Tobiah.
Prince Colin’s eyes bulged. His mouth moved.
“Keep him still.” Tobiah shoved his uncle onto his back.
I dropped my sword and knelt close, and that was all the proximity the wraith needed. The vine loosened and fled; Chrysalis’s influence still held.
Prince Colin curled inward and turned to one side, gasping and coughing. “Wraith queen.” The words were garbled, but I’d heard them enough. I knew.
“How can we help?” Denise asked. The others stood behind her, shaky, but well enough.
“Guard Colin.” I glanced at Tobiah. “The former overlord is officially a traitor, same as Patrick.”
The four moved in just as the horrific noise of screams and metal exploded behind us—and silenced only a second later.
In the wraith shimmer, everyone had shifted. Just slightly. Just enough. One reached for us now, close to where I’d freed Denise. The one who’d been about to stab her in the back had fallen forward. Another was suddenly on his knees, trying to curl into a ball.
It happened again.
The wraith melted for a heartbeat, people lurched and gasped and cried out, and then everything stopped.
“Chrysalis.” Tobiah glanced at me. “He’s regaining control.”
Slowly. Horribly. But he was trying.
“Wil!” Melanie’s voice came from a rooftop down the street, and both she and James pointed—
A thud sounded as a dagger landed in the back of Prince Colin’s neck. He dropped to the ground, dead.
“No!” Tobiah took up his sword and lunged for a shape emerging from a nearby tavern. Patrick. My former friend hefted a giant sword with ease, bringing it up to guard as Tobiah closed on him with an awful shout.
The blades clashed. Patrick shoved Tobiah backward, but the king regained his footing immediately. He feinted low and struck high, but Patrick knew that trick.
The two were closely matched in skill, but where Tobiah was a fast, lithe fighter, Patrick was steady. He’d wear down Tobiah, and then strike a killing blow.
But he wouldn’t risk me.
“Help any of our people who escape the wraith,” I told my soldiers. Chrysalis would seize control soon. I hoped.
“But Patrick—”
“We’ll take care of him. Captain Rayner and Melanie will be here soon.” With no more room for argument, I took my sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and joined Tobiah.
Patrick swore. “I don’t want to hurt you, Wilhelmina. I promised I wouldn’t ever strike you again, but you’re making that a difficult promise to keep.”
Around us, lightning bursts of chaos hit—Chrysalis fighting the wraith.
“You can keep your promise.” I swung for his side; he blocked. “You can choose to end this.”
“Aecor won’t be free until the Indigo presence is eradicated.” Patrick raised his sword against Tobiah.
Before he could attack, I jumped between them and blocked with my dagger. “Stop, Patrick!”
“I can fight, Wil.” Tobiah was at my side, sword ready.
“He will kill you. He won’t hurt me.” I didn’t take my eyes off Patrick. “Once I wondered if a dead queen was better than a defiant queen, but I know better now. Patrick won’t harm me, because he knows the power of my name. He’s nothing if he’s not fighting for me.”
Tobiah backed off, but Patrick pursued, forcing me to work to keep myself between them. I blocked and redirected blows, chest burning with the effort. Heat poured over the street, and sweat made my clothes cling to my skin.
The rapid noise and silence of Chrysalis’s wraith-control effort made my head spin, and banners of mist had fallen in our space. They were glowing.
“Stay close,” I told Tobiah. “The wraith won’t attack if you’re near me.”
He grunted behind me, followed by the twang of his handheld crossbow firing. “I am in awe of the way you inspire such loyalty. Nevertheless, the wraith has us surrounded.”
I couldn’t look away from Patrick to confirm, just strike and block and move and block and thrust and block. “Well, maybe”—I gasped—“you should do something.”
“I just shot a streetlight in the eye. What more do you want from me?”
My sword arm shook with strain as I attacked again. Patrick blocked me with ease. “You won’t last much longer,” he said. “When you’re finished with this, I’ll kill the foreign king and hang his body from the castle wall. I’ll say this is what the vermilion queen and her Red Militia do to enemies.”
“You will not.” I lunged for Patrick, and when he moved to parry, I stepped inside his guard and thrust my dagger into his stomach.
Blood poured from the wound as he staggered back. “Wil?” Patrick clutched his gut with both hands, his face filled with surprise and hurt. For a heartbeat, he was the same boy who’d given me writing supplies in the old palace, swearing to help me reclaim my kingdom.
No matter the cost.
“I’m sorry, Patrick.” I made myself watch as he fell to his knees, his eyes locked on mine. Around us, the bursts of din grew longer as people broke free. Tobiah stood at my side, and a line of my soldiers at my back. On the street behind Patrick, I caught Melanie and James running toward us. “This was never what I wanted. Our problems have always been so much bigger and more complex than what you saw.”
“You’re wrong. You need me.” Patrick scraped his sword off the ground and lunged.
Tobiah moved toward me at the same time I grabbed him and pulled him to safety, a breath away from the sword point.
Patrick’s blade clattered on the ground. He grunted and fell forward. Behind him, James pulled his sword free of Patrick’s h
eart, and Melanie looked on with a cold, distant expression.
Patrick was dead.
Heavy moments stretched as we stared at Patrick’s body on the ground. Prince Colin’s body lay close by. A faint numbness settled over me. Something I’d always thought was impossible had just happened. And I’d lost another Osprey in the process. Another person I’d once called a friend.
“Your Majesties!” Denise dragged my attention back to the park and the chaos within.
Chrysalis had recovered control of the wraith, so the battle had resumed. Blades clashed and people screamed. Everywhere I looked, there were bodies on the ground, and others trying to flee.
“We have to stop this. Come with me.” Tobiah took my free hand and pulled me toward a tall building. We threw our hooks and climbed up the side of an old, pre-wraith structure. Melanie and James guarded from below.
On the roof, we could see the whole battleground, all the reds and blues intermixed, and those with black knives on their uniforms struggling to contain the fighting. Wraith beasts plowed through, growing with the heavy concentration of mist.
“People of Aecor!” Tobiah called. “People of the Indigo Kingdom!”
No one heard.
I touched his hand. “What do the people call you, Tobiah Pierce? What do they whisper about you?”
“The heir to four Houses?” He shook his head as understanding dawned. “No, I don’t think I should. There’s already so much wraith.”
“And it’s what’s causing the panic right now. Contain it. I know you can.”
He sucked in a heavy breath and braced himself with one hand on my shoulder.
A mirror appeared on a storefront across the way. Then another to our right. And another beneath us.
Dozens of mirrors popped into existence. Round, oval, rectangular, octagonal: they appeared in a hundred shapes and sizes, fixed to the walls and lying on the streets. They were all bare, sharp glass.
Tobiah stood at my side, his face upturned and his eyes closed in concentration. His skin was pale and slick with sweat, but mirror-reflected wraith light shone onto him. Us.
Wraith shrieked and spiraled upward, but Tobiah’s mirrors caught it—for now. Even the beasts were motionless, trapped in their reflections.
Everyone looked at us.
“People of Aecor!” I called, same as Tobiah had. “People of the Indigo Kingdom!”
Tobiah steadied himself and gazed over the crowd. It was impossible to say how long we had before the wraith escaped his mirrors, so we had to hurry.
I lifted my voice. “Colin Pierce is dead. Patrick Lien is dead. The battle is finished. Aecorians: your queen, the rightful heir to the vermilion throne, has won. Citizens of the Indigo Kingdom: you are all refugees, and by coming to Aecor, you agree to obey my laws. With me, I have King Tobiah, Sovereign of the Indigo Kingdom, House of the Dragon. He, too, is a ward of Aecor, per the Wraith Alliance.”
Tobiah made himself tall and proud, and in mirrors all across the park, I caught reflections of the two of us: black-clad vigilantes standing side by side. “Queen Wilhelmina has graciously taken us in. Indigo Army, you will submit to our queen. Aecorians who followed Prince Colin’s rule, you will submit to our queen.”
My heart thundered when he said my name. When he said queen.
I fought to hide the tremor in my voice as I spoke. “Our problem now is the wraith. It surrounds you. These mirrors won’t hold it forever, but I will take action to fix that upon my return to Sandcliff Castle.”
Thousands of eyes gazed up, some with anger, but more with hope.
“I need you all to work together. Protect one another. Every one of you is valuable.” I stopped myself before looking toward Patrick and Colin; we could have used them, too. The sense memory of my dagger entering his gut still echoed in my fingers.
Tobiah took my hand and squeezed the sensation out, though it probably wasn’t meant to be comforting, but a reminder. Hurry.
“You have your orders. Those who refuse to obey will be arrested and put on trial. Those who wish to throw out their former allegiances will be pardoned.”
Immediately, people began moving, calling orders, looking for guidance from their comrades. I let them be, keeping my head high as I strode toward the side of the building to climb down again.
A faint keening rose up, inhuman and piercing.
Tobiah stood where I’d left him, his hands clenched at his sides and his jaw tight.
“What is it?” I walked back to him. The noise grew louder, humming like bees. Below, everyone was looking around, moving more quickly.
Tobiah met my eyes. “Wraith.”
With a sharp crack and flash of light, every mirror in the park exploded.
FORTY-SEVEN
GLASS AND LIGHT shot upward in a thunderous explosion, but as the shards began to rain down, they vanished.
Tobiah was sweating, shaking, gasping. “It escaped. It broke free of the mirrors.”
He’d gotten rid of the mirrors before they caused people harm. That was something. But now the wraith mist was free; it swirled and shrieked, spinning through the park with a blinding glow. Mist burst outward, stretching farther into the city.
I took Tobiah’s hand and hauled him toward the edge of the building, where Melanie and James waited on the ground. “Down we go!”
We rappelled as quickly as possible. People ran from the park, others killed wraith beasts, and some attempted to make arrests. The brilliant light of wraith silhouetted my friends below, making my eyes water. I blinked away tears and looked for a place to land among the crush of people and screaming wraith.
Melanie took me by the ribs to steady me. “What happened?” She stepped back to give me room, elbowing others aside. “I thought Chrysalis had control.”
“He did.” I stashed my grapple and line and wiped my stinging eyes. “Now he doesn’t. Maybe because of the mirrors; it’s hard to say. Regardless, we need to go to the castle immediately.”
“Right.” Melanie shoved me close to Tobiah so James could watch both of us, and she began rounding up soldiers with knives painted on them. “Protect the queen!” Her voice carried over the din. “Protect the king!”
A small chorus took up the call. “Protect the queen! Protect the king!” The words spread and people circled us, creating a human barrier. Melanie and James led the group out of the lowcity.
We plowed through the confused disorder of people struggling to escape the park, but it was too slow. We’d never make it to the castle if we were forced to walk like this.
I leaned toward Tobiah. “Can you make more mirrors?”
He gave a swift nod, and a heartbeat later, a giant mirror appeared on a factory wall ahead of us, reflecting the blinding light of the park.
Tobiah staggered with the effort; I lunged to support him as more mirrors came into existence.
James glanced back.
“I’ve got him!” I matched my steps with Tobiah’s, directing him and taking as much of his weight as possible while he closed his eyes and called a hundred mirrors into being. A thousand, maybe; the wraith wasn’t contained in the park anymore, and if he wanted to stop it all, every wall in the lowcity needed mirrors.
But the wraith did stop. It trembled in its own reflection, buzzing angrily.
Tobiah’s breath rasped by my ear.
“How long can you keep those?”
“Until we don’t need them anymore. Or until the wraith breaks free.” His tone was grim, determined. It was hard enough to believe he’d remained standing after creating the bridge this afternoon; that he was still functioning through two manifestations of mirrors . . .
I tightened my grip on him. “That’s good. We’ll make it.”
With the wraith contained, the crowd moved faster through the lowcity and the line of factories, but it wasn’t enough. Tobiah couldn’t hold these mirrors for long. We had to do something.
Ahead, a clatter of hooves and voices rang out. “Mel!”
I scanned the crowd to find Oscar riding in with a squad of black-knifed soldiers.
The perimeter of guards paused and broke open. Oscar leapt off his horse, Sergeant Ferris close behind as they spoke to James and Melanie.
I aimed Tobiah toward the nearest horse, a familiar chestnut. “Ferguson!”
“That’s not his name,” Tobiah groaned. “Like all military horses, he was given a name before you decided to steal him.”
“He’s Ferguson to me. Now climb on.” I steadied Tobiah as he tested his weight on the stirrup, then lifted himself onto the saddle. I pulled myself up after him, awkwardly swinging my leg over Ferguson’s neck.
Tobiah looped his arms around my waist, pulling me close.
From atop Ferguson, I had a better view of the mirrors that shot wraith light everywhere, illuminating panic and terror. Rivers of people poured north.
“Melanie!” I directed Ferguson toward her. “We’re running. He can’t hold these mirrors long, and I need to get to Radiants’ Walk.”
“Go!” she called. “I’m right behind you.”
“Hang on, Tobiah.” I kicked Ferguson into movement, shouting at the people ahead. “Watch out! Make way!”
Ferguson seemed reluctant to trample anyone, but he nosed people out of the way, snorting and nipping when they wouldn’t let him through. Soon, more riders joined us: Melanie, James, Ferris, Oscar, and a handful of Queen’s Guard.
At last, we broke through the worst of the crowd and all our mounts slipped into a gallop. I hunched low over Ferguson’s neck.
The thrum of hooves and drone of voices filled my ears as we made straight for the castle, its towers and ramparts rising over the city like hope.
Behind us, glass shattered as the wraith broke free. Tobiah screamed, raw and wrecked as he pressed his forehead against my spine. His whole body shuddered, and his fingers dug into my sides hard enough to bruise.
I pressed my heels against Ferguson and urged him onward. He knew this. We’d done this before. He pushed ahead of the other horses, grunting and snorting as the inferno of wraith gained on us.
Blinding and boiling, the wraith grew brilliant with shining mist and stink.
