Without taking my eyes off it, I climb up onto the window ledge, still completely naked, but I’m not cold. I extend my arm through the wash of magic protecting the room, my fingers reaching through the chill air.
The glowing form fades and brightens, drawing closer.
A ribbon of starlight glides through the air toward me.
I hold my breath, allowing my power to glow around my fingertips, waiting for the ribbon to reach me, needing the contact, desperate to know what lies at the heart of the light…
The circle of light suddenly jolts, jumping backward, a startled movement. The ribbon it was sending toward me disintegrates. The other two light forms freeze before they dart in different directions, streaking through the air and vanishing.
“What—?”
A wash of blue lightning crackles across the space in front of the window a second before Treble drops into view. His bright eyes are wild with fear. His wings crack, sharp lightning sizzling across my outstretched arm. I can’t hear the sound from inside the room, but I know he’s trying to warn me.
I leap back to the floor. “Nathaniel! We have to go!”
Nathaniel has already pulled on his clothing, hurriedly strapping the weapon harness around his chest. I grab my clothing, dressing as fast as I can before I snatch my weapon harness off the floor.
I spin, uncertain, but Nathaniel runs toward the window, grabbing me by the hand as he passes. We leap for the ledge at the same time.
“You jump first!” I shout.
It takes Nathaniel a split second to judge the gap between the window and Treble. He leaps through the magical barrier and out into space, reaching for Treble’s wing.
The light inside my chest flickers with anxiety for a moment, then Nathaniel’s hand closes over Treble’s wing bone. He swings himself up and over Treble’s back, crouching low.
I don’t wait another moment, leaping out across the distance and somersaulting onto Treble’s back, sliding down in front of Nathaniel. Treble rises up at the same time, beating his wings furiously.
As he soars to the left, I crane my neck, sensing the malevolent life forms in the sky around us.
Ten thunderbirds span out across the sky, blocking our escape in every direction—above, below, and all around us. The uniforms of their riders tell me they are Imatra’s Day Guards. My lip curls as I identify Nadina, the head of the Day Guard flying on our right-hand side. She threatened my adoptive father and then tried to kill Nathaniel when we tried to escape Bright.
Imatra rides ahead of them, directly above us. Her crimson thunderbird’s blood-red lightning crackles around her slender silhouette as she urges it to follow us. Her armor is also crimson, reminding me of the fae I saw in the book, but her hair is loose, the flying strands whipping around her face.
Her magic wraps around us, controlling the air and wind so that Treble is forced to coast on the spot, and silence falls around us.
The first time the other thunderbirds closed Treble out, he was distressed. Now, he turns his neck and casts me a rebellious look, his eyes slightly narrowed. His expression tells me he will fly us out of here the moment he has the chance.
Instinctively, I lean into Nathaniel. I can’t protect his back, but I intend to remain between him and Imatra for as long as possible. My chest hurts when he doesn’t close his arms around me like he always did before.
Imatra is a picture of perfection as her thunderbird draws level with us. Her full lips are relaxed, her glittering blue eyes alive and alert, her hair swaying across her delicate shoulders and framing her narrow waist. But her skin is a paler shade of porcelain and her ruby-red fingernails press into the armor around her thighs. I sense her unease with every breath she takes, her inhalations slightly too rapid.
“Hello, dear,” she says, her voice betraying no emotion. “You look well.”
Quietly, I test my new power, taking a deep breath before I exhale, gently pushing against her power over the air around us. My starlight glows brightly, casting light in all directions.
I smile when I sense Imatra’s control falter.
She grips her thighs harder.
“You will give me answers,” I say, rising slowly to my feet on Treble’s back. I’m still holding my weapon harness. Drawing the sword from its holder, I crouch to drape the harness across Treble’s back, before I brace, take a deep breath…
I leap across the distance between Imatra and me, landing lightly on her thunderbird’s strong neck, rapidly stepping across it to drive the sword at her throat. The tip pierces her skin before her reflexes kick in and she reacts, leaping to her feet and taking a step away from me.
Nadina and the other guards swarm inward, their thunderbirds shrieking with fury, but Imatra holds up both of her hands to stop them. With a frustrated shout, Nadina screams at the others to stop. They don’t withdraw, but they don’t come any closer, either.
Blood can’t be shed within the Spire, but out here, that rule doesn’t seem to apply.
My sword’s tip reaches within an inch of Imatra’s neck.
She lowers her gaze to it, her head held high, stiff as she balances on her coasting bird.
“You don’t need a blade to kill me,” she says.
“I know,” I answer, my starlight power building inside my chest, glimmering across the space between us.
Imatra’s gaze shifts, flickering left, and a moment later, a glitter bulb rises up behind her. It’s encased in dark light, a thin thread of power twisting in the air between the bulb and Imatra. The bulb itself is a sparkling mess on the verge of shattering, as if it were about to explode, but Imatra encased it just in time. Within the dark light, the bulb trembles and shakes, its pieces trying to come apart, an explosion needing to happen.
“I received your gift,” Imatra says. “A memory of this Spire from my childhood.”
The bulb is so shattered, there’s no way I can see the memory inside it. But if it’s a memory of the Spire like she said, then it’s probably the same one Mathilda had.
“What did Mathilda teach you?” I ask.
Imatra smiles, a spark of light returning to her eyes. “Oh, so you met my friend. It was very wicked of us. A witch and a fae meeting in secret and sharing their knowledge of magic. It was forbidden.”
I edge closer, gritting my teeth. “What did she teach you?”
Imatra’s smile fades. She inclines her head slightly downward, the wind from her bird’s wings lifting her hair. “Mathilda and I sat on that cliff, eating apples, talking about magic, and gazing up at the Celestial Stars—the Lucidia—playing in the sky above us far beyond our reach. The Lucidia were everywhere in the ether above Bright in those days, but you could see them most clearly out here.”
Imatra leans closer, daring my sword to pierce her skin as her bright eyes meet mine and her voice lowers to a whisper. “Then one night, Mathilda pointed to the most beautiful Lucidia we had ever seen and she wondered aloud… imagine the power we could control if we could snatch a Celestial Star from the ether and pull it down to earth.”
I inhale cold air, pulling it into the abyss inside my chest.
“Of course, I told her it was impossible,” Imatra whispers, her voice a soft lulling sound. “It would take more than fae magic or light magic combined. In fact, it would take all of the dark magic ripped from a thousand souls to tear a Lucidia from the sky and force her to the ground.”