Amari screamed and covered her ears. Everything in me wanted to run to her side. Protect her. Save her. Promise we would never have to fight.
“Duty before self!” Father’s voice went hoarse. “Show me you can be king!”
In that moment, everything stopped.
I lunged forward with my sword.
“Inan!”
Kaea’s barks pull me back, breaking through the depths of my memories.
I press against the mountainside, one foot still dangling. With a grunt, I continue my climb, not stopping until I reach the next ledge. Sweat pours from my body as I rub my thumb over the ornate seal in Amari’s headdress.
We never spoke of it. Not once. Even after all these years. Amari was too kind to bring it up. I, far too scared.
We carried on, an invisible chasm always between us. Amari never had to go back to that cellar. I never left.
Though my muscles shake, I pocket the headdress. There’s no time to waste. I failed my sister once. I shall not repeat that mistake again.
As I rise, the maji’s spirit pulses like never before. A surge she can’t control. The sea-salt scent of her soul is so strong it overwhelms the clove smell of bromeliads under my nose. I pause when I notice the flattened stems at my feet.
Tracks …
She’s been here.
She’s close.
I’m close.
Kill her, my heart thrums as I claw at the mountain ledge. Kill her. Kill magic.
When the girl’s finally in my grasp, this will all be worth it. I shall take my kingdom back.
Amari’s headdress pokes my side as I continue to rise. I couldn’t save her from Father then. But today, I shall save her from herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ZÉLIE
“FASTER!” LEKAN CALLS as we run through the temple halls. Tzain carries me over his shoulders, grip tight around my waist.
“Who is it?” Amari asks, though the quiver in her voice suggests she already knows. Her brother’s scarred her once. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?
“My staff,” I moan. It takes every ounce of energy to speak. But I need it to fight. I need it to keep us alive.
“You can barely stand.” Tzain catches me before I slide from his back. “Shut up. And for gods’ sakes, try to hold on!”
We come to a dead end in the hall, and Lekan presses his palm to the stone. The inked symbols dance across his skin and travel into the wall. When his right arm is wiped clean of sênbaría, the stone clicks, sliding open to a golden room. We step into the hidden wonder, filled floor to ceiling with shelves of thin, colored scrolls.
“Do we hide here?” Tzain asks.
Lekan disappears behind a large shelf before returning with an armful of black scrolls. “We’re here to retrieve these incantations,” he explains. “Her powers will need maturation if she is to perform the mamaláwo’s role.”
Before Tzain can object, Lekan shoves them into my leather pack with the ritual parchment.
“Alright,” Lekan says. “Follow me!”
With Lekan’s guidance, we twist around the corners of the temple with new speed, descending endless flights of stairs. Another wall slides open and we emerge on the side of the tarnished temple, greeting the jungle heat.
In the dying sunlight, my head throbs. The entire mountain screams with life. Though a buzz of spiritual energy hummed before, now the temple grounds overwhelm me with haunted shrieks and cries. The shadowlike spirits of the slaughtered sêntaros swirl around my body like magnets finding their way home.
Awakening magic is like adding a new sense. Lekan’s words resurface. Your body needs time to adjust.
Only the adjustment doesn’t come. Magic crushes every other sense, making it almost impossible to see. My vision blacks in and out as Tzain scurries through the rubble. Lekan is about to lead us into the jungle brush when it hits me.
“Nailah!”
“Wait,” Tzain whispers after Lekan, skidding to a halt. “Our lionaire’s out front.”
“We cannot risk it—”
“No!” I cry out. Tzain presses his hand against my mouth to stifle the sound. Guards or not, I will not abandon Nailah. I won’t leave my oldest friend behind.
Lekan releases a frustrated sigh, but we creep back to the temple. My vision fades in as he motions us close, pressing against the side of the temple to peer out front.
Across the graveyard of skulls and ruins, I see Inan reach down, aiding his admiral as their remaining soldiers urge their ryders over the final ledge. There’s a crazed drive in his eyes, a desire to find us that runs deeper than before. I look for the prince who trembled in his dreamscape. Instead all I see are the hands that wrapped around my throat.
Ahead of Inan, three guards kick over crumbled stones and broken bones. They’re close.
Too close for us to hide.
“Sùn, 1mí ọkàn, sùn. Sùn, 1mí ọkàn, sùn.” Lekan weaves an incantation under his breath like a needle through thread, moving his staff in circles. The words summon a coil of white smoke that twists and swirls through the air.
Sleep, spirit, sleep, I translate. Sleep, spirit, sleep …
We watch as the coil slithers along the ground like a snake. It wraps itself around the leg of the closest guard, squeezing until it seeps into his skin. The guard lurches forward, stumbling down behind a pile of stones. His eyes flash white with Lekan’s spirit before rolling into unconsciousness.
The white coil slithers out of his body and incapacitates the next soldier by the same means. As he goes down, Inan and the admiral pull the vicious snow leopanaire over the edge.
“Lekan,” Amari hisses, beads of sweat forming on her brow. At this speed we won’t make it.
They’ll find us before we get out.
Lekan chants faster and faster, moving his staff as if stirring tubani in an iron pot. The spirit slithers toward the final guard, seconds away from Nailah. Her yellow eyes glint with a predator’s malice. No, Nailah. Please—
“Agh!” The guard’s ear-shattering cry rings through the air. Flocks of birds soar into the sky. Blood spurts from his thigh as Nailah releases her giant fangs.
Inan whips around, death raging in his eyes. They land on me and narrow; a predator who’s finally caught his prey.
“Nailah!”
My lionaire bounds across the destroyed ruins, reaching us in mere beats. Tzain hoists my body into the saddle before everyone else scrambles on.
Tzain snaps her reins as Inan and the admiral draw their swords. Before they can reach us, Nailah takes off, zipping across the mountainside. Broken stones tumble under her paws as she flees, clattering off the narrow ledge.
“There!” Lekan points to the jungle’s thick underbrush. “There is a bridge a few kilometers ahead. If we get across and cut it, they will not be able to follow!”
Tzain snaps Nailah’s reins and she tears through the jungle at breakneck speed, dodging vines and massive trees. Peering through the underbrush, I spot the bridge in the distance, but a menacing roar reminds me that Inan is right on our tail. I sneak a glance behind me. Thick branches snap against his snow leopanaire’s massive frame as she rips through the underbrush. She bares her ghastly teeth as she nears, hungry like her master.
“Amari!” Inan yells.