The Shadow Queen (24 page)

I
T TOOK MOST
of the day to travel halfway through the Hinderlinde Forest. All three of them were covered with scratches and bites. Lorelai had been so exhausted after using the weary heart of Ravenspire to destroy the roads and then using Kol’s dragon fire to fight Irina that she’d been unable to walk on her own for the first few hours. They stopped in the late afternoon in an abandoned shack that Gabril remembered using when Lorelai’s father went hunting for deer in the spring. The shack was small—maybe twice the size of their tent—and its lone window was covered in the same dusty grime that coated the floor inside, but it was well-built and had a fireplace.

Lorelai paced the floor, her thoughts racing, while Kol started a fire and Gabril readied a small pot with the last of their beans for dinner.

The longer she waited between attacks on Irina’s infrastructure, the more time she gave the queen to recover her strength. If she really wanted to have the advantage when she entered the
capital, she needed to hit Irina again.

Tonight.

The strength of Irina’s response would give Lorelai valuable information about the queen’s current state of health. Information that would help the princess decide if she should continue attacks from outside the capital or make her move against the castle itself.

It’s a good plan
, Kol said as she glanced out the window and considered her options,
but maybe you should eat first. Rest a little.

Every second I rest is a second I give Irina to rest too.

True. But you had dragon’s fire inside you today. And you barely slept last night.
He held up a hand when she turned on him, her thoughts blazing into his mind.
I’m not saying I don’t trust you to know what you’re capable of doing. I’m just saying maybe some beans would be a good idea. Not just for your sake but for Gabril’s. Whatever you do tonight, all of us have to be ready to respond.

He was right. It had been a long, hard day for all of them, and if she provoked a response from Irina now, they would have to fight. They would have to run.

They had a much better chance of surviving if they’d eaten and rested for a while.

I admire the way you think.
Kol smiled at her as he stacked the extra wood he’d gathered beside the fireplace and took a seat at the rickety kitchen table.

She gave him a look as she took a chair for herself.
What is that supposed to mean?

He raised a brow as Gabril set the pot of beans down in the center of the table.
Are you always suspicious of compliments? I meant that I like the way you constantly analyze the situation,
decide on a course of action that makes the most sense to you, and then just . . . do it. You want to go after Irina now, and if you had no one but yourself to consider, you would. But you don’t do what’s best for you. You do what’s best for those you’re trying to protect.

So you’re saying you and I are alike. Minus the fact that I’ve yet to try to kill you.

And I’ve yet to call you fetching,

And I’d never lock my headmaster in his toilet closet.

And I don’t have magic. But otherwise, yes. We are a lot alike.
He grinned at her, and she smiled back until Gabril slapped a spoon against the table.

“Mind telling me what’s so funny?” he asked as he spooned beans onto their plates.

“Nothing.” Lorelai avoided looking at Kol.

“Then if nothing is funny, you two can stop grinning at each other like village idiots and start eating your dinner. I imagine tomorrow will be another difficult day.”

And here I thought I was winning him over.

It would be easier if he could see into your thoughts like I can.

Oh, skies, no. That would be a disaster.
A flurry of images raced through his head—Kol kissing girls in spacious bronze hallways, the wound his father’s disappointment had left in him, and the night he’d stared at Lorelai’s face while she was asleep. Lorelai’s cheeks warmed as he said,
Don’t look at those.

Gabril gave them a look that said he knew something was going on and was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Lorelai shoved a spoonful of beans into her mouth. They were hot and tasteless. She swallowed quickly, and said, “Actually, I want to destroy the communication towers tonight. I can use the
ground here to get to the ones in the capital and the surrounding area. Irina’s response will tell us a lot about her current state of health, and it will help me decide if I should enter the capital tomorrow or keep battling her from afar for a few more days.”

Gabril looked from her to Kol and back again before saying, “That’s a good idea. How much rest do you want to take before we leave the shack and try it?”

She almost asked how much rest he needed, but swallowed the words before they could pass her lips. He’d tell her he didn’t need any, and she wasn’t going to argue with him.

“A few hours,” she said, though the restless energy that filled her sent magic to her palms and made it hard to sit still.

Gabril nodded and kept a close eye on the two of them as they finished their dinner and spread their bedrolls out on the cots that lined the shack’s western wall.

Three hours later, Lorelai was surprised to find that she’d slept, and that she felt more focused as a result. She pulled on her boots, braided her hair, and shrugged into one of Leo’s thick sweaters—the closest thing she had to winter wear since she’d lost her coat in Nordenberg.

The sweater smelled like campfires and mountain air. She hugged her arms across her chest and imagined what Leo would say if he was with her.

He’d tell her they needed costumes before they entered the capital.

And that she needed to prepare a thunderous oration—heaven forbid he call it a simple speech—to deliver once she saw Irina.

And he’d laugh at the risk they were taking, a reckless gleam in his eyes as he stood beside her no matter what.

Her throat ached, and pressure built behind her eyes. For years she’d trained incessantly with one goal—to overthrow Irina and retake the throne. She’d never imagined doing it without Leo.

I would’ve liked him.
Kol moved to her side and bumped her shoulder with his.
He sounds like someone who would’ve joined me in sealing the headmaster into his toilet closet.

She surprised herself by laughing, though it came out sounding more like a sob.
Yes, he would’ve. As long as you gave him an important role to play and let him play it with all the flair his heart desired.

I’m sorry he isn’t here with us to play a role tonight.
Kol walked beside her to the door as Gabril strapped on his sword and gathered up the travel packs.
We’ll do this one with flair. For Leo.

She smiled gratefully up at him, the hard knot of grief in her chest expanding into something softer. Something a little bit easier to accept.
For Leo.

They left the shack and moved into the trees. Earlier in the day, Lorelai had noticed that while there were patches of rot, spots of crumbling bark, or soil that looked too pale, overall the forest was in much better condition that the Falkrains. Maybe Irina had pulled magic from the outer edges of the kingdom first, trying to protect the capital, and by extension herself, from the effects of the blight.

Or maybe the Hinderlinde Forest had never fully capitulated to Irina’s will.

Either way, Lorelai hoped it boded well for what she had planned next.

“How are you going to do this?” Gabril asked when they’d put enough distance between themselves and the shack to have a place to run back to if Irina’s counterattack required them to retreat.

Lorelai showed Kol her plan.
Is that okay with you?

It’s fine, but are you sure you want that much pain again?

It will be temporary.
Lorelai met Gabril’s eyes. “I’m going to use Kol’s dragon fire again. Only this time, I’m going to see if I can send it underground and have it target the watchtowers only.”

Gabril’s mouth tightened, and he looked at Kol. “I can’t see inside her head. If she’s getting overwhelmed by the pain, you do something about it.”

Tell him that was already my plan.

“He was planning on it,” Lorelai said. Gabril grunted.

Hunt? Travel? Eat?
Sasha swooped down and perched on a nearby branch.

Not yet. I’m going to do magic.

Rather eat.

Lorelai laughed as she flexed her fingers and felt the tingle of magic run down her arms.
Then go eat. I’ll call you if I need you.

Sasha flew away as Lorelai reached for Kol’s hand and braced herself for the pain. Once again, his dragon heart leaped toward her power the second she sent her magic into him. Heat poured out of him and filled her chest until pain was a living creature trapped beneath her skin, thrashing and biting with jagged teeth. She clenched her teeth to keep from screaming.

Touch the ground, Lorelai. Send the fire where you want it to go.
Kol’s voice broke through the pain, and she fell to her knees and pressed her open palm against the forest’s floor.

“
Zhech`pusk
. Destroy with fire. Allow all who have a heartbeat to get out of the tower unscathed.” She accompanied her instructions with an image of a watchtower—tall and narrow, built of wood with signal mirrors along the top and a carrier pigeon roost to the side.

Fiery magic—orange and yellow with a core of white—burst from her palm and burrowed into the ground. She pressed hard, as much to stay in contact with the magic as to keep herself from curling up in a ball from the pain, and felt the threads of fire explode outward, hurtling beneath the forest floor until they reached a watchtower and then racing up the structure to engulf it in flames, always leaving the stairs and exit clear so that those who manned the tower could escape.

The fire found seven towers in all—two in the capital, one on the castle grounds, and one at each compass point surrounding the capital. When the seventh tower was crumbling to ash, Kol pulled his hand from hers and held her while the terrible heat of his dragon’s fire drained away and left her shaking in its wake.

“Are you okay?” Gabril crouched in front of her.

“Yes,” she said, though her limbs still trembled. She leaned on Kol as he helped her to her feet and then listened carefully.

The forest was alive with creatures rustling through the underbrush, insects chirruping, and the occasional mournful hoot of an owl, but there were no signs of Irina. No shuddering in the ground. No bugs or statues or anything else that looked like a weapon.

Lorelai had sent powerful magic through the ground only a day’s journey from the capital, had destroyed all the capital’s watchtowers, and Irina hadn’t been able to retaliate.

She laughed and hugged Leo’s sweater to herself, blinking in surprise as tears stung her eyes. “We did it. She didn’t attack us, even though we burned down a tower on the castle grounds.”

Gabril’s teeth flashed white against his skin as he smiled. “You were right. I’m proud of you.”

I told you we make a good team. And I think sending fire beneath the ground to incinerate every tower had plenty of flair. Leo would be proud too.
Kol’s hands at her waist kept her steady while her knees gained the strength to hold her again.

What about your brother? Would he have loved this too?

Rag?
Kol laughed, though there was hurt behind it.
Not a chance. He was always serious. Always focused on doing things exactly as he’d been taught. His whole life was spent trying to live up to the responsibility of being king one day, and it took the fun out of him.

Kind of like me?

Kol’s fingers tightened around her waist, and he drew her a little closer. She could feel the heat of his chest, but instead of pain, it brought comfort.
There’s no one like you.

Kol’s hands were still steadying her, though now it felt like she needed steadying for a different reason altogether. Her skin tingled with something different from magic, something that sparked along her nerves and shivered deliciously in her stomach. She smiled up at him, and he smiled back, and then Gabril cleared his throat.

“I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see when I’m intruding.” His hand wrapped around her shoulder and squeezed gently. “You two don’t stay out too late talking, and don’t do anything you don’t want to tell me about in the morning.”

Lorelai took a step back from Kol, and his hands dropped from her waist. “You’re leaving us out here alone?”

“Would you rather I stayed?”

Skies, no.

“No! I mean . . . we’ll be fine. We’re just going to talk.”

Gabril snorted. “That’s what we called it in my day too.” He looked at Kol. “If I can trust her to wage war against the queen, I can trust what she sees in you. And besides, if you try anything she doesn’t like, she can turn you into a pile of ash.”

Lorelai and Kol watched Gabril walk back to the shack in silence, and though they weren’t touching, her skin still tingled with the memory of his.

A
S
G
ABRIL DISAPPEARED
into the forest, heading back toward the shack, Kol faced Lorelai and closed the distance between them with a single step. She looked at him, her dark eyes glowing in the moonlight, her red lips parted, and Kol could think of nothing but her.

Are we about to break your ground rules?
Kol leaned toward Lorelai slightly, giving her time to move away if she chose.

Ground rules?
She looked at his mouth, and her breath quickened.

You remember. The list you gave me when you decided not to block me out of your head?
He took one of her cold hands in his and focused all his thoughts on the way she sucked in a sharp little breath when he rubbed his thumb over her wrist. The way her pulse beat frantically against her skin.

What about it?
She licked her lips, and he willed her to move toward him. To want this like he wanted it.

You make me want to break one of your ground rules every time
you look at me like this.
And, skies help him, waiting for her to decide if she truly wanted him or not was torture.

Her smile was a slow journey of warmth that lit up her face and lingered in her eyes.
You want to kiss me.

Skies, yes.

For a brief moment, visions of the many other girls he’d casually kissed at the academy filled her mind, and he shook his head.
No, Lorelai. You’re different. This
—he held up their joined hands—
is different. Search my thoughts, and you’ll see the truth.

He waited quietly while she looked and saw the way she shone a little brighter than anyone he’d ever met. The way she challenged him and thrilled him and made him want to perform some idiotic grand gesture to prove himself in her eyes.

A grand gesture like sparing my life even though it meant your blood oath with Irina would kill you?

He laughed, but his heart was pounding with something better than the need to hurt, punish, and kill.
I didn’t do that for you. Not really. I didn’t even know you at the time.
I was just trying to keep my honor without condemning my kingdom.

Still, it was a pretty grand gesture.

You think so?
He leaned closer, and the scent of evergreens and snow made him want to drag her against him and show her just how different she really was from every other girl in the world.

“Yes,” she breathed the word into the space between them, her thoughts full of anticipation and need. He took that as the permission he’d been waiting for.

Her lips were warmer than her hands as he gently pressed his mouth to hers, still giving her a chance to back away if she changed her mind.

I’m not changing my mind.
She let go of his hand and grabbed the front of his shirt instead.

He ran his hand up her arm and tangled his fingers in her hair while still keeping the kiss gentle. Their first kiss needed to be perfect, and that meant holding himself back so that he didn’t rush things.

Heat that had nothing to do with his dragon’s fire filled him, pressing against his chest like he’d swallowed the sun, and he couldn’t breathe without taking in her scent. Without hearing the tiny gasp she made as he deepened the kiss and pulled her closer.

Something brushed against his shoulder, and for a moment, he thought it was her hand. But then something bumped against him. Hard. He stumbled forward, grabbing Lorelai’s arms to keep them on their feet, and turned to see that the Hinderlinde Forest had come to life.

Oh skies, we’ve got trouble.

The trees—hundreds of them, dripping moss and shedding leaves—were sliding toward them, their roots ripping through the soil and splaying out like tentacles. A horrible cracking sound filled the air as branches slammed against each other and trunks collided. They moved with a steady, relentless cadence that filled Kol with horror and sent his dragon heart thundering.

A walnut tree beside Lorelai raised its branches toward the sky and then slammed them down toward the princess’s head.

Down!
he yelled, but she’d already dropped to the ground and rolled away from the tree.

Away from him.

He lunged toward her and a branch smashed the ground
where he’d been standing.

It’s the same thing every time. You’d think she’d realize that taking control of so many hearts at once makes the cost of her magic that much worse.
Lorelai sounded disgusted.

Yes, she displays a true lack of originality. Maybe we can discuss that further when we aren’t in danger of being crushed by walking trees.

They’re moving slow. We can outrun them.
She flipped to the side as a maple bent toward her, its branches swinging hard.

They’re closing in and forming a fence around us.

Good thing we have dragon’s fire and mardushka magic, then.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from a skinny hickory that was wrapping its branches around his waist. Magic tingled against his skin and then slid into his blood with a jolt.

They ran, stumbling over roots that lashed the ground, ducking branches, and trying to find a path that wasn’t already blocked.

We’re surrounded.
Power filled her voice, and her eyes were fierce as she looked at him.
And we aren’t going to lead them back to Gabril and the shack. It’s me she wants.

She isn’t going to get you.

No, she isn’t.

An oak swiped at her, and Kol pulled her against him. The branch slid by, scratching Kol’s hands as it passed. The sound of roots tearing through soil, trunks creaking, and branches whistling through the air filled the forest as the trees shuffled closer and closer to Lorelai and Kol.

Sasha, path!
Lorelai sent as she tightened her grip on his hand and muttered an incantor.

Fire spilled out of his veins and into hers, and her pain hit him a second later. Blistering agony, pressure that wrapped around her chest and threatened to cut off her air, and a shuddering weakness that tried to send her to her knees.

He wrapped his free arm around her waist and hauled her out of the path of an incoming maple. Branches lashed around them from behind and yanked them against a trunk. Roots tangled with this feet. His dragon heart pounded viciously, and he snarled as he struck out at the branches that were touching Lorelai.

Seconds later, the gyrfalcon shrieked from above, and Lorelai, her breath coming in desperate pants, said
Path, Sasha. Find the river to the west.

An oak lumbered close, striking at Lorelai with a thick branch covered in dying leaves. Kol tried to block it, but the branches wrapped around his chest shortened his reach. Lorelai threw herself against him, and the branch slammed into the tree that was holding them instead.

Sasha reappeared above them as the branches holding them began to squeeze the air out of Kol’s lungs.

I’ve got the path. Time to burn our way out of here.

He bared his teeth as his dragon heart pounded a litany of hurt, punish, kill and poured fire into Lorelai through her magic. She made an awful sound of pain, but raised her free hand and grabbed the branches that were wrapped around them.

“
Kaz`lit
,” she yelled, and fire blazed out of her hand and into the heart of the tree.

It shivered and creaked, smoke rising from its bark, and then it exploded into slivers edged with gold-tipped fire so blindingly
white it hurt to look at.

Let’s get to the river where the trees can’t follow us
, she said, but the pain from his fire was eating at her, and she could barely walk.
Follow the path Sasha sent to me. Can you see it?

He saw it in her thoughts—a sprint southwest for more distance than he cared to consider given their current circumstances. He scooped her into his arms and began running west, twisting away from branches that came at him like clubs, and pausing briefly when their path was blocked so that she could incinerate the tree in front of them.

He was out of breath, his body scratched and beaten from branches he’d failed to avoid, when he heard a roar in the distance.

That’s the river.
Her voice was faint, her teeth clenched against the pain.
I hope you can swim.

Almost as well as I can fly. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.

I’m not worried.
She slammed her hand against a branch that struck him in the side, and the tree exploded into flaming cinders with a terrible crack that was nearly drowned out by the roar of the river.

Good. No worrying. However . . . that sounds awfully loud for a river.

That’s because it’s a waterfall.
She shivered, and the bare skin of her arms against his felt unnaturally hot.

You need to let go of the fire, Lorelai.

Not until we’re safe.

I’ll get us to safety. I promise
. He crested a steep slope that was nothing but stubbles of grass and clumps of dying underbrush. Behind him, an entire army of trees shuffled faster, roots lashing
like whips as they came. Throwing himself on his back, Lorelai cradled against his chest, he slid toward the jagged edge of the slope.

We’re safe from the trees. Let go of the fire. Please, Lorelai. You don’t need the pain any longer.

She released the fire and it pooled in his chest, its familiar warmth comforting.

Underbrush sliced into him, and the soil scraped his back raw as he slid. He braced himself, hit the rocks that lined the bottom of the slope, and scrambled to his feet, pulling Lorelai up with him. Above them, trees began shuffling down the hillside. Below them—he peered over the rocks and swallowed hard—below them a waterfall burst out of the solid rock that made up the hillside and tumbled into the river below.

Skies, he hoped there weren’t rocks at the bottom of the drop because they had no other options. The trees behind them were gaining speed, and the quiet shush-shush sound of their roots digging into the ground, pulling them forward, and then ripping free again set his teeth on edge.

It should be fine
, she said, though her voice still sounded weak from the pain of controlling his dragon’s fire.
My magic will reach the heart of the river. Hopefully it will respond to me.

Even if it doesn’t, you’ll be okay. I’ve got you.
And, skies above, please let him be able to keep that promise.
Ready?

She met his gaze.
Ready.

He grabbed her hand and together they jumped.