Irina screamed an incantor. Kol reached Lorelai, whose feet were still tangled in vines, as the windows that surrounded the door shattered and the glass teardrop chandelier fell from the ceiling to explode into shards against the floor.
The princess put one hand on Kol, desperately sending her magic into him, trying to smash through the barrier Irina had erected. With the other hand, she reached over a pile of writhing, snapping vines for the closest shard of glass.
Kol shoved her hand away, and Lorelai stumbled. Snatching at his shirt, she kept herself from falling as she bent at the waist and scooped up the glass. A vine lashed itself around her wrist and sank its little teeth into her arm. The pain was a brilliant flare that streaked through her veins and sent the room swaying, but Lorelai didn’t hesitate.
Holding the glass, feeling the heart of the Ravenspire sand that had been sacrificed to make the chandelier, she said, “Tvor`zhi.” It was the same incantor the queen used to create snakes, but Lorelai had a different creature in mind.
Thousands of razor-sharp glass shards rose from the floor and hovered like a swarm of bees. As Irina shouted another incantor, and more vines peeled away from the wooden bannister to plunge toward Lorelai, the swarm of glass swooped through the air, gaining speed and momentum, and then dove for the queen.
Irina screamed as the shards arrowed over the top of the marble barrier and struck her.
Lorelai had no time to celebrate the victory. Kol was grappling with her, his amber eyes wild, his skin so flushed with heat from his dragon’s fire that it hurt to touch him. She sent spells into him, shouted incantors, even tried to break his hold on her by breaking his arm, but he was a dragon trapped in a human body—impossibly strong, fast, and lethal, and she refused to do the one thing that would save her from him.
She refused to kill him.
Her chest burned from the vine’s poison, and every breath tore at her throat like a knife blade as she struggled against him, pushing her power into him in desperate hope that somehow she could slow him down long enough to kill Irina and set him free.
“Kaz`lit.” Irina’s voice thundered throughout the hall, and Kol howled in agony as the pain inside him doubled.
The queen spoke another incantor, and the marble barrier crumbled into dust. The glass shards fell to the floor. And the cuts on Irina’s skin knit back together again.
She began moving toward the far wall where the Diederich coat of arms, complete with a pair of crossed swords, was mounted.
“He’s going to kill you, Lorelai. Any second now. It’s the only way his body and mind can find any peace. But if he doesn’t . . . I have something that will do the job.” Irina’s smile was cruel.
Kol lowered his shoulder and slammed into Lorelai, sending them both sprawling into the nest of writhing vines.
The vines whipped out and lashed themselves around Lorelai’s arms, legs, and waist, pinning her to the floor. Their teeth were razors, their poison fire. Her lungs labored for every breath she took. Her pulse pounded in desperation as Kol yanked at the vines that covered her heart, heedless of the teeth that sank into his skin.
Across the room, Irina hefted the swords, one in each hand. Her lips moved, and the swords shuddered to life. Releasing the hilts, Irina smiled as the swords hovered in the air like hawks searching for prey.
Lorelai’s eyes stung with tears as she met Kol’s feral gaze. His talons tore at the vines across her chest. The swords began circling faster and faster. Weariness from Lorelai’s constant use of magic was setting in.
Irina laughed in vicious triumph as she waited for the princess to die.
The last vine blocking Lorelai’s heart snapped in two, and Kol roared in savage hunger.
The swords dove toward them.
And Lorelai knew.
She couldn’t fight off both Kol and Irina. She had to choose.
There was no panic. No hesitation. There was only her heart willing to pay the cost of killing Irina and by doing so, save her kingdom and save Kol.
She gathered her remaining strength, stretched her palms flat against the floor, and called to the deepest core of Ravenspire. To secret depths unplumbed by even Irina.
The swords flew toward them.
Kol’s hand curved into an open fist above her heart.
Irina laughed.
“Hat`sja oyti,” Lorelai whispered. “Come together and rise. Take the one who hurts you.”
Deep within the ground, something rumbled like thunder trapped in a cavern of rocks. Something bubbled and boiled and surged toward the surface.
“Please,” Lorelai whispered, magic stinging her hands as it spilled into the marble and sank into the core of Ravenspire. “Help me.”
The swords were almost upon them.
Kol’s talons pressed against the skin around her heart as if he was gauging where to plunge his hand.