Chapter 20

Crushed to my knees in the glass room suspended over the deep ravine, I lifted my eyes to track the Oracle's slow saunter past the windows, her face turned away from us and toward the blighted forest.

Tavion and I were the baited hook, pinned like rats to the floor, unable to move.

All around us the Oracle's rage rippled through the air, suffocating us as she paced back and forth in cold, calculating anger.

She wouldn't be waiting much longer.

Tristan had sailed out of the clouds moments ago, little more than a shadow against the mist, my eyes too blurred from pain to tell if Anaria clung to his back.

But I knew Anaria would never leave us to face the Oracle alone.

Our princess had come for us, and I cursed her loyalty like I cursed my own failure.

I should have seen the threat. The palace was a honey trap, an easy solution to our problem, and I'd fallen for it. Stormfall would have been safer. Even Blackcastle, where we had Zephryn and Cosimo to back us up, would have offered more protection.

"We have to stop her, Raz," Tavion whispered, his voice barely audible. "Before Anaria gets here."

I nodded, jaw clenched tightly as I surveyed our impossible situation. "Agreed. At least Zor got out. And Bexley."

Not that I held out any hope they'd help us. Zor headed for Blackcastle to warn Torin, and Bex…well, knowing the mage, he was hiding. In the mountains, perhaps, after the Oracle wrecked his life's work with a violent tantrum of power.

The palace—this entire mountain—trembled beneath her rage, stone and rock rattling as she crushed and shredded, grinding years of the mage's work down to dust. Bexley's mouse had skittered away the moment she'd appeared out front and turned her gleaming smile on us.

As if on cue, her low chuckle echoed through the glass chamber, sending shivers down my spine. "Stunning, isn't it?" the Oracle purred, her voice dripping with malice. "I hope you appreciate the view. That dying forest will be the last thing you see."

Tavion's fists knotted, anger flushing up his neck. "You will pay for what you and your brother have done. We won't stop until you are both dead." Muscles corded and strained as he fought the pain of her magical bonds, strong enough to lurch to his feet.

Her eyes flared wide before she slammed him back down to the floor, his knees hitting the marble with a heart-wrenching crack, the floor rocking beneath me, his grunt of pain followed by her low, cold laugh.

"Such bravado, wolf, but you always were all talk. Your princess made a grave mistake locking me away inside my own mind. I'm tempted to do the same to her."

She crouched down so we were eye to eye, those shadows spilling across the floor like the train of a bridal gown. "They have arrived, the wyvern and your precious princess. Let us greet them properly, shall we?"

With a wave of her hand, the Oracle vanished from sight, leaving us alone, the only sound Tavion's pained groans. Outside, the sky darkened as storm clouds gathered, casting ominous shadows over the ravine below, that constant roar of waterfalls pounding in my ears.

I flexed my shoulders, yanking at my invisible bonds, but couldn't move a muscle. When I opened my mouth, nothing came out.

Tavion's eyes met mine, flared wide.

Inside my head, I screamed out warning after warning.

Don't come any further.

It's a trap.

Fly as far away from here as you can.

I didn't know if anything got through. Doubtful, with the Oracle's power locking me down. We knelt there, shoulders touching, and I squeezed my eyes closed as two sets of approaching footsteps echoed across the marble floor.