The others waited, silent, as I began to ascend the stairs. Formed of green and gold glass, they were slick and spiraled around the trunk. There was no railing, and so I kept to the inside, leaning against the oak as I tried to avoid slipping. One misstep and I’d go over the side, and when I looked down, I realized I’d fall directly into the moat. To where that led, I chose not to speculate.
About a third of the way up, my foot slipped, and I scrambled, going down on my hands and knees with a jarring thud. Shaking, I struggled to stand and, after taking a deep breath, started again. The sound of my boots on the glass echoed through the chamber-the others remained silent, watching below. They couldn’t help me. I’d been entrusted with this task by Lainule. I was the only one who would be able to retrieve her heartstone.
As I approached the top, the ivy began to wave, and Ulean swept by.
Beware. Be cautious. You are not through the tangle yet.
What is it?
But I didn’t have time to wait for her answer. One of the tendrils reached out and wrapped around my wrist. I struggled against it, but the ivy came thick and fast and began to wrap me up like a spider wraps its prey. I was having trouble breathing and couldn’t move fast enough to stop it. Below, I heard Grieve shout. The next moment, the tower quaked and the ivy sucked away from me, leaving me to tumble down the steps until I caught myself. The tower quaked again and I looked down.
The oak was caught in a frost that was spreading up its trunk. Grieve was standing on the steps, slack-jawed, staring as a layer of frost spread from his feet to the steps, and huge cracks began to form in the staircase.
Kaylin vanished as I glanced anxiously up at the top of the tower. I wasn’t far from it-but the cracks were spidering up the glass, and soon the stairs I was standing on would break and send me tumbling to the abyss below. I made a run for it, staggering up the slick surface to the landing at the top.
Grieve jumped off the bottom step back to Rhia’s side just as the foundation of the staircase shattered and vanished into the crevasse. I didn’t have much time. I glanced around the top of the tower and there it was-a crystal box, and within the box I could see the brilliant emerald stone, pulsing with life and with light. I grabbed up the case, trying to decide what to do. Just then, Kaylin materialized on the landing next to me.
“Can you take the case while you’re dreamwalking?”
He shook his head. “Yes, I can. As well as your clothing, since you’ll have to change into your owl-shape and fly down from here. There’s no returning down those stairs. Hurry-strip!”
I caught my breath, staring at him, reluctant to hand him the case. But there was no choice. I pushed the crystal box into his hands and pulled off my clothes, stripping as fast as I could.
The stairs were half gone, shattering like tempered glass into a thousand pieces. I kept my moonstone pendant, but everything else I gave to Kaylin, and he vanished back into the shadows. I glanced down at the stairs. Only a few more and the landing would go. I sucked in a deep breath and stepped to the edge of the landing. As the glass began to break beneath my bare feet, I gathered my courage and spread my arms, toppling over the edge in a freefall.
Arms into wings, body into bird, nails into talons. As I headed toward the ground, Ulean caught me in her updraft and I was aloft, flying around the room. It felt so good-this freedom to soar, to fly, to…what the…from here, I could see handholds carved into the walls. I followed them up, and when I got to the ceiling, found a trapdoor right next to a thin ledge. This was our way out. I turned to fly down to the others when the door shattered open and a wave of snow and ice came swirling through.
Holy fuck. Three Shadow Hunters leaned through, their expressions triumphant. And behind them-Myst!
I spiraled down quickly, shifting as I hit the ground. Turning to Kaylin, I whispered, “You have to dreamwalk. You must escape with the heartstone, now.”
He tossed me my clothes, the look on his face pained, and I knew he didn’t want to leave us. “All right, but take this.” He pressed something in my hand as I gave him a sharp nod and he was once again a puff of shadow and smoke, vanishing from sight.
I glanced at what Kaylin had given me. The obsidian knife. Gritting my teeth, knowing what was in store for us, I yanked on my clothes, as the Shadow Hunters began their creep down the ledge, using the handholds. Myst leaned in through the trap door, her laughter echoing through the room.
“Too late, too late, Cicely. And my Consort, what a naughty boy you’ve been. It’s time for summer to end. It’s time to bring the long night of the world.” Her voice was chill, the winds of winter rushing through it. At least she only had three of her Shadow Hunters with her. But three of the Vampiric Fae against four of us? Not even the beginning to a fair match.
Rhia backed up, her expression grim. “We do whatever we have to in order to get out of here.”
“Yes. And my first act is this.” I swept out my fan and aimed it at them.
Cicely, do not overuse-
There’s no choice. I cut off Ulean with an abrupt whisper. “Hurricane force.” And as I swept the fan, all hell broke loose.
The winds rose, but this time so did I. I felt myself rise half out of my body, yet I was still attached to my form. I loomed, overshadowing the chamber. I was both my shadow and myself, rising up with the winds, no longer feeling their backlash, but this time they were coming from within me. I tried to catch my breath but my shadow-self did not need to breathe, the winds were breathing for me as they raged forth from my body.
Ulean shrieked, and I turned in her direction. I could see her-the celestial sparkling form that I had only before seen when I was dreamwalking with Kaylin. Now she was clear and huge, and she spun around me.
Draw the wind back! You do not know what you are doing!
But I had to move forward. I couldn’t pull the raging winds back to me-they were sustaining me, lifting me up, making me a giant in my own world. The plinth shuddered as the hundred-mile-an-hour winds hit it square on. It shrieked, splintering as bone and branch broke apart, falling to the floor.
I took another step forward, shaking the room as I moved. Behind me, I heard Rhia, Grieve, and Chatter shouting, but I could no longer hear their voices, and right now I had work to do. I turned toward the Shadow Hunters and let out a long breath, and the winds struck the walls, shaking the chamber, howling as they echoed through the room.
The Vampiric Fae shrieked as I headed in their direction. They clung to the walls with a preternatural strength, pressing themselves against the tiles. I threw back my head, my hair whipping in the wind. As I laughed, my laughter rumbled through the room. The obsidian knife was still in my hand and now its energy began to ripple through me, a fierce hunger overtaking me.
I reached the wall and-shadow watching over my body-began to climb, like Myst’s people, clinging to the walls as the hurricane-force winds thundered from within me. My heart was buoyed by their strength. I scuttled up the wall like a spider, like an insect, and as I reached the first Shadow Hunter, he cringed as I brought up the obsidian knife.
Kill, bleed, feed, drain him dry, suck marrow from bone, feast on his heart, bathe in his blood and brains…
The impetus drove me forward, drove my hand up, brought the knife plunging down into his body, as I ripped, tearing him apart. Laughter came burbling up, and I licked the blade, not caring when it sliced my own tongue. The salty taste of his blood only whetted my appetite and I reached out, intent on drawing him to me, but the winds that buffeted the walls sent him careening to the floor.