Half Title

Dedication

For Ollie and Jamie Samphire.

I love you both exactly equally.

Also by Stephanie Burgis

Also by Stephanie Burgis

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart

The Girl with the Dragon Heart

The Princess Who Flew with Dragons

Title Page

Epigraph

Are not these woods more free from peril than the envious court?

—SHAKESPEARE, AS YOU LIKE IT

Chapter One

Chapter One

Beyond the castle’s moat, the deep, dark forest was shot through with trails of sunlight, tracing golden paths of possibility. Robins sang from hidden branches while swifts dived and darted over the sun-dappled water. They were all wild with the first taste of summer, and so was the dark-haired girl who sat, bare feet dangling against stone, on the windowsill of her tower bedroom, watching them fly.

Inside the castle, her mother and her older brother, Connall, were busy in the herbarium as usual, casting stinking enchantments to protect their home against the world. Cordelia’s triplet sister, Rosalind, was loudly bashing mock enemies in the first inner courtyard, using the latest long stick that she’d adopted as a sword. Their triplet brother, Giles, strummed a lute soulfully in his tower bedroom high above, windows left open to spread his endless, wailing song through the warm air.

But outside the castle, the birds were free, and so could Cordelia be, if only—

No! Catching herself leaning forward, she forced herself to stop before wings could sprout from her back.

She couldn’t turn bird and fly out into the sunshine. Not today. She’d promised Mother never to do it again without Connall’s supervision, even though that was a ridiculous rule. It meant only going out once or twice a week when she wanted to fly free every day. They lived all alone in the center of an enchanted forest. Who could possibly hurt her among the trees? And why would they want to?

But those were questions that Mother would never answer, like everything else about their family’s past … and the last time Cordelia had given in to temptation and flown free on her own for one delicious, stolen afternoon, Mother had cast a cloud of dark smoke to wrap tightly around her window for an entire week in punishment. So Cordelia only sighed and tipped her head back now to soak in the gorgeous warmth of the sunshine on her face and the vast, familiar murmuring of the deep forest around her …

Until harsh voices called out suddenly in the distance.

She jerked upright, eyes flying open. No animals in the forest made sounds like that! Sixteen-year-old Connall’s voice was the closest she could think of—but even his wasn’t nearly so deep.

“Mother?” she whispered.