“Hey!” Between them and the mist, the fallen soldier had opened his eyes. He pushed himself up to his knees, letting out a low grunt of pain. “Hold!” He clapped one hand to his side, groaning. “Your Highnesses, halt immediately!”

Cordelia veered wide to the left of his big, hunched figure.

Ten more feet to go to that sparkling wall of mist … eight …

“They’re here!” he bellowed, stumbling to his feet. “Sir Alina, they’re back here!”

Footsteps thundered toward them from Cordelia’s other side. Men’s and women’s voices shouted threats and commands.

Six more feet …

“This is for your own good!” The soldier scooped his sword from the grass. “I can’t let you three pass!”

Lunging forward, he grabbed Giles’s closest arm with his free hand.

Giles let out a cry of shock. His arm looked as thin and breakable as a twig in the man’s grip.

Cordelia changed course to run straight at them, claws and fur readying for battle within her.

“Leave him alone!” Rosalind shouted. Her eyes flashed. She threw her right hand up into the air …

And the big metal sword flew out of the soldier’s hand, knocking him backward with the force of its release. Cordelia stopped, gaping.

Rosalind, too, had finally found a way to make her own abandoned magic work with her true passion.

Giles twisted free of the soldier’s loosened grip as the sword shot in a high, sweeping curve. Rosalind caught its pommel neatly in her outstretched hand and then ran forward to shoulder Giles toward the mist. “Go!”

Their brother ran at the shimmering white wall and disappeared into it. Cordelia couldn’t even see his outline through the blinding sparkles.

“Go now, Cordy!” Rosalind spun around and dropped into a ready position, swinging her new sword in a wide, threatening curve as soldiers thundered toward them from both directions.

Cordelia hesitated.

“If you’ve ever loved me, you will find some faith in me!” Rosalind gritted.

Nine adult soldiers closed in a shrinking semicircle around her figure.

Cordelia sucked in a frantic breath through her teeth. Then she turned and leaped into the mist.

It closed around her in a chilling, full-body embrace. Sparks shot through her veins and exploded through her scalp. Wings and claws and fur and scales all tried to burst out of her skin at once.

Blindly, she stumbled forward through the choking, tingling, wet air. White stretched endlessly before her. She couldn’t suck in any breath. Her skin burned with cold. Her teeth chattered wildly.

She couldn’t even feel her feet anymore. Cold prickled at her head, burrowing under her hair as if it were trying to peel her open … and then dissolve her into the surrounding mist.