And then...

I don’t know how to describe what happens next. The best I can do is this.

Every color, from the russet of his hair to rosy skin to the long sweep of dark cloak and brown of his shiny boots, blurs. The streaks of color fold in on themselves, then fold back out, resolving themselves into a different shape.

The shape of a hawk.

The hawk circles overhead once, then dives out the window with a scream.

Olani lets out an exasperated sigh, shaking her head. As she passes, I think I hear her mutter, “Dramatic little jinx.”

I’d seen Leira Wildfall shapeshift before, but that was different. She never seemed like a real person. Raze...

But I don’t have time to be wonderstruck. Olani doesn’t hesitate before opening the door and running down the hall. Isolde squeezes my hand, and then we follow.

Headfirst into danger.

The perfect start to any morning. Who needs coffee when you have the icy shock of mortal terror?

chapter fifteen

At the bottom of the stairs, Olani stops so suddenly that I almost crash into her. Isolde grabs my arm and yanks me back on balance before I can send all three of us sprawling on the floor.

“Shh!” the healer hisses, peeking around the corner.

I follow her gaze, trying to make myself as small as possible. From here, we can see the front door and the counter where Olani paid for our room. It’s surprisingly crowded for this early in the morning—

And they’re all decked out in Wildline Manor blue.

I strain to hear the conversation. Aris is the only one speaking, her back turned to us. Her hands, wrapped in thin strips of cloth, drum impatiently on the desk. Given how nervous the innkeeper looks, she must be threatening him. At least it doesn’t look like they brought the dragons with them.

“Saw them—with two other...but they didn’t...could be wrong.”

She mutters something that makes his face turn red. Then she waves her hands in a circular motion, and a ball of light forms between them—not fiery or flickering, but shining white, like a tiny sun.

My breath catches in my chest. It’s one thing to know what she can do, but it’s another to actually see the magic spring from her fingertips. I’ve never seen someone manipulate light like that. She must be the one who enchanted the lights at the Revelnox party and in Wildline Manor.

“Olani, how—?”

Before I can finish my question, the front door bursts open. Raze, back in his human form, slides in as if he’d sprinted with his full weight into the door. “Aris!”

Her green eyes wide, she turns sharply, and so does everyone else in the room.

He stands there panting for a second, possibly for dramatic effect. Then an irreverent grin breaks like the dawn across his face, and he says, “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

That breaks the spell. “Get him!” Aris commands. She shoots the ball of light across the room at Raze.