I glanced over my shoulder again. “I think they’re gaining on us!”
“He’s going as fast as he can,” Loukas responded, his voice tight. But he whistled to Maddok and kneaded his hands along the gryphon’s neck, urging him to give us a little bit more.
“Can you still feel it?” I asked. “Is it getting stronger?”
“Yes,” was all Loukas said. This plan hinged entirely on us following the cotantem and reaching Barloc first, before the others. If they caught us before we caught him …
No, I cut the thought off. We’ll make it. We have enough of a head start. This will work.
It had to.
I glanced back again.
“You’re just going to make yourself even more upset if you keep doing that. Focus on what’s ahead of us—on what you have to do if we catch him.”
He’d done a masterful job of acting like he’d passed out again, making it so convincing, I nearly believed him. Especially when he almost fell off Maddok. We’d waited until we were sure everyone was asleep, and then waited a little bit longer, just to be certain. It couldn’t have worked out better for Zuhra to ask if we could rest again, saving me from having to do it and possibly raise any suspicion.
But now came the even harder part—tracking Barloc down, taking him by surprise before he could attack us, and then …
I’d take back what he’d stolen from me.
Though the air above the trees was much cooler than on the ground, the sun still beat down on us, relentless and nearly unbearable, as we rushed away from my family and the other Paladin, chasing the elusive cotantem that Loukas had also felt before he’d pretended to lose consciousness. My body kept flashing hot then cold then hot.
You can do this. You can do this.
“You’re sure it’s him and not a pocket?” I asked.
Loukas groaned and I remembered too late that I’d already asked him that. “I told you, it wouldn’t be getting stronger.”
“Right.”
“Are you sure you can do this?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Of course!”
“You seem very … nervous.”
“Just because I’m nervous doesn’t mean I’m incapable. You keep him from attacking us, and I will do what I have to do.”
We both fell silent after that. I resisted the urge to look back to see if the others were still gaining on us. We’d hoped they’d stay asleep longer. At least we had a significant head start … but would it be enough? We would have very little time to act.
Loukas suddenly tensed, his arms stiffening around me.
“What? What is it?”
“I felt—”
Before he could finish, darkness closed in on me.
I saw Barloc sitting alone at his desk at the library, Paladin books open in front of him, but he stared forward unseeingly. Loneliness pressed in on him like the darkness that swelled beyond the reach of the solitary candle he had lit. Loneliness and a longing that burned hotter than any fire, hidden away deep within him—a longing to go to the world his grandfather had told him about. A longing to claim the power he’d witnessed but never wielded—power that was his birthright—and use it to prove his superiority to all those who had ever mocked him for his assertions of being part Paladin or berated him for his fascination with them.
Then I saw him standing in a forest, spinning toward the sound of wingbeats, the immense power he now wielded flooding his veins as he summoned it forth and waited until a gryphon came into view—with a girl who looked like Zuhra and Loukas on its back—a jolt of disbelief, of recognition—
I slammed back into my body, a scream of warning building too late in my throat, just as the blast of Paladin fire exploded out of the trees beneath us. Maddok banked so sharply, it nearly unseated us both. The fireball passed by close enough to singe the edge of Maddok’s wing. The scent of burning feathers and acrid power made my eyes sting as Loukas pulled on Maddok’s reins, sending him into a nosedive, straight into the trees. Branches and leaves tore at our legs and arms, but the pain hardly registered as I caught sight of Barloc standing below us, his body glowing so brightly with power that I almost couldn’t look directly at him.
His hand filled with more Paladin fire, but before he could release it, his blindingly bright eyes widened and then he froze, the fire flickering and then fading.
There was barely room for Maddok to land. His back paws slammed into the ground with such a thud, it jarred every bone in my body. Loukas immediately vaulted off his back, his glowing hands stretched out to Barloc.
“Go—now—” The words were so strained, I could barely understand what Loukas had said. His arms shook, every vein lit bright green with his power. His entire body trembled with the effort of controlling Barloc. I slid off Maddok’s back, landing on the hard ground with a sharp ping in one of my ankles. Ignoring the pain, I rushed forward, pulling the knife from the sheath that Loukas had strapped to my thigh before we’d taken off. Though I was willing to drink his blood to get my power back, I didn’t think I could tear his throat open with just my teeth.
As I watched, the painfully bright glow of Barloc’s veins slowly faded until he stood before me as I’d known him, as Halvor’s scholarly uncle, except for the unsettling half grimace on his face as he tried to fight Loukas’s control on his mind. His body was stiff with resistance, but slowly, painfully, his knees bent until he knelt, then lay down on the ground, each movement like watching a broken puppet being coerced into submission.
The Paladin blade shook in my hand as I forced myself to kneel beside him. Though his body was completely still, his eyes still moved, turning on me with such loathing, searing panic burned in my gut. If I didn’t succeed—and fast—he would kill me.
I gripped the hilt of the dagger in my sweaty hand and lifted it over his neck. Just enough pressure to cut, not kill. He has to be alive while you drink the blood for you to absorb his power. Loukas’s instructions rang through my fevered mind. Sunlight flashed off the blade. The shaking in my hand spread up my arm and out to my entire body.
I lifted my other hand up to grasp the handle too, and swallowed once, hard. Memories of Barloc’s attack assailed me. Sweat gathered at my temples.
You can do this, Inara. You have to do this!
And still, I hesitated.
“Inara!”
The shout was distant, barely more than a whisper through the rustling leaves around us. My mother’s voice.
I clenched my teeth and lowered the blade.
Paladin steel was unbelievably sharp; it slid into his skin like a hot knife through butter. Blood spurted out around the blade and I quickly pulled it back with a cry of shock. Though he still couldn’t move, there was no missing the agony and terror that replaced the fury in Barloc’s eyes.
I’d believed myself capable of doing this, but now that the moment had come, the reality of actually drinking his blood made my stomach roil.
“Inara!”
“Loukas!”
The shouts were louder, closer.
I was out of time.
With a half-swallowed sob, I forced myself to bend over him and cover the wound I’d given him with my lips. His blood, hot and metallic and awful, trickled into my mouth. I gagged, barely managing to choke down a tiny mouthful. But the second the vile blood hit my stomach, the emptiness inside where my power had once resided pulsed, greedy and desperate. I clamped my eyes shut and forced myself to swallow again, this time a full mouthful of Barloc’s power-laced blood.
“Inara—no!”
The scream was so close, too close. Other shouts sounded as well, along with gryphons screeching. I didn’t dare open my eyes. A hint of power warmed my body, trickling back into my veins. Though my stomach heaved, threatening to rebel, I made myself swallow yet again.
“What are you doing?”
I thought my father’s shout was aimed at me, but oh, how wrong I was.
“No—”
It took a split second for me to realize it was Loukas who had yelled. Less than a heartbeat later, Barloc broke free of Loukas’s control and grabbed my arms, yanking me so hard it made my head snap back. Two heartbeats and somehow he had the knife in his hand, angled at my throat, while he dragged me to my feet in front of him.
“You are a mentirum!” he crowed hungrily.
I stared at Loukas, who swayed on his feet, his face deathly pale. The other gryphons circled overhead, trying to find a break in the trees to land. There were more shouts, but I couldn’t understand their words over the thundering of blood in my head.
Then Loukas’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the earth.
Barloc tried to drag me over to Loukas, but Maddok jumped in front of his Rider with a shriek that stunned Barloc into stillness.
Three simultaneous blasts exploded around us; the ground shook so hard, I stumbled and nearly fell. Barloc shoved me forward, at Maddok. The gryphon cawed when I crashed into its feathered chest, as Barloc summoned his power and dashed around us to where Loukas lay unconscious—for real this time.
Instead of ripping his neck open to drink his power, like I thought he would, Barloc merely grabbed his arm with one glowing hand and lifted the knife with his other. For some reason, the knife also glowed with his power, so brightly I had to squint.
Maddok cawed again and grabbed at the back of my shirt with his beak, pulling me out of his way.
“Inara!”
My sister’s shout was a dull echo through the roar in my head as Barloc lifted the glowing knife and uttered a phrase in Paladin then slashed it through the air. Another explosion ripped through the forest, but this time, it knocked me and Maddok backward. I slammed into the ground and lay there stunned for a beat.
“NO!”
The gut-wrenching scream shocked me back into action; I scuttled over onto my hands and knees just in time to see Barloc drag Loukas through a glowing tear in the air—
And disappear.
Maddok screeched beside me. Hardly even knowing what I was doing, I sprang to my feet and barely managed to grab his reins and swing my leg over his back before he lunged to his paws and talons and charged forward after his Rider.
“Inara—no—”
Zuhra’s shout echoed after me as Maddok leapt into the blinding slash of light and everything went silent.