A Heart So Fierce and Broken (The Cursebreaker Series Book 2)

I expect to return to chaos, but the training fields are oddly still silent. Lia Mara is now behind me, and my weapons are in hand. My plan is to grab my people and magic them across as well, but Karis Luran is too strategic. Too vicious. We’ve been gone less than a minute, but her guards have taken my people. They’re on their knees, a crossbow pointed at each bowed head.

I don’t know how to save them all. Lia Mara is pressed against my back, and I wonder if I saved her at their expense. She has one of my knives in each hand, but we cannot stand against an army. Cold wind swirls across the training grounds to make me shiver.

Karis Luran raises her bow. She’s six feet in front of me, but I stare down at the point of that arrow and do not move. “You will not rule me by fear. You will not kill your daughter.”

“Move, Prince Grey. We will finish this now. You will prove your loyalty, or I will execute your people.”

“Mother. Please.” Nolla Verin’s voice is small and broken.

Bitter wind whips at my cheeks. Iisak’s growl rolls across the training fields. I feel every spark and star in my blood waiting. I’m more sure of myself now. The magic is no longer something to fear.

“Move.” Karis Luran’s eyes are fixed on mine. The arrow point levels with my face. “Or I will execute you both.”

“No.”

“No,” says Lia Mara. Her voice is fierce. She takes a step forward, her weapons raised.

“Kill them all.” Karis Luran draws back the string. I hear the snap of crossbows. I have no idea whether my magic can beat an arrow, but I cast my sparks and stars wide, until my vision flares with gold.

At my side, Lia Mara’s arm lifts. One of her knives goes flying. Then the other.

The arrow never strikes. Karis Luran’s body jerks, and the bow clatters to the ground. She collapses in the grass. Blood is a wash of crimson along her neck.

For a moment, I think I’ve done it. That my magic has killed her.

But then I see the knives in her neck and upper chest. Perfect hits. Blood is pooling rapidly on the ground. A sudden hush has fallen over the training fields.

At my side, Lia Mara is breathing rapidly. “I told you,” she says, her voice trembling. “I told you I could defend myself.”