Page 113 of Cursed Crowns
Wren watched the woman’s hands change color, her skin glowing blood-red from the inside out. A thought occurred to her, and she voiced it. “Do you know how to fix the prince? Is there a way?”
The woman cocked her head.If there was, what would you do for it?
“Anything.”
The woman’s smile sharpened.Would you kill for it?
Snow fell around them, but as the flakes landed on Wren’s skin, they turned to drops of blood. When she looked up, the other Wren had disappeared. The night was as black as ink, the moon smothered behind a blanket of clouds.
True power comes from sacrifice,whispered the wind.
42
Rose
Rose rode through the storm and into the night. The sky flashed, turning the dunes silver as the rain beat down on her, soaking through her cloak. She barely noticed the chill. She was lost in the memory of her last kiss with Shen Lo, wondering why it had felt like so much more than a temporary goodbye. It had felt like forever.
As the Sunkissed Kingdom disappeared into the mist, Rose spied the edge of Lei Fan’s storm up ahead, a place where the rain petered out and the sky turned indigo, the first of the desert stars already bright and twinkling. She leaned forward, galloping hard and fast toward it.
Rose heard the unmistakable thrum of hoofbeats behind her. She whipped her head around, squinting into the falling dark. She recognized the horse first, and then its rider.
Kai.
Rose’s blood ran cold. Kai was shirtless, his long dark hair streaming in the wind. Every strand was bone-dry, just like the rest of him. He must have arced around the storm to catch up with her.
Rose wound her fingers in Storm’s mane. “Faster, girl!”
But Shen’s horse was exhausted from riding in the rain, her damphooves sinking in the shifting sands.
“You spoiled, meddling Valhart!” shouted Kai. “You ruined everything! You don’t just get to go running back to your precious palace. Turn around and face me!”
Rose glanced over her shoulder just in time to see him unfurl his whip with a deafening crack. It lashed through the air, before curling around Rose and yanking her off the horse. She screamed as she fell, landing on her back with a thud. Kai leaped off his horse, a foot coming to either side of her elbows. She tried to sit up, but he crouched down and pressed her face to the sand. Rose flailed in panic, catching a handful of his hair and yanking it, hard. He released her with a curse, and she bolted upright, kneeing him squarely between the legs.
Kai roared in pain.
Rose slid out from under him and scrambled to her feet. She grabbed his whip and flung it behind her, putting as much distance between them as she could.
Kai pulled a dagger from his belt as he leaped to his feet. He ducked his head and charged at her. Rose tried to run, but she was no match for the stampeding warrior. She stumbled on the sand, her hands coming to her head to protect it, just as Storm leaped from the dune and landed between them.
Kai lurched, striking Storm with his dagger. The horse released a terrible squeal as she collapsed onto the sand.
“You spineless coward!” yelled Rose, coming to her knees beside the quivering horse. “She was only trying to protect me!”
“Coward?” said Kai, rounding on her. “Shen Lo is the coward. Hiding out in Ortha all those years when he could have been looking for us!”He spat in the sand. “He doesn’t deserve to be king!” He raised the blade high above Rose. “If I can’t take his crown from him, then I’ll take his woman.”
Rose screamed as he brought the dagger down, but at that very same moment, a silver throwing knife whizzed past her, knocking the blade from Kai’s grip.
Then came a croaky voice soaring on the desert wind. “You forget your honor, Kai Lo!”
Grandmother Lu galloped toward them atop a magnificent russet mare. She slashed her cane through the air like a sword, before pointing it accusingly at his forehead. “You disappoint me.”
Rose blinked, trying to figure out if Grandmother Lu was an apparition. She must be some sort of mirage, because there was simply no way that Shen’s old nanny had just appeared out of nowhere, armed to the teeth...
All at once, Grandmother Lu vaulted off her horse, somersaulted through the air, and kicked Kai in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. She sprang up from her crouch and began to beat him with her cane. “You. Know. Better. Than. This!” she said between thwacks. “I trained you myself! I taught you all your fancy moves! But I didn’t teach you all MY moves!” With another yell, she used her cane to launch herself into the air, making a cannonball of her body, before hurtling back down at alarming speed. She landed on Kai’s chest, winding him so badly, he fell back in the sand, dazed.
“Stop!” he wheezed. “You know I won’t hit you!”
The old woman was back on her feet in a flash. “Kai Lo, I know what you tried to do to your cousin at the festival,” she said as she stood over him. “Don’t lie there and pretend you are some goodly man!”