The drop was hundreds of feet below, but I lurched forward again, unwilling to surrender to the snow. I fell to my knees, crawling over the edge of the cliff. My feet slid against the rocks, trying to find purchase as my hands clung to a long tree root. I scraped my chin against the hard earth, my hands slowly slipping with the force of the quaking ground. I clenched my teeth, ignoring the mass of white barreling toward me, and forced myself to continue climbing down.

“Sydelle!”

My head turned toward the direction of my name. It wasn’t possible.

“Syd!” Again, over the roar of the avalanche. “Syd, jump!”

I risked a glance down, looking back over my shoulder to the slope below, scattered with men and women in familiar black uniforms. Standing at the forefront were two dark-haired men, looking up. They were hundreds of feet below me, but there was no missing North’s distinctive stance and unusual cloak.

“North!” I screamed in warning.

“Jump!” He yelled back. “JUMP!”

And because I was out of time, because I felt the ground begin to shift beneath me with the river of snow, I did. And I flew.

At the moment my feet left the rim, North threw up his cloak, and something caught my body and eased my fall. I fell slowly, slowly—without even a sound. The roar of the crushing snow gave way to perfect silence. There was a wall of wind carefully lowering me when I should have been plummeting. I almost laughed in exhilaration, but I forced my eyes to stay focused on North’s determined face, coming closer by the second. His arms were reaching up toward me, straining. Several of the other wizards seemed to be helping him guide me down, but even more kept their eyes turned up to the tide of snow that hurtled over the rim.

Time sped back up, and so did my fall. I fell onto North, my arms wrapping around his shoulders. He used the force of the impact to drop us to the ground, bringing his red cloak up in one fluid, sweeping motion and pulling it over our heads. A moment later, the rest of the Wizard Guard unleashed a firestorm above our heads, incinerating the snow until only steam and air remained. I felt the cold water raining down around us. It soaked through North’s thin cloak, but neither of us cared.

His arms came around me tightly, crushing me to him. “Are you hurt?” he asked, his face buried in my hair. “Syd, did they hurt you?”

I couldn’t say a single word; I clung to his neck and tried to breathe.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

We stayed down until the plummeting water ceased and the ground stilled, and only then did North drop the protective red cloak. I winced at the shock of cold air, and my legs buckled beneath me.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” North said, scooping me up into his arms. I pressed my face against his shoulder as he wrapped the cloak around us for warmth. It covered us like a wet blanket but dried quickly with its own natural heat.

“Take her back to the ship,” Oliver said, coming to stand next to us. “We’re going to search for survivors.”

“It was me,” I whispered. “I did this.”

North’s arms tightened around me. “It’s all right,” he said quietly. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was,” I said. “I did it on purpose.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oliver and North exchange a look. In the end, Oliver merely nodded, summoning a few of the other wizards around him. They drew out their talismans and, in the next breath, disappeared.

“Hold on,” North told me, replacing the red cloak around us with his black one. I nodded and, for the first time, savored the feeling of our fall through space.

My body jarred with the heavy thud of North’s boots against the ship’s deck. Several of the sailors around us looked startled at our sudden appearance.

North ducked, squeezing us down the narrow staircase to the hull. The space was dark and cramped. North sat against the wall with a long sigh and pulled me onto his lap, once again wrapping the red cloak tightly around us.

“Where are we?” I asked again, suddenly exhausted.

“We’re just off Auster’s coast,” he said. “It was too far for us to twist safely from Provincia. We had to sail most of the way.”

“How did you find me?”

“The moment we came close to shore we all felt you, burning like a star on the mountainside. You drew us to you.”

“Dorwan,” I began, pulling away. “He was with me on the mountain—I don’t know what happened to him—”

“What in the seven hells was he doing there?” I saw North’s face glower in the darkness.

“He told the king I was their goddess,” I said. “When I didn’t understand their ritual, he asked that I be allowed to prove my power.”

“And you did,” North finished.

“On my own terms,” I said. “I’ve never wished this on anyone, but I hope he’s dead, and I hope he suffered.”

I felt his hand come up to stroke my hair softly.

“I hope so, too,” he said. “If he’s alive, Oliver and the others will find him.”

“How did you manage to get Oliver to come along?” I asked.

“I’ve been wondering that myself, actually,” he said. “When the queen sent him away, Oliver came and got me immediately. I think he felt guilty for letting it happen, to be honest. He may not like me, but he’s not a beast, and he knew you were innocent.”

I pulled back from him, studying his face. “About before…I was angry,” I whispered. “If it meant saving your life, you know I would give you whatever you needed.”