I was flush with magic. A raw, wild, and directionless power than knew no purpose other than my will. My eyes filled with tears and burned from the brilliance of the last sliver of sun, but I couldn’t blink, couldn’t even move. It was too much. It hurt. It was more than one body could contain.

So I let it go.

But not before I spoke the words. Not before I gave it a purpose. “End Anushka’s curse. Set the trolls free.”

I felt Anushka’s shock as our wills collided, the ground itself shaking from the impact. If I had not already been on my knees, I would have fallen. The surf surged high, spraying and hissing against the flames as I struggled against her, my body aching, exhausted, fighting…

And failing.

The waves doused the flames, slamming into my back and knocking me forward. The icy water closed over my head, catching at my clothing and pulling me back. Coughing and spluttering, I crawled on hands and knees until I was out of the reach of the waves, and then I curled up in a ball, disappointment at my failure carving into my guts.

Anushka hadn’t only used the earth’s power to bind the trolls – she’d used the dying troll king’s magic. And knowing it was so made me realize that Catherine had been wrong when she’d said a name didn’t matter. It did. Because Anushka hadn’t only cursed the mortal creatures I knew so well, she’d cursed all of their kind, binding the trolls to their city and their immortal brethren from coming to our world for fear of the same. And I did not know what they called themselves, because Tristan had never trusted me enough to say.

But more than that, what I hadn’t had was the desire to see the trolls freed. Anushka hated them – had managed to survive all these long years in order to keep them contained. Nothing mattered more to her, and in order to break her curse, I needed to want them free equally as much or more.

But I didn’t. At least, not all of them. There was only one who I’d do anything for.

“Let him go!” I screamed the words over and over until I couldn’t pull any more air into my lungs, and had to repeat it in my head.

Then, up out of my mind swam a memory or a dream, or the memory of a dream of summer. What you seek is the name of that which you most desire…

With all the strength I had left, I pushed myself up on one elbow, my eyes fixing on the fading glow that was all that was left of the setting sun. A moment of transition, and thus a moment of power. “Let Tristanthysium be free of Anushka’s curse.”

A pulse shuddered through the air, and I slumped back onto the sand. Darkness that was more than night swept over my eyes, but before all the light was gone I whispered one more thing: “Tristanthysium, come to me.”

Thirty-Two

Tristan

Lessa was every bit as powerful as her blood warranted, and the full strength of her magic was directed into the noose choking off my breath and the shield keeping me from attacking her directly. Before she could crush my throat, I shoved power between my flesh and her magic, but there we reached a stalemate. I tried to pull the rope off, but it was intractable, slithering and reforming every time I broke a piece away. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air, and spots were forming in front of my eyes as I tried and failed to force aside her magic.

I needed the iron out of my flesh.

But almost as though she sensed my thoughts, another invisible rope bound my wrists to my sides, sending ripples of agony up my arms. My mouth opened in a silent scream of pain, and I turned on her shield, hammering it with all the power I had. The air shuddered with the echoing boom-boom of my magic colliding with hers, but it was a struggle to find leverage hanging in the air as I was. I could feel her magic cracking and splintering under the blows, saw her eyes widen as she realized that even now, I was more powerful than her. Except that I could feel myself failing. I had to get through her shields within seconds, or all was lost.

With the strength only desperation could bring, I sliced at the magic rope holding me up in the air. Landing on unsteady feet, I took only a second to find my balance before attacking her shield. The force of it imploding made the stone walls of the palace groan, the noise drowning out the sound of the door slamming open.

Which is why Lessa didn’t see Victoria until it was too late. Her fist connected just under Lessa’s ribs, driving the air out of her lungs and sending her staggering back. “That’s for Anaïs,” Victoria shouted, and before Lessa could react, my friend punched her hard in the side of the face, the crunch of bone audible from across the room. “And that’s for me.”

Dragging in a breath, I lurched in their direction. Victoria had caught Lessa by surprise, but my sister was still more powerful.

But I needn’t have worried, because Vincent and Marc had been right on her heels.

Lessa’s eyes flicked between them, the crushed bones of her face slowly reforming. “I’m going to make you suffer for this,” she said, her voice garbled by her shattered jaw.

“That a challenge?” Victoria asked, smiling as she rubbed her knuckles. “Because if it is, I accept.”

“A duel to the death, perhaps?” Vincent added, clapping his hands together. “Everyone enjoys those.”

Lessa licked her lips nervously, using the wall behind her as support as she climbed to her feet. “You can’t kill me,” she whispered. “You can’t… He’ll punish you.”

“Oh, she is a liar, isn’t she?” Victoria said, voice dripping with uncharacteristic malice. “I’m more than capable of killing you, Lessa.”