The man standing over top of me lets his arrow fly.

The arrow slices right through my shoulder, driving into the ground below me.

Then he does it again.

It hurts worse than anything. I see stars. I see whole galaxies. My world is nothing but pain.

The monster screams again. His wings beat the air.

“Stay back!” the man cries. “There are many more places I can shoot without killing her.”

Rhen must swoop close. Snap snap snap.

They’re shooting at him. They’re shooting at me.

This arrow goes through my upper arm.

I can’t tell if I’m screaming or crying or both.

It’s both. I’m going to pass out. I’m going to die.

The ground is pounding around me. More men are coming. I can’t see anything.

“Don’t stop!” I yell at Rhen. I’m crying. I’m babbling. I don’t even know if he can hear me, but this can’t all be for nothing. “Don’t stop. Save your people. Let them kill me. Let them kill me, Rhen.”

He screeches again, building into a fierce roar that shakes the ground.

Arrows fire. Snap. Snap. Snap. I wait for piercing pain.

It never comes. Sudden sunlight finds my eyes. The men around me are falling, arrows in their chests, arrows in their heads. Soldiers are fighting, swords swinging. I catch a flash of gold and red.

My army has arrived.

One of Karis Luran’s soldiers makes it to me. He must know he’s a dead man, because he draws back an arrow. It’s pointed right at my face.

A bowstring snaps, and an arrow appears in his arm. His own shot fires wildly.

Sunlight flashes on silver. A sword swings.

The soldier’s head disconnects from his neck. Blood flies. His body collapses.

I blink, and Grey is there with Zo. They’re kneeling over me. My eyes fall closed. The scent of blood is thick in the air. Arrows are firing all around us. Steel clashes somewhere far off.

The creature shrieks and men yell.

“My lady.” Grey’s hand. My face. “Look at me. Harper!”

I blink and my eyes are open. “You never … call me Harper.”

He lets out a breath. He’s still so pale. Then he looks up, past me. “She will survive. I will keep her safe.”

I think he’s talking to Zo, but a blast of warm breath brushes my hair, and I realize it’s Rhen. I go to lift a hand to touch his muzzle, but my arm is pinned to the ground.

I cry out instead. “Grey,” I say. I sound like a child calling out for her mother.

“We need to cut them free.”

I choke on a sob. “Okay. Okay.”

He doesn’t wait. He draws a dagger and snaps through the shafts below my arm. Then Zo pulls all three arrows in rapid succession. Before she’s even done, I’m rolling onto my side to throw up into the blood-soaked grass. Once my body stops heaving, I shudder and open my eyes.

I’m staring into the lifeless eyes of the man who nearly killed me.

I scream and suddenly I’m lifted away. For a breath of time I think it’s Rhen, and I don’t know how I’m going to survive another trip through the air. But arms fasten under my knees and behind my back, and my head lolls onto a shoulder. My face is pressed into a neck.

“Easy, my lady.” Grey’s voice, low and gentle and somehow louder than all the fighting.

He shouldn’t be carrying me. He’s going to rip out his stitches.

I open my mouth to tell him so.

And instead I pass out.

I return to consciousness slowly.

For a long, slow, delirious moment, I think I’m in a hospital. There’s a man barking orders about clean bandages. A feeling of harried movement around me.

My eyes open, and I’m in the infirmary. I recognize the ceiling, the shape of the darkened window above my bed. I’m in the same corner Grey once occupied. This morning? I don’t even know. My entire left arm aches.

I groan and roll over.

The infirmary is packed. Every bed—sixteen of them—is occupied. Bloodstained sheets are everywhere. Men and women groan weakly.

Noah sits on a stool beside one of them. He’s bracing a soldier’s bloodied forearm to a board, wrapping it with lengths of muslin.

“I asked for clean bandages!” he says sharply.

A young woman near the door looks wide-eyed and almost panicked. Her name is Abigail, and she’s been in charge of mending minor wounds since Rhen opened the doors to the castle. She’s round and slow and motherly, but she’s clearly not used to an ER doctor yelling orders at her. “Yes, Doctor.” She says doctor like it’s a foreign word. “Yes. I have sent for them.”

“Noah.” My voice croaks out of my throat.

He glances at me. His eyes flick over my form in less than a second. “Good. You’re up.” He rips off a length of muslin. “We need the bed. Abigail!”

The woman by the door jumps. “Yes—”

“Find Jake. Tell him Harper is up.” He drags an elbow over his forehead.

“Ah … Jake?” she says.

Noah rolls his eyes and wraps another length of muslin. “Prince Jacob.” She rushes off, and he looks at me. “You’ll need a sling. Freya made one for one of the guys. I’ll have her make you one, too.”

My brain can’t catch up this fast. Jake must be okay. My eyes flit across the bodies on the beds, seeking Grey. Seeking Rhen, just in case. I find neither. “Noah—”

“Jake said you two had to ‘do something real quick’ and then we’d be going home. Hilarious. Then he shows up with three dozen people with critical injuries. How do you not have a doctor here? You have an army. ABIGAIL!”

She flies through the door. “Yes, my—yes—”

“Have them bring in whoever is next. Make sure they’re flushing those arrow wounds with boiled salt water. Not just plain water. Do you understand me? Do you …”

His voice trails off in my head. I fight to push myself upright. I have to pull my left arm against my body to keep it from aching.

“Harp.” Jake is in front of me, his voice rough and exhausted. His eyes are shadowed and wounded, and his clothes are worn and dirtied in spots, but there are no bandages I can see.

“Jake.” My voice breaks. “You’re okay.” I hesitate. “What happened to Rhen?”

Jake’s face goes still, but he puts out a hand. “Come on. Noah is going to lose his mind if we don’t clear this bed.”

“Wait!” I scan the infirmary. “Where’s Zo? Is she—”

“The girl with the braids? She’s fine. She’s bossier than you are. That Grey guy had to order her to go to sleep an hour ago.”

Grey. I need to talk to Grey. I need to find out what happened to Rhen. With my brother’s help, I get to my feet, and we make it into the hallway. I feel light-headed and grip tight to his arm. Men and women line the hallway, some I know, and some I don’t. Some are injured, though many are not. The air is thick with lantern oil, sweat, and blood. They bow as we pass.

“Wow,” I whisper to Jake. “You’ve really taken this prince thing to a new level.”

“No,” he says. “You have.”

I look up at him in surprise. “What?”

“It’s for you, Harper.” His dark eyes flick down to meet mine. “All anyone can talk about is how you single-handedly fought the soldiers from Syhl Shallow. How you tamed the vicious beast and turned it against the enemy. How you saved their country.”

“But—but I didn’t—it was—”

“Shh.” He puts a finger against my lips. “Not here.”

“But it worked?” My heart lifts. “The army turned back?”

“They did.” He grimaces. “It was brutal, Harp—and you know the things I’ve seen.”

His eyes meet mine. I do know the things he’s seen.

Thanks to the battle on that field, I’ve seen them, too.

“They ran,” he says. “Anyone who could fight rode on to block the pass. We brought the wounded back here. Noah has been treating everyone as fast as his ‘nurses’ can get them cleaned up.”

“Wow.” I have no idea whether that will hold, if the soldiers will be able to keep Karis Luran’s army from invading. But for the time being, we’ve been granted a reprieve.

I think we’re heading back to my rooms, but Jake leads me through the castle until we find the doors from the Great Hall that lead to the rear courtyard and the stables.

“How long was I out?” I say.

“Most of the day.”

“You’ve really found your way around.”

“Crash course, I guess.” He pauses. “It helps that everyone thinks my sister saved the world.”

I’m not sure what to say to that, and he’s pushing through the doorway anyway. It’s twilight, and the autumn air is cold, tasting of burning wood and decaying leaves. Lit torches burn along the back of the castle, throwing long shadows across the courtyard.

Long shadows that stripe the monstrous creature standing near the trees, scales glinting in the firelight.

Emberfall is safe, but he hasn’t changed.

Grey is out here, too. Fresh armor. Clean weapons. He stands at the base of the steps and turns when Jake pushes the door open. His expression is somber.