After I utter the painful truth, everyone gets a second vampire blood boost of energy and scrambles to get moving again. Kingsley tries to carry me, but Rhyland insists he needs to do it.

His reason: “I may have to put another spell on her if this one wears off. Besides, you’re a better fighter than me so you need to be armed. Plus, she’s my queen.”

“Actually, I’m nobodies queen but myself…” I replay the stupidity of my own words. “Well and an entire kingdom, but whatever. I don’t technically belong to anyone, including the king.” Instead of getting my point across, they’re amused. I start to sit up to climb out of Kingsley’s arms, convinced I’ll just walk, but the edges of my skin grate together and dust scatters across the air.

“Easy,” Kingsley warns, securing me against his chest. “Don’t move quickly or else we’re going to lose some pieces of you. And personally, I’m a fan of all of those pieces.”

I stare at him, unimpressed, but hold still because, yeah, I’m kind of a fan of all of my pieces too, the imperfect ones and all.

As Kingsley slowly straightens to his feet, Rhyland stands up too.

“Carefully give her to me,” he says, extending his arms out.

Strangely, Kingsley hesitates. My guess, he’s worried the transfer will cause pieces of me to break off. But then he sighs and carefully hands me to Rhyland.

Once I’m situated in Rhyland’s arms, Kingsley steps back, meets my gaze for a melting snowdrop of a second, then bends down to scoop up his sword. Dusting the snow off the handle, he approaches Harper with swift, determined strides.

“The quicker you can get us there the better,” he tells her. “I’m serious, Harper. No messing around, okay?”

Harper blinks, her eyes wide. “You think I’m messing around?”

“I’m hoping you aren’t,” Kingsley says lowly. “But sometimes you do it without even trying. Like how you’ve been skipping for the last hour.”

Her lip curls, her liquid silver eyes swirling with irritation, a foreign look since usually she’s all rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns. “Just because I like to skip doesn’t mean I’m messing around. And skipping is faster than your brooding vampire walk.” She whirls around, her flowing white hair whipping him in the face.

“Wow, she’s feisty,” I remark with a small smile.

“You two should get along just great then,” Rhyland teases as he follows after Harper and Dex.

Kingsley hangs back near us with Aeribella trotting at his side, her wings flittering against the snow flurries. Kingsley’s body is stiff, his eyes skimming the land, in full Blood Protector mode.

“Are you saying I’m feisty?” I question, cocking a brow at Rhyland.

He wavers. “In the first life, yes. Most, though, you weren’t.” He grits out and then huffs a strained exhale. “Holy shit, I can’t believe I actually got those words to leave my lips.”

“Maybe that means we’re progressing in completely breaking the curse?” I suggest as snowflakes flutter from the sky and splatter against my face.

I’d reach up to wipe them off but fear even the slightest movement will make me lose a finger or something.

He offers me a fake smile and I grimace.

Great. He’s back to not being able to tell me things again.

And on top of that, running from the queen and her army, finding my parents, and breaking the curse, I need to figure out a way to get rid of this cracking taking over my body… my neck starts to itch…. Oh yeah, and I also need to get this stupid dragon’s fire burn off my neck before it spreads.

“Rhyland,” I say quietly. “How are we supposed to do everything without me falling apart first?”

His gaze drops to me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we’re running from the queen and an army of created vampires, we need to find my parents and the guards, and maybe break what’s left of the curse all while trying to figure out what’s cracking me apart and train a dragon to get rid of these damn burns on my neck. That’s a lot of stuff and I can’t even move right now without losing pieces of my body.”

If he’s worried, he doesn’t reveal it. “Well, we’re going to get you fixed first—that’s our top priority.”

“But you don’t even know what’s causing the cracking.”

“Yes, but we’re in a land full of very powerful creatures, so if we can’t figure it out, some creature should be able to. Although, I’m not sure if it’s wise to involve an unknown creature.”

“We might have to.” Kingsley slows down to hike beside us.

“It could be dangerous,” Rhyland warns. “We don’t even know how far the queen’s power has spread. What if she has created vampires here in the Land of Moonlight?”

“But if she did, wouldn’t she have sent them after me to begin with instead of sending Nadine after me?” I point out.

“Maybe,” Rhyland says, but worry creases his forehead.

“What we need is a Magical Reader.” Kingsley spins his sword in his hand as he stares ahead at the mountains, his face set in deep thought. “They could figure out what sort of magic is doing this to Raven.”

“But are we even sure it’s magic?” Rhyland questions, adjusting me in his arms.

Kingsley glances at him with his brow arched. “What else could it be?”

“I’m not sure,” Rhyland mutters. “But when I used the spell on her, there was no traces of magic in her besides mine.”

“You can tell that sort of shit?” Kingsley bows his head as the wind picks up. “Since when?”

“Since this life,” Rhyland grimaces. “I think it’s linked to my powers or something—”

An abrupt gust of wind sweeps across the land, kicking up snow and nearly blowing us backwards. As Rhyland ducks his head, little particles of my skin begin to flake off and get carried away. I try to curl inward, but as the wind hits my back and pieces of it threaten to break apart.

“Shit. We need to get her shielded somehow,” Rhyland hollers over the wind. “Kingsley, give me your shirt.”

A few wind howls later, a shirt is draped over my head. But my body continues to struggle to remain put together, the pressure of the wind against my clothes too much. Finally, Rhyland crouches down.

“What’re you doing?” Kingsley shouts. “We need to keep moving.”

“I’m putting a freezing spell on her,” Rhyland yells back, his fingers gently folding around my arm. “It should hold her together until we can get her to shelter.”

“You’re going to what?” I try to shout, but my voice is nothing but a hoarse whisper as my lips crack apart.

“Are you sure you’re strong enough?” Kingsley asks. “You’re starting to look a bit weak. And I know you haven’t fed in a while…”

“Neither have you and you’re fine,” Rhyland says as warmth begins to spread through my body.

“But I’m not the one casting spells,” Kingsley points out, sounding close.

“Do you really not want me to do this?” Rhyland asks. When Kingsley doesn’t answer, Rhyland says, “Yeah, that’s what I thought. So stop arguing. I’ll be fine. I just need her to be fine. And so do you.”

“I know,” Kingsley whispers.

I feel fingers brush across the shirt covering my face, right across my cheek. Then the effervescent warmth consumes my body, my mind, my surroundings. Everything stops. Or maybe everything freezes.

Whatever is happening, I feel exhausted. I let my eyelids slip shut, allow the magic to pull me under, hoping when I open my eyes again, they’ll actually still be on my face.