Halfway across the square, Lyre could only watch as Bastian shoved his saber into Miysis’s chest, digging the point in between his ribs. With one twist of his blade, the nymph could kill Miysis.

“Griffins!” he yelled, using magic to amplify his voice over the storm. “Stop or your prince dies!”

The clash of weapons stalled as griffins across the square disengaged from their opponents and turned to see their prince on his knees, the enemy blade in his flesh.

“Lay down your weapons,” Bastian ordered.

The griffins hesitated. No one moved. Lyre didn’t so much as twitch, Clio crouched beside him with horror etched across her face.

“Surrender or he dies!” Bastian shouted furiously.

“Kill me,” Miysis snarled, chin raised despite the sword between his ribs, cutting the wound wider with each shift of Bastian’s hand. “You fight like a coward, and you should kill me like a coward.”

“Put down your weapons!” Bastian ordered again, pushing his sword in deeper. Miysis clenched his jaw, the tendons in his neck standing out sharply, but he didn’t make a sound.

The griffin soldiers stood silently, weapons in hand, waiting.

Bastian hesitated, at a loss for what to do. Baring his teeth, he looked down at the Ra prince, blood streaking his chest.

“What will this solve, Bastian?”

The unfamiliar voice floated across the square, rising above the sound of the storm. Bastian’s head snapped around.

From the shadows near the watchtower, an older nymph stepped over the rubble of the hole Lyre had blasted in the tower’s base. A team of nymphs in the uniform of the royal guard followed him. A silent ripple of movement passed through every nymph and chimera in the square.

The newly arrived nymph made a small gesture. His royal guards stopped, hanging back, as he slowly approached Bastian.

“Will slaughtering their unarmed prince strike fear into the griffins’ hearts?” King Rouvin asked his son. “Or will it forge their hatred into even greater strength? Will murdering Miysis impress your power upon the Ra queen, or show her your cowardice?”

“Cowardice?” Bastian spat. He’d dropped his amplification spell, but his snarl carried over the wind anyway. “How dare you call me a coward. You are the spineless puppet who’s catered to their every demand since you took the throne!”

He gestured violently at the city, jerking the sword in Miysis’s chest. The griffin’s shoulders slumped, his head falling forward for the first time.

“What can you call this except cowardice?” Bastian ranted. “The nymph king, racing to a Ra city the moment their prince snapped his fingers, desperate to beg their forgiveness!”

The bubble shield surrounding Lyre and Clio flickered out. As Bastian snarled at Rouvin, Clio slipped into motion, creeping between unmoving soldiers toward her father and brother. Lyre half rose but dared not step closer. Bastian saw him as a threat, but maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t notice Clio.

“I am here to salvage peace as best I can,” Rouvin said calmly. “Can you not understand why?”

“You should have stayed out of my way, old man.” Bastian looked down at the sagging griffin caught on his blade. “I’ve already won. I’ll kill their prince, raze their most fortified border city, and ensure their queen knows exactly what she’s dealing with. And I’ll do it again, and again, until we’re free of their control.”

“No, Bastian,” Rouvin said sadly, drifting closer. “You’ll kill their prince, enrage the populace of this city, and watch them slaughter your men even if they must fight to the last man, woman, and child. You’ll enrage their queen, and she will bring the entire might of her kingdom down on our people.”

“She won’t attack us. I have a weapon she can’t—”

Green light flashed in Rouvin’s hand. His lightning-swift cast hit Bastian, knocking him backward. His saber pulled free from Miysis’s chest.

Clio launched from between two oblivious chimeras. Her blast hit Bastian in the hand, tearing the saber out of his grip. As Rouvin stepped in front of Miysis, Clio dove to the griffin’s side, pushing him up with her shoulder as he collapsed. She pressed a hand to his chest, healing magic sparking under her fingers.

With a furious shout, Bastian snapped his arm up, a spell taking form. Rouvin stepped forward, his counterspell dissolving Bastian’s the moment it left his hand. They faced each other in the downpour, green magic racing over their arms.

“Stop this, Bastian,” Rouvin pleaded. “Surrender before any more die.”

Bastian hesitated, fiery green light flickering over his hands. He stared at his father, only his father, then slowly lowered his arms. “I’m not done. I may lose your respect, and I may lose my family, and I may lose my throne, but I will not stop until I have freed Irida from Ra’s shadow.”

“Bastian.” Rouvin’s voice cracked with sorrow.

The nymph prince stepped back, his face pale and lips pressed tight. “Everything I am doing, I do for our people, even if you can’t see it yet.”

He turned away from his father, his hand rising to issue a command to his men.

With a crack that shattered the air itself, a blazing lightning bolt sprang from the sky and struck the top of the tower. The impact shuddered through the earth, driving half the daemons in the square to their knees.

The top of the tower collapsed.

Massive fragments of rock tumbled toward the flagstones where Clio supported Miysis, Rouvin in front of them, and Bastian standing several long steps away.

There was only a single moment to act.

In the instant before the deadly barrage struck the earth, Bastian leaped toward safety. In that same instant, Rouvin’s hands came up. His spell hit Clio and Miysis, hurling them away from the tower.

Rock smashed into the square. Shards ricocheted in every direction, whipping into daemons and smashing into the flagstones. Debris clattered violently, but Lyre scarcely noticed it as he ran for Clio, sprawled beside Miysis.

A howl rose above the subsiding fury of falling stone, a tormented cry of denial. Unaware of the blood running down his face from a cut on his scalp, Bastian staggered toward the heap of rock.

“No!” he shouted hoarsely.

Clio raised her head as Lyre skidded to a stop beside her and Miysis.

“Father!” Bastian grabbed his hair with both hands as though he might rip it out. “Father!”

His voice cracked and broke, and he fell to his knees. Rouvin’s bodyguards, who’d obediently waited by the tower while he confronted his son, dug desperately in the rubble, their faces contorted in silent horror.

Clio’s mouth opened, confusion twisting into disbelief. “Father?” she whispered.

A deep, booming crack shuddered through the tower. A fissure snaked up its side, racing from the rough hole in the bottom to the shattered top. Stone creaked ominously and the entire structure quaked.

With an earsplitting roar, the watchtower began to topple.

Lyre grabbed the chain around Clio’s neck. As the other daemons fled on foot or by wing, he triggered a dome shield. It flashed out, solidifying around him, her, and Miysis just before the weight of the tower slammed down on them.

He instinctively ducked as rock battered the barrier. The glowing runes vibrated ominously, but the shield held. Rock tumbled past them, going on and on until silence finally fell. A pile of debris was heaped against one side of the barrier.

Clio stiffened. Lyre twisted around and spotted a shimmer of green light—Bastian dispelling his own dome shield, copied from Lyre’s stolen chain. Rock collapsed into the gap and the prince struggled free. He looked at Clio and Lyre, his face haggard.

Then he turned and fled into the rain and dust.

Before Lyre even knew what she was doing, Clio dispelled his shield. She raced into the maze of rubble—pursuing the vanishing shadow of her half-brother.

One hand pressed to his ribs, Lyre sprang after her. He’d already lost sight of Bastian in the darkness, but Clio’s asper wasn’t as limited. She ran without hesitation, and Lyre sprinted in her wake. Glancing back, he caught a glimpse of Miysis among the rocky debris as an opinari landed beside him, wings arched protectively over its master.

Leaving the prince to his fate, Lyre focused on Clio as she chased her brother into the howling storm.