The Mirror King (The Orphan Queen, #2)(126)

“Dear saints.” Melanie pressed her hands to her mouth.

Mist writhed between thousands of men and women caught mid-fight. Wraith beasts, too, had been trapped with their claws raised or their jaws clamped around a leg.

Many of our people were turned away, identifiable only by the knives painted on their uniforms, but I caught a few faces I knew. They blinked and gasped, and struggled against the solidifying mist, but it was futile.

I stepped toward them, as though I could help.

“Don’t get too close.” Melanie raised her arm to bar me from proceeding. “Remember what Ferris said happened when they threw in a pebble. It’s there.”

Indeed, a small piece of rock hung in midair.

“You heard Chrysalis. It won’t hurt me.” When I lifted my palm to the mist, it seemed to melt. It was still wraith, but simply the kind that changed things, rather than trapped. With another step, the floating pebble hit the ground with a faint clack. “I have to free our people while this immunity still works. Maybe they know where Patrick and Prince Colin are.”

“Fine.” Melanie crossed her arms. “In the meantime, we’ll just stand here, useless.”

“Don’t be foolish. Find a building to climb up and get a good look at everything. Or go around the edges and look for Patrick and Prince Colin there. Just don’t touch the mist.” That wasn’t a useful instruction; there was mist everywhere. “Look, you can see how this mist is different. It sheers off at the edge of something, and there’s a shimmer to it.”

“I see it.” Melanie scowled.

My smile was forced. “Take James; that way we’ll each have a boy to look after.”

James and Tobiah shot each other unamused looks, but after a moment, Melanie and James went off together, discussing their best course of action.

I took another step into the mist, which melted at my nearness. “Watch my back, Black Knife.”

“Intently.”

Another step, and then another. I reached the nearest soldier with a black knife on her uniform. She’d been trapped in a silent scream, someone’s blade coming toward her from behind. I’d seen her before. Met her once. Her name was . . . Denise something.

“It’s all right, Denise,” I murmured. “I’m going to free you.”

Her eyes widened as the mist cleared away. Her mouth moved. She dropped from the wraith’s grasp and pointed behind me.

I drew my sword and spun, letting the mist scatter and melt around me.

A figure in a shredded indigo uniform limped around a corner. Blood poured down his cheek and neck, and his skin shone with sweat. He kept one arm tucked against his chest.

“Uncle.” Tobiah moved toward him, but stopped as Prince Colin hefted a sword with his good arm.

“I should have known I’d find you with her.” Prince Colin’s glare cut from Tobiah to me, his eyes narrowed. “Flashers. Filthy creatures. You deserve to die in this stuff, not my people.” He brought his sword around, cutting through banners of wraith accumulating around him. It didn’t help.

“Is that why you attacked the city?” Tobiah sidestepped so that he was between his uncle and me. “Because of Wilhelmina’s magic? Or because you don’t want to give up Aecor?”

Denise was kneeling in the muck, silently gasping, but recovering. I moved toward another black-knifed soldier, freeing him while Tobiah had Prince Colin distracted.

“You planned this.” Prince Colin shuddered as heat blasted through the street. “The coronation. Patrick Lien’s release. The wraith destroying us both.”

“We didn’t plan anything.” Tobiah’s voice was firm. “Do you really think I want to see another place become wraithland?”

“I wish I could believe you.” Prince Colin edged away from the shimmer mist, closer to a shop where vines grew around columns. Leaves fluttered and fattened, reaching for him. “But you’re dressed as a vigilante and keep company with a flasher.”

Tobiah moved again, not blocking me anymore, but herding Prince Colin away from the vines that slithered down from the buildings. Like green snakes, they crossed the walkway, heavy leaves catching air like sails on a boat. “Come back to the castle with us,” Tobiah said. “Someone will help you. Is your arm broken?”

“I won’t go anywhere with you.”

Quickly, I freed two more of my soldiers, whispering for them to stay close. I had to assume the wraith would solidify again when I moved away.

“Come on, Chrysalis,” I muttered.

The soldiers crowded behind me as I moved toward the edge of the wraith shimmer. Those still trapped looked at me, pleading with their eyes. They were afraid I was leaving them. “I’ll free you,” I whispered. “I swear it.”

Near Prince Colin, the vines reared up to throw themselves around him. Tobiah brought his sword down with uncanny speed, cutting the thick greenery in two just before it reached his uncle.

There was no time for relief; another vine zipped in from the opposite direction. “Watch out!”

My warning came too late.

The vine wrapped around Prince Colin’s throat and tightened. His sword fell to the cobblestones as he tried to tug off the wraith vine, but more twisted around his body, pinning his arms in place.

Tobiah lunged forward, drawing a dagger to free his uncle, but Prince Colin’s face was already red and purple. He writhed in place, struggling against Tobiah and the vines.