Chapter 8

Alina listened as Tolya explained the obisbaya ritual to her, Genya, David, and Mal. It sounded like the only thing that could work, but it wasn't without its complications. The first of which was Kirigan would never submit to it.

The door to the War Room opened and Tamar, Nadia, and Adrik hurried in.

"The Cult of the Starless Saint is on the move," Tamar announced. "Toward the Fold."

"Has Kirigan- Nikolai- been spotted with them?" Alina asked anxiously.

Tamar shook her head. "That doesn't mean he's not with them. But a woman matching Elizaveta's description definitely is."

"Kirigan's attempts to bring the Fold back haven't worked so far," Alina went on. "He may be trying to do it from its first origin. We have to stop him."

"How are we going to do that without your sun summoning?" David put in. "Er, sorry."

Alina couldn't argue his point; she didn't have the power to face Kirigan anymore. "If he's headed back to the center of the Fold, then he'll be at or near the sacred thorn wood for the ritual."

"That doesn't address the problem of how we're going to subdue him," Genya spoke up. "Or force him to even undergo the ritual." She looked at Tolya. "Can it be forced on someone?"

Tolya's mouth pinched in doubt. "I don't know."

"You brought me back using merzost," Mal interjected thoughtfully. "The same way Morozova resurrected his daughter and made her the Firebird. So it's possible you could use me as an amplifier again."

Alina bristled. "No. Absolutely not."

He leveled a hard look at her. "Who are you more willing to save—me, or everyone else?"

Alina's jaw tightened. Once again, she was faced with choosing between Mal and Ravka. It wasn't fair. They had come so far and already sacrificed so much. And yet they were back in the exact same place as before.

"Fine," she ground out. "But we'll go with our original plan of David using a bone fragment and Tamar stopping your heart." She looked to the two Grisha, who nodded their willingness to try that again.

The door burst open yet again, and this time it was Isaak. "Alina," he gasped urgently. "The Apparat has secured supporters and is preparing to move against you."

"What?!" Mal exclaimed. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"I tried, but the Apparat claimed I- Nikolai- has been bewitched by the new Darkling." He turned to Alina. "They are coming for you."

She let out a string of profanities. This could not be happening.

"There's no time," Tamar said. "We need to leave now."

Alina waved at Genya. "Change Isaak back. Better the king go missing now than a fake cornered and caught."

As Genya tailored Isaak's features back to his own, Tolya went to the door to check the hall outside.

"How much time do we have?" he asked.

"None," Isaak said, himself again. "This way, through the old servants' entrance."

He opened a panel in the wall Alina hadn't known was there, and then ushered them all inside. He closed it behind them, then squeezed past to show them the way out. As they went, Genya did a hasty tailor job on Alina to mask her features during their escape. She did the same for each of them, as any of them would be recognizable as Alina's closest friends.

Isaak brought them to an outer door that exited into the side yard. "Go," he said. "I'll delay the Apparat."

"Be careful," Alina urged. "And thank you."

He nodded and then slipped back inside the tunnel.

The rest of them carefully but quickly made their way to the stables and began to hastily saddle horses. There wasn't enough time to secure one for each of them, so they saddled four and rode double. Then they set off, trying to keep a measured, unassuming pace until they were out the gate and on the open road, then they kicked their steeds into a canter and headed for the Fold.

It was a hard ride, but they managed to make it all the way to the edge of the barrens without being pursued. Genya's cursory tailoring had worn off by then as well, so they didn't have to take time for her to change them all back. But when they arrived at the edge of the Fold, they were met with a large group of people in black robes and armed with weapons standing to meet them.

"Let us pass," Alina commanded.

"We answer only to the Starless Saint," one of them shouted back.

Alina's jaw tightened. "And where is he?" she demanded.

"Not to be disturbed."

And then the cult members charged.

Tolya and Tamar swung down from their horse and drew their blades to meet the onslaught, while Nadia and Adrik were quick to summon wind to batter the assailants. Knowing the horses would hinder them if they tried to enter the Fold, the rest of them dismounted and spread out to engage in battle. These cult members were mostly untrained, and Alina had the fleeting thought that even if they were the most skilled, she could cut them all down with one move. But she restrained herself. Her shadow summoning had gotten them into this mess, and she would not resort to it.

Which left her less engaged in the fight than her friends, though Genya and David were also hanging back. They weren't soldiers. Mal fired his pistol into the fray. At least these misguided Darkling worshippers didn't seem to have any guns. They wouldn't last long.

But then Elizaveta appeared and summoned her bees, which she sent to swarm the Grisha. "Do not let them pass!" she yelled, and Alina knew Kirigan had to already be in the Fold.

The battle was somehow veering off to the side, leaving Alina and Mal an opening to get past. She tugged on his arm and pointed. He nodded, and together they made a run for it, him shooting the lone assailant that tried to stop them. Then they were on the other side of the melee, unnoticed. Alina hesitated. She knew they needed to stop Kirigan before he brought back the Shadow Fold, but she didn't want to leave her friends fighting for their lives.

"Come on," Mal urged, pulling her away. He also knew what was at stake.

They weren't followed as they sprinted across the wasteland and came upon the palace of sand and bone. Alina's heart gave a jolt. This was the location of the sacred thorn wood, and if Kirigan was already here, maybe they did have a chance.

She and Mal ventured in, senses peeled. When they found Kirigan in the main chamber where he had been resurrected, he was alone and bowed over as though in pain. He lifted a strained face toward them.

"Alina," he gritted out. "Help me."

She faltered. "…Nikolai?"

He gave a jerky nod. "I managed to- get control. But I can barely hold him. Need- thorn wood."

Alina was hit with shock and relief, and she hurried over to grab his arm. "There's a ritual that can excise Kirigan from you," she quickly explained. "The obis—"

"I know," he grunted. "Hurry."

She tried to help him over to the large bramble of thorns that had grown up at some point since they'd last been here. But Nikolai doubled over, barely able to move. Mal ducked in to take his other arm, and together he and Alina half dragged him to the briar. Nikolai reached a trembling hand up toward a thorn, fingers slipping as he tried to grasp it. Alina grabbed it and ripped it off the vine, then pressed it into Nikolai's hand. He still had trouble keeping hold of it, so she wrapped her fingers around his to steady them.

"Altar," he ground out with difficulty, and they helped him stagger back to the stone slab.

Nikolai slumped against it, and Alina felt a thrill of fear that Kirigan would retake control at any moment. She shared an anxious look with Mal.

"I'm all right," Nikolai breathed, bracing his hands on the altar.

Alina and Mal hovered beside him, unsure how to help. Then Nikolai moved with incredible speed, grabbing Alina's wrist and yanking her off balance to slap her hand over where Mal's rested on the stone. In the same instant, he drove the thorn into both their hands. They cried out in shock and pain as something more than just the thorn seemed to spear through them. Alina felt the reverberation down through her bones, and it brought her to her knees, her hand still pinned to Mal's. Nikolai back-stepped and inhaled deeply as shadow began to spread out from around him, billowing and growing as it began to recreate the Fold. Alina's breath stalled in her lungs. No.

Mal pulled the thorn from their hands with another pained cry, and they both dropped to the ground at the base of the altar, clutching their bleeding hands.

Kirigan smirked down at them. "You two are such sentimental fools to have fallen for that," he gloated.

Alina's blood ran cold. "What?"

The Darkling snorted. "As if that pathetic prince could have ever wrested control from me. I do thank you, though, for helping to fully restore my power. Now that annoying bastard will finally stop talking, and this body will be completely mine once and for all."

Alina gaped at him in overwhelming devastation and guilt. "Nikolai, I'm sorry," she gasped out brokenly. "Saints, I am so sorry."

Kirigan just sneered in amusement and raised his arms as the Shadow Fold grew.

Zoya felt a disturbance through the air, though there was no visible sign of something. "What was that?" she asked.

Juris's eyes widened. "The Darkling has returned."

"What? Where?"

"He is bringing back the Fold."

Zoya stiffened in alarm. "We have to stop him!"

He turned sharp eyes to her. "You are capable of more than you were taught all your life," he reminded her, then morphed into the dragon and took wing.

Zoya bolted after him. As she crested some dunes, her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of the Shadow Fold billowing up around the palace of sand and bone. Juris was almost there, but just as he reached it, something struck him and brought him down. Zoya jolted, but the dragon was up a moment later, and she soon saw he was locked in battle with Elizaveta. Zoya hesitated for a split second before choosing to rush into the palace. What she found was her worst nightmare.

Kirigan was wreathed in expanding shadows, still possessing the king of Ravka. And Alina and Mal were with him, on the ground and bleeding.

Zoya shoved down her thrill of fear and summoned the wind to slam into the Darkling. He staggered as he was thrown off balance but managed to keep his feet. His eyes narrowed on her.

"Ah, Zoya, I was wondering where you'd gotten to." With a deft twist of his hands, he summoned the Cut to launch at her.

Zoya barely dove out of the way in time, and the Shadow blade sliced right through one whole wall of support columns. The palace shook and sand rained down on her. She rolled onto her side and brought the wind back, catching up an eddy of sand and flinging it in Kirigan's face. While the Darkling was momentarily blinded, Zoya saw Mal grab a thorn off the ground and lunge to stab Kirigan, but the Darkling caught the tracker's wrist and flung him backward with incredible strength.

"Mal!" Alina screamed.

Another Shadow Cut came through the sandstorm at Zoya, and she ducked while simultaneously bending with the wind, which managed to shift the Shadow's trajectory upward so that it took off part of the palace roof. More sand and bits of bone showered down around them. Kirigan glowered at Zoya.

A dragon screech interrupted them, and Zoya looked up in time to see Juris come crashing down through the hole in the ceiling. He smashed into more columns, which triggered a partial collapse. Zoya leaped up and bolted for the archway to shield herself. When the dust settled, she could no longer see Kirigan or Alina. She staggered along the outer corridor until she found another passage in. And there was Juris's dragon, lying on a pile of broken chunks, blood dribbling out the corner of his mouth. Zoya scrabbled over to him.

"Juris!"

There was a gaping wound in the dragon's chest, black scales splintered and jagged. Zoya rocked back on her haunches and despaired.

"Zoya," Juris coughed. "Finish it."

"What?"

"Finish it," he repeated. "And take me and the dragon as your amplifier. Be open to the joining."

Zoya shook her head. "No, I can't."

"It is the only way to defeat them," he said, the dragon heaving a dying wheeze. "Do it."

Zoya clenched her jaw in denial even as she reached out to touch the scales around the gaping wound with one hand and draw her knife with the other. The dragon held her gaze fervently. With a raging cry of anguish, Zoya plunged her knife into the wound, directly into the dragon's heart. The beast jerked and then gradually fell still.

Zoya felt the power of this ancient being begin to swirl around her.

"Let me in."

Zoya closed her eyes and tried to open herself to him just as she'd done with nature. She was hit with a rush of power and memory so strong that she felt as though she'd just been ripped out of her body, out of space and time. In a single moment, she lived a thousand lifetimes, and hundreds more, both of Juris and the dragon. Their essences entwined with hers, becoming one.

When she finally came crashing back into her body, every nerve ending was thrumming with newfound power. The dragon was still, but not gone; Zoya felt his mind inside hers.

"Take the scales," Juris instructed from within.

Tears welling in her eyes, Zoya used the knife to cut off two of the obsidian scales. Though she wasn't a Materialki, she followed the combination of instinct and Juris's guidance, fashioning the scales into bracelets, one around each wrist. The moment they were sealed, she felt the bond with Juris and the dragon become anchored. Permanent.

Zoya rose to her feet and turned her gaze toward the targets of her righteous rage. A wall of debris currently separated them, but with a burst of wind summoning, she blasted a path right through it. On the other side, Kirigan and Elizaveta stopped where they were to stare in surprise. Kirigan was still feeding the Fold, but Elizaveta had gone over to Alina and Mal and was standing over them.

Zoya moved her palms together, compressing the air and igniting that single combustive spark needed to create a blazing fire ball, which she shot straight at the treacherous witch. Elizaveta screamed as it struck her and threw her over the top of the stone altar.

Kirigan blinked in dismay at Zoya, but she didn't waste a second and took hold of the wind to lash like a whip, catching him below the knees and knocking his legs clear out from under him. He landed with a hard thud on the ground.

Alina and Mal helped each other to their feet and staggered over to her, their eyes wide with shock and awe.

Elizaveta was getting up again, so Zoya switched to fire summoning again, and she pounded the living Saint with fire ball after fire ball, driving her backward and pinning her to a wall until she was nothing more than a charred piece of meat choking on the ground. But still alive. Immortal as long as she remained in this place and connected to Kirigan.

"Alina," Zoya said, voice as calm and deadly as the space between lightning and thunder. "Use the Cut."

Alina hesitated for a second before forming the deadly Shadow weapon between her palms. She launched it at Elizaveta, taking off the woman's head. If that didn't finish her off, this next move soon would.

Kirigan was getting up, his face puce with rage. He began to summon his own Cut, but Zoya took a running leap and, aided by a current of air beneath her, sailed across the chamber to land a kick to Kirigan's chest that sent him flying backward into a bramble of thorns. Zoya didn't even need to think about it; she had Juris's memories and knew what the sacred thorn wood was, and she felt the resonance within this sacred place, was in tune with its chords. With a twist of her hands, she coiled the thorny vines all around Kirigan, binding him in place and piercing him in multiple places.

He strained against them, deepening the gouges. "No!"

The Shadow Fold began to collapse in on itself, deflating like a balloon. The last of the shadows slithered back into Kirigan as he writhed, impaled upon the thorns.

"No!" he raged.

But his power was now fettered, and there was nothing fearsome about him.

Pounding footsteps heralded the arrival of Nadia, Adrik, Tolya, Tamar, and even Genya and David, to Zoya's surprise. They looked as though they'd been in their own battle, but no one seemed seriously hurt. They all slowed to a stop and shared anxious looks at finding Nikolai bound by thorns and still possessed by the Darkling. Zoya didn't even want to think about having to kill him. Commit regicide to save the rest of the country, maybe the world.

"What do we do now?" she asked, hoping someone had found an answer while she was away.

Alina straightened. "The only way to end this is to rid us both of Kirigan's power." She strode over to the thorny bramble and plucked off two large thorns.

"The obisbaya involves a mental battle for control," Tolya pointed out. "If Nikolai can't win, Kirigan will have him forever."

Zoya's chest constricted at that. She remembered how scared Nikolai had been of becoming some kind of Shadow monster. She remembered something stopping Kirigan from killing her before. Nikolai. Her king.

"He can win," she found herself declaring confidently.

"It's too late," Kirigan interrupted. "The little Sobachka is gone."

Alina's eyes flashed with fiery determination. "I don't believe you. But even if Nikolai can't fight you, I will."

With that, she stepped forward right up to him and raised both hands, placing one sharp thorn over his heart and the other over hers. Kirigan looked at her dubiously, like this wouldn't work. Even Zoya was lost and unsure what exactly Alina was planning.

"Alina?" Mal queried tentatively.

"I've got this," she replied.

Kirigan sneered with Nikolai's face. "What do you think you're going to do?"

"You should know not to underestimate me."

Alina closed her eyes in concentration, and shadows began to rise up around her, darkening the immediate area. Everyone backed up a step nervously. But the darkness didn't expand; instead, it folded over Kirigan like a blanket. The Darkling's cheeks puffed in fury as he strained against it, but then his eyes rolled back, and both he and Alina went utterly still.

Whatever was happening now, it was between the two of them.