Lilith jumped awake. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Orion leaning over her, dark purple sky cascading behind him. His hoof was pressed to her shoulder, and she firmly pushed it away.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “Morning,” she mumbled.

  She got up and gathered with the others, who were busily suiting up for the final leg of the journey. Rune tossed his head a few times, visions creeping in. He sat on the ground and gripped his head in his hooves, clenching his jaw painfully. Marmalade rubbed his shoulder for a moment to soothe him and helped him up.

  “Orion, what’s your game plan?” Ariel asked.

  “Drop Lilith off about a mile before we get there. Break into ERUJ. Free Laci, escape, pick up Lilith, and go home,” he said, loading his satchel.

  Lilith snorted hard. “That’s not a plan.”

  “What do you mean? And before you ask, there is no way I am letting you come with us,” Orion said.

  The black filly sighed. “Well, for starters, you have no idea how to break into ERUJ. You could use someone who’s lived there a while.”

  “Come on, ladies. Let’s walk and talk. I didn’t get up this early to wait around,” Marmalade said.

  Orion started walking, Lilith by his side. “I’m going to use my dark magic to take care of the guards.”

  “Easier said than done. Light magic is going to give you hell, especially if you’ve never fought it,” Lilith scoffed, rolling her eyes.

  “Watch your language! What are you talking about?” Orion asked.

  Onyx’s ears pricked up. “She means the opposing force of light magic. They can counteract dark magic spells directly.”

  “You can’t just waltz in there, throw a little magic around, and get away with it,” Lilith said. “Plus, Laci is-not how you remember her. She’s been under Chase for too long. She’s not going anywhere with you willingly.”

  “That’s absurd! She will remember us and want to be free again. Didn’t you see her trying to fight back?” Orion challenged.

  Lilith cocked her head. “Yea, but Chase wasn’t the only one she was angry with. Guarantee you she’s gone crazy by now. He has a way of breaking horses.”

  Orion went quiet.

  Rhapsody’s ears flickered nervously. “If Sultan is still following her around, he will be no help either,” she whispered to Ariel.

  “All I’m saying is, this isn’t a walk in the park. Let me go with you, and save your magic for Laci. I might be a yearling, but I’m not a nobody,” Lilith said.

  Marmalade nodded. “She’s right, Orion. None of us know this place like she does. We need her for this.”

  He sighed wearily. “Alright. You’re coming. But you’re staying within eyesight of me the whole time, and that’s final.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Lilith groaned and put a hoof to her head.

  Ariel threw her head in the air, swiveling her ears rapidly. “Do you hear that?”

  The rumble of horse hooves striking the ground approached them, and Orion looked up the hill to see a dozen coursers racing down. They were riderless and carrying many guns. Knight immediately started lashing his tail in fear.

  “Stay behind me!” Orion shouted, pushing Lilith back.

  The Amulet glittered in the morning light as he began summoning his magic.

  “Orion! Save your power. Let us help,” Ariel said.

  She galloped to the front of the group and reared up, conjuring illusions of Sultan to fend off their attackers. They backed away from him fearfully and aimed their gunfire to him, believing him to be real. She constructed body doubles for the group, and hurried them over to the tree line. The horses emptied their guns on the illusions.

  “Come on. They can’t see us, but we need to pass by quickly, before my spell wears off,” she said.

  They sprinted up over the ridge and left the coursers in confusion, illusions fading as Ariel grew further away. One of them spotted the group galloping up the ridge, and the pack quickly turned and pursued them.

  Marmalade stopped and turned to face the incoming horses. “You go, I’ll hold them off!” she called out.

  The earth began to shake and crumble as Marmalade formed the hill into a wall. Dust cascaded down and buried the officers, buying them time to make their escape. They dashed off into the forest at a dead run, Rune trying to shake visions off the whole way. When he could hold them back no longer, Rune fell to his knees, panting hard. His eyes were wide with fear.

  “We need to move. The visions are getting worse,” he said.

  “How bad is it?” Orion asked, crouching down to help him.

  Rune’s head snapped up as he saw more. Fire rippled out from the building, horses were screaming and scattering. The sharp sound of hotblood teeth biting into flesh and the smell of boiling blood was filling the air. There were bodies laid out all over the floor, irreparably damaged. Torn and burned without abandon. He snapped awake, and saw Orion and Marmalade right by his side.

  “Easy, Mustang,” Marmalade comforted. “You alright?”

  Rune jumped up and swished his tail with vigor. “We have to make it before she lets Sultan loose.”

  The remaining officers had begun to work their way around Marmalade’s bulwark. Rune’s visions refused to subside. Knight saw them coming and knew what he had to do. His tan-haired skin by his shoulders began to stretch unnaturally. Cracks sounded as his bones unfolded. His eye was tight with pain, and he jerked his head and snorted from the sharp stabs in his side. The skin tore at last, and two massive wings more than five times his size spread out beside him. The entire group watched in complete surprise.

  He winced from the sharpness of their arrival, a little blood trickling down his side where they had sprouted. He shook out the dusty-colored feathers, flexing each wing for good measure. At a strong gallop, he lifted them and took to the sky over the officers. He beat the wings hard over their attackers, and the wind sent them flying through the air backwards into the trees. Their screams faded until they could no longer be heard. Knight descended back to the other horses, and his wings hung limp with the exhaustion of being brought back again.

  Marmalade carefully felt the stiff arch of one wing. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen these.”

  There were ripe scars on the base of both wings where they had been tormented by experimentation. Several feathers were missing or clipped. She worked her way down his bony flight tail, which was scraped and burned all the way to the fanlike steering feathers on its tip. Two copper rings had previously been fixed around his wing roots, and they had left a large raw mark. He shifted uncomfortably when her hoof grazed over them.

  “They’re as beautiful as I remember. Now that you’ve got them out, maybe Doctor Greg can fix them when we go home,” Marmalade said.

  Knight rested his weary head on her without saying a word.

  “Come on. We cannot talk of home when there is still much to do,” Orion said.