Carved in Ice and Glass: A Snow White Fairy Tale Romance

29. The Hunter

My ears were ringing. Pain and chills and a strange sense of frailty gripped my limbs, freezing me in place. I wanted to vomit and scream all at once, but I couldn’t move.

It felt as if a very piece of my soul were missing. As if I were on death’s door, my limbs as weak and feeble as an old man.

I’d given my magic to Eira. My magic was my very life force.

I was truly dying.

And yet… I was still here. I caught echoes of Eira’s conversation with Calista. The false queen had said the mirror was bound to her very essence.

The words struck something familiar within me, something important… but I couldn’t grasp what it was.

Then darkness took me. For a moment, I thought I’d finally succumbed to death. But a rotting stench stung my nostrils that was horribly familiar. Dread coiled in my chest.

Dark fae.

Calista had dropped her glamour.

Which meant Eira had to fight her. Alone.

Eira. Eira. She would die. Calista would kill her.

I had to move. Now.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved every ounce of strength into lifting my arm. Slowly, my body shifted, and a burst of pain shot through me, powerful enough to make me slump backwards in defeat.

I couldn’t… I couldn’t…

Then I heard her scream. The sound pierced through me, boiling my blood, setting my insides on fire. The agony of hearing her suffer was far worse than the agony of my failing body.

“Eira!” I bellowed.

And my arms moved. Then my legs. White-hot flames burned inside me, and I screamed, raging against it, fighting my own body as I climbed to my feet. My very skin was melting off my bones. I was dying, dying, dying… Needles in my flesh, tearing and slicing. I could feel nothing and everything at once.

Eira screamed again, and a bolt of clarity entered my mind. I clung to it, and my feet shuffled forward. Through the haze of pain, I heard her voice.

“Theron!”

I was coming. She had to know I was coming for her.

With each step I took, more sounds came into focus. Shouts. Screams. Some familiar, some not. I recognized Denton’s voice, and Stella’s. Which meant Eira’s friends were here.

I was torn between relief that she wasn’t alone, and dread that her allies would be slaughtered.

Move,I told myself. Just keep moving.

“No!” Eira cried. Her voice was closer now.

I needed to see. How could I protect her if I couldn’t see?

Focus,I thought. Use your other senses. You’re a hunter. You can do this.

I closed my eyes, though it didn’t matter. Still, the motion helped me activate my other senses, relying fully on them. Calista’s foul odor burned in my nose, but it was farther away now. I sensed Eira’s familiar frosty pine scent and focused on it, drawing closer to her.

A horrifying scream echoed in the room. This wasn’t like the other shouts and cries; this was the sound of someone dying.

A sickening crunch followed, then a loud, wet thud.

I flinched. And Eira’s voice broke on a sob.

Calista had just killed one of her friends.

Panic pulsed through me. I knew Eira was about to do something reckless. Something she would regret later.

On instinct, my arm shot out and clasped hers. She jumped, pounding a fist against my chest, and then froze.

“Theron?” she whispered.

“I’m here.”

She collapsed against my chest, clinging to my tunic and weeping openly. “I can’t—I can’t—She’s killing them, Theron.”

“Her thread,” I murmured. “Can you see Calista’s thread?”

“What? No! I can’t see anything!”

Shit. I wasn’t sure if the necromancy would work in the darkness.

Then something else sparked in my mind. Something I’d forgotten.

“Where’s the mirror?”

“I have it,” Eira said. “It’s right here.”

“Give it to me, Eira.”

She stiffened. “What?”

“You have to trust me.”

“I trusted you before. But you turned out to be her. How do I know you aren’t Calista?”

My fingers worked their way up her shoulder until they caught a strand of her hair. Slowly, I cupped her face and brought her mouth to mine, pressing the barest of kisses against her lips. “I’m yours, Eira,” I breathed.

She trembled in my grasp, her breaths coming in sharp pants. “Blood and ice, you’re alive! How?”

“Later. I need the mirror now, Eira.”

Something cool and metal brushed against my fingers, and I clasped the handle of the mirror firmly. Without hesitation, I hurled it to the ground, and the glass shattered, the sound ringing in the vast room.

“What have you done?” Eira cried.

“Trust me!” I said again.

A deep, menacing roar exploded from the other side of the room. The ground shook, and energy swirled around me like a funnel cloud, stinging my eyes and tousling my hair. Eira shrieked in alarm, and I clasped her against my chest again, shielding her. The wind intensified, whipping mercilessly at me until I was certain it would carry me away.

Light bled through the darkness, slowly at first. Shadows and shapes took form. Some lay motionless on the floor. And in the center of the carnage was Calista, her skin tough and leathery, with great black wings stretched behind her back. Fangs extended from her lips, covered in blood. Her bright red eyes widened as the darkness of her magic faded. Bit by bit, the black mist receded as if being washed away by an invisible rag. In moments, the throne room was in full view once more, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the crimson blood that stained the floors.

Several bodies were strewn about, some missing limbs. Most of them were soldiers wearing the rebels’ red bandana.

But one of them I recognized. A girl with white-blond hair.

Her head was completely severed from her body.

Stella.

Eira sank to her knees, erupting in sobs. I clutched her shoulders, my eyes fixing on Calista to see what she would do next. She whirled, her red eyes frantic as she looked around the room.

“Where is it?” she hissed. “Where is it?”

“You mean the source of your magic?” I asked. With my foot, I nudged the broken glass on the floor. “It’s gone, Calista.”

Lavinia had told me of a spell that could bind fae magic, enhancing someone’s power. If anyone were to acquire this conduit, they could destroy it and potentially disrupt the connection to your magic completely.

That was how Calista had maintained a flawless glamour all these years.

Now, she was stuck in her dark fae form. And she wasn’t powerful enough to conjure her darkness anymore.

A noise of rage burst from Calista’s lips, her face twisting into another snarl. “Foolish boy! I don’t need magic to slaughter everyone in this room!”

I pulled a dagger from my belt and flung it toward Calista. She lunged, and the blade nicked her shoulder. She screeched and careened toward me.

With a shout, Eira dived, coming between Calista and me. Cold horror numbed my veins as Calista tackled Eira to the ground.

No. No…

Together, they grappled. Calista’s claws swiped. Eira shrieked, but their shapes were such a blur that I couldn’t see if Calista had drawn blood.

A high-pitched squeal of pain, shrill and piercing, rang in the room. It was a sound I’d never heard before.

Panting, Eira climbed to her feet, squeezing two fingers together, her pale eyes burning with fury.

Calista writhed on the ground, her wings folded inward, her body twisted in agony. “Stop!” she moaned. “Stop!”

Eira bared her teeth as she pressed her fingers more tightly together. Calista’s screams intensified.

My mouth fell open. What was Eira doing? And how?

“Blood has power, doesn’t it, Calista? And your blood is no exception.”

Realization struck me. I squinted and caught sight of a faint black stain on Eira’s fingers.

Dark fae blood.

She was using Calista’s own blood against her.

“I can snap your life thread right now, Stepmother,” Eira said softly. “It would be easy. Without your darkness, I can see it clearly.”

“Then do it!” Calista roared, her body still contorting on the floor.

“You deserve to suffer first.” Tears glistened in Eira’s eyes, but her face was filled with rage.

Frantic footsteps echoed in the hall, and a dozen figures filled the open doorway.

“What is this?” bellowed a voice.

I straightened as I recognized the man in front. Lord Rand Alistair, a high lord of the Winter Court. Next to him was Idell Newsome, a high lady. My eyes scanned the others in the crowd, recognizing them all from court.

Standing in front of them, his tail swishing with smugness, was Frisk.

I huffed a laugh. He certainly had gathered reinforcements.

Horror struck the faces of each noble as they took in the sight before them—the dismembered soldiers. The dark fae, unable to hide or glamour herself. And Eira, standing like the queen that she was, commanding Calista like a puppet.

“The throne is mine,” Eira announced. Tears, dirt, and blood mingled on her face, but she looked as regal as ever, her chin lifted in defiance. Grief and anguish still raged in her eyes, but she held it together for this moment she had worked so hard for. “Your queen is an imposter. She has been deceiving you for years. I am here to expose her true nature and claim my birthright. You can either join me, or be arrested for treason. The choice is yours.” She squeezed her fingers together, and Calista unleashed a fresh scream of pain.

Several nobles flinched, including Lord Rand. “What—What are you doing to her?”

“With her blood, she can be controlled,” Eira said. “I am only inflicting on her the same thing she has inflicted on her subjects.”

“You are human,” said Lady Idell. “We cannot follow a human queen.”

“I am half human,” Eira barked. “My father was a full-blooded seelie fae. There is more seelie blood in me than there is in this false queen lying at your feet. I will only ask one more time: will you join me?”

Rand’s chest puffed as he threw his shoulders back, his brown mustache quivering as he spat, “We will never follow you, human scum.”

Fury burned within, and I took a step toward him, but Eira stopped me with her free hand, grasping my shoulder.

“Take them away,” she said.

I frowned and followed her gaze. A loud, familiar snort echoed in the chamber.

Rand jumped, and the nobles all turned to find a row of large animals behind them, with Mauro leading them. Stags, foxes, birds, sheep, rabbits, and other creatures I had never seen before loomed closer to the nobles until the lords and ladies were surrounded. And behind them, just visible in the hall, I made out the vibrant skin and hair of the pixies. Nyra had sent them to our aid as well.

I couldn’t help it; I laughed. The sight was so ridiculous. These men and women with their haughty principles and misguided loyalty were cowering before an army of creatures.

It was ridiculous and yet, it was beautiful. Because Eira had rallied the very people Calista had been hunting. Now, all the victims of the false queen’s hatred were turning on her—the unseelie and the humans.

Mauro bowed his head, using his huge antlers to poke at the nobles. Rand swatted at him, but it was no use. To avoid being skewered, Rand darted out of Mauro’s path, but the stag pushed onward, herding the nobles into a line that led out of the throne room.

“Ah—Wait—Princess!” Rand objected.

But Mauro didn’t stop. He jerked his head forward, and Rand yelped as the antlers pierced his flesh.

“Move,” Mauro growled. “You had your chance.”

“You can’t do this!” Idell shrieked. Her voice bounced off the walls, even long after the nobles had been escorted out of the throne room.

“They were never going to pledge loyalty to me,” Eira said softly. “I knew they wouldn’t.”

“Then why give them the chance?” I asked.

“I wanted to be fair. And I needed them to witness this.” Eira gestured to Calista, who still lay sprawled on the marble floor. “Once the nobles go to trial, their words will be a testimony against Calista.” A small smile lit her face, but it didn’t mask the sorrow in her eyes. “They’ll be forced to tell the truth.”

I nodded, my eyebrows raised. I was impressed. “Looks like you have a few vacancies to fill, Your Majesty.”

“No.” She waved a hand at her friends still standing in the middle of the room. “My court is right here. All except for one.” Her somber gaze shifted to Stella’s body. Her lower lip trembled, and another tear streaked down her face. “I—I can see her thread, Theron,” she whispered.

My blood chilled. “Don’t. Don’t do it, Eira.”

“It’s broken. But… it calls to me. I can mend it. I know I can.”

“Eira—”

“She can’t.” Her voice was suddenly fierce and full of that fire I knew so well. “She can’t take anything else from me, Theron. I can’t let her. She’s already taken too much. This—This is too much.”

She spread her hands, and before I could stop her, her fingers were moving, twisting and turning as she gathered threads.

“Eira, no!”

But it was too late.

Eira’s body went stiff, jerking wildly, and she threw her head back and screamed.