Chapter 6
Chapter Six
The endless white of Icespire stretched out before me, vast and unchanging, as if the whole world had been swallowed by silence. Days bled together in a monotonous cloud of cold, hunger, and biting emptiness. There was a hollowness inside me, an ache that nothing could touch. Not the scraps of bread the soldiers tossed at me, nor the biting winds that lashed against the iron bars of my cage.
Four days had passed since we left the village, each one colder, the frost biting deeper, the nights stretching longer, crueler. The chill in the air wasn’t natural—it was spreading, sharper and heavier, as though the king’s cryomancy was splintering at the edges, slipping out of his grasp. Maybe he’d already heard about Aeliana.
The thought twisted through me, a strange blend of terror and relief. I wanted him to know. I wanted the whole kingdom to feel her absence, to understand what had been taken. Grief this vast didn’t deserve to stay hidden in silence; it was too heavy to carry alone. If the world had any justice, it would freeze with her loss, the way I had.
Usually, the Zephyrcrafters used their mastery over wind to funnel storms far from the castle, sending them toward the crypt. They protected the castle and its people from the worst of the king’s power. But tonight, the tempest raged unchecked, icy winds screaming through the mountains like a living thing. The air was heavy with frost, the kind that seeped into your bones, and the snow fell in relentless sheets. If the king’s icy temper had slipped beyond his control, no power in the kingdom could calm the chaos it unleashed.
The soldiers marched forward in grim silence, their faces as cold and unyielding as the snow beneath their boots. Not one of them spoke to me—not since the night Valen had vanished as abruptly as he’d appeared. His presence had been a flicker of something strange and fleeting, a brief moment of care in an otherwise indifferent procession. He’d given me food, a kindness that felt out of place, almost deliberate. And now, without explanation, he was gone, leaving only questions in his wake.
I was left alone in the cage, trapped with nothing but my thoughts. A prison of iron for my body, and of memory for my mind, the silence broken only by the clatter of wheels and the wind’s distant, mournful howl.
The crypt.
Aeliana.
The fire.
The memories played on a relentless loop, each sharper, crueler than the last. I could still hear the roar of the flames, a sound that drowned out everything but my own screams. I could still smell the smoke, thick and acrid, crawling into my lungs like it wanted to stay there forever. And her— Aeliana —the way she looked at me in those final moments, her last breath hanging in the air, fragile as frost, before the fire swallowed her whole.
The ghost of it clung to me, choking me even now, as though the flames had left something behind—something I could never burn away.
The cart jolted, snapping me from my thoughts as night settled over the land, dark and unforgiving. The sky was a heavy blanket of black, with only a pale fragment of moonlight breaking through the clouds.
I huddled deeper into the fur coat, trying to find some warmth, some comfort in the face of the growing dread that clawed at my insides. And then, I heard it—a low, menacing growl that seemed to rumble from the very earth itself.
I froze, the grumble cutting through the wind. It came again, closer, followed by the terrified whinnies of the horses. The cart jerked to a sudden stop. Soldiers shouted, panic bleeding into their voices.
“Frostwolves!”
The word sent a spike of terror through me. Stories of frostwolves—the massive beasts that prowled the wilds of Icespire—flashed in my mind. They were creatures of death, their fur as white as the snow, eyes glowing an eerie blue. Strong enough to rip through steel and bone alike.
I pressed my face to the bars, heart hammering, scanning the darkness. The first wolf struck like lightning—a haze of white and fangs that tore through the line of soldiers. It was enormous, easily the size of a small horse, its fur bristling with frost, shimmering in the moonlight, and moving in my direction. The beast lunged, jaws clamping onto a horse’s throat with a sickening crunch. Blood sprayed, steaming as it hit the air, and the horse collapsed, dragging my cart down with it.
The cage rocked violently, slamming me against the bars. Pain shot through my ribs, but I couldn’t focus on it. The soldiers were shouting orders, scrambling to draw their weapons, but they were hopelessly outmatched. The wolves moved with terrifying speed, their claws raking through armor, fangs tearing through flesh. Blood-slicked bodies dropping like stones.
Rhydian’s voice rang out, sharp and commanding. “Form up! Hold the line!” He drew his sword, the blade gleaming under the pale moonlight. With a roar, he charged at a wolf, his sword flashing as he drove it deep into the beast’s side. Blood spattered as the wolf let out a deafening howl, staggering before collapsing.
But it wasn’t enough. More wolves circled, their growls reverberating around us. I clung to the bars of the cage, helpless as I watched the soldiers fall. One wolf leapt onto the cart, its massive weight cracking the wood beneath it. Its eyes burned as it snarled down at me. My heart seized in my chest.
“Get it off! Get it off!” a soldier screamed, thrusting his spear.
The wolf snarled and lunged, jaws snapping shut around the man’s arm. His scream was lost in the chaos as the beast shook him like a rag doll, blood spraying in all directions. He crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
“Please, someone get me out!” I screamed, desperation clawing at my throat.
Rhydian’s eyes flicked toward me, then back to the wolves. His jaw tightened. “Hold on!” He surged forward, driving his blade into the wolf on the cart. The beast howled, stumbling back, its blood streaking the ground.
Another wolf lunged at him from the side. He dodged, slashing upward with his sword, the blade cleaving into its chest. The wolf yelped, falling in a heap, but more of the pack closed in, their growls growing louder, more vicious. Rhydian was fighting like a man possessed, his sword a blur as he struck down wolf after wolf. Blood splattered across his armor, but he kept moving, kept fighting.
“We’re being overrun!” one of the soldiers shouted.
Rhydian’s gaze swept the battlefield, narrowing as he saw the remaining wolves stalking closer. “Get the cart moving!” he barked, his voice carrying over the chaos. But the wolves had surrounded us, their glowing eyes closing in.
There was no escape.
Rhydian’s sword cleaved through the last wolf in his immediate path, its body flopping. He stood there for a moment, chest heaving, the flicker of exhaustion finally reaching his eyes. The battlefield was a massacre—wolves torn open, soldiers lying still in the snow.
But there were more wolves, always more.
His gaze shifted to me, trapped in the cart, gripping the bars, terror wild in my eyes. I could see the calculation in his expression—his mind weighing options, choosing survival over everything else.
“Rhydian!” I shouted, desperation ripping through my voice, raw and trembling. “You can’t leave me here! Please! Don’t?—”
His jaw tightened, the muscle ticking beneath his scar, but he didn’t look at me. His knuckles whitened around the hilt of his sword as the wind howled, carrying with it the distant, guttural growls of the pack. There wasn’t enough time, and we both knew it.
“The cart’s stuck,” he said coldly, the words sharp and emotionless, like a blade sliding between my ribs. Blood dripped from his sword as he turned to the nearest soldier. “Fall back before the rest of the pack reaches us!”
“No!” I screamed, slamming my fists against the iron bars, the panic surging like fire in my veins. “You can’t just leave me! Rhydian, please!” My voice cracked, raw and pleading.
He finally looked at me then, his gray eyes dark, harder than steel. “I don’t have time to waste on a dead girl,” he said, his words cold and final.
But before they could sprint in retreat, a deeper, louder growl slashed through the air. Rhydian froze, turning just in time to see the shadows moving swiftly toward us. More wolves—huge, white beasts—emerged from the trees, their eyes glowing with that unnatural, icy fire. The pack was back, stronger, hungrier.
Rhydian swore, his sword already in hand. His eyes flicked to me for a split second before snapping to the wolves closing in.
They had no choice. The fight wasn’t over.
And neither was I.
One of the wolves lunged at a soldier, its massive jaws closing around his arm with a sickening crunch. The man screamed, a sound so filled with pain and terror that it carved through the night like a blade. I flinched, bile rising in my throat as the wolf shook him violently, its powerful jaws crushing bone and muscle with brutal ease.
The wolf didn’t even pause to gloat over its kill. Its blue eyes, glowing like frozen embers, scanned for the next victim.
The cart jolted violently as another wolf slammed into it, the force knocking the air from my lungs and sending me sprawling. The door of the cage, weakened by the rough terrain and the constant attacks, finally gave way with a loud crack. I tumbled out, hitting the ground hard. Pain flared through my body, but there was no time to dwell on it.
I scrambled to my feet, gasping in the freezing air, blood pounding in my ears.
The wolves were everywhere. Huge, looming shadows that moved with deadly grace, their fur shimmering with frost. They tore through the soldiers with brutal efficiency.
“Zephyrcrafters, form a wall!” one of the soldiers cried as he lifted his hands to summon a gust of wind, hoping to hold the wolves at bay. A whirl of frigid air spiraled around him, forming a temporary shield. But the wolves were relentless. The moment one wolf leapt into the gust, its claws slashed through the air like jagged ice, sending the soldier flying.
I crawled away, my heart hammering in my chest, but it felt like trying to escape a nightmare. Everywhere I turned, there was death. Blood stained the snow in wide arcs, steam rising from the bodies of the fallen. The wolves circled, ruthless and unstoppable.
I tried to force myself to stand, my legs shaking beneath me, but the fear made it impossible to think straight. The soldiers were losing.
One of the wolves had spotted me. It stalked closer, its growl vibrating through the air like a low, menacing thunder. Up close, the creature was even more terrifying. Its shoulders were broad and powerful, its fur thick and matted with the blood of the fallen. The wolf’s lips curled back, revealing those razor-sharp teeth, each one gleaming like a blade in the moonlight.
“Please…” I whispered, the word barely a breath, trembling as it left my lips. I stumbled back, but there was nowhere left to go. The wolf’s eyes—glowing, unblinking—snared mine, and in them, I saw the certainty of my end.
This was it.
Not in fire, not in frost, but here, in the hungry gaze of a predator who saw me as nothing more than prey. This was how I was going to die.
The wolf lunged, its jaws aimed straight for my throat, and in that moment, something inside me snapped. Desperation, fear, and something more primal surged through me, breaking free like a dam. I threw my hands out in front of me, a scream tearing from my throat as I braced for the impact.
But instead of the pain of teeth sinking into my flesh, I felt something else—a sudden, overwhelming chill. The air around me seemed to freeze, the temperature dropping even further as a surge of power shot through me. I watched in stunned disbelief as ice erupted from my fingertips, sharp, jagged shards that shot forward like spears.
The frostwolf was caught mid-leap, the ice driving into its chest and pinning it to the ground. It howled in pain, thrashing wildly as the ice spread, encasing its body in a frozen tomb. The sound of its pained cries echoed through the night, but I barely heard it. My mind was reeling as I stared at my hands, trembling uncontrollably. Ice. I had conjured ice from nothing, just as Aeliana had done so many times before.
“Behind you!” a soldier shouted.
I turned just in time to see another frostwolf barreling toward me, its enormous body hurtling forward with terrifying speed. The ground seemed to tremble, each thundering step sending shock waves through the earth.
The wolf lunged, its jaws open wide, aimed for my throat. Instinctively, I threw my hands up in front of me once more, expecting to feel its teeth sink into my flesh.
Instead, something else happened.
A blast of freezing air surged from my palms, an unrefined, powerful force that wasn’t supposed to be mine. Ice erupted from the ground in jagged spikes, slamming into the wolf mid-leap.
My heart raced as I stared, wide-eyed, at my own hands. “Wh-what… what was that?” My voice was a shaky whisper, my mind reeling. This wasn’t possible.
Rhydian’s breath caught audibly, his sword lowering an inch as he stared at me, his expression twisting between shock and something darker. “Fucking hell,” he muttered. His gaze snapped to mine, fierce and commanding. “Get behind me. Now.”
“Behind you?” I gasped. “I just froze two wolves solid!”
He stepped closer, his voice dropping into something rough, almost desperate. “And you obviously don’t know how to control it. So get behind me before you kill yourself—or me.”
I hesitated, his words hitting harder than the cold slicing through the air. “Rhydian, I?—”
“Now, Princess!” he barked, leaving no room for argument.
I stumbled back, my legs shaking as I obeyed, my mind still spinning. My hands trembled, still cold to the touch, as though the frost clung to me like a second skin.
“Princess?” I blinked, the word barely registering through the whirlwind of shock that clouded my mind. I wasn’t a princess. I was… nobody.
But there was no time to dwell on that.
“I’m not—” I started, but the sound of claws tearing through the snow cut me off.
“Save it,” Rhydian snapped. “You can explain—or not—after we’re both still breathing. Stay behind me. Don’t argue. And for death’s sake, don’t freeze me.”
The words lodged in my throat, and for once, I stayed silent, gripping the fur of my coat as the icy wind howled. Whatever I’d just unleashed, it wasn’t something I knew how to control. And judging by the way Rhydian’s knuckles whitened around the hilt of his sword, he wasn’t so sure I could handle it either.
A final wolf lunged, but this time it wasn’t coming for me—it was aiming straight for Rhydian. My heart pounded in my chest, adrenaline surging through me. I could have let it take him, could have watched as the wolf tore him apart like he had been so willing to leave me in the cart.
But I didn’t.
With a scream, I threw my hands out once more. Frost erupted from the ground, slicing through the air in jagged shards. The wolf yelped as ice formed around its entire body. It crashed to the ground, encased in ice, its lifeless body shattering on impact.
Rhydian staggered back, his sword dangling from his hand as his wide, storm-gray eyes darted between me and the frozen wolf. “What the hell just happened?” he muttered, his voice sharp but edged with disbelief.
I swayed on my feet, my hands trembling violently as frost clung to my fingertips. “I don’t… I didn’t…” The words slurred, and my knees buckled before I could finish.
He was on me in two strides, his hand gripping my arm to steady me before I hit the ground. “Shit,” he muttered, crouching as he lowered me into the snow. “You’re shaking like a leaf. What the hell did you do to yourself?”
I blinked up at him, my breaths shallow and uneven. “I don’t know,” I whispered as the world tilted dangerously around me. “It just… it happened. I didn’t mean to.”
Rhydian cursed under his breath, his eyes scanning my face. “You’re pale as death,” he muttered, already shrugging off his cloak. “Blessed be, you’re freezing.”
“Noticed,” I mumbled weakly, the word slurring.
“Stop talking,” he snapped, draping the cloak over me with rough, deliberate movements. “You’re about to pass out.”
“I’m fine,” I tried to argue, though my body betrayed me, sagging further.
“You’re not,” he bit out, his tone sharp but not unkind. “Stay awake. Breathe.”
How had I done that? How had I, a servant, an orphan, managed to summon the power of ice—the power of the royal family? The questions swirled in my mind, but I had no answers. All I knew was that the ice had saved me, had erupted from my very being, and it had left me trembling, not just from the effort, but from the fear of what I had become.
The few survivors looked at me, their expressions a mix of awe and terror, as if they couldn’t quite believe what they had just witnessed. Slowly, one by one, they began to kneel, their heads bowed in submission.
“We’re so sorry, Princess,” one of the soldiers stammered, his voice trembling with fear and reverence. “We didn’t know it was you.”
“Princess?” I echoed weakly, the word barely audible as it slipped past my lips. “I’m not…”
My legs wobbled, and before I could fall, Rhydian swooped me up in his arms. Strong and steady, he cradled me against the icy press of his armor.
“Get her a blanket!” he barked over his shoulder. “And someone bring water!”
I blinked up at him, my vision blurring at the edges, the world tilting as exhaustion dragged me under. His face hovered above me, gray eyes fierce, his jaw clenched as he steadied me against his chest. “Stay with me,” he muttered, though the words sounded distant, like they were coming from underwater.
The soldiers’ voices blended into a dull roar around us. I barely registered the sound of crunching snow as they scrambled to obey. Someone knelt beside us, the faint clink of armor audible, but I couldn’t focus.
The ice—the power—it had come from me. The magic of the royal family. The thought clawed its way through the haze in my mind. How?
My gaze dropped to my hands, trembling and numb, still faintly rimmed with frost. The power that had erupted from me was gone now, leaving me hollow and weak, as though it had carved something vital from my core.
“Move faster!” Rhydian barked. “I want this area cleared—now!”
A wave of exhaustion crashed over me, my head lolling against his shoulder as my breath came in short, shallow bursts.
But none of it felt real. I’d saved them—saved Rhydian—but as the darkness began to close in, I couldn’t shake the gnawing fear that, in doing so, I’d unleashed something far worse.
The last thing I heard before the void took me was Rhydian’s voice, low and urgent, growling orders to his men as his grip on me tightened, keeping me steady in a world that was already slipping away.