Chapter 46
Allie
Just as the grappling bodies tumbled out of view, the spear glinted as it slashed through the air a breath away from Dax’s head.
I was too far.
My arrow wouldn’t be fast enough.
My entire being spiraled into that blade as everything else melted and slowed.
A scream already tore through my throat as another blade appeared at the edges of my vision, slashing the spear in two.
The world rushed back into view as Vylkor’s broadsword finished its mighty arc through the air.
“Run, outsider!” Vylkor roared and jerked the net off Dax with such strain, his hand trembled from the effort.
Tears stung the corners of my eyes as Dax jumped back to his feet, frazzled, but alive.
He didn’t even manage a quip as his gaze rushed around him.
Vylkor swung his broadsword with renewed fervor. The Northerner dropped what remained of his barbed spear and fled between the other soldiers.
Four more took his place, charging at Vylkor.
My arrow took down one.
Dax grappled one.
Vylkor slashed through the other two.
War was always ugly.
I allowed myself one last glance at Dax, took a deep breath that did nothing to quiet my trembling heart, and turned back to the wall.
A dozen Northern fighters rappelled against the ice.
Three warriors close by noticed me and surrounded my back, protecting me.
“Thank you!” I yelled and launched another arrow, cutting off one of the ropes.
Again, another one took its place.
Nine arrows.
The glare of the ice blurred my already hazy vision.
The next two arrows missed their mark.
One of the descending soldiers barked a laugh that echoed through the crater.
“Come on, Vegheara,” I whispered.
My lips trembled with the adrenaline, but my arms, spent and aching, remembered their training and clung to it.
If I didn’t stop more of them from entering the crater, we’d be doomed.
The snow underneath my feet turned red as a body fell behind me.
We were already doomed.
Too many.
There were too many soldiers.
I cocked another arrow.
The ropes twisted with the soldiers’ movements.
I missed.
The arrow once again burrowed itself into the ice. This time, it ripped a shard so big, the soldiers stopped moving.
It shook the ground as it crashed down, creating a deadly wave that surged forward, bowing the closest trees.
My entire body froze as the icy gust swept through my hair. An idea danced in the current.
A deranged one.
The crater’s betrayal could either save or kill us all.
But desperation demanded risk.
I turned, only to see one of the warriors who’d defended my back now lying on the ground, a hook sticking out from his chest, the light gone from his young eyes.
Bile rose, blazing up my throat.
I swallowed it back down.
“Retreat!” I yelled with all the air I still had in my lungs, the silencing spell vibrating with my voice. “Slowly, don’t make it obvious. Block their path any way you can. When I give the signal, you run the way we came.”
Vylkor’s gaze slashed toward me like a dagger.
For the first time, he looked truly terrified.
“Now!” I roared.
My insides trembled as indecision fought in Vylkor’s eye–and I wrestled my own doubts.
If I failed, we’d be slaughtered.
Finally, he nodded.
“You heard The Huntress!” he boomed. “Triangle formation, on the right.”
Through the fray, I caught Dax’s bewildered gaze.
“Cover me,” I mouthed.
I didn’t have to tell him twice.
Within two jumps and a swerve, he had his back pressed against mine.
I leaned against him more than I should have, knees soft and shaky.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I didn’t reply, my entire attention and the dregs of my energy focused on the next arrow.
Instead of the ropes, I aimed it at the fracture I’d already marred in the ice.
It hissed through the air, embedding itself into the wall.
No shard fell.
Another arrow, right next to it.
Dax and I weaved through the chaos.
The soldiers on the ground still hadn’t noticed our warriors’ retreat.
The descending ones felt the vibrations in the ice. They stopped, clinging to the ropes.
Another arrow joined its brethren in a jagged line.
Three more arrows.
Three more chances.
No more.
Dax braced his back against mine, holding me up.
Another arrow hissed through the air.
The wall began to vibrate.
The Northern soldiers began to climb back up.
They didn’t bother warning the ones on the ground.
Another arrow.
“Run!” I roared with everything I had in me.
The warriors kicked the soldiers, threw snow and ice in their face, even tossed their sharp weapons down as obstacles.
The soldiers’ shock at the sudden shift was enough to grant us a headstart.
I turned around, half-running, half-dragged by Dax, and thundered back along with our warriors.
The Northerners laughed.
They should have run.
But no earth-shattering crash came.
I twisted around.
The fracture in the ice widened, but it remained stuck to the wall.
The soldiers finally rushed after us.
Their armored, brutal bodies blocked my bow’s trajectory.
I wouldn’t get a clean shot.
With the last of my strength, I pushed Dax forward. “Go after the others.”
He turned to argue.
“That’s an order!” was all I said before running toward the nearest tree.
Three steps in, my knees finally gave out and felled me. Bitter, exhausted tears tore at my throat.
The ground trembled with the rush of the soldiers’ approach.
“Come on,” I begged.
Myself, the gods, the crater, whoever was listening.
“Come on!” I shouted at my useless feet.
Just as exhaustion sapped me dry, my energy draining along with my hope, a fresh wave of strength washed over me. It ignited my burning veins, soothing my blood.
It hadn’t come from me.
Or my power.
It was calm and controlled and it gave me the last push I needed.
I rose on quivering legs. In three steps, I was racing forward.
I jumped off the ground and kicked against the tree, propelling my body into the air, above the soldiers.
I swerved through the air and pulled on my bow string.
One last arrow.
One last shot.
One last chance.
Please.
The arrow hissed as I arched through the air.
The last thing I saw was its tip sinking into the ice before I slammed against a tree.
My body tumbled to the ground in a lumpy heap along with a pile of the snow I’d disturbed from its branches.
The air blasted from my lungs in a wheeze as I hit the ground.
A crack in my ribcage was all I heard through the ringing in my ear.
Pain erupted in my chest, intensified by each gasp.
My power seized.
The spell broke.
The rush of energy still cradled me in its warmth, taking the brunt of it.
I felt myself being yanked back to my feet, vision blurred and burning body limp.
“Move!” Dax yelled.
He threw my arm over his shoulder, hauling me away.
My head flopped against my shoulder enough for me to look back, over the surge of soldiers.
The ice trembled, but it clung stubbornly to the ground, its glare harsher, as if scolding me for even daring to believe.
“Please,” I whispered. “Help us.”
A deadly hush fell over the forest.
I could no longer hear the wind, the soldiers, my own heart trying to beat out of my chest.
Instead, a low murmur erupted underneath my feet.
The ice’s glare suddenly shined purple.
In the next breath, half of the wall ripped from the wall with an otherworldly, ancient roar.
Its great mass cascaded toward the bottom.
It thundered down and smashed so hard into the crater, it threw Dax and I to the bloodied ground.
Most of the Northern soldiers lost their balance, too.
They barely had time to get their bearings before the ice turned into an unforgiving wave that swallowed everything in its wake.
Trees.
Rocks.
Soldiers.
But it was too fast.
Too ravenous.
It buried our rivals–but it was coming straight for us.
This time, I picked Dax up, helped by that same strange energy that refused to let me faint.
“RUN!”