Chapter 51
Everly
The ground wouldn’t stop screaming.
More Korythids burst free of the earth in heaving waves, their massive bodies tearing through stone and ice as chitin-plated legs unfolded and hooked into the snow.
Skeletal tails scythed down in brutal arcs, shattering shields and bodies alike. Snow erupted in geysers of ice and blood as they slammed into the line, hooked limbs punching through armor and mana, dragging screaming fae beneath them.
The armies didn’t hesitate now. Whatever they felt about one another, there was no doubting who the monsters were now.
They shot into action, Winter and Unseelie alike, mana and weapons flashing through the night.
Draven’s wolves joined the fray—all but Lumen, who I hoped was getting Wynnie somewhere safe.
The sounds of wings tearing from flesh, of bones crunching beneath teeth, of screams ending in wet, choked sobs rent the air. And then they echoed again and again courtesy of the Wretches.
Mana poured from my body on instinct.
Tendrils of shadow snaked beneath chitin armor and around sinewy throats. Ice rose and fell in jagged lines, as a shield or javelin, weapon or protection, whatever I needed it to be.
Something moved in the corner of my vision, sneaking through the shadows in an all too familiar way. I darted a glance over my shoulder just in time to watch a tree ripple and wrench itself free from the ground.
A Mirrorbane. Its roots lashed out like whips, striking at the air, at other monsters and fae, at anything it could reach. Pain exploded behind my eyes as one root struck my side, and another snaked around my ankle.
The monster gave a violent tug, wrenching me from the air and slamming me down into the frozen ground below.
Batty hissed, her body trembling as she soared toward the frostbeast. I tried to call her back, to stop her before the Mirrorbane could—
The thought cut off as I watched lightning burst free from her tiny body, striking the trunk of the Mirrorbane. It convulsed, its grip loosening just enough for me to slip free.
When I climbed to my feet, Draven was already there, standing between me and the monster. Batty flitted away just as Draven’s ice tore through the frostbeast. It raced along the trunk, leaves, roots, and branches.
Shades of blue and white glowed brightly between the lines in the bark as they split even wider, crystallizing the frostbeast before shattering it completely with a flick of his wrist.
He turned back to me immediately, scanning me from head to toe, his hands already glowing with pale blue light as they hovered just short of touching.
Are you hurt?
I’m fine, I told him, even as my pulse roared in my ears.
His jaw clenched, fury radiating off him in cold, lethal waves. But Draven didn’t argue. He hauled me to my feet and launched himself toward the next monster racing forward.
From that moment on, he didn’t fight to hold the line, or to defend his people. He hunted. Punished.
The frigid wind whipped around us, ice swirling in maelstroms that refracted the light of the auroras across the blood-soaked snow.
Any monster that even angled toward me drew his full attention.
Ice rose in violent spikes, impaling, crushing, and tearing creatures apart with ruthless precision.
He icewalked across shattered ground and fallen bodies, intercepting threats before I could fully register them, his power flaring brighter and colder every time one dared come too close.
And I could see it so clearly. How he really was the Frostgrave King. The monster that others should fear. And he was mine. All mine.
I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want to spill any more blood. But I would do whatever it took to give him a world where he could be something else for a change.
Where he didn’t have to live a half-life waiting for the axe to fall, or for the moment where he needed to be the executioner and nothing more. I would fight at his side to give him a world that held so much more for him.
Draven and I moved together like we had been designed for this very thing. Like we were two sides of the same blade, our mana morphing and syncing together in perfect harmony, anticipating the other’s moves and responding accordingly.
I drove my shadows into the ground, binding a cluster of Wretches and Brakhounds in place as they snapped and thrashed. A heartbeat later, his ice collapsed over them, jagged frost slamming down with lethal precision.
Not willing to be the third wheel, Batty streaked through the aftermath in a blur of white, shrieking as she dove, her venom-laced bite finding exposed flesh and eyes.
Her tiny form hovered in the air for the span of a heartbeat before she released a concentrated surge of mana that crackled like blue lightning. Frost-laced energy tore through the bound bodies of the monsters, several of them convulsing before stilling completely.
Well, hells. Draven’s thought echoed through my mind as Batty dove for a Tharnok next.
Remind me to actively work toward getting on her good side, he added a moment later.
That’s between you and the ‘flying rodent’, as you have so eloquently described her—
Any amusement I might have briefly felt died as soon as I glanced up at the charging Gorenvyr.
The massive frostbeast tore through the battlefield like a living avalanche. Its long, ice-matted hair whipped around its muscled hide as it lowered its horned head and barreled straight for us. Draven turned to meet it, glaciers erupting in its path to slow it down.
The monster crashed through them all, barely breaking its stride. I twisted shadows around its hooved legs, fusing each of them with frost. The Gorenvyr barely noticed the manacles, slowing but not stopping it.
Then the sky screamed.
Several Frostdrakes barreled toward us, undoubtedly drawn by our combined mana. They swooped low, gray wings cleaving the air, forcing us to split our focus more than it already was.
One passed too close, its talons raking Draven’s shoulder before he shattered the air around it with a blast of ice, the monster screaming as wind and hailstones tore through the wings and bone like Winter shrapnel.
The Frostdrake crashed to the ground in time to be trampled by the raging Gorenvyr.
Another lunged for me, jaws gaping wide. Batty darted between us in a shriek of frost and light, striking once before releasing a crackling surge of mana that pulsated through the monster’s skull. Ice bloomed along its veins as it spiraled away.
But the near misses kept on piling up. Too many. Too fast. As we fought battles from every direction.
The ground heaved as the Gorenvyr reared back, its massive head lifting as its throat convulsed. I felt the danger a heartbeat too late.
Draven—
Acid sprayed across the battlefield in a violent arc.
The air filled with the sharp, burning stench of it as it struck stone and flesh alike, eating through armor, hissing where it splashed across skin.
A Winter soldier screamed as it caught his leg, the sound cutting off abruptly as Draven dragged him clear and froze the wound solid.
My vision tunneled.
The hiss. The smell. The way skin blistered and sloughed away beneath it.
For the briefest moment, I saw my father’s face, imagined the injuries Amias had covered over with that thin white sheet in the infirmary.
My mouth filled with bile and the taste of copper, my shadows flickering wildly as my imagination ran wild.
Would that be how Draven died? Wynnie?
My stomach lurched as shadows and ice tore free from me in equal measure.
The Gorenvyr charged once again, its snout spraying streams of acid as it went, like it was answering the challenge my mana had issued.
I forced myself to move, to breathe evenly.
With each thundering beat of my pulse, I hurled my shadows toward the Elderborne, locking them around its horns and tugging backward as hard as I could. The Gorenvyr roared in anger, its pace finally slowing just enough to allow Draven and a Shadeclaw warrior to lead a more direct assault.
But then a Frostdrake swooped next to me, sending bright bursts of frostfire searing past my face, forcing me to twist aside. I lost my grip on my shadows, and the monster tore free once again.
But Draven was already there, stepping seamlessly into the space I had just occupied.
He drove wall after wall of ice into the Gorenvyr’s path to allow the Shadeclaw time to get away. The Gorenvyr’s acid struck at the barriers and burned straight through them, steam and rot exploding into the air.
Then the sky bent with fractured light. My mother cut through the chaos like a falling star.
Gravity warped around her as she surged forward, the air buckling under the force of it. A Frostdrake diving for her was yanked violently off course, crushed inwardly by an invisible pull before it shattered in a burst of light and blood.
Another followed, caught mid-swoop and flung hard into the flank of the Gorenvyr.
Radiance flared around my mother like a beacon. She called on every ounce of her mana, striking at the Frostdrakes again and again, pulling all of their attention back to the skies. Toward her.
And as scared as I was for her, I was also grateful that she was buying us time. Luring some of the monsters away so we had a chance of defeating the raging Elderborne.
As she flew, she expended her mana, lighting up the sky every few breaths to keep the attention of the Frostdrakes on her.
My thoughts scattered, torn in too many directions at once. Toward my mother racing across the sky with monsters on her heels. Toward my sister somewhere below in the chaos. Toward Nevara and Soren holding the gates through sheer force of will.
Toward Draven fighting beside me with everything he had left.
Toward Batty and the wolves and every other life bound to this night in ways I couldn’t untangle.
We were all playing our parts. All of us stretched thin, holding together pieces of a world determined to come apart in our hands.
And what other choice was there if we wanted to survive?
The Gorenvyr roared, shaking the ground as it tore free of my shadows, acid spraying wildly as it thrashed. Draven didn’t hesitate. He slammed both hands into the earth, his mana answering in a violent surge as ice erupted beneath the beast, locking its legs in place long enough for me to act.
I drove my shadows in deep. Past hide and past bone—threading them through its massive body, binding each joint, choking each movement, as I dragged its weight inward.
Another roar rent the air, the force of it sending soldiers and monsters toppling over.
Batty shrieked and dove, releasing a crackling burst of frost-laced mana straight into the Elderborne’s eyes. Ice cracked as it coated the beast’s pupils. The Gorenvyr staggered, blinded and raging.
Now, Draven growled.
I gave him everything I had left.
I wrenched the shadows tight, collapsing them inward as Draven called Winter down in its purest, most merciless form. Ice surged from every direction at once. Spikes. Walls. Chains. All of them crushing, piercing, and freezing the Elderborne from the inside out.
Acid hissed and burned, but the cold swallowed every last drop, locking it in place until the Gorenvyr’s roar broke into a hollow, shuddering silence.
The beast collapsed with an ear-splitting crash.
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. We stood, panting out each breath as steam curled into the night air. And for the briefest moment, I had the nerve to feel something like relief.
But bright, blue light erupted across the sky over the mountains.
I glanced up just in time to see the smoke clear and to watch a shadow tumbling through the air. It was wrong. The shape of it. The speed at which it fell. It took me several moments to understand what I was seeing.
Then my stomach lurched.
My jaw went slack as the shadow continued to spiral—down and down and down—before it struck the mountain with a bone-shattering force.
The impact hit me like a physical blow.
Pain lanced through my chest, sharp enough to steal the air from my lungs, to knock my footing loose, to tear the fight from my hands for half a heartbeat too long.
No.
Flames surged again, brighter this time, along the far horizon.
Grief crashed through me, hot and disorienting, and the battlefield dulled at the edges. Time dragged, thick and wrong. Draven’s voice slammed into my mind, raw with panic—but I couldn’t answer him.
Not when I had just watched my mother fall from the sky.