Chapter 53
Draven
Everly went to her knees.
For a heartbeat, I thought she’d fallen victim to a monster or the grief that rolled off of her in waves. But there was neither pain nor desolation as she placed her hands against the frozen earth, only unrelenting determination.
Then the ground answered her.
Power slammed outward from her hands in a force I felt in my bones before I understood it with my mind. The air buckled. Snow lifted in a widening ring, every flake suspended for a fraction of a second before being hurled away in a shockwave that tore across the battlefield.
Everly! I shouted, already moving.
The ground convulsed beneath our feet. Not cracking in panic, or splintering the way it did under monsters or war. Instead, it shifted, like a living thing stretching after a long confinement.
She had found the ley lines, and she was feeding them...
I felt it instantly. Recognized the same thrum of energy through our bond that I’d felt the very first time I’d tapped into them, too.
Only this time, they weren’t crying out. Instead, it was like they were sighing in relief.
The answering surge rolled through the land and up into my own mana, a deep, resonant pull that stitched through my lungs.
The battlefield froze. Fae on all sides stared at her, wide-eyed, weapons slack in their hands, mana fizzling out at their fists, as they registered the scale of what she was doing.
Everly let out a cry, her expression twisting as she poured even more into the earth. Shadows poured from her wings in thick, sinuous ribbons, threading through the blood-soaked snow and sinking into the ground alongside her frost.
The land drank more power than any one person should have. That was why fate had chosen her, the only Winter fae born in a millennium with the power of the Dragon.
The fissures that had split open for the advancing Korythids sealed again with crushing finality. Frozen stones and dirt folded in on itself. Ice and earth collided like closing jaws, pulverizing the frostbeasts mid-emergence.
The smaller ones shrieked as shadows wrapped around them and dragged them under, leaving the Seelie and Unseelie untouched as if the land itself knew the difference. Because it recognized them both.
Everly swayed.
No. The word ripped through our bond, fear slicing through my chest. No, no—Morta Mea, stop.
She didn’t hear me.
Her shoulders trembled as she pushed more of herself into the ground, her breaths coming in shallow, ragged pulls. Frost crept up her arms, veins glowing faintly beneath her skin as her mana burned through her faster than any mortal body was meant to endure.
“She’s given enough!” I roared, more to the world than anyone else.
The land did not agree.
It surged again in response, shadows snapping across the field in massive arcs that swallowed monsters whole. Screams tore through the air—high, keening sounds that set my teeth on edge.
I slammed into Everly from the side, wrapping her in my arms and severing the connection with brute force and will, pouring my own mana between her and the earth to break the circuit before it consumed her entirely.
Enough, I won’t lose you, too.
She gasped, blinking like she had surfaced from deep water, her body going slack against mine as the ground finally stilled.
For a breathless moment, there was nothing but the sound of screaming.
Then I realized the pitch had changed.
The monsters were fleeing.
Light broke over the horizon in a spill of pale gold, dawn cresting the mountains at last. I stared at it in stunned disbelief as many of the lesser monsters, the Brakhounds, the Wraiths, and the Tharnoks, scattered.
As they awoke from whatever spell was holding them fast before retreating toward the treeline and the shadows they had crawled from.
It wasn’t enough to save us from the remaining Korythids, but it was something… A beginning.
I lowered my forehead to Everly’s, my breath shaking as relief crashed through my chest so hard it hurt.
You terrify me. Even through the bond, my voice was hoarse. Do you know that?
The corner of her lips twitched like it had been a compliment.
You are the bravest thing I have ever known, I continued, and her expression faltered. And I am so sorry that bravery cost you so much.
Her breath hitched, the weight of her grief echoing through her once more.
The land itself answered you. Not because you demanded it, but because you belong to it. Because you belong to Winter. To me. Because you are what was missing.
I pressed my lips to her forehead.
You really are the other half of my soul, Morta Mea. I told her. My life. And My Death.
Maybe fate had chosen her for my bride because she was the match to my power, but my soul had chosen her for a mate because she was mine. Intrinsically, everything I had needed in my life.
She searched my gaze for the span of several heartbeats while I waited for her to make some joke, some quip about my words, or the rare bit of sincerity I was offering her.
But instead, her fingers snaked into my hair as she pulled herself up in my lap to brush her lips along mine.
I kissed her back. Deep. Unrestrained. A promise forged in our blood and frost and shadow.
When she was steady enough to stand, I turned us back toward the battlefield.
There was still fighting to be done, still frostbeasts to slay.
But for the first time in longer than I could remember, I felt something unfamiliar rise in my chest as the monsters fell and the sun climbed higher.
Hope.