20. Revi
Revi considered skirting the village. He wore his frostcat form so that he could crouch high up in a conifer and observe the ongoings, of which there were little. His people had all received messages to stay inside as much as possible until he had dealt with the threat. It made his hunting easier if there weren’t bystanders that he had to worry about protecting. It was easier to keep them safe from the enemies—and from himself.
He shook the thought away. He would not hurt his people, even in the bloodlust of battle. Still, it was easier if they were inside when he passed by on his patrol.
It also meant Revi didn’t have to speak to them. He would do anything to protect them, but he had never been the one for speaking. That was Enlo’s purview.
Something, though, made him pause at this village. Something tugged on his senses. Despite how far from the Winter Castle he was, the sun beat down. The land felt parched. Dried up. Life struggled here even more so than the other border villages he’d passed recently. That, perhaps, was something Revi could help with, even if he could only give them a brief respite.
He made his way down from the tree, putting one paw silently in front of the other until he touched earth. He slunk forward, little more than a shadow moving in the shade of the trees. He didn’t need to go into the village to do what he was going to do, but the closer he could get, the more it would help.
He stopped just on the edge of the forest and pressed his nose to the ground, letting his senses flood with the feel of the land here. The complete lack of magic. It was bereft, utterly devoid of any sense of Winter’s magic.
His lips pulled back in a silent snarl, familiar hatred burning up for the woman who had cursed his home, and for himself. Always for himself. His vision tinged red, but he pushed away the anger. It would not serve him in his task.
He reached deep in his well of magic; the cool touch of it was a relief from the oppressive summer heat, even if the sensation of coolness was internal. He funneled the cold up through him and breathed it out along the earth. One breath. Another. Another.
With considerable effort, he cut the magic off and sagged against the earth. He had given so much and yet... it had barely done anything to this place. He could have been imagining the small dip in the temperature of the air. It wouldn’t last. It wasn’t enough. His people needed more, but the simple fact was that there was no more. The magic of the Winter Court was melting away a little more each day.
When he felt less shaky, he rose to his feet. He had done what he could for this small village. He had to resume his hunt. He couldn’t return to the castle until he was certain the threat was resolved.
Not for the first time since he had left, his thoughts turned to Kienna. Of course she was fine while he was gone. He trusted Zoya to take care of her physical needs, and yet... He longed to see her, to be near her, so that he could be the one to help her if she needed anything.
The thought was ridiculous.
“My prince?” The voice that interrupted his thoughts was high and flutelike, like a small breeze on a winter morning.
He bristled and looked around. He had not heard anyone approach. That was an unforgivable mistake when he was supposed to be the hunter.
“It is you,” the voice said again. A small figure stepped out from behind a tree. A boy, Revi realized. He was thin, with grey-white skin the color of birch bark and a gauntness to his cheeks that had less to do with his Elyri nature and more to do with the difficulty of growing food in the current climate.
His eyes were wide as he took in Revi. He dipped in a quick bow.
“I thought I felt... a pulse,” he said, his voice hesitant and quivering. “A bit of heartbeat to the land. My ma said I was imagining it, but my senses have always been a bit more sensitive than others.”
Revi looked away. He couldn’t bear the fragile hope in this boy’s expression.
“I did what I could,” he said roughly. “It wasn’t enough.”
The boy’s bright smile said otherwise. “The air already feels much better than it did before. Thank you, my prince.”
“You shouldn’t be outside,” Revi growled. “I’m in the area because I am hunting.”
The boy paled slightly. “I’m sorry. I just wanted a glimpse of you.” His throat bobbed, and he raised a fist in a small burst of passion. “I know some people blame you for the curse, but Ma and I don’t. If I was older, I’d go and wreak havoc on the Summer Queen for what she did to you. She deserves it!”
Revi blinked. “As… much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, that would defy my direct order to take no vengeance on her.”
The boy flushed. “Right. Of course I wouldn’t defy your command, my prince.”
Giving that order had been difficult. He wanted nothing more than to rage against the Summer Queen, but he had no right to—he had wronged her when he’d claimed she’d broken their bargain with the few troops she’d sent.
He had broken the bargain, not she. He was the one to blame.
He couldn’t bear to admit that to this boy, though. He didn’t want to see that flame of admiration leave the boy’s eyes—even if he deserved the scorn that would follow.
Revi shifted, desperate for a different topic. “Do you... does your village need anything else? I can send some supplies back from the castle when I return.”
The question felt foolish. This boy was not the one to ask about that, and Revi’s steward was surely in contact with the villages, but he had to offer something. What he had done so far was too paltry. It didn’t measure up to the gleam of joy in this boy’s eyes, to the loyalty he espoused toward Revi.
The boy shook his head violently. “Oh, no, my prince. We’ve got plenty. Well, not plenty, but we can manage with what we have. Freezing some Winter back into the place was more than enough. I—”
Something brushed against Revi’s senses, and his hackles rose. He cut off the boy’s rambling. “Get inside. Now.”
The boy froze for half a second.
“Now,” Revi snarled.
The boy vanished without another word. Revi spared him one last glance before he turned in the direction of the threat. In a leap, he was back in the tree, bounding across branches. The farther he could get from the village, the better.
The forest could have been dead for how quiet it had gone. No birds sang, no wind even stirred the branches.
He breathed deeply, picking out individual scents as he neared his prey. There were at least half a dozen, smelling of sulfur and rotten vegetation. He withheld the growl that rose in his chest.
How had six zruyeds gotten so close to a village without anyone noticing? He’d been to the border before this. His men there had seen the breach, but they’d thought it was two. Not six.
The answer came unbidden. He was the one who should have noticed, but his magic was too weak to stretch that far. Revi pushed away the claws of guilt sinking into his heart. He shifted to one last tree, and the beasts came into view. They looked like bears, though their bodies were lanky and thin. Their fur hung off them in greasy strings and their claws were blade-sharp and twice as long as a normal bear’s. They prowled through the forest as if they were the hunters today. Revi bared his fangs. He would enjoy disabusing them of that notion. He dropped from the tree onto the back of one, claws extended in silent death.
The others were already moving toward him as he rose from the corpse of their fallen comrade. A base hunger flashed in all their eyes. They were little more than dumb beasts, but they were dumb beasts controlled by something else, and each of them harbored a savagery that would easily wipe out the more peaceful members of his Court.
Revi leaped forward. He didn’t use magic in this fight. He had learned long ago that doing so would only aid his enemy as they sucked it from him to strengthen their own bodies.
No, this was a fight of monsters. In these moments, he was only a beast, like them. Teeth and claws, speed and death. He gave himself over almost entirely to his bloodthirsty instincts. He fell into the familiar dance, tearing apart his prey, dodging their poisonous claws and fangs. One by one, he took them down.
Until, at last, the clearing was still. He stood among the carnage, body shaking, aching for something else to fight.
The threat was over. He wrestled himself under control, repeating those words to himself. Slowly, normal sounds filtered back into the forest around him. Birds chirping, the distant rustling of woodland creatures.
When he felt mostly back to himself, he looked around the small battlefield. He had torn through the six zruyeds; his own body was covered in the evidence. He took a step forward and winced at the twinge in his side. He looked back. With all the blood on him, it took a moment to pinpoint the source.
It seemed he had not successfully avoided every attack like he had hoped. He grimaced, resisting the instinct to yelp at the pain as he continued forward. He didn’t know if it was a bite or from the zruyeds’ claws. One would almost certainly get infected and the other would leak venom throughout his body.
Either way, he needed to return home as quickly as possible.