Chapter 59
Chapter Fifty-Nine
EMORY
“ W ell, this is certainly not what I expected,” a voice said from above. One I faintly recognized but couldn’t quite place in my mind-muddled state.
A blast of wintry wind swirled around me, and the cold jolted me from my stupor. I shot to my feet, already seeing Driscoll, Maverick, Annalee chained to trees nearby. I tried to lift my hand and realized I was chained to a tree as well, and so was the white wolf. Except his head was slumped over, his chest not moving.
“Aron,” Driscoll pleaded. “Please wake up!”
Oh, not Aron.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll be waking.”
My gaze snapped to the voice, and I stiffened. The queen of the frost court stood before me, wearing a gold gown with thick long sleeves, embroidered with flowers and vines. A white cloak was draped over her shoulders. And in her hand, she held... an axe.
One that shimmered with blue dust. I tilted my head. I’d seen that axe in drawings. In ancient texts. Spirit Frost’s axe.
My mouth dropped open. “How do you have that? How did you find us?” I shot a glance at Maverick, who shoved against the iron chains wrapped around his chest.
“You’re asking all the wrong questions, White Rabbit.” She used an inflection on my name like it was an inquiry.
“How did you find out?”
She twirled a finger in the air. “Your little chest of trinkets that you left in Mr. Von Lucas’s office. That and quite a few of your servants coming forward detailing your strange outings.”
She tsked. “Thank you for delivering her, Maverick,” she said to my husband.
His jaw went slack and his wild eyes found me. “No, no, I would never betray you, Emory. I swear, I was going to tell you, but then so much was happening, and?—”
I shook my head. “Maverick, it’s okay. I trust you. I know you wouldn’t betray me like that.” I turned my glare on the frost queen as she sent an amused look Maverick’s way.
“You and the white rabbit? Really? And you had so much potential.”
“She’s my wife,” he growled. “And if you so much as lay a hand on her...”
“You know you’re going to prison for this,” the frost queen said with a bored sigh. “For harboring a criminal. Marrying one. My goodness.” The queen put a frail hand to her chest. “I don’t even know if we have a punishment for such a thing.” She shot him a smile. “But we’ll come up with one.”
She heaved the axe into the snowy ground. “Or maybe I should reward you for delivering the white rabbit and the white wolf to me. Both have been a thorn in my side.” She tapped her chin. “No, actually, I think I’m going to have to kill you all because of the secrets you’ve discovered. We can’t have any of them getting out.”
“Secrets?” I echoed.
The wind whistled an eerie tune.
She leaned forward, a conspiratorial gleam in her hard blue eyes. “It’s been difficult keeping them to myself all these years. Achieving such greatness when I had absolutely no chance of inheriting the throne prior to the Shadow War. Not when I was the king’s lowly sister. ”
“What did you do?” Maverick asked.
Annalee and Driscoll watched with matching expressions of horror on their faces.
“Not much, really.” A gust of wind lifted her white cloak. “It was very unfortunate that the king and queen of the frost court were killed fighting in the war. I wasn’t next in line, of course. No, that would’ve been the king’s younger brother.” She tsked. “Then he died in an unfortunate accident. Poison,” she whispered with a conspiratorial wink. “Truly tragic. Then his wife died, trampled by my unruly horse, then his daughter, and well, that left only one more obstacle before I could take over.”
She lifted the axe and pointed it directly at the white wolf. All of our gazes turned to his lifeless form.
“Aronark. He was the youngest brother of the king. Next in line for the throne, but he was off fighting in the Shadow War. I’d hoped the war would kill him, but I heard reports that he lived. I felt hopeless after all my hard work killing everyone else off. I wasn’t sure what I could do until I found this axe. Hidden in the depths of the frost castle itself, which I was exploring one day, hoping to get some answers to my problem. Embedded in a block of ice that only a wielder of royal frost blood could break. I fit that description, so I took it.”
My blood ran cold. “And what did you do with the axe?”
“You just came from it.” A cruel smile spread across her face as she pointed behind us, where the wall between the star and frost court had been blasted apart by the white wolf, a gaping hole in it. “I brought the axe to the border between the frost court and the star court, and I knew that I could solve everyone’s problems while also solving my own. I could create a border that trapped all that wreckage and horror left from the Shadow War, while also trapping the one person who still stood between me and the crown.”
“A prince?” Driscoll echoed, gaze bouncing between the frost queen and the white wolf. “Aron is a prince?”
Maverick and I locked gazes, my mind reeling.
“Why didn’t you just kill him with the axe?” Driscoll asked.
“That would’ve meant I had to actually find him. It would’ve taken time. It would’ve meant entering the destroyed star court.” The frost queen put a hand to her chest. “I think not. Not when the solution was so much simpler.”
Maverick’s jaw locked. “So you used the magic of the axe to create a border, then what? How did you explain that to the other rulers?”
“I told them I took care of it for them. Gained me so much favor with those idiots. They practically fell at my feet in gratitude, and all of them approved my ascension to the throne.” She raised her chin. “They didn’t ask any questions. Why would they?”
She was right. Everything got swept under the rug. That was what they did. What we all spent years doing. Spirits below.
“I didn’t anticipate the magic of the axe being so strong. I swung that axe straight into the ground, right where I wanted it to break apart and create a chasm, one so far and wide, so deep, nothing would be able to cross it. It was meant to spread all the way around the star court. That’s what I told the magic to do.” Her eyes grew distant. “Then I saw the most wondrous thing unfold. The axe didn’t just create a border. It created an entire new world right before my eyes. It transformed all the carnage, turned survivors into creatures I’d never seen before. Trees shrank; they grew eyes. Flowers shot up into the sky. Plants grew mouths. And instead of a chasm, an actual border grew from the ground. Taller and taller until I could no longer see anything at all.” She shrugged. “Truth be told, I figured either that magic would kill everyone or they would kill each other.” She pointed a finger at the white wolf. “Imagine my surprise when sixty years later, he appeared. In a village near the Glacier Mountains. A huntsman saw the wolf shift to a man, a man that looked suspiciously like Prince Aronark, before changing back to his wolf form. The huntsman came straight to me, thank the spirits.”
So Aron had shifted while he was in Fyriad. It must’ve been so quick that he didn’t remember.
“That’s why you wanted me to hunt him.” Maverick’s eyes widened.
“You’re simply the best when it comes to finding unfindable things.” She tipped her head. “Except for her. But I wouldn’t work with the white rabbit.” She pointed at Maverick. “You I could control.” She shook her head in my direction. “Her? She was too unpredictable. Too good at finding objects meant to stay buried. Unearthing secrets that I was afraid she’d start sharing. I keep a tight rein on the academy for a reason. I can control the narrative.”
“All of this for power?” I asked, voice shaking.
“Well, now you know.” She tapped her chin. “Though I do wonder what would happen if I used the axe again?” She smacked her lips. “The white wolf destroyed this part of the border, and that won’t do.”
“But you don’t know the consequences,” I said. “Look at what using the axe did the first time. All you meant to do was create a chasm, but the magic did so much more. It had lasting consequences.”
The queen didn’t seem remotely bothered by my words. “Sounds like a little adventure, hm? What’ll the magic do this time? As long as I keep my crown, I don’t give a damn.”
“You’re, like, really old,” Driscoll said, and the queen shot him a scathing look. “Regal but old. I’m just saying, maybe your time would be better spent knitting or, you know, dying...” He mumbled the last word.
“Driscoll,” I hissed.
“She hurt Aron,” he snapped, voice hard in a way I’d never heard from him.
Hopefully all she’d done was hurt Aron. I chanced a glance at the white wolf, still not moving. He should’ve moved by now. Something. Anything.
The queen shoved the axe in my direction, and Maverick struggled against the iron chaining him to a tree. “Don’t hurt her, Your Majesty. We can figure this out.”
She waved her hand. “I had hope for you. But you’re too far gone, Bone Collector.”
His eyes widened at that.
She scoffed. “I figured it out recently. Thought maybe you were moonlighting as him to catch the white rabbit. Clever, really. Except you never caught her, did you?”
Annalee whimpered from beside her brother.
“Enough talking,” the frost queen said. “Time to see what the axe will do.” She raised it high, ready to cleave it down into the earth when a buzzing sound hit the air.
The queen stiffened, axe hovering above her head. “What is that? ”
Before any of us could answer, the blood beetles raced through the opened border, past us, and swarmed the frost queen. She screamed over the sounds of flesh tearing, blood squelching, and bones crunching. The axe dropped to the ground with a resounding thud, a crackle of blue light and shimmers spreading from its sharpened edge.
“We have to get the axe before the magic spreads!” I yelled. “Iron. We need iron to stop it.”
Did iron even stop divine magic? I had no idea. Also, we were all still chained to trees. The beetles continued to eat the queen as her screams filled the air. I looked away, unable to watch, until the squelching sounds finally died down and the beetles lifted in the air. Bile rose in my throat at the sight they left behind: the frost queen’s dress was torn to shreds, nothing but organs, bones, and blood painting the ground.
The axe’s magic sizzled in a zigzag line, icy blue with shimmering blue dust flying up in the air in big swaths. The ground cracked in two, a thunderous fissure splitting the air between us so that I was on one side with the white wolf and the axe, while Annalee, Maverick, and Driscoll were on the other side, all of us getting farther and farther apart as the chasm in the ground grew.
“What do we do?” I screamed over the noise.
By now, the beetles had lowered to the ground, feasting on the bloody remains of the frost queen. My stomach twisted as I struggled against the chains, watching the magic continuing on its war path toward the Wilds, the blue light continuing to cleave the ground in half. I had no idea what the frost queen had intended with this magic, what she instructed it to do. Maybe this time it wouldn’t just be the star court that got destroyed. Maybe the magic wouldn’t stop until the entire world was broken in half by it, everything in its path destroyed.
“Annalee!’ I screamed as loud as I could over the sound of the earth cracking between us. “The beetles! Can you get the beetles to eat through my chains?”
Her eyes widened, but she must’ve been able to read my lips because she nodded, a fierce determination settling in her drawn brows and raised chin.
She clucked her tongue, and the beetles stopped their feasting as they turned and saw her. She mouthed something. Maybe she was speaking, but I couldn’t hear her over the crunching and splitting and roaring. Whatever she said, the beetles must’ve heard, because they flew straight toward me.
Maverick shouted over the hum of their buzzing, probably telling Annalee to call them off, and I prayed to Spirit Frost that the beetles didn’t devour me like they had the queen. I just needed to get loose and get to that axe and somehow undo whatever the frost queen had done. Clearly this magic was beyond powerful, beyond unpredictable. None of us had the capacity to wield it.
The beetles surrounded me, and now all I could see were their blue and black bodies, feel their sticky small feet on me, the flutter of their paper-thin wings against my skin. Oh, this was a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad. I faintly heard a crunching sound, but the world was literally busting open, so I couldn’t be sure where it was coming from.
All of a sudden, the beetles flew backward, and the chains fell from my chest. I stared in disbelief. They’d done it. They’d listened to Annalee and freed me. The swarm returned to their feast.
I didn’t waste any time, grabbing a piece of the iron chain and running with it toward the axe. I reached out to lift the axe from the ground, but blue dust swirled up and formed a mighty jaw that snapped at me.
I jumped back, and the blue dust dropped to the axe. The magic continued on its warpath behind me, sawing the ground in half. So many innocent creatures would die if we didn’t stop this soon. The entire star court would be beyond saving.
The white wolf stirred, and my heart skipped a beat. I ran to him, snow kicking up behind me. I didn’t know what my plan was, but maybe the wolf could help in some way.
I grabbed a fistful of his fur, falling to my knees, and the wolf reacted immediately, red eyes snapping open, canines bared, a low growl rumbling from his throat. He gnashed his teeth at me, but I didn’t back away. The wolf looked down as if just realizing he was chained to a tree. He growled again, this time, shoving forward. The iron blasted into pieces that flew in every direction as the white wolf freed himself. I ducked to avoid getting hit, shielding my face.
“Run! ”
I didn’t know who yelled it, but I was guessing it was my husband.
“Run!” the voice boomed again.
I looked across what was now a canyon at Driscoll, still chained to the tree. He gave a firm nod, and I nodded back.
“Listen, Aron,” I said, turning and staring the wolf in its red eyes. “I know you’re in there somewhere, and I know you can come back to us because we need you right now. I think you might be the only one who can pick up that axe and stop this.”
He’d been immune to all our magic. Immune to that wall. Maybe he was immune to this magic as well.
The wolf growled again, backing me toward the edge of the canyon. I fell onto my butt, looking up at him as saliva dripped down onto my cheek.
“I know what it’s like to feel trapped,” I said, voice trembling. “I know what it’s like to feel like there’s no way out. But when I was at my lowest, you know what I did? I persisted. I couldn’t leave my marriage. Just like you can’t leave the wolf behind. But I could still be me. I could still carve out the life I wanted for myself, even if it wasn’t what I imagined. And by doing that, it led to me being fully free.”
The wolf’s red eyes flashed, and he lowered his head, mouth inches from my neck. His warm breath puffed onto my face.
“Emory!” Maverick screamed.
“Driscoll believes in you,” I said, ignoring Maverick. “And that’s good enough for me.”
The white wolf’s eyes dimmed. My heart hammered as the magic continued to split the ground far ahead. Something had to happen, and soon.
The white wolf blinked, and when his eyelids lifted, his eyes had changed... to blue.
Relief flooded me, and I collapsed onto the edge of the cliff while Driscoll, Annalee, and Maverick cheered from the other side. I dug my hands into the snow, trying to ground myself, to remind myself that this fight was far from over. We still had to stop the damage this weapon could do. I glanced behind me at the canyon, wondering how far the magic would stretch. Right now I could still see the land cracking and splitting in the distance, trees, mushrooms, entire hills disappearing in its wake.
“Emory?” a voice asked.
My head snapped forward, the white wolf gone and Aron standing over me, completely naked.
“The axe!” I pointed to it. “Can you grab it? Can you tell it stop or... something?”
It sounded so stupid when I said it out loud, but Aron turned his head, a slight frown to his lips. He marched over to the axe and pulled it from the ground. The blue dust didn’t fight him, didn’t attack. Instead it swirled around Aron like it was part of him.
He stared at the axe, then looked at the canyon separating us from the others, down to the splitting land far ahead. His gaze moved to the chain I held, the iron chain, and he ran to me, grabbing it from my hand and wrapping it around the axe with swift, tight loops.
The rumbling came to a stop, and the ground quit shaking beneath me. In the distance, the land gave a final quake, then stilled. The magic had been stopped. Everything had stopped. But the damage was done, and Bellamy had an equally dangerous weapon that she was taking to the shadow court.
We’d stopped the threat for now. But I feared at this point it no longer mattered.