Chapter 28
Isla
Sebastian is swaying. He looks like he might fall at any moment, and the scream that tears from me is raw and desperate. My voice is swallowed whole by the roar of the battle around me.
Snow stands with her arms open and her head tilted back, drinking him in. His shadows flow into her, dark ribbons pulled from his body and absorbed beneath her skin. A golden light starts to bleed from him as well; it’s faint but unmistakable.
I’m sure it is his life force.
He drops to one knee.
I choke in horror as he sags. His hands drop to the churned earth, and his head bows. He looks like a man praying, only none of the gods are coming to save him.
I have to do something soon, or she will kill him. She will drain every last drop of magic and life from his body, and she will win. Everything we fought for, everything we bled for, will be gone.
My magic is nothing compared to his. I know that, but Sebastian did say that I was powerful.
That I’m more powerful than I think.
I have to try.
Right now, I don’t have a single thing to lose. I swing my leg over the thornback’s spine and jump, using my magic to help me land more softly.
Thankfully, it’s not so cold that my firefae magic won’t work. I just have to be sure to stay away from the queen because all around her is ice, snow, and frost.
I start running for open ground.
Bodies litter the field. I leap over a fallen soldier, dodge the swipe of a blade that wasn’t aimed at me, and keep going.
“Isla!”
The voice comes from behind me, and every hair on my body stands on end. I come to a halt, the hair on my body standing on end.
No!
It can’t be.
I know that voice. Even though I haven’t heard it in many summers, it’s as if it were yesterday.
I turn, my mouth falling open in a gape.
A woman rides hard toward me on a big black steed. She wears shadowfae war gear of dark leather and blackened steel. On her breastplate is an insignia of someone of a high rank. The red plume on her helm is further proof of it.
Although my mother spoke to me of ranks and hierarchy within the shadowfae, I never really took much notice. Perhaps I should have. I know there are generals and rulers of the generals. She’s high up there, maybe at the highest rank.
Her dark hair streams behind her; it’s shorter than I remember. But I would know her face anywhere. In any crowd, in any court, in any lifetime.
It’s my mother.
“Noooo,” I breathe out in a soft whisper.
Because it can’t be. My mother died. She was dragged away by the villagers to be stoned.
I never saw her die. My father and I fled that very day. We assumed…we grieved… We never saw her again.
I force myself to focus…to think. I’m reeling.
I pull in a deep breath.
My mother is flanked by dozens of shadowfae guards, also on horseback, their shadows coiling around them in a protective veil.
I shake my head, still shocked, while the battle rages around me. I start to turn back towards Sebastian.
“Don’t do it!” she shouts, pulling hard on the reins.
Her steed’s front legs lift off the ground before slamming back down into the mud.
She is close enough now that I can see the command in her eyes.
This is not the gentle mother who braided my hair and told me bedtime stories about shifterfae. This is a woman who leads armies.
“Come to me!” she shouts as she turns to the guards flanking her.
“Do not harm her,” she orders, and the guards spread wider, adjusting their formation.
Magic swirls around their hands, defensive wards going up around the group.
My mother carries no magic of her own. She never did because she is of mixed fae blood.
Pure hybrid fae never have magic. My blood is mixed with that of a human, and it makes me special.
It’s made me powerful even though, in this moment, I feel as weak as a newborn.
“Isla!” she screams, kicking her horse forward once more.
A loud screech from above yanks me back. A dragon wheels overhead, fire dripping from its jaws as it banks away from an icefae assault. The sound is piercing, cutting through the fog in my head.
I need to save Sebastian before it’s too late. I whip around toward where I last saw him.
He’s on both knees now, his hands flat in the mud, his head hanging. The golden glow coming off him is brighter.
He is going to die right here in this mud, and I am just standing here doing nothing.
“Isla! No! You’ll die. Please.” My mother’s voice is closer. I look back and see her face twisted with terror. She kicks the steed harder, closing the gap between us at speed.
I turn, and I run.
Not toward my mother.
Toward him.
I hear her screaming my name behind me. The sound tears at something deep in my chest, but I don’t slow down. I can’t.
I dig deep, and I grab hold of my magic, and I let it loose on Snow. I just need to cause enough of a disruption that she lets him go. That’s all. It might be like a fly battering against a giant, but I have to try.
Fire erupts from my palms. Shadow twists between the flames, dark and hot and furious. I throw everything I have at Snow, expecting her to turn on me. Expecting to feel that terrible pull the way Sebastian described. To feel her hooks sink in and start to drain me dry as well.
The blast hits Snow square in the chest. She staggers back two steps; her gown billowing from the impact. For one glorious heartbeat, her hold on Sebastian wavers. The ribbons of shadow and gold streaming from his body flicker and thin.
But she doesn’t let go. She grits her teeth and holds on, one hand extended toward Sebastian even as she rights herself.
I push harder and throw more. Fire and shadow tangled together.
This time, Snow stumbles. The blast catches her in the shoulder and spins her halfway around. Her hand drops from Sebastian’s direction, and the flow of his life force sputters and stops.
Yes!
She releases him.
Sebastian lies on his side in the mud, unmoving. I don’t even see his chest rise. I see nothing.
Please be alive. Please.
Snow turns to me. Her gown is scorched along one side. Her dark hair is wild, and her blue eyes burn with a fury that makes goosebumps rise on my flesh.
“You dare attack me.” Her voice carries across the battlefield.
For a second, I falter. Who wouldn’t? She’s terrifying. A queen with the magic of a whole realm behind her, and me a half-breed nothing.
Snow throws a blast of concentrated power that is icy cold and blinding. It moves faster than thought.
I throw my hands up. My composure returns in a rush of adrenaline, and I meet her magic with my own.
Fire collides with ice, and the impact throws both of us backward.
There is a loud sizzle, and clouds of steam rise where our forces met.
I slide in the mud but keep my feet. I throw another volley at her, then another, fire and shadow. Everything I can muster.
Snow backs away. One step, then two. The scorched side of her gown is smoking. Her face twists into something terrible. She lets out a howl of pure unhinged rage.
She raises both hands above her head.
I don’t give her the chance. I throw fire at her left hand and shadow at her right. The hits land and she flinches, lowering her arms to deflect.
I keep going. I push and push and push.
To my shock, she starts retreating. The queen of the realm is backing away from me.
“Kill the half-breed!” she screams, her voice carrying over the chaos of battle like a war horn. “I want her head! Bring me her head, and I will reward you beyond your wildest imaginations. Icefae! Shadowfae! Kill her now!”
My mother screams somewhere behind me. The sound is so anguished that it carves straight through my ribs.
I can’t turn around. I can’t take my eyes off Snow for a second.
Around me, I feel the shift. Heads turn, eyes find me. A whole squadron of them.
The queen might be battered, but she is nowhere near defeated. My well is emptying fast. I can’t keep them all at bay.
If I turn to fight them, Snow will destroy me. If I keep facing Snow, they will cut me down from behind.
There is no way out of this.
I am well and truly doomed.