The Hunter
My ears were ringing. Pain and chills and a strange sense of frailty gripped my limbs, freezing me in place. I wanted to vomit and scream all at once, but I couldn’t move.
It felt as if a very piece of my soul was missing. As if I was on death’s door, my limbs as weak and feeble as an old man.
I’d given my magic to Eira. My magic was my very life force.
I was truly dying.
And yet I was still here. I had awakened briefly, catching sight of Eira’s tear-stained face as she looked up at me in desperation and relief. I could hear her screaming my name.
Darkness took me. As much as I wanted to be with her, that abyss pulled me under. Fading in and out, I caught echoes of Eira’s conversation with Calista. The false queen had said the mirror was bound to her very essence.
The words struck something familiar within me, something important… but I couldn’t grasp what it was.
The darkness claimed me again. For a moment, I thought I’d finally succumbed to death. But the rotting stench that stung my nostrils was horribly familiar. It brought me back to the surface again, my senses awakening. Dread coiled in my chest.
Demon Fae.
Calista had dropped her glamour.
Which meant Eira was fighting her. Alone.
Eira. Eira. She would die. Calista would kill her.
I had to move. Now.
Gritting my teeth, I shoved every ounce of strength into lifting my arm. Slowly, my body shifted, and a burst of pain shot through me, powerful enough to make me slump backward in defeat.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t.
Then, I heard her scream again. The sound pierced me, boiling my blood, setting my insides on fire. The agony of hearing her suffer was far worse than the agony of my failing body.
“Eira!” I bellowed.
And my arms moved. Then my legs. White-hot flames burned inside me, and I roared, raging against it, fighting my own body as I climbed to my feet. My very skin was melting off my bones. I was dying, dying, dying… Needles in my flesh, tearing and slicing. I could feel nothing and everything at once.
Eira cried out again, and a bolt of clarity entered my mind. I clung to it, and my feet shuffled forward. Through the haze of pain, I heard her voice.
“Theron!”
I was coming. She had to know I was coming for her.
With each step I took, sounds became clearer. Shouts. Screams. Some familiar, some not. I recognized Denton’s voice, and Stella’s. Which meant Eira’s friends were here.
I was torn between relief that she wasn’t alone, and dread that her allies would be slaughtered.
Move, I told myself. Just keep moving.
“No!” Eira shouted. Her voice was closer now.
I needed to see. How could I protect her if I couldn’t see?
Focus, I thought. Use your other senses. You’re a hunter. You can do this.
I closed my eyes, though it didn’t matter because it was pitch black. Still, the motion helped me activate my other senses, relying fully on them. Calista’s foul odor burned in my nose, but it was farther away now. I sensed Eira’s familiar frosty pine scent and focused on it, drawing closer to her.
A horrifying scream echoed in the room. This wasn’t like the other shouts and cries; this was the sound of someone dying.
A sickening crunch followed, then a loud, wet thud.
I flinched. And Eira’s voice broke on a sob.
Calista had just killed one of her friends.
Panic pulsed through me. I knew Eira was about to do something reckless. Something she would regret later.
On instinct, my arm shot out and clasped hers. She jumped, pounding a fist against my chest, and then froze.
“Theron?” she whispered.
“I’m here.”
She collapsed against my chest, clinging to my tunic and weeping openly. “I can’t—I can’t—she’s killing them, Theron.”
“Her thread,” I murmured. “Can you see Calista’s thread?”
“What? No! I can’t see anything!”
Shit. I wasn’t sure if the necromancy would work in the darkness.
Then, something else sparked in my mind. Something I’d forgotten.
“Where’s the mirror?”
“I have it,” Eira said. “It’s right here.”
“Give it to me, Eira.”
She stiffened. “What?”
“You have to trust me.”
“I trusted you before. But you turned out to be her. How do I know you aren’t Calista?”
My fingers worked their way up her shoulder until they caught a strand of her hair. Slowly, I cupped her face and brought her mouth to mine, pressing the barest of kisses against her lips. “I’m yours, Eira,” I breathed.
She trembled in my grasp, her breaths coming in sharp pants. “Blood and ice, you’re alive! How? Calista—she was controlling your body. You were dead!”
Shivering bones. Calista had controlled me while I was unconscious? I hadn’t even known that was possible. “I don’t know how,” I said, “and I’m so sorry. But I need the mirror now, Eira.”
Something cool and metal brushed against my fingers, and I clasped the handle of the mirror firmly. Without hesitation, I hurled it to the ground, and the glass shattered, the sound ringing in the vast room.
“What have you done?” Eira cried.
“Trust me!” I said again.
A deep, menacing roar exploded from the other side of the room.
The ground shook, and energy swirled around me like a funnel cloud, stinging my eyes and tousling my hair.
Eira shrieked in alarm. I held her against my chest again, shielding her.
The wind intensified, whipping mercilessly at me until I was certain it would carry me away.
Light bled through the darkness, slowly at first. Shadows and shapes took form.
Some lay motionless on the floor. And in the center of the carnage was Calista, her skin tough and leathery, with great black wings stretched behind her back.
Fangs extended from her lips, covered in blood.
Her bright red eyes widened as the darkness of her magic faded.
Bit by bit, the black mist receded as if being washed away by an invisible rag.
In moments, the throne room was in full view once more, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the crimson blood that stained the floors.
Several bodies were strewn about, some missing limbs. Most of them were soldiers wearing the rebels’ red bandana.
But one of them I recognized. A woman with white-blonde hair.
Her head was completely severed from her body.
Stella.
Eira sank to her knees, erupting in sobs. I clutched her shoulders, my eyes fixing on Calista to see what she would do next. She whirled, her red eyes frantic as she looked around the room.
“Where is it?” she hissed. “Where is it?”
“You mean the source of your magic?” I asked. With my foot, I nudged the broken glass on the floor. “It’s gone, Calista.”
Lavinia had told me of a spell that could bind fae magic, enhancing someone’s power. If anyone were to acquire this conduit, they could destroy it and potentially disrupt the connection to your magic completely.
That was how Calista had maintained a flawless glamour all these years. She had bound her magic to the enchanted mirror. It empowered her.
But without that mirror intact, the source of her strength was gone.
Now, she was stuck in her Demon Fae form. And she wasn’t powerful enough to conjure her darkness anymore.
A noise of rage burst from Calista’s lips, her face twisting into another snarl. “Foolish boy! I don’t need magic to slaughter everyone in this room!”
I pulled a dagger from my belt and flung it toward Calista. At the same time, she lunged. The blade barely nicked her shoulder. She screeched as she careened toward me.
But I was ready. The moment before we collided, I ducked, slamming into her abdomen. She roared as we toppled over. My fingers caught the corner of her wing and tugged. Flesh tore, and black blood oozed. Calista screamed as I pulled another dagger and rammed it into her side.
Something heavy rammed into the back of my skull—Calista’s wing perhaps? I groaned, my mind spinning as I slumped over. Calista shoved me off her, and I fell backward, my head hitting the hard floor. Stars burst in front of my eyes.
Calista’s crimson gaze appeared above me, her mouth spread wide in a smile. She raised a clawed hand.
My foot connected with her shin. She twisted, arms flailing before she fell. I leapt for her, prepared to bury my dagger in her throat, but her uninjured wing flared out and knocked me in the face. I toppled again, rolling on the cold floor as blood ran down my temple.
I turned just as Calista dove for me, claws out, a look of lethal delight on her face.
A burst of ice exploded in front of her face, covering her nose and cheeks with bits of snow.
I froze, eyes wide. A tiny white figure hovered in front of Calista, wings flapping with furious intensity.
Another icy blast hit Calista directly in the eye. She howled in agony, covering her eye with her hand.
Kendra flitted around Calista and shot more ice into her ear.
Calista shrieked, trying to swat at the tiny dragon.
But Kendra was determined, easily dodging strikes here and there.
The dragon’s blue eyes took on a glint I had never seen before.
She grabbed at Calista’s hair with her talons, then sprayed ice into her shoulder.
I wanted to whoop with triumph, my heart soaring as this tiny, beautiful creature took on the Queen of the Winter Court.
But my joy was short-lived. With a roar of fury, Calista’s wings stretched open wide, and she swung both arms wildly.
Her claws struck Kendra in the wing, making the small creature crumple and fall to the ground. Calista’s eyes narrowed on the dragon, as if just realizing how small she was.
A savage smile spread across her lips. She drew closer to Kendra, who was too weak to move out of the way.
“No!” I bellowed, racing forward.
But Eira was faster.
With a shout, the princess dived, coming between Calista and Kendra. Cold horror numbed my veins as Eira tackled Calista to the ground.
No. No…
Together, they grappled. Calista’s claws swiped. Eira shrieked, but their shapes were such a blur that I couldn’t see if Calista had drawn blood.