Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
HAVEN
“Seven days without a problem. She shows up, and we’re attacked.” Remy’s voice was loud enough to rise above the pounding of the horses’ hooves and the relentless wind.
My name is Haven, and I can hear you. He undoubtedly knew that. Asshole.
“Coincidence.”
“Is it?” Despite the noise, Remy’s sneering tone was crystal clear.
I twisted in my saddle and glared at the man riding behind me.
He smirked. “Careful, you’re a terrible rider. If you fall, I’m not stopping to pick you up.”
I saw the truth in his eyes and returned my focus to the horse in front of me. Heels down. Squeeze with your thighs. Hold the reins gently. What else had Pierce told me? Something about relaxing into the horse’s gait?
The trees whipped by in a blur of deep brown trunks, snow-laden branches, and gathering darkness.
“Fuck!” Zane’s horse slid to a stop.
Buttercup did too. I lost my seat and nearly flew between her ears. Only Remy’s quick tug on my cloak stopped me from flying over Buttercup’s head. His other hand caught my arm, steadying me.
“Thank you.” I was near breathless, and my voice was a rasp.
He grunted, but his grip lingered a moment longer than necessary as he made sure I was secure.
When he released me, I looked to see what had made Zane stop so suddenly.
Nians blocked the path. At least ten of them. Their white scales seemed unnaturally bright in the gloaming. And the smell … they reeked of putrid death. The stench was overwhelming, and I pressed my hand to my mouth, opened my eyes wide, and concentrated on not throwing up. “What now?”
“We die,” Remy said flatly.
“Is there any trick to killing them?” I asked.
“Trick?”
“Like a wyvern’s eyes or …” My voice trailed off at the contemptuous expression on Remy’s face.
With a curl of his lip and a quirked brow, he let me know I was an absolute idiot. “No tricks. But we’re outnumbered five to one.”
“Three to one.”
“You think you can fight?”
“You just said we were dead, so what’s the harm?”
The expression on his face turned thunderous. Probably because he couldn’t counter my argument.
My hand closed around the grip of a sword, and I called on Teal’s earth magic. The power came more easily than ever before. Stronger. Vines erupted and wrapped around the nians’ ankles. Thorns effortlessly pierced their scales.
The nians screeched in fury. Their fearsome claws ripped the vines from their legs.
I sent more vines, greenery to trip their feet, circle their legs, and slow their attack. What would happen if I added wyvern venom to Teal’s vines? Now wasn’t the time to try something new. Not when Zane and Remy had leaped from their horses with their swords drawn.
I stared at the monsters. One stood taller. Intelligence gleamed in its red eyes, and it seemed amused. That was when I remembered. We’d been running from nians. There were more behind us.
I looked back, and my heart stuttered. I couldn’t count the monsters. There were too many. And they all looked … hungry.
Swallowing a lump of fear, I used Grayson’s wind to blow the nians backward, then I surrounded us with a thick wall of ice that reached toward the treetops. We had a chance against ten. If the nians at our backs attacked, we’d be ripped to shreds in minutes.
The nians on the outside studied the wall, tilting their hideous heads to gauge its height, then they gouged their claws into the ice and began to climb.
Think.
Think!
I called forth a violent gust of wind, strong enough to shake the ice walls. A few nians fell; the rest continued to climb. Vines reached for their legs, slowing them. Not stopping them.
One of the fallen nians scraped at the wall with his razor-sharp claws. Huge chunks of ice crashed to the ground.
Nothing was working.
I glanced around, desperate for a way to save our lives. Snow. Ice. The nians’ pale scales blended with the winter landscape. They were built for this environment, thrived in it. But fire … fire melted ice.
The answer was fire. It had to be. I set the nian that was chipping at the wall aflame. It burned, collapsing onto the ground, rolling in the snow, and screaming its pain to the dull gray skies. Finally, after seconds that lasted an eternity, it fell silent.
Bile scalded my throat, and tears filled my eyes. I’d tortured a creature until it was nothing but a blackened husk.
I couldn’t afford empathy or guilt or hesitation. Them or us. That was the choice.
Gathering my resolve and more of Flynn’s power, I let loose. I felt the flames as they claimed each monster. The nians burned, and their pained cries echoed through the forest.
Inside our walls, a beast roared in fury.
With my heart lodged in my throat, I turned.
Zane and Remy fought in tandem. Sweat dotted their brows, and a wound on Remy’s left arm bled freely.
Three nians lay dead at their feet.
Three.
There were at least twenty dead nians outside the wall.
I directed the fire at the monsters still standing.
They burned.
The smell was appalling. Death, and gore, and roasting meat. I couldn’t help myself; I leaned over Buttercup’s side and vomited. When my stomach was empty, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and sat straight in the saddle.
Remy appeared beside Buttercup with a waterskin. “Rinse your mouth,” he said gruffly.
Zane smirked at Remy. “I told you so.”
Words no one ever liked to hear.
Remy scowled at Zane before directing his glare my way. “How did you do this?” A wave of his hand indicated the host of dead nians.
“Magic.”
His hands fisted. “You used four elements.” An accusation.
Earth. Water. Fire. Air. I shrugged, and his expression darkened.
“How?” he demanded.
Another man who thought I owed him an explanation. “Does it matter?”
“Yes!”
“I saved your life.”
“Listen to me, you—” Remy started, then stopped abruptly when he noticed me swaying in the saddle. Without a word, he moved closer, close enough to catch me if I fell.
Zane rolled his eyes. “What Remy means to say is ‘thank you.’”
That was not what Remy had meant to say. Not even close. He was just another man who wanted my secrets by any means necessary.
“You saved us.” Zane attempted to smooth the waters roiling between me and his hostile friend. “We are grateful.”
“We never saw a nian till she arrived. No one has ever seen this many together.” Remy’s gaze took in the still-smoking bodies. “Coincidence? I think not.”
“Are you saying I brought them with me? I’d never heard of a nian until an hour ago.”
“If the shoe fits—”
“That’s ridiculous,” I insisted. Was it? Wolven and wraiths. A fucking wyvern. Nightmares made real, and they all seemed to find me. I shifted my gaze from Remy and stared into the forest as a shudder tightened my spine. “Are there any other monsters in these woods?”
“None we can’t handle,” Zane replied.
Remy snorted. The sound was not comforting.