by Leia Stone
With a garbled grumble of a noise, the killian collapsed, melting into a pile of dark goo. Okay, then … apparently when you killed a dark creature, it became sludge. As I stepped forward to take on the next creature, I saw Shelley slip away from our group and head for a bank of trees off to the left. At first I thought she’d gotten scared and was running away — I wouldn’t blame her one bit — but then an army of white-cloaked fae stepped out. Members of the winter queen’s army, complete with white fur uniform.
Shelley was doing the opposite of running in fear, she was heading right for danger, giving us time, holding off those winter soldiers. I lost sight of her as I sliced into another killian. They were strong brutes, but quite dumb and clumsy. As long as I stayed alert, I would be okay.
The killians were pushing us back towards the edge of the frozen lake. With each step, I had to look behind me to make sure I wasn’t suddenly going to find myself on thin ice. Finally, Kade took down the last killian, but I saw more in the distance, hobbling our way with their wonky gait.
“I think we should cross the lake. Easiest way,” I told the group.
Shelley wasn’t with us, yet, but she looked safe — standing in front of the winter queen’s guards. It looked like she was using her powers to influence the front line of the white-clad soldiers to start fighting with those behind. It was clever; I doubted she had enough power to influence all the soldiers in one go. This way, she just kept them fighting each other.
I glanced back at the ice again, seeing the zipping creatures below waiting for us.
“The killians are too heavy. They won’t step on the ice,” Zandu said, before he whipped out a weapon from under his cloak. It was a torch, which immediately burst to life, flaming with an iridescent pink fire. He handed it to me and I took it without question, assuming this was the fire we needed to kill anything that jumped out of the lake.
Then Zandu pulled a bow from his cloak — seriously, where did I get one of these magical cloaks? — and in two swift moves loosed an arrow, taking a harpy down. It fell to the ground with a thud, arrow between the eyes.
“Go!” he shouted. “I will hold off the sky creatures with your other bowman.”
Kian moved in next to Zandu, both of them focused on the sky. I didn’t even want to look up, didn’t want to see what creatures were waiting above to pluck off our heads. Dante pulled a second sword out, so he now held a lethal blade in both hands. “I will keep the killians off you, just in case they do decide to risk the lake.” He then ran straight at the approaching creatures.
I looked at Kade, who nodded. All of our friends and allies were fighting for their lives. It was up to us to finish this once and for all. Kade stepped out onto the ice first; it made a slight groan of protest but otherwise held. I followed about three feet to his right, to disperse our weight. We walked with brisk care, avoiding all ice that looked particularly thin, and the few open black pools of icy water.
We were about halfway across when I saw something dark slithering on my right.
“Kade…” I murmured.
“I saw it,” he said, slowing, sword raised.
We walked a few more steps when the ice right before me cracked wide open and an oily black ercho broke the surface. It reached out with one of its claws, gashing my leg.
I cried out, swinging my torch by instinct.
Like it was doused in accelerant, the pink flames ignited its skin with ease, rushing across its back, and down the length of its bat-like wings. High-pitched screeches filled the air, and the scent of burning rubber — thick and tar-like — clogged my nostrils. The ercho flopped about as the fire burned it alive and slowly melted the ice it lay on. I peered at the hole it had broken through and saw that the lake was black and oily.
It wasn’t water.
Half a dozen shadowy figures sped under the ice to answer the ercho’s dying call, and I was reminded of how quickly it had caught alight.
It gave me an idea.
“Kade, how fast can you run?” I gave him a wink. He was more than fast enough. I just hoped I could keep up. I held the torch to the open oil spot.
Kade’s eyes gleamed. “Do it,” he said.
Needing no more encouragement, I dropped the torch into the oily water, and we both took off running.
Burn baby burn.
Today I was taking out the Dark Fae Lord and all of his evil babies.
Chapter Twelve
What hides in the darkness?
Turned out that an oil-filled lake would burn faster and stronger than I had expected. The top layer of the ice was already starting to crack, as the flames behind us spread so fast that I could feel real heat licking my skin. This was no ordinary sort of fire. The elven flame mixed with dark magic was forming a magical fire show of epic proportions.
“Almost there, Ari,” Kade shouted, but not even his soothing husky tones were going to help when the ice was breaking under my feet. At any point, I was going to plunge into the oil, and then the creatures below — or the fire — would consume me.
I kept my eyes on Kade’s broad shoulders. He was not far in front of me, and I knew he was limiting his speed to stay with me. If I wasn’t so busy running for my life, I would be shouting at him to move it. He was so much heavier than me; he was about to crash through. He must have realized that, because when there was about twenty feet to the shore, he dived, his muscled legs propelling him onto the snowy bank. I knew I couldn’t make that distance, but I had no choice, it was jump or die. My wolf pushed further forward, assessing the situation, and in the last second she tried to force the change on me. We wouldn’t make it in my human form, but I was lighter, more nimble in my wolf.
I don’t have time, I told her. I could change in a minute or less, but I didn’t even have a spare second.
“Jump, Ari.” Kade was right on the edge of the lake, arms outstretched. He would come for me if I didn’t make it, but there was no point in both of us dying.
Heat snapped behind me, ice slushed and cracked under my boots, and I launched myself forward. Using every ounce of shifter strength I could gather, I fell about three feet short of the shore, but Kade’s long arms came in handy again as he snatched me out of the air and propelled us both backwards. I crashed on top of him as he hit the ground hard.
Screams and screeches filled the air, something I hadn’t been paying attention to when I was running for my life. The scent of burning flesh and leather was almost overwhelming, but I fought through the nausea, forcing myself to focus. The lake was completely ablaze, flames standing ten feet or more in the air. It was probably only burning on the surface, if it required oxygen like on Earth, but the screams told me that plenty of the creatures who lived in its depths were being ignited too.
A powerful, guttural yell echoed across the lands. The fury within it boomed out, shaking the ground. Kade and I clambered to our feet.
“Guess someone found out about his precious creatures,” I murmured, already scanning the darkness.
Kade stood to his full height, lifting the strap of the case holding the staff over his shoulders. Thankfully, he had not lost it in that mad dash. In a second, he had the lid open and the weapon in his hands. I fought down the urge to knock it out of his grasp, hating the eerie glint of its dark light. The cloying pressure of its energy — now that it was free from its spelled confines — swelled out and started trying to infiltrate into my power, brushing against me insidiously.
Swallowing hard, I pulled my eyes from the staff, focusing instead on the boxy castle, wanting to be prepared when the enraged Dark Fae Lord made his appearance.
I didn’t have to wait long.
He flashed in with a swirl of dark smoke, his long cloak billowing behind him, his staff, the twin of Kade’s, clutched tightly in his hand. Pure fury filled his face, making him look inhuman as he slammed the tip of his dark weapon into the ground. The horn Kade had sliced off was still missing, giving his face a lopsided look.
“You and I could have be
en great together, Arianna. Now you will join your mother, in death!” His shouts filled the air, and a giant crack split the ground where he had slammed the staff into the earth. It started small, but as it shot toward Kade and me, got wider and wider.
We sprinted away from the widening chasm in the ground, reorienting ourselves so we could approach the Dark Fae Lord from a different angle. As I ran, the ache in my leg started to increase, right where the ercho had clawed me. I pushed it from my mind. Nothing I could do about it now.
Any sign of the queen? Kade asked.
Nothing, I said, and then almost in the same instant I felt the icy shift of the wind. Wait … she’s here.
Her magic was familiar to me. It called to my own in a way I hated, but also accepted. I wasn’t going to freak out about it anymore. I couldn’t help who my family were, just who I was. I’ll go after the Dark Fae Lord, Kade said. The winter queen is yours. Stay safe, my love.
I love you, King Kade. Don’t you dare die.
Or turn evil.
I hid the last part from him, because I didn’t want him to know of my doubts. But it was a nagging fear I couldn’t erase. Kade was already focused on his target, the staff raised above his head as he ran, its dark energy seeming to increase the closer we got to the Dark Fae Lord and the other dark weapon.
Isalinda stepped out of the shadows then, gliding across the snow to stand at the side of her dark ally. The stunning white horse, which she had been riding last time I saw her, was there in the background. Her familiar? I’d never seen a horse as a familiar before; it was quite spectacular as it pawed the ground near the queen. I couldn’t hurt a magnificent beast like that, one who had no choice in the sort of fae it was bonded with. But if I killed the queen, and fae familiar bonds were the same as shifters’, the horse was going to die. Dammit. Why were there no easy choices in these situations? I had to save my people, but in doing so, some would be sacrificed.
The longer I was a queen, the more I was starting to understand the Red Queen and her actions. One thing was becoming very clear, the time for softness had passed. I needed to embrace my inner Red Queen if I was going to defeat Isalinda. There would be no polite conversation, no point in dragging out the inevitable. I wanted her dead and burning along with the entire lake as soon as possible.
Without a word, I gathered my magic, both fae and mecca, and sent a swirl of frosty ice right at her face. I wanted to throw her off by attacking first, but as I expected, she simply held up a hand and stopped my magic midair, using her own version of frozen magic. As our two spells collided, there was a shattering blast, and a long spiraling ice sculpture formed in that exact spot, before spreading across a ten foot radius.
The winter queen grinned, her lips still a creepy corpse-blue. “Good girl, you’ve been studying. This should be fun.”
Before I could even pivot my weight or think of a counter-spell, she threw magic at me that traveled faster than I could see. The energy slammed into my legs, wrapping around them, bringing the chill of ice with it as it crawled up my body, immobilizing me.
She frowned, tapping one long finger nail against her chin. “That was far too easy. I take back what I said. You’re actually quite pathetic. This is going to be over in a second.”
I didn’t struggle, sure in my ability to break her magic. But I wouldn’t until she moved closer, because no doubt she thought she had won and was going to come over and gloat before she killed me. The ice had reached my pelvis now and was still rising. And sure enough, she was striding toward me. I continued feigning defeat, letting her come closer and closer.
When she was inches from me, she peered down. “Your lineage failed you, child. You’re nothing but a—”
Blocking out her hatred, I reached for the energy that made me unique in this world. Fae and shifter. Dark and light. I let it surge from me in a strong, uninterrupted stream. Dark purple sparkles filled the air and the ice spell around me dissolved in an instant. I lunged forward, my wolf howling in my chest before my voice lifted and I added my own howls to the wolf’s.
I wrapped my hands around her throat, the magic pouring from me so strong that it pushed us forward. The winter queen’s head cracked hard against a nearby dried-out tree stump. She let out a low groan, but I didn’t remove my hands from her throat. Instead I squeezed harder.
Her face was turning a shade of purple; she struggled and clawed at me. But I had shifter and fae strength. I would not be defeated again.
I felt the weakness sliding through my center, my body starting to run out of reserves of energy. Adrenalin had hidden most of my pain and injuries, the strength of my power helping me focus, but suddenly the dull ache in my leg from the ercho gash was no longer just a mild throb. The pain began stabbing at me, and my arms trembled.
Something snapped in my leg and I keeled over, losing my grip on the queen. White hot agony ripped through my leg, and I realized my shin bone had just broken … on its own. I let out a blood-curdling scream as more pain took me over. Was this the ercho venom?
Was it actually eating my bones?
“Die!” The winter queen interrupted my anguish by unleashing a flurry of wind magic that picked me up like a tornado and whipped me into the air.
I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t fight back.
I’d felt a lot of pain in my life as an heir, and then a queen, but nothing compared to having my bones splinter and shatter inside of me. As the wind swirled me higher into the air, I reached down and ran a hand along my shin, assessing the damage. Bile rose in my throat at the pain as I could feel at least two inches missing from my tibia bone, and that gap appeared to be growing. Just as I feared, the venom was eating my skeleton.
Finn… I couldn’t think properly with the pain and nausea from being inside of a spinning, frozen tornado.
Ari!
Dark Injury. Ercho. Eating my bones. Need … Violet. I was losing my grip on reality, seconds from unconsciousness.
The tornado stopped then, and I was falling. I used the last of my consciousness and energy to cushion my fall, landing in a thick bed of snow in a remote part of the woods. From this vantage point, flat on my back, snow and cold seeping into my clothes and body, I couldn’t see Isalinda anymore.
I must have blacked out for a few seconds, only coming to when Finn’s voice blasted in my head. Ari! Violet says the mecca powder can do almost anything.
I didn’t waste energy on a reply. Gathering together every ounce of discipline and strength, I forced my hand to move, forced it to retrieve the vial. I popped the cap off just as I caught sight of the winter queen stalking towards me, ready to finish me off.
What had Rowan said? The mecca powder needed only direction and it could do anything?
Heal me, please, I begged of the small powerful glass of purple dust as my magic wrapped around the vial. I tipped my head back, taking a mouthful of the powder onto my tongue.
I had no idea if I should have made a paste of it and put it right on the wound, but from my current position I really couldn’t do much except swallow it.
A low chuckle caught my attention, cold and hard, and filled with a malicious kind of enjoyment. The winter queen was looking down on me, her delight clear in her turned-up lips and shiny eyes. I chucked the empty vial to the side, hoping the stuff worked quickly. Otherwise, I could see my death on Isalinda’s face, and I wasn’t ready to go out yet. I still had too much to do.
A warm tingle spread out through my tongue. I let the powder sit there for a few moments, not swallowing or spitting it out for fear of something going wrong. A little energy filtered into my veins, just enough so that I could roll over to get away from the queen.
Another few moments and the sharp stabbing pains decreased enough that I could struggle to stand, using my one good leg and a shriveled tree for balance. Isalinda watched me, not attacking, enjoying my pain.
Finally she had to brag: “You really thought you could waltz in here and defeat me, Arianna?” Her voice was low,
laced with all the fury one would expect of a winter storm. I could see small flurries stirring up behind her.
I searched deep for something to defend myself with, but I was still half dead, spent of energy, and fighting the ercho venom. The purple mecca was working slowly, no doubt struggling against the poison.
Arianna, friend of trees…
If I hadn’t been so out of it, I would have jumped as the tree spoke in my head.
Exhaustion made it easy for me to control my reaction, keeping my eyes half lidded and calm. The powder had completely dissolved on my tongue now, and a cool tingle was working its way into my leg.
“Kill or be killed. You left me no choice,” I told her, trying to keep her talking.
Can you help me? I asked the poor skeleton of a tree. I hadn’t thought to use the trees here, assuming they were tainted by the darkness of this land. They all looked dead. Almost like that inverted tree on the cover of the dark book with its sliver of stone. Maybe that’s what it had represented. Death. To everything living.
I was distracted by the winter queen’s broad grin. It was a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, her face awash in shadows.
“Oh, Arianna, can I just say that you took longer than we thought to come to us. I figured once we sent those stupid wolves to you with fae blades, you’d assume we were planning on assassinating you, and then you’d storm right over here to stop us. You were slow. I should have anticipated that, but eventually you did as we wanted. You played right into our hands.”
I stared up at her in disbelief. She had been waiting for us to come across?
She kept smirking at me, and I was starting to feel like an idiot, then she tilted her head in a certain way and her familiar profile reminded me of something. The tilt of her chin. Almond shape of her eyes. They were like mine. And Luc…
“Where’s your son?” The words croaked out of me as fear locked me in its grip.
This entire time we had been focused on the fae lord and the winter queen, all the while forgetting about my menace of a father. “You never planned on letting the Dark Fae Lord rule Earth, did you?”