That was when the animal rushed the side of the carriage and smashed into it with its shoulder. The entire thing shook, I lost my grip on the driver’s seat and was hurled across the length of the carriage. If I hadn’t been holding onto the top with my other hand, I would’ve fallen face first into the snow and probably been crushed by the wheel.
Luckily, the Vrren had also pulled away to avoid being crushed by the carriage wheels, and I had fallen into position directly in front of the door. There was no going back, now. Fumbling for the handle, I opened the carriage door and threw myself into the cabin just as the creature came in for another attack.
This time it leapt toward the open door, managing to stick its head inside and grab hold of the carriage with its claws. It was too large to get inside, but it had a long neck and I had to scramble all the way to the other side of the cabin just to avoid being bitten.
“Get the hell out of here!” I yelled, and I kicked the creature in the snout to get it to back off.
The sound was like a thunderclap, and the beast yelped after being hit. It reared its neck, snarling, blood trickling out of its mouth. I noticed the silvery tattoo on the back of my hand—the series of circles and semi-circles showing the changing of the phases of the moon—had started glowing.
I watched the light shift across the tattoo, and already I felt empowered, stronger, faster. I could smell this creature’s cold musk, the blood on its mouth, the dirt in its paws. It tried to clamp onto me again, snapping its jaws at me in the hopes of grabbing hold of my foot. I kicked it again, grunting this time, pouring everything I had into the kick.
Something snapped, the creature roared, and it let go of the carriage and fell away. “Holy shit,” I said, “I did that! How did I do that?”
“No time to figure it out,” Gullie yelled, “Whatever you’re in here to do, do it now!”
“Right!”
I opened up one of the trunks and from inside I pulled out my suit of leather armor which Mira had been able to smuggle out of the castle with us. On its breast was still the little white snowflake I had sewn into it. I didn’t have enough time to change out of my clothes and into my leathers, so instead I tore the snowflake off out and approached the door of the carriage again.
“Hold on!” Mel yelled, and the carriage tilted to one side, accelerating my move toward the door.
My hands sprang out, and somehow I managed to stop myself from going all the way over and out of the cabin. Looking down, I saw the ground quickly falling away from us as the carriage made a sharp turn off a steep hill. My heart leapt into my throat, and it took everything I had just to pull myself back inside and shut the door.
The carriage eventually righted itself, our elk succeeding in not throwing us off the side. But the Vrren hadn’t given up their chase. I could still hear them, barking and yipping and growling as they continued their relentless chase.
I stuck my head out of the other window and found Mira still gracefully perched above the carriage, her bow and arrow ready to fire. I had to admit, I was crushing a little. I’d never seen this side of her before, only barely glimpsed it when she killed the Wenlow and saved both me and the Prince.
I would never tell her, of course.
“Won’t these things give up?” I yelled.
“No,” Mira yelled, “Not as long as they think they have a chance at killing us.”
So, they still think they can kill us.
I moved over to the other door, opened it, and looked around the side of the carriage. Getting up and onto the roof wasn’t going to be easy, but that was where I had to be if I wanted this to work. I had a hunch that because they had waited until sundown to attack, that the beasts didn’t like light, and I just happened to have a light bomb in my hand.
All I had to do was get up and onto the roof.
Easy.
The carriage was trembling, and even though the beasts had fallen behind a little, they were already gaining on us. I could hear them, the sounds of their growls, their paws slamming the ground, and their barks—they were everywhere, and all around us. The worst part was, looking ahead, there didn’t seem to be anywhere to go or hide.
How long before Ollie gets tired?
“Fuck,” I cursed. Gritting my teeth, I hooked one foot into the open window, grabbed hold of the rail atop the cabin, and started pulling myself up.
It was a hard climb, but trying to reach the door was harder. Ever since the tattoo on the back of my hand had started glowing, my muscles felt stronger, my senses were sharper, and my instincts had almost taken completely control of my movements. I was up and over the rail in seconds, much to Mira’s surprise.
“What are you doing up here?!” she hissed.
“I have this!” I said, and I showed her the snowflake in my hand.
“Genius! Use it!”
Nodding, I stood upright and found my balance. Though the carriage ride was bumpy, Mel and Ollie were doing a great job of keeping us as steady as possible. I found standing up even easier than climbing to the top, and as soon as I was on my feet, I turned around to face the back of the carriage—and there they were.
A whole pack of them.
The Vrren raced toward us, catching up quickly. Mira’s arrows zipped past my hair, and every single one found their marks. Some of her targets stumbled and fell after they were hit, but others continued running, ignoring the arrows protruding from their shoulders, their backs.
“I see a bridge,” Mel called out, “I’m going to head for it!”
“Alright,” I said, “Here goes nothing.”
Mira shielded her eyes, and I tapped on the snowflake in my hand before throwing it over the back of the carriage. The light that bloomed from the snowflake grew rapidly, and brightly. In an instant, the woods around us were filled with brilliant, white light as if I had called down the moon itself.
The beasts roared and yelped, several of them staggered over each other and tumbled into the ground. The Vrren at the back of the pack stopped in their tracks and made for the relative shelter being offered by some of the larger trees in the forest, those capable of blocking the intense, magical light.
Meanwhile, the carriage continued to race through the forest, the rumbling chaos that had been that pack of monsters slowly falling away.
“We did it!” Gullie shrieked.
I smiled at her, and I turned around to look at Mira. “Remind me to take you up on those archery lessons you offered,” I said.
Mira arched an eyebrow. “I’ll consider it.” She went to turn around, and a cold wash of panic filled me as I saw the low hanging branch that was about to hit her.
I yelled for her to duck, but it was too late. The thick, black branch struck her square on the side of her face. Hot blood spurted from her mouth and sprayed against my cheeks. I watched, my heart thundering inside of my chest, as she fell past me almost in slow-motion, her eyes rolled into the back of her skull, the skin of her face shredded by the branch.
I took three steps to try to reach for her, but I couldn’t catch her as she fell. “Mira!” I screamed, but she was gone. I saw her topple off the back of the carriage and go crashing into the snow, into the tracks we had left.
“I can’t stop Ollie!” Mel called out. I could hear her trying, but the elk was still spooked, so I did what I had to do.
I dove off the back of the moving carriage.
CHAPTER THREE
Gullie took flight, zipping out of my hair as I hurled myself off the back of the carriage. My body twisted and contorted in the air, instincts taking over as I raced toward the ground. Tucking into a roll just as I landed allowed me to quickly get back up and on my feet, and then I was running, sprinting toward Mira.
I could see her, she hadn’t fallen far behind, but the Vrren had gotten used to the light bomb I had dropped a moment ago, and they were tentatively starting to approach. I raced to Mira’s side and threw myself to my knees. She was face down in the snow, surrounded by little splatters of blood red
.
Turning her over, I saw the damage the impact had done. Her cheek was split open, her skin was already starting to turn black and purple, and blood was pooling inside of her mouth. Frantically, I checked her pulse; unconscious, but alive.
“Thank the Gods,” I said.
Gullie fluttered down and winced when she saw the state of Mira’s face. “She’s not going to like that when she wakes up.”
“I need to get her out of here.”
“And go where? The carriage is gone.”
“Is there anything you can do to wake her up?”
“I can try.”
I watched Gullie flutter over to Mira’s face. Turning my eyes up while the pixie worked, I noticed the light from the snowflake dimming, retreating as the magic inside of it faded. From the encroaching darkness, the Vrren approached. Hungry, slack-jawed, heaving, their bodies radiating steam from the exertion of chasing after us.
Their meal was near.
I noticed Mira’s bow wasn’t far from where she’d fallen, and there was an arrow embedded in the snow next to it. I also had my dagger strapped to my belt. The problem was, there were still half a dozen monsters closing in, and there was only one of me.
Well, me and Gullie.
The pixie blew a cloud of sparkling green mist into Mira’s face, and her eyes shot open as if she’d just been hit with smelling salts. The pain took a second to register. When it did, she went to scream, but her mouth was filled with blood and snow. Turning to the side, she started spitting it out onto the ground.
“Mira, thank fuck,” I said, “Are you okay?”
“No!” she groaned.
“We need to get up, come on.”
I tried to help her up, but the moment Mira set her foot down, she cried out in pain and toppled over again. She had to stick her hands out to stop from falling face first. They shook as she tried to hold herself up. “My leg,” she groaned, “I think my ankle is broken.”
Looking at her foot, it became apparently obvious that her ankle was broken. The skin was black and purple, just like her face. I was sure she wouldn’t be able to walk on it, let alone run, and we needed to run if we wanted to get out of here.
“I’ll carry you,” I said.
“Carry me?” she asked. “How?!”
“I don’t have time to banter with you right now, just wrap your arms around my neck and let me get you up.”
I could see the objection on her face, but I lowered myself to her, and she did as I asked. Once she’d secured herself around my neck, I picked her up and stood upright, surprising myself at how light she felt in my arms.
I didn’t exactly have arms to speak of, not in the way that Aronia did. And Mira, thought slight, was tall enough that she should’ve been heavier than she was. Scanning the area, I noticed some of the Vrren had started coming out of the trees and getting back onto the road. I backed up, my feet crunching in the snow.
“Do you know any magic that’ll get us out of this?” I asked.
“I can barely think,” she said, though her words came through a little muffled.
“Gullie, I want you to fly up. Get away from them.”
“No way,” the pixie said, “If you’re getting eaten, I’m getting eaten.”
“That’s irrational, Gull. You have to get out of here. Find Mel, she’s on her own out there somewhere.”
“Stop trying to shoo me. I can help.”
“How can you help?” Mira struggled to say.
Gullie circled around us, leaving a trail of glittering, green dust wherever she went. Before long, it was everywhere, encircling us, all around us. Gullie settled inside of my hair, and a moment later, a freak wind kicked up and pushed the dust toward them. The beasts closest to us sniffed the air, paused, and then started frantically sneezing. One after the other, they all broke out into an unstoppable sneezing fit.
“Take that!” Gullie yelled.
“That was your plan?” Mira asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, does her highness have a better idea? Also, Dee, how about we start running now?”
“Shit, right!”
I turned around and started moving as fast as I could. I couldn’t exactly run, not with Mira in my arms… at least, not at first. It took a couple of steps for me to figure out how to walk while carrying another person, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to break out into a run.
“How are you doing this?!” Mira asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to keep my breathing under control. “It’s the tattoo. It has to be. I’ve felt stronger ever since I got it.”
“How can a tattoo make you stronger?”
“How can you speak with blood in your mouth?” Gullie asked, “Life’s just a series of mysteries, isn’t it?”
“This is charming,” I said, “But where’s Mel? I’m getting worried.”
“I don’t know. Ollie didn’t look like he was stopping.”
Mira pulled herself up and looked over my shoulder. “And we have another problem,” she said, “The Vrren got over their sneezing fits.”
“What?!” Gullie shrieked, “That should’ve kept them out of action for a while!”
“I’m sure that trick is great at parties, but it’s going to get us killed now—you only made them mad!”
I almost hear them salivating as they chased us. They were barking, and growling, and grunting. The pack had split apart again, likely to try and flank us, attack us on all sides. We had a chance of outrunning them while we’d been in the carriage, but on foot? We didn’t stand a chance. I’d been fooling myself into thinking I could run faster than they could.
Slowly, I set Mira down on the ground.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I drew my dagger from my belt. “I have to fight,” I said.
“Fight?! Have you lost your mind?”
Turning around to face the creatures, I shut my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “I don’t have a choice. Maybe I can take them away from you.”
“You’ve lost your mind. What am I supposed to do?”
“Don’t die.”
“This is insane, you know,” Gullie said.
I gripped my dagger more tightly as the beasts approached. “I know. I won’t ask you to leave again.”
“Good. You’re learning.”
Opening my eyes, I broke into a run toward the incoming creatures. One of them took the challenge and picked up the pace to match mine. If ever there was a time for those new instincts of mine to kick off and do something useful, now was that time.
As if they’d listened to me, those strange instincts flared to life. I threw myself into a slide along the slippery, snow-covered ground as the beast leapt over me. As it soared overhead, I thrust my dagger into its gut as hard as I could, splitting the creature open straight down the middle.
I’d been moving quickly enough that I hadn’t ended up coated in blood, but it spurted in all directions, turning the ground behind me deep red. Steam rose from the snow around the rapidly dying Vrren, but it wasn’t over yet. More of them were coming, encouraged by the death of their packmate.
My sixth sense kicked in, calling me to duck just as another beast leapt toward me. I ducked under and out of its path, then leapt over another charging beast, twirling in the air above it as it lunged toward the spot I had been standing in. When I landed upright, I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Did you see that?!” I cried out.
“I didn’t see it, I felt it,” Gullie said, “It’s making me sick!”
“Sorry!”
Turning around, I noticed one of the Vrren was rushing over to where Mira was sitting. I called out to them, yelling into the woods for them to come and get me, trying to make myself as loud, as big, and as threatening as possible. It probably looked ridiculous, but it was working. In a kind of good news, bad news situation, the creatures were all heading for me, now.
“Okay, now what?” Gullie asked.
“I don’t
know…” I said.
“You’d better think fast. Think you can take the ones that are left?”
“I shouldn’t even be able to take one of them on.”
“And yet, there it is, dead.”
I wrapped my hand around the dagger even more tightly, my knuckles turning white from the effort. As the beasts approached, I tried to single one of them out as the focus of my attention. I wanted to take down the biggest one, if I could. The one that looked like a leader, an alpha. They all looked pretty similar, but one of them seemed to have more scars on its body than the others, so I gave that one my attention and prepared myself.
A howl suddenly pierced the forest, and the beasts stopped dead in their tracks. Simultaneously they perked up and dipped low to the ground, their ears twitching as their bellies hugged the floor. They looked scared, and I couldn’t blame them. The sound was long, and loud, and deep. I could feel it in my chest, vibrating inside of me like I was hollow.
One of the monsters made a break for the forest line, its long, bald tail tucked between its legs. A moment later, I heard a rustle coming from somewhere among the trees, then a yelp, and then a sickening, wet crack, followed by a thud that made my stomach churn. I backed up one step, two steps, and stopped, becoming instinctively aware that there was something behind me.
I could feel it breathing down the back of my neck, even though I hadn’t heard it approach.
Slowly, I turned, my heart pounding inside of my chest, my blood frozen in my veins. The wolf standing at my back was as tall as I was. It had charcoal fur run through with streaks of silver, several scars cutting across its muzzle, and even though I was upright, its deep blue eyes were level with my own. This wolf was huge, imposing, and terrifying.
It snarled, and I backed up again. It sniffed the air around me, licked its lips, and when it lunged, I thought I was going to die. Instinct forced my eyes to snap shut, but the wolf instead charged past me, the wind gushing behind it as it charged toward the Vrren.
Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) Page 2