by Everly Frost
Howl’s wings snap forward and then back. He wobbles, regains his balance, stares at the weapon protruding from his chest. For a brief second, his eyes widen in shock. As the last remnants of the Storm’s mist swirls around his torso, he inhales. The same way Llion does. He holds the breath inside his lungs, drawing in my scent. Then his eyes narrow.
The moment stretches out. He doesn’t collapse… doesn’t even seem to remember that I stabbed him…
Curses. The heartstone is protecting him.
He breaks the moment with a laugh, a gusty sound, but there’s no humor in his eyes as he announces to his army: “She thinks she can kill me!”
He slips the blade from his chest, clutching it in his fist, his chest still rumbling with laughter. It looks like he’s going to crush the weapon. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could with those giant fists. With a quick flick of his wrist, he pitches the knife at Jasper who darts to the side, deftly avoiding it and sliding right up to me at the same time, holding his weapon in front of me like a shield.
The Storm gasps and backs away, gliding from the Phoenix, all the way back to the rock face. She won’t join the fight. She already made her feelings clear about fighting gargoyles and I can’t force her to do it. As much as I’m going to need her help…
“Pretty little elf.” Howl ignores Jasper as he flies closer to me while the heartstone casts a sickly green light up and across his face. “You will not succeed where others have failed.”
My weapons satchel is right beside me on the Phoenix’s back. I resist the urge to look at it while I calculate how long it will take me to get hold of it.
A grin lights up Howl’s eyes, making them sparkle like gemstones. “You wish to fight me again?” He casts his arms wide and his wings wider. The veins in them stretch out like emerald rivers. “I have no objection, but you should know that every moment you fail to surrender, your Phoenix suffers terrible agony.”
My eyes snap to the twitching leg beside me. Howl is doing something to the Phoenix. Hurting it. Pinning it down. Phoenix…?
Its voice grates inside my head. Don’t… give up…
My hands form into fists. I could make a grab for my weapons but Howl will crush me before I reach them. I fought Baelen when he took on the appearance of a gargoyle and his greatest advantage was his weight. I can’t let Howl pin me down. But I need a plan—and fast.
Nothing can kill Howl, not while he has the heartstone. The only way to defeat him is to take the stone from him. The Storm told me I don’t need steel to harness my storm power. It’s time to find out if that’s true.
“Soldier,” I say to Jasper. “Move away from me right now. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Jasper pauses for the briefest moment before he decides to play along. He lowers his sword, sheathing it in one fluid movement. He bows deeply to me. “Far be it from me to stand between you and your prey, Mistress.”
Jasper shuffles backward and assumes a post ten paces away, placed neatly at the center of the ledge where he can defend himself against an attack from any direction. He folds his arms over his chest, appearing relaxed, but I know he’s ready for anything.
I curl my lip at Howl. It’s time to play a part. I gesture to the discarded dagger that Howl threw back at us. “That was just for fun.”
Howl frowns, the first sign that he doesn’t know how to read the situation. “You have a particular scent,” he says. “You are not an ordinary elf.”
“Ice and clouds,” I say, remembering the way Llion described me. “I’m told I smell like rain.” I close my eyes for the smallest moment, listening for Baelen’s heartbeat. I need it. I need his strength combined with mine, but I can’t chance drawing him out. Instead, I focus on the memory of his body close to mine, the power that ignited between us. I need that.
A slow smile breaks across Howl’s face. “You smell like deep magic. The sweetest kind.” His eyes turn hungry. The heartstone against his chest glows a deeper green, seeming to respond to his emotions. “But there’s something else too… something missing…”
I saunter right up to him, tilting my head back to maintain eye contact. A glow begins at the corner of my eyes and I know I’m lighting up. A soft crackle reaches my ears. It’s lightning. Without steel.
I can’t hide my smile as lightning dances across my back and chest, curling around my waist and neck, building inside my palms. The crackles of electricity grow louder, stronger, much faster than I expected, almost to the point of breaking out of my control.
Howl stands his ground but narrows his eyes at me, growling, “That’s an interesting trick. I will figure you out, little doll.”
A deep calm takes over my mind. I’ve never harnessed lightning like this before. It’s always been targeted through my weapon, never flowing freely through my entire body. It always felt like it was external to me, as if I was borrowing it. For the first time, it belongs to me. It’s mine. If I were alone on this cliff with the gargoyles, I would let the power loose and watch every one of these monsters fall from the sky. But I can’t hurt Jasper or Baelen.
I smile at Howl. “You can start with this.”
My fist snaps out. I bounce up at the same time, catching him right on the nose. It’s not hard to miss his giant face. Streaks of electricity snake out from the spot where I hit him, coursing through his cheekbones and forehead. He roars and I know I hurt him.
He responds just as I expected—with brute force. His thick arms snap around the space where I was, attempting to wrap around me. Except that I’m already gone, bouncing backward, light on my feet, leaving him to grab at air.
I land several feet away and cock my eyebrow at him, baiting him. “Let’s play, Howl.”
“That’s King Howl.” He plows after me, fists swinging. I feint left and right, avoiding the swings, and duck under his arms, landing another electrified blow to his lower ribs. His bones light up behind his skin. This time lightning shoots upward toward his chest, traveling though his ribs as if his skeleton is a conduit. I land another blow square in his stomach before dancing away.
All I need to know is how close I have to get to the heartstone to shatter it. I don’t think I’ll be able to land a direct blow. He holds one arm in front of it at all times. He makes it look like he has his fists up for the fight, but his left arm is positioned close to the stone to protect it.
I focus on his exposed ribs and his legs, trying to upset his balance, as we exchange quick blows. He catches me on the shoulder when I don’t expect it and pain explodes through my joint. Good thing I was moving—any harder and he would have dislocated my shoulder with a single punch. So far he hasn’t used his wing daggers, which tells me he doesn’t want to kill me. Yet.
I leap, bouncing up from the balls of my feet. My fist glances off his jaw and he roars at me. This time electricity travels down his neck, stopping short at his collarbone.
I can’t get close enough to the stone. My lightning doesn’t travel far enough through his body to touch it.
Not unless I let him get close to me.
It’s a dangerous move. It could end in disaster. But my options are getting slimmer. There’s no way to warn Jasper. He’ll react to defend me. So far, the other gargoyles have stayed out of the fight, but that could change in an instant.
I duck under Howl’s next swing, keeping my arms close to my chest. Using my shorter height to my advantage, I step right into his chest, palms turned outward. His heartstone is at eye height. So close. My hands snap out.
Right before I reach the stone, he squeezes closed the circle of his arms and my hands slam up against his pectoral muscles. The air whooshes out of my lungs. My left hand presses between his chest and shoulder, but my right hand is a mere inch away from the stone: right where I want it. As his arms slide closed, forming a cage around my back and waist, I let the lightning loose.
It shrieks through his chest, lighting up his bones and sinew, his enormous beating heart, even the outline of his lungs. Brilliant cobalt lig
ht rushes all the way through his torso, beaming out his back and burning through his wings.
There’s a flurry of sound behind Howl, shouts, falling screams, and then the gargoyles scatter outward. My assault has stretched far across the distance and burned anything in the way of it. I can’t see how many I killed and right now my focus is only on the heartstone.
My lightning reaches it, slamming into it, flowing through it…
It doesn’t break.
Howl shakes his head at me. “Little doll, you have much to learn. You can’t destroy a heartstone.”
Cassian appears overhead, shouting orders, and suddenly a stream of gargoyles pours toward me. Jasper leaps up to meet them, scattering the mass before it can reach me.
But now he’s made himself their target.
“Kill the male!” Cassian shouts.
I focus on Howl. “If I can’t destroy it, then I’ll take it from you.”
He laughs. “You can try.”
There’s a thump against the air as his wings spread wide. With a single downward beat, he sweeps us into the air. I struggle against him, because this was definitely not part of the plan. Horror rushes through me at the possibility that he’s going to fly away with me and I won’t know what’s happening to Jasper or Baelen or the Phoenix.
I don’t know whether to be happy or terrified when he flies straight for the rock face behind me, knocking me against it and pinning me high up. His toe claws slide neatly into the rock, as do his wing daggers, leaving his hands free to push my shoulders against the smooth stone. He doesn’t seal his wings against the rock, which means I can see past them. Down below, four gargoyles already lie dead at Jasper’s feet, but he won’t be able to defend himself against all of them.
Howl presses against me, forcing my hands hard up against his chest. The pressure makes it hard to move them, but I’m surprised he doesn’t try to capture my hands since I just told him I was going to take his Heartstone.
“You won’t succeed,” he says. “Only a gargoyle can handle a gargoyle heartstone. One touch and it will kill you, elf. What I’m trying to decide is whether to let you kill yourself.”
I don’t know if I should believe him. It’s bound to be a trick. I inch my hand across, trying to leverage my arm, my skin burning where it drags between us. I have one more trick up my sleeve.
Thunder.
The air thumps.
Thunder echoes out from me, freezing everything around us in a giant ripple. I can’t see much beyond Howl’s wings but all sound stops. For a moment.
And then the thump rushes back at me. My eyes widen as Howl blinks slowly, paused and concentrating, inhaling at the same time as if he’s sucking the effect of the thunder into himself, reversing it within seconds. Sound and movement strike up again and the fight resumes below us.
I didn’t get any closer to the heartstone. “How…?”
“We are evenly matched,” he says. “We could fight each other for days and neither of us would win.”
I grit my teeth and force my hand the final distance toward the heartstone. I’m a hairsbreadth away.
Howl peers down at my hand with amusement. “Do you really wish to die, little doll?”
At the last moment, when I’m about to curl my fingers around the heartstone, Howl lurches backward, releasing me from the pressure. At the same time, he gives himself leverage to wrench my hand away from the stone in a show of strength. He shoves both my arms back against the rock, pinning them bent upward beside me.
“It would be a shame to let you kill yourself… Storm Princess.” He leans in, his mouth close to mine, inhaling against my cheek. “You are more beautiful than the stories say.”
I shudder, repulsion racing through every nerve. “And you are more monstrous.”
He laughs, his chest rumbling and his hips pressing into mine. “I hear you are in need of a husband.”
I grit my teeth. I seriously miss my armor right now. It’s unbreakable—unlike the gray thermal suit I’m wearing. I would feel a lot safer if I was wearing it.
“Don’t worry,” he says, still chuckling. “I won’t bed you. You are far too fertile and I don’t want an heir. Especially not a half-caste.” His laughter dies and his mouth twists into a cruel line. “The only thing I’m uncertain about right now is whether or not to kill your friend.”
My eyes snap to where I last saw Jasper. I find him further to the right, kneeling in a sea of dead gargoyles, maybe twenty, even thirty. He’s ended them swiftly and cleanly, but now his wrists are shackled, chains pulling his arms out straight on both sides of his body by gargoyles. Cassian stands on the back of Jasper’s calves, his claws pinning them against the rock. He pulls Jasper’s head back and holds a knife against his throat.
I struggle against Howl but he doesn’t budge. I’m pinned. The worst place I could be, and I let it happen willingly… I made the wrong choice…
Burning fear rushes through me as Cassian’s blade glints. Jasper’s weapon is thrown far to the right, resting at the Storm’s feet. She huddles against the rock face, hands over her eyes, sobbing.
I scream, “Storm!”
She shakes her head. “I can’t…”
“Storm! Please!”
Howl thinks I’m talking to myself. “You can scream for your power as much as you like, little doll. It won’t do you any good.”
The Storm lifts her head, her hair cascading around her pale face, but she doesn’t speak to me. She cries to Jasper. “I… can’t. I made a choice when I became the storm. Please understand, I can’t fight them.”
Frustration replaces my fear. What on earth happened when she created herself? Whatever it was, it’s caged her somehow.
Jasper can’t see either of us with his head tilted back. He calls, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
But it’s definitely not okay. I’m pretty sure I’ve felt all the emotions because now it’s rage that courses through me. Howl hasn’t pinned my hand and I have no idea if it will work, but I flick my wrist and force as much lightning through my pointed finger as I can. A thin stream of it sizzles through the air, punches through the chest of the gargoyle holding Jasper’s left arm, and leaves a gaping hole behind. I quickly follow with a second, and the gargoyle holding the other chain drops dead on the spot.
Cassian is next. But he wrenches Jasper’s head even further backward. “My blade is sharp, elf! If I fall, I will kill him.”
I hesitate. The blade shines back at me. Am I so sure about my aim that I could dislodge the weapon and not hurt Jasper?
Howl smiles. “I see the male elf means something to you.” He twists in Cassian’s direction. “Keep him alive. I will use him as leverage.”
Howl relaxes for the first time, seeming satisfied that he has the upper hand now. Hot anger boils through me. As two new gargoyles step forward and pick up the chains, dragging Jasper’s arms upward again, I flick two quick warning bolts at their feet. I shout, “No chains! No weapons! He stands on his own.”
Howl grins at me. “Do as she says,” he calls, and to me he says, “I’ll give you this concession, but only because I’ve lost enough soldiers today.” A curious frown crinkles his forehead as he continues to press into me, seeming happy to stay right where he is. “Cassian told me you carried a dead male with you. Where is he?”
I search for Baelen beside the Phoenix, amazed none of the gargoyles have collided with him. He’s not where I left him and my heart stops for a moment. Did they do something to him?
I scan left and then right, finally locating Baelen in front of the gargoyle wings at the entrance to the cave. His expression hasn’t changed. His eyes are still closed. The Storm gives me a bleak look, her shoulders slumped so far forward that her arms hang across her chest. “I moved him for you,” she calls, staring at the ground. “That, at least, I can do.”
A bemused expression flickers over Howl’s face as he follows my line of sight to Baelen. “How does a dead elf stand up?”
He sli
des both arms around my back, pulling me away from the rock while keeping me imprisoned. He calls to his soldiers, “One of you, throw the dead elf over the cliff.”
“No!” I shout, the breath squeezing out of my lungs as Howl crushes me tighter.
“He means something to you, too. Very interesting.”
I gasp, trying to breathe. I have nothing to brace my feet against, scrabbling against his legs, and gravity is forcing my ribs against Howl’s arms, making the circle around me even tighter. “They shouldn’t touch him if they want to live. You said you’ve already lost enough—”
Howl isn’t listening. He roars, “Throw him over the edge!”
The two gargoyles who I threw the warning shots of lightning at, position themselves on either side of Baelen and prepare to take hold of his shoulders. I hold my breath, partly because I’m not sure what will happen, but mostly because I’m finding it very hard to breathe. Black spots appear across my vision and the ledge below me begins to slide sideways. I blink and try to focus, feeling like I’m going to throw up…
In the middle of my fuzzy vision a bright spark of light suddenly glows, a small explosion that lights up the encroaching darkness. Shapes fall to the ground around Baelen’s feet. An awful burning scent fills the air.
“Well, this night is full of surprises.” Howl’s crushing arms press closer and closer as my head swims. I need to focus on his face, but it blurs while the sounds around me swim and swirl.
I gasp. “Air… need air…”
He shakes his head at me. “You bound your deep magic around that male. Even I won’t be able to remove the shield you placed on him. But at least now I understand what is missing from you.”
I make a last attempt to gain my freedom, releasing all the lightning I have into my hands pressed against his chest. The deadly blaze pours through Howl into the air beyond us, but the gargoyles in the background keep clear this time.