“No, Lara, you—”
“There’s no other way,” Lara cut her off. She understood the risk she was about to take. Fire-madness breathed down her neck, but she had to help. Heart pounding, she then turned to her counselor and seer. Annis’s lips were blue. Ice glittered off her eyelashes.
Ruari had pulled his fur cloak close around his spare frame, yet now shivered uncontrollably. “B … but it’s not s … safe for you,” he replied through chattering teeth.
“No.” Lara started fumbling for her cairn stone. Curse it, her numb fingers wouldn’t cooperate. “But if I don’t act, we’re all done for.” Her fingers curled around the icy lump of stone, and her chin kicked up. Curses rang across the hillside then. The press of knavoar was close to overwhelming their companions. “Grab those two torches over there. I’ll need them.”
Both Annis and Ruari nodded, stumbling as they hurried to do Lara’s bidding.
Meanwhile, Lara flexed her numb fingers around the cairn stone and reached deep.Gods. She hoped her body and mind wouldn’t fail her. Not now.
“Be careful,” Bree’s voice was low, urgent. “Don’t push too hard.”
Not like you did with the Slew. Not like last time when you lost control and nearly killed us all.
She didn’t say it. She didn’t need to.
Lara brushed past her, flexing her left hand. The fingers trembled.Stop it. Stop shaking. She clenched them into a fist.
Below, the fight was chaos. Blades striking ice. Bodies moving in a blur. Alar and Sablebane fought back-to-back—father and son—their movements mirroring each other. That was new. She’d never seen them—
Focus.
Her mind kept slipping, sliding away like feet on ice. The fever had only just broken. Her body felt hollowed out, scraped clean.
“Bring the torches.” Her voice came out steady. That was better. “Drive them into the ground. There … a little farther right. Then get clear.”
Annis and Ruari obeyed, their faces taut, hands shaking from cold and terror.
Lara stared at the torches. The flames guttered, dying. The frost spirits were choking them out. Soon there would be nothing left but smoke and darkness.
She reached out with her mind and touched the fire.
29: TOO FAR TO FAIL
ALAR SHOULD HAVE let someone else go to Lara as she crumpled to the ground, but he didn’t.
He crossed the distance between him and his wife in long strides and scooped her up into his arms. He then turned and climbed the slope, back to where their fire pit still burned—brightly now, in response to the fire magic that had just roared through the hollow.
Lara had been magnificent.
He’d watched her flames whip around the frost spirits. Spindly bodies melted. Boiling water bubbled across the ground. Steam rose in thick clouds. And then, it was over.
However, her actions had come at a cost. She’d acted bravely, had driven back the knavoar and saved her friends’ lives.
But she was burning up in his arms.
Fuck.
He lowered her by the fire and then reached for a waterskin.
“Here.” Annis was at his side then, handing him a scrap of linen. “You’ll need this.”
He took it, wetting it thoroughly before wiping the sweat from Lara’s flushed face and brow. Her breathing was quick and shallow, and when he felt her pulse, it fluttered like a caged moth against his fingers.
“It’s worse than last time,” he muttered.
“Let me help.” Ren knelt opposite, her slender fingers moving in the air above Lara. Her voice, soft and tremulous, filtered over their camp. It was a haunting melody.
