There was something in her tone just a bit… off, when she mentioned the monsters. I tilted my head, the pieces falling rapidly into place.
“No, they wouldn’t have. And it never made sense that the frostbeasts were leaving Winter, unless…” Unless my uncle had lured them, for that very purpose, the same way he lured them to Wynnie’s estate.
Her guarded features were all the confirmation I needed. I cursed under my breath.
“How?” Even as I asked, the answer came to me, why there had been so many more slaves taken from the border when my uncle should have been saving his forces.
In all my studies, I hadn’t been able to figure out exactly how the frostbeasts hunted, but the explanation was right there. The Frostdrakes were drawn to mana in an obvious way, but all of the monsters were tied to Winter’s power, and some power had always seemed to call to them more than others.
Had he experimented on the fae to figure out what exactly drew the monsters in, or had he merely forced enough of them to use their mana to lure the creatures across the border?
“He’s learned to channel their mana through crystals, like a beacon for the frostbeasts,” she confirmed, not quite meeting my eyes.
Shards blasted everything.
Vaerin had been so much more cunning than we had given him credit for. And my mother had let him.
“None of that explains why you would risk coming here now.” My voice had an edge I didn’t bother to hide.
She blinked, tilting her head. “To get you out of here,” she said like it was obvious. “It isn’t safe for you here.”
Batty pressed further against my neck, and Lumen moved like he was ready to try to physically stop her from taking me even though she was one of the few people in the world who could overpower him with half of a thought.
“It isn’t safe for me anywhere,” I reminded her in a low tone. “I can’t just leave… Draven is here, and Wynnie.” And my friends. The people I was Queen to.
Even though I hadn’t said that last part aloud, it was like she heard the thought anyway. She let out a frustrated breath.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Everly,” she took another step toward me, her jaw tightening. “ I know that things went badly last time; that’s why I let you come here for protection. But you can’t honestly be planning to fight against your own people to stand with the Court that would just as soonkill you on sightas look at you if they knew the truth.”
My mana flared, like it was reminding me it existed now. And that it was still useless against exactly what she just claimed.
She pursed her lips, her tone softening. “Vaerin won’t hurt you directly, but there are others who won’t follow his lead, like Kaelen, and stars know he won’t keep your secret. You’ll be a target for both sides.”
I bit my tongue before I could remind her that that was nothing new for me. I had lived my entire life that way, and it sure as shards wouldn’t be enough to tear me away from my sister, from the other half of my frost-blasted soul, now.
But I couldn’t tell her that yet, not without information. So instead I swallowed, taking a calming breath.
“Then we can make a plan,” I said slowly. “How much time do we have before they come?”
Maybe if I hadn’t been looking directly at her, I wouldn’t have caught the single, fleeting moment of genuine remorse that flitted through her deep-green gaze.
Too late.
Her guilt. Her warning. The words that left her lips only after my mind had filled in the blanks.
The Unseelie weren’tcoming. They were already here.
Chapter 43
Draven
The ice released me at the edge of the village in a violent rush. Snow blasted outward in a ring, spraying against crumbling buildings and scattering across the ground like shattered glass.
Screams tore through the air from every direction. Dozens of them. Some pleading for help. Others begging for death.
“Noerwyn!” I shouted, the name ripped from my chest and was swallowed whole by the chaos.
Blue flames crowned the rooftops, frostfire chewing through timber in eerie, inverted coronas. Frostdrakes wheeled overhead, their torn wings beating in uneven, brutal strokes, each pass whipping the air into shrieking spirals of snow and icy flames.
