Nevara’s sightless eyes swirled with liquid starlight as she turned toward the soldiers, stopping directly in front of Commander Astreval—the male who had been moments away from suggesting my wife be eliminated.
Rage flared hot and sharp in my chest. Astra pressed against my leg, as if she was reminding me to hold my temper. I placed my hand on her massive head to keep myself from a swift line of painful executions, waiting instead for my Visionary to finish what she had come here to do.
“Allow me to finish your sentence, Commander,” she said calmly. “If anything should befall the Shard Mother’s chosen Winter Queen, the land will never be set right again. The frostbeasts will overrun us. Winter will fall, and you will fall with it.”
Her voice carried the unmistakable weight of prophecy. The kind that raised the hairs along my spine.
Because Everly was by no means safe, even if my soldiers stood down and refused to fight.
As if the land itself agreed, the ground shuddered beneath us.
Morta mea, I began.
No. You were right before… in the clearing when you said that I kept choosing to be alone. But so do you.
Distantly, I heard Nevara’s voice carry across the courtyard.
“Fight together,” she called, “or die alone. Those are the only choices left to us today.”
The ground shook again with more intensity this time. Eryx stepped forward, signalling that he was ready to fight.
“The king has fought for us. For your families. For all of Winter, a thousand times over. Will you refuse to fight for him now? For all of us?”
They stood straighter, and one by one, they looked back to me.
“Your families are in that palace,” I said in a voice that carried like thunder. “Failure is not an option. For too long, the monsters have ravaged our land. But that ends today. It ends now.”
One battle at a time. It had been our lives for so long. But now, there was an end in sight, a hope to balance Winter’s mana.
But first we had to live through this night.
I stepped back, pulling Everly against my side. Something had shut off in my mind the day my parents were slaughtered, the day I was forced to choose between losing my kingdom in an instant or destroying it slowly over time.
Since then, I hadn’t allowed myself to feel things like panic or fear… not untilshecame along.
I felt both of those things now, stealing the breath from my lungs and driving jagged blades of ice into my gut. There was no protecting her out here.
Then we’ll protect each other,she said.
One by one, she showed me images. The arrow sailing into my chest. The barrier pulsating while I was trapped inside. She let me feel the sensation of her ring burning cold, and the unrelenting panic that seized her entire being every time it did.
In a quieter voice, she added,I can’t live in a cage for my own safety, Draven. Not ever again.
I heard what she didn’t say. She would find a way to break free of the palace even if I tried to force her to go. We had a snowball’s chance in all the hells of making it through this battle, but if we did… there was a future on the other side of it.
It took everything in me, more strength than I had used to break the barrier, to slowly nod my head.
Then stay by my side, Morta Mea. We do this together or not at all.
A small smile tilted the corner of her lips, but it died as quickly as it came.
Because that’s when the wards flickered, just before they came down entirely.
Chapter 50
Everly
Ibarely had time to spin around before the first onslaught of mana came.
