The sounds of wings tearing from flesh, of bones crunching beneath teeth, of screams ending in wet, choked sobs rent the air. And then they echoed again and again courtesy of the Wretches.
Mana poured from my body on instinct.
Tendrils of shadow snaked beneath chitin armor and around sinewy throats. Ice rose and fell in jagged lines, as a shield or javelin, weapon or protection, whatever I needed it to be.
Something moved in the corner of my vision, sneaking through the shadows in an all too familiar way. I darted a glance over my shoulder just in time to watch a tree ripple and wrench itself free from the ground.
A Mirrorbane. Its roots lashed out like whips, striking at the air, at other monsters and fae, at anything it could reach. Pain exploded behind my eyes as one root struck my side, and another snaked around my ankle.
The monster gave a violent tug, wrenching me from the air and slamming me down into the frozen ground below.
Batty hissed, her body trembling as she soared toward the frostbeast. I tried to call her back, to stop her before the Mirrorbane could?—
The thought cut off as I watched lightning burst free from her tiny body, striking the trunk of the Mirrorbane. It convulsed, its grip loosening just enough for me to slip free.
When I climbed to my feet, Draven was already there, standing between me and the monster. Batty flitted away just as Draven’s ice tore through the frostbeast. It raced along the trunk, leaves, roots, and branches.
Shades of blue and white glowed brightly between the lines in the bark as they split even wider, crystallizing the frostbeast before shattering it completely with a flick of his wrist.
He turned back to me immediately, scanning me from head to toe, his hands already glowing with pale blue light as they hovered just short of touching.
Are you hurt?
I’m fine, I told him, even as my pulse roared in my ears.
His jaw clenched, fury radiating off him in cold, lethal waves. But Draven didn’t argue. He hauled me to my feet and launched himself toward the next monster racing forward.
From that moment on, he didn’t fight to hold the line, or to defend his people. He hunted.Punished.
The frigid wind whipped around us, ice swirling in maelstroms that refracted the light of the auroras across the blood-soaked snow.
Any monster that even angled toward me drew his full attention. Ice rose in violent spikes, impaling, crushing, and tearing creatures apart with ruthless precision. He icewalked across shattered ground and fallen bodies, intercepting threats before I could fully register them, his power flaring brighter and colder every time one dared come too close.
And I could see it so clearly. How he really was the Frostgrave King. The monster that others should fear. And he was mine. All mine.
I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want to spill any more blood. But I would do whatever it took to give him a world where he could be something else for a change.
Where he didn’t have to live a half-life waiting for the axe to fall, or for the moment where he needed to be the executioner and nothing more. I would fight at his side to give him a world that held so much more for him.
Draven and I moved together like we had been designed for this very thing. Like we were two sides of the same blade, our mana morphing and syncing together in perfect harmony, anticipating the other’s moves and responding accordingly.
I drove my shadows into the ground, binding a cluster of Wretches and Brakhounds in place as they snapped and thrashed. A heartbeat later, his ice collapsed over them, jagged frost slamming down with lethal precision.
Not willing to be the third wheel, Batty streaked through the aftermath in a blur of white, shrieking as she dove, her venom-laced bite finding exposed flesh and eyes.
Her tiny form hovered in the air for the span of a heartbeat before she released a concentrated surge of mana that crackled like blue lightning. Frost-laced energy tore through the bound bodies of the monsters, several of them convulsing before stilling completely.
Well, hells.Draven’s thought echoed through my mind as Batty dove for a Tharnok next.
Remind me to actively work toward getting on her good side,he added a moment later.
That’s between you and the ‘flying rodent’, as you have so eloquently described her?—
Any amusement I might have briefly felt died as soon as I glanced up at the charging Gorenvyr.
The massive frostbeast tore through the battlefield like a living avalanche. Its long, ice-matted hair whipped around its muscled hide as it lowered its horned head and barreled straight for us. Draven turned to meet it, glaciers erupting in its path to slow it down.
The monster crashed through them all, barely breaking its stride. I twisted shadows around its hooved legs, fusing each of them with frost. The Gorenvyr barely noticed the manacles, slowing but not stopping it.
