I tried again to breathe, but even that felt dangerous, as if I might shatter at any moment.
A strangled gasp escaped me as I jolted awake. But the agony didn’t fade when I opened my eyes. Instead, it clawed up my spine and clamped around my heart, forcing my vision to blur at the edges.
Shadows swirled through the air as jagged towers of ice jutted from the floor and walls, rising like crystalline barricades around me on the bed. Frost crept along the carved posts, up the curtains, and across the pillows beneath my hands.
This was nothing like Draven’s mana, not even in the throes of one of his nightmares. It was chaos. Desperate and feral. Vicious, even.
A low growl scraped through the room as he shot upright on the other side of my self-imposed icy prison. His teal eyes flashed with a predatory glow as he took in the ice and shadows that I couldn’t control.
His mana rose to meet mine, slicing through it in crisp, precise waves as he fought to reach me.
“Everly—” he snarled, frost spilling from his entire person in a violent rush.
He pushed through the frozen barrier, shattering the icy towers in an instant. Then, his mana curled through the ice and threaded into the shadows hovering just above my skin, as if reaching for each of them by name. Like he knew them as well as he knew me.
He coaxed, commanded, and finally forced them to retreat enough so he could wrap me in his arms.
Shadows crept along his skin, then beneath it, flooding his veins, like he was siphoning the mana into himself to ease the pressure.
Slowly, agonizingly, the jagged pillars around the room began to withdraw. They thinned and softened until they melted into droplets that pattered against the marble floor like gentle rainfall.
It was over before it had truly begun.
Small white clouds fogged the air in front of me. Panicked, hitching breaths that slipped past my lips and jolted my trembling body.
What have I done?
The thought echoed through me as I watched Draven subdue the shadows writhing beneath his skin. His grip tightened around my waist, tugging me flush against his chest as we caught our breaths.
A faint scratching sounded at the windows, and with a flick of his wrist, Draven used his mana to force them open to allow Batty inside.
She swooped down to encompass my neck in her wings, nestling her head beneath my chin and making small comforting noises.
Breathe, Everly.I told myself.Just breathe.
The power that had raged so intensely before was quieter now that Draven had siphoned so much of it away, but I could still feel it churning deep inside of me, like a predator pacing the walls of its cage, waiting for the perfect moment to strike again.
As my mana’s hold on me loosened, so did Draven’s. Though he circled his fingers around my wrist, he eased back to his side of the bed, taking one heaving breath after another.
The air between us was heavy with all the blame we weren’t quite speaking into existence. But his unspoken accusations cut all the deeper for knowing they were true.
What if he hadn’t been here? What if I had returned to my own rooms and Wynnie had been the one lying next to me?Would it have hurt her? Killed her? Killed us both? Would it still?
And what would it cost Draven in the meantime?
Breathe.
I forced my gaze away from his pale, ridged skin and the phantom traces of my shadows still writhing beneath.
There was no choice, I reminded myself.
Yes, my mana was volatile, but it was still the only thing that had a single prayer of saving Winter. Of savingDraven.
That had never been truer than it was now without even the Visionary to guide us. Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I finally forced myself to speak.
“You said we can’t access the chamber without Nevara,” I said slowly, replaying his words in my head.
The ring hadn’t vibrated, and the truth of his words had reverberated through our bond, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other options.
