“Where is my brother?” she asked, her voice hardening with all the false bravado of a young, would-be warrior. One that refused to show another sign of weakness when she was already trapped.
Kaelen dropped beside me before I could answer, hitting the snow hard enough that it scattered in a halo around him. His wings swept outward instinctively, silver marbling catching the light as he leaned over the edge.
His expression sharpened into something both furious and scared all at once, and he shot us a look that said he somehow blamed us for the trap.
“I told you not to follow me,” he snapped down at her, wings already spreading, posture shifting to launch himself into the pit.
“Wait!” I grabbed his arm to stop him from diving. “We have to do this carefully.”
Carefully… because one wrong move meant both of them would end up tangled in the web, or worse, that they’d summon the Korythid from wherever it was lurking.
Kaelen’s gaze flicked between Draven and me. Slowly, his frustration melted into fear.
Before I could explain, or we could form a semblance of a plan, another Skaldwing warrior flew overhead. His gray eyes darted between the three of us, down to the trapped female.
“Darik, wait—!” Kaelen shouted, but it was too late.
The soldier landed in the webbing feet-first. He bounced once before sinking several inches into the invisible lattice. He let out a slew of vicious curses as he kneeled beside the female and began hacking at the web with his dagger.
Kaelen didn’t follow him. Not yet, at least.
His wings folded tight against his back as he turned toward Draven. “What am I missing?”
The rest of Kaelen’s soldiers arrived in a flurry of wings. They looked ready to dive in after their kin until their Thane snapped a sharp command that held them back.
I barely registered their replies, or Draven’s low explanation about the frostbeast. Instead, my attention was fixed on the figures below us. The soldier continued to hack at the shimmering threads, swearing between frantic promises to free the female.
“We need to move quickly,” Draven continued over my shoulder. “And without getting ourselves caught in that web?—”
I didn’t hear the rest of his sentence beneath the frantic shuffling of Batty’s wings. She let out several small, angry sounds that I might have mistaken for growls if she were any other creature.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my blood ran colder than Draven’s ice.
Something shifted in the air, making it heavier, thicker, until I felt like I was drowning in the depths of the Siren Sea. Like my chest might cave in under all the pressure.
I forced a gasping breath just as a faint tremor rolled beneath my boots. It was so subtle. Delicate almost. A quiver of the earth rather than a quake. But then it just kept going. Growing. Tapping in a very deliberate rhythm.
It wasn’t like the distant roll of thunder or the shifting groan of ice or howl of the wind. It was something else… something alive.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The sound crawled up my spine like half-frozen claws hooking beneath my skin.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.
