Ezer stood frozen as the ravens soared away … and then there was only silence.
She’d asked the gods for help out of desperation, not truly believing they’d listen.
But the birds – her beautiful, black-as-night ravens – had saved her.
The cacophony stopped just as suddenly as it started.
Two sets of enormous paw prints were the only sign that the wolves had ever been there at all. Hundreds of black feathers softly settled upon the snow.
Magic,she thought.
It was the only explanation she could come up with.
Flakes tumbled lazily down from the sky, landing on Ezer’s nose. The ground was already filling with it, covering the imprints of shadow wolf paws that had been left on either side of her.
A deep inhale to remind herself that she was still alive, and Ezer found her heart settling.
Her vision came back to normal as the panic left her bit by bit. And a strange blanket of peace – a feeling she had not felt in ages – washed over her.
‘Minder!’
The sound of a human voice would have been so sweet, were it nothis.
He was still far enough away that she couldn’t see him, but the prince called out again – ‘Minder!’
She whirled to find Arawn sprinting through the trees. He hadn’t noticed her yet. His eyes were wide and wild as he rushed through the woods, following the path of her footsteps.
‘Ezer!’
It was the first time she’d ever heard him say her name. The first time she’d heardanyonesay her name in ages.
Something deep within her winked open, and she realized what a miracle it was that she was here… alive.
And it was all because of the birds.
Arawn practically skidded to a stop as he noticed her standing there. His chest rose and fell as he looked her up and down from twenty paces away, as if searching for injuries.
He looked nothing like the polished prince from earlier.
Now he looked like the bringer of death.
Black blood splattered his cloak and painted the strands of his hair that had come loose from his long white braid. One side of his cloak and tunic was ripped through, revealing the hardened muscles of his torso beneath, the V that crept towards his waist, and –gods.
Thiswas more like it.
No sooner had she thought it than she shook herself, disgusted with the wave of desire.
She couldn’t possibly be admiringhimin this moment.
‘Would you stop screaming?’ she said. Her voice came out in a raw hiss. ‘You’ll call the wolves back.’
The sound of her voice seemed to shake him, and he looked down at the pile of feathers surrounding her.
‘What happened?’ he said.
Not quite a question. A command.
And something about her recoiled at that. It washerstory,herbirds,herstrangety that had saved her. And perhaps that truth was the only thing she’d ever had to call her own.
