...just as night fell.
“Come on!” he growled, as they came to a clearing in the trees, far beyond the Gates. Far beyond the safety of the wards. Six stopped her running, hackles raised as she tucked her wings close to her body and paused, glancing back over her shoulder at him.
“What is it?” Arawn asked. “Where is she?”
Because at first...he saw nothing but thick evergreens, and branches broken and twisted, and a great, carved up portion of snow that looked like the claws of a giant had gouged into the earth.
The mark of a mighty winged beast, crashing into the snow.
He’d seen it countless times on the battlefield.
He’d seen it with Soraya’s own war eagle, months ago, and now...
Fear hit him like a bolt of lightning. Like a penancebrand to his chest, because he was taken right back to that night again. When everything had broken.
When he was left cold and desperate andalone.
“Gods,” he breathed, as he saw the ring of ravens in the snow just beyond.
They’d made a tiny shield wall. A circle of dark sentries, standing guard in the darkness, and in their middle...
“Ezer,” Arawn gasped. And Kinlear beside her, both of them curled upon their sides...with blood staining the snow beneath them.
He ran for them, half-stumbling as he fell to his knees.
He felt like he’d fallen right back into the past, felt the terror and the panic return to him like it had been there all along, biding its time until it could claw its way back to the surface.
“What happened?” he snarled over his shoulder at Six, as if the beast would answer him, but she only let out a softcawthat sent the ravens soaring towards the treetops.
“Please,” Arawn gasped, turning back to Ezer. “Pleasebe alright.”
Her cloak was runed, just enough warmth left that her lips hadn’t turned fully blue. She’d spread it across herself and Kinlear, as if she’d been awake after the crash, enough to think of savinghim.
Arawn’s hands found her face, searching for wounds. No blood upon her, but she was too cold, too frail—what if something inside was broken? What if she was too far gone, what if he was too late?
No,he thought.I won’t lose her. Not like this.
He dared anyone to defy him, even the gods themselves.
She would not die tonight.
Carefully, Arawn pulled her into his lap, her head lolling against his chest.
Lifeless.
Cold.
It sent a shockwave of terror through him, but then she groaned and leaned furtherintohim, as if she sensed his presence, his warmth, his fire.
And it struck him, suddenly, how the last time he’d scooped someone from the snow, bent and broken...
They’d tried to murder him.
But Ezer only leaned into his touch... as if she felt safe with him.
A strangled cry left his lips, relief flooding him.
Hope.
