One of the creatures dropped.
It plummeted straight down, talons extended, moving faster than gravity alone could account for. Briar threw herself sideways, her bound hands making the movement clumsy. Talons raked the ground where she'd been, leaving gouges in the earth.
The creature's face turned to her, beautiful in the way winter was beautiful—stark and deadly. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of needle teeth.
"Warm one," it said, voice like wind through ice. "Lord waits. Lord wants."
Another dropped behind her. "Bring the warm one."
"Not yours!" A third landed between her and where Thaine and Karse had finally noticed the new threat. This one was larger, its wings spanning fifteen feet. "Mountain claims. Mountain takes."
Karse's fire roared toward it, but the creature launched itself upward, the flames passing beneath. Two more dove at him from different angles, forcing him to defend rather than attack.
Thaine's blade sang as he struck at another, but they moved like wind itself—there one moment, gone the next. "Harpies," he snarled. "Mountain Court creatures. Malachar's pets."
Malachar.
Every muscle locked with remembered terror. The way his hand had felt on her throat, the cold touch of his ice as it bled across her skin while he'd discussed what he planned to do to her. She could still smell his breath, feel the bruises he'd left, hear his promise that he'd finish what he'd started.
And now his creatures were here. For her.
"Pets?" The large one laughed, the sound like breaking icicles. "Allies. Hunters. Take warm one to ice lord. He waits. He promises feast."
Her legs wouldn't work properly, terror making her clumsy. She tried to run but tangled in the remnants of burned vines, going down hard. Her palms scraped against earth that had gone cold—too cold for the forest, as if winter itself was reaching for her through Malachar's creatures.
Talons seized her shoulders.
Not the large one but a smaller harpy that had circled behind while the others fought. Its grip pierced through the cloak and nightgown, sharp points finding flesh. She screamed as it lifted, her weight tearing the wounds wider. Not just from pain but from the knowledge of where they were taking her. To him. To whatever revenge he'd planned while nursing his ruined eye.
Thaine's vines shot toward her, but the harpy carrying her twisted, using Briar's body as a shield. The vines recoiled rather than risk hitting her.
The smaller harpy struggled with her weight, wings beating frantically. They rose slowly, too slowly. Briar twisted despite the agony in her shoulders, trying to break free.
The harpy shrieked and released her.
She fell ten feet, hitting the ground hard enough to drive all breath from her lungs. Through tears of pain, she saw Frederick clinging to the harpy's face, his water form forcing itself into the creature's nose and mouth.
"Brave sprite," the large harpy said, almost approving. Then its talons found Briar's shoulders—deeper than the first, meant to hold. "But small. Not enough."
This time the ascent was swift and sure. She caught glimpses of the battle below. Karse was wreathed in flame, multiple harpies keeping him earthbound despite their burns and Thaine was entangled in a fighting retreat, his blade barely keeping them at bay.
The forest canopy rushed past, branches whipping at her legs. More harpies joined them in the air, surrounding her bearer, their broken speech a chorus.
"Ice lord waits."
"Warm one comes."
"Mountain claims."
"Feast promised."
The forest fell away beneath them as they flew north. The temperature plummeted with each wingbeat, her thin nightgown useless against the cold. Blood ran warm down her back where the talons gripped, the only heat she could feel.
Through blurring vision, she saw Frederick's tiny bubble struggling to keep pace, jumping from cloud to cloud with desperate determination.
The mountains rose before them, white-capped and forbidding. At their highest peak, a tower of ice caught the setting sun, and even from this distance, she could see a figure on its balcony.
Malachar.
