“Stop,” I finally ordered, and the stubborn bastard still had the nerve to ignore me.
“Ryland Storme, you’d better stop walking right this minute. Varian, look at that wound—he’s still bleeding and it’s been hours.”
“We’re almost there,” Ryland grunted. “Var can fuss over me all he wants as long as we’re off this plain before night falls.” He waved his hand over the sprawl of open desert behind us. “Unless you want to personally save my ass from the twenty Grimbeasts tracking us right now, commander.”
His eyes narrowed with pure meanness. “Do you, Lyrae? Want to fight more of them, because they’re getting closer? You want to play the hero and make reckless choices? Be my fucking guest.”
Our staring contest went from one tense second to a minute, then my shoulders sagged.
“No, you’re right. Let’s…get off this tundra. I should…” I picked at my filthy, crusted clothes. “Get this blood washed off. They can probably smell me from a mile away.” And you, I wanted to add, though I knew how that conversation would turn out.
“First intelligent thing you’ve said all day.”
“Gods, you’re an asshole,” I whisper-shouted. “Bleed to death, see if I care. Maybe it’syouthey’re tracking—ever think of that?”
“Let’s keep moving,” Varian muttered, “or we’re all endingup as Grimbeast chow. You can wash off in the lake, Lyrae. We’re nearly there. Once we get onto the island, we won’t have to worry about the Grimbeasts—or anything else—for tonight.”
“Let me guess, because we’ll be worrying about worse things?”
“Worse things…yes, you could say that.” Varian’s gaze remained fixed on something up ahead as we slogged through sand, every step dragging me down, siphoning off more and more precious energy. This reminded me too much of my days in the trenches, the mind-numbing exhaustion. If we were forced to run from the beasts, there was no doubt in my mind what the outcome would be.
“Gods, just look at that.” Varian’s hushed whisper had the hair on my arms prickling, and I lifted my head enough to take in the shadow rising in front of us, little more than a whisper of pale stone against a darkening vista, half consumed by layers of shifting fog.
Frostveil Keep.
The castle looked like something out of an ancient fairytale, slender, almost delicate ramparts reaching for the night sky like fingers grasping for the stars. A floating fortress that seemed suspended in a silvery, shifting nothingness; the sandy, barren desert sloped down to the banks of a mist-covered lake, where clouds of white rolled over a smooth, frozen surface like frothy icing.
I dragged in a breath, cold brushing my face, like the first kiss of winter.
After two days of sand and arid dryness, the dampness felt like a godsdamned gift.
Varian nodded at the castle, the flat stretch of island revealed by the curling mists. “That shoreline is where we need to be. Before darkness falls.”
As if on cue, a chorus of howls rose behind us, lifting the hair on the back of my neck.
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Walk. Carefully.” Ryland’s voice echoed over the misted ice, and the dread curling in my belly turned to all out fear.
“Walk across the ice? Is it even thick enough to hold our weight?” I glanced over my shoulder to where the howling grew louder. Closer. “Won’t the hounds keep tracking us?”
I’d barely held my own fighting three of the beasts on flat, even ground. Ice would make my footing impossible. We’d been walking for hours with no break, and we were all exhausted. And from the howls, there were at least ten Grimbeasts tracking us.
“No, the beasts never cross the water’s edge, for whatever reason, now hang on.” Varian’s calloused hand curled around mine.
Before I even knew we were flying, the world stretched out into that long, sickening smear, and when everything finally stopped moving, we stood alone in the center of the ice sheet, freezing water seeping up through the bottoms of my boots.
I went still, afraid to move, afraid to so much as breathe.
“Varian, what the hell are you doing?” I hissed. “This isn’t safe.”
Thiscouldn’tbe safe—didn’t feel safe—standing on…what? A few inches of frozen water, with gods-know-what lurking beneath me?
I shuddered, terror clawing at my insides, a terror I didn’t fully understand but couldn’t stop.
“Trust me, this is better than staying on land. Stay here.” Varian shoved his pack into my arms. “Don’t move. I’ll be back with Ryland.”
“Do you have to?” I hissed, swallowing down my horrorwhen the ice creaked beneath our feet. “He’s bad-tempered and stubborn and such an asshole. Maybe we could just leave him there?”
