“I’m trying to stop the fighting,” Lisabet replied, lifting both hands to gesture to the carnage around them. “I’m trying—”
Sigrid cut her off. “You will join the pack this instant. All of you will join the pack.”
“We won’t,” said Lisabet, lifting her chin.
Sigrid stared at her, fury in her pale-blue eyes.
“You’re no daughter of mine,” she said, the words carrying perfectly clearly over the noise around them.
Even in draconic form, Anders heard Ellukka’s gasp, sparks spilling from her mouth as she let out a quick breath, as if someone had punched her in the stomach. He could practically hear her voice:Daughter? The Fyrstulf’s daughter?
Lisabet’s head bowed, her shoulders rounding, as her mother’s words went through her like a weapon.
Sigrid simply looked away, dismissing Lisabet completely, to survey the other Ulfar students ranged in front of Rayna and Ellukka. “All of you will come with me,” she snapped.
Nobody moved.
With a snarl, Sigrid sank back into her wolf form, baring her teeth.
Anders heard himself give an answering snarl, and then he heard it echoed, louder and deeper, behind him.
With a sound halfway between a groan and a roar, his sister was staggering to her feet, ignoring her burns, to defy the Fyrstulf. And knowing she was there gave Anders the strength to address the furious pack leader directly.
I don’t know what the icefire will do if it hitsyouinstead of your spears, he said, speaking with a flick of his ears, a snarl that bared his teeth.And I don’t want to find out, but I will if you make me.
You are cast out, she snarled in reply.You are exiled from the pack.
And then she lifted her head and howled, long and loud, summoning the Wolf Guard to join her and take up the fight.
Panic ran through Anders’s friends, and they backed up, tails low, heads swinging around as they looked for escape. Mateo howled a warning beside him, and Anders whipped around in time to see Mikkel and Theo swooping low overhead.
Let them down!he howled to his friends, raising his voice above the cacophony of battle.
Lisabet was running back to Ellukka as her mother howled her summons, and she joined Anders in shouting to their friends. “Let’s go! Now, all of us!”
Anders saw the moment the realization hit his friends. They’d just lined up to defend him. Sigrid’s order of exile had included all of them.
They’d just made themselves traitors. The very deepest part of him was pierced with pain at the knowledge he was forever separated from the pack. But they had not a moment to lose—the Wolf Guard were racing toward them, to join the Fyrstulf and take up arms against them.
Viktoria was the first one to throw herself back into human form, making the transformation as neatly as ever, despite the chaos. Mikkel and Theo took it as a sign, and each of them landed, buffeting the wolves with wind as they flared their wings.
Anders stayed in wolf form—he had to be ready, in case more icefire was needed, though already he wasn’t sure if he could manage it again. He wasn’t sure it would help.
Sakarias ran alongside him in human form, his gray Ulfar cloak flapping, and together they scrambled up onto Rayna’s back, grabbing hold of the half-burned straps. Surely, any moment now, Sigrid would throw an ice spear—and with her strength, it would be deadly, killing whoever it struck.
But as they ran and scrambled to safety, the spear didn’t come.
He could see Viktoria climbing up behind Lisabet, Mateo climbing onto Mikkel’s back, and Jai pulling Det up behind them on Theo’s back.
The Wolf Guard were seconds away from joining their leader now, at least a dozen of them running up behind Sigrid, and any moment the adult dragons overhead would realize what they were doing. With Mikkel and Theo back in the fray, their pursuers had come as well, and there were more dragons up there than ever.
As the Wolf Guard reached her, finally Sigrid came to life once more, and ice spears flew past on either side of them. Whatever hesitations she’d had about attacking her daughter, about attacking children, were gone, and the Fyrstulf joined the other pack members as they tried to take down the Finskólars and their passengers.
What would the wolves and dragons do if the children fled? Would both sides keep on fighting?
Anders knew he couldn’t let that happen.
He reached deep within himself, pulling every ounce of his power to the surface, and howling to Rayna as she launched. He could see what every movement was costing her now, but she made a noise he hoped was a reply and winged her way up once more.
