“Is it?” Despite the noise, Remy’s sneering tone was crystal clear.
I twisted in my saddle and glared at the man riding behind me.
He smirked. “Careful, you’re a terrible rider. If you fall, I’m not stopping to pick you up.”
I saw the truth in his eyes and returned my focus to the horse in front of me. Heels down. Squeeze with your thighs. Hold the reins gently. What else had Pierce told me? Something about relaxing into the horse’s gait?
The trees whipped by in a blur of deep brown trunks, snow-laden branches, and gathering darkness.
“Fuck!” Zane’s horse slid to a stop.
Buttercup did too. I lost my seat and nearly flew between her ears. Only Remy’s quick tug on my cloak stopped me from flying over Buttercup’s head. His other hand caught my arm, steadying me.
“Thank you.” I was near breathless, and my voice was a rasp.
He grunted, but his grip lingered a moment longer than necessary as he made sure I was secure.
When he released me, I looked to see what had made Zane stop so suddenly.
Nians blocked the path. At least ten of them. Their white scales seemed unnaturally bright in the gloaming. And the smell … they reeked of putrid death. The stench was overwhelming, and I pressed my hand to my mouth, opened my eyes wide, and concentrated on not throwing up. “What now?”
“We die,” Remy said flatly.
“Is there any trick to killing them?” I asked.
“Trick?”
“Like a wyvern’s eyes or …” My voice trailed off at the contemptuous expression on Remy’s face.
With a curl of his lip and a quirked brow, he let me know I was an absolute idiot. “No tricks. But we’re outnumbered five to one.”
“Three to one.”
“You think you can fight?”
“You just said we were dead, so what’s the harm?”
The expression on his face turned thunderous. Probably because he couldn’t counter my argument.
My hand closed around the grip of a sword, and I called on Teal’s earth magic. The power came more easily than ever before. Stronger. Vines erupted and wrapped around the nians’ ankles. Thorns effortlessly pierced their scales.
The nians screeched in fury. Their fearsome claws ripped the vines from their legs.
I sent more vines, greenery to trip their feet, circle their legs, and slow their attack. What would happen if I added wyvern venom to Teal’s vines? Now wasn’t the time to try something new. Not when Zane and Remy had leaped from their horses with their swords drawn.
I stared at the monsters. One stood taller. Intelligence gleamed in its red eyes, and it seemed amused. That was when I remembered. We’d been running from nians. There were more behind us.
I looked back, and my heart stuttered. I couldn’t count the monsters. There were too many. And they all looked … hungry.
Swallowing a lump of fear, I used Grayson’s wind to blow the nians backward, then I surrounded us with a thick wall of ice that reached toward the treetops. We had a chance against ten. If the nians at our backs attacked, we’d be ripped to shreds in minutes.
The nians on the outside studied the wall, tilting their hideous heads to gauge its height, then they gouged their claws into the ice and began to climb.
Think.
Think!
I called forth a violent gust of wind, strong enough to shake the ice walls. A few nians fell; the rest continued to climb. Vines reached for their legs, slowing them. Not stopping them.
