Colden groans and gets to his knees, shrugging off his broken chains. Long moments pass as he uttersNo, no, no, no, noover and over before extending a quickly reddening, trembling hand.
He splays his fingers wide and focuses his gaze straight ahead. The veins in his temples and neck pop from the strain, standing out sharply in relief against his fair skin. His whole body shakes from the effort.
Nothing happens.
Panting, he drops his head, blowing out a ragged breath. He curls his fingers into a tight grip and pounds a white-knuckled fist against the ground. “Well, fuck all. We’re balls deep in trouble now.”
Whispers of uneven breathing and the crunch of footfalls across the icy wreckage behind me send me scrambling for my dagger. The cold hilt is in my hand, its sharp tip aimed at a slender neck in the time it takes a heart to push out a beat.
Just as fast, a hand grips my wrist. I gasp and draw back. I’m on one knee, the woman above me wide-eyed as a startled doe.
Nephele.
I shove to my feet and crush her to me, ready to take her and run, just like Rhonin said.
“Raina!” She squeezes me tight and pulls away to look at me, smiling, stroking my face with her thumbs. “My sweet girl! You’re really here!”
It’s been so long, yet she feels the same. Sounds the same. Smells the same. Gods, I’ve missed her so much. So much that it takes all that I am not to break down into a puddle of tears right here on this godsforsaken road.
How did we get here? Two farmers’ daughters from Silver Hollow fighting a truly evil man to save Tiressia? Breathing the same air as an ancient god?
I hug her again. My heart has so many wounds—it’s shredded—but I swear, being here with Nephele, hearing her voice, seeing her face, looking into her eyes, has already begun a sort of mending.
Some witches from her wagon stumble alongside the road whileothers help those in need. I look Nephele over. A knot swells on her forehead, above her eye, and there are bruises and cuts, visible in the moonlight. She looks so very tired.
“Are you all right?”I ask.“Is anyone badly injured?”
“I am fine,”she signs.“We are fine. Battered and drained, but we have endured worse than a wagon tumble.”
A wagon tumble. Was it an accident? Or…
No. Neri did this. Neri and his mist. He could’ve killed us. Maybe that’s what he intended. Or maybe he was only coming for Colden, his nemesis. Either way, Colden was right. Neri left his people here, abandoned in the wood of his land, with Eastlanders.
I hate him even more than before.
Colden clears his throat. “This is a truly lovely reunion, but I’m fairly certain that the battle for the end of Tiressia is happening just up the way. So if you ladies would care to join me, we still have a fight on our hands.”
Amid everything, Nephele darts across the remains of our destroyed wagon where Colden now stands. When she flings herself at him and throws her arms around his neck, he sweeps her up into an embrace, and then she kisses him right on the mouth. Colden smiles, too, even while he kisses Nephele in return.
There’s actualjoyin his expression. The frigid Frost King, grinning like an imp, even after facing Neri and having his power torn from his chest. It’s almost as alarming as seeing the naked God of the North form from fog.
Nephele presses her forehead against Colden’s. “I didn’t know what happened to you after they took you. And then I saw…” She shakes her head. “I don’t know what I saw. I couldn’t have seen what IthinkI saw. I must’ve hit my head harder than I believed.”
“I’m fine.” He kisses her once more, setting her on her feet. “Youdidsee it. Neri was here, which makes absolutely no sense, but it was real.”
“But how is that possible?” Concern edges Nephele’s features as she looks him over. “And what did he do to you?”
Part of me wants to stop their conversation and tell Nephele that it’s possible because Vexx killed Alexus, their friend. How do they notrealize that? That Alexus’s death meant Neri’s freedom? Should I tell and risk upsetting them right now?
Nephele runs her hand over Colden’s ruined coat and tunic, tugging the fabric back enough to reveal a portion of a pink starburst blooming on the niveous skin of his slender yet muscled torso. The mark is just like the one I saw on Alexus’s chest in the ravine.
Colden shrugs his bloody shoulder. “I have no godsdamn clue how it’s possible. As for what Neri did? Let’s just say I’m not exactly deadly anymore, but if we can find a sword or two, that can quickly change. Let’s search the Eastlanders.”
Nephele gives Colden a worried look. “He removed the curse? Your power? That’s what I saw him doing?”
Colden nods, raising his brows. “Thus, we need all the weapons we can find.”
With a new weight settled on her shoulders, Nephele hurries to her wagon while I go looking for Killian. I tuck Rhonin’s dagger into a leather loop at the waist of my trousers, my mind racing around too many things to sort.
