Angelique flattened her lips at the sight, but she didn’tspeak.
A minute or two passed, and in less time than she would have expected, she heard the first muffled footfalls ofhooves.
Twisting in the thicket, Angelique hurriedly scooped more magic into her control as she peered through the night, trying to see the incomingmonsters.
The nightmare was skinny and skeletal. Its sickly black coat smelled like rot, but when it peeled back its lips to reveal sharpened, jagged teeth, the potent smell of blood clouded theair.
“Craftmage,” the rider hissed, a hooded black figure in a tattered cloak. It raised a crossbow and shot atStil.
The Snow Queen’s magic flared to life, creating a slick wall of ice that shot up in front of Stil. The crossbow bolt hit the ice with a crack, but the wall heldstrong.
Stil, ever the idiot, peeked out from behind the safety of his ice covering. “Hello, ugly. Missed me, haveyou?”
Angelique clenched her jaw as she started twisting her magic into the fire spell, wishing she could pelt Stil with an ice chunk for his jauntyattitude.
Stil planted his spear and leaned against it as he stared up at the shadowy rider, seemingly without fear. “I’ll admit, I thought you’d skulk around in the shadows a bit and hope I’d be stupid enough to cross the border so you could pounce onme.”
The nightmare screamed—a high-pitched, unholy sound that made Angelique’s ears throb. The animal reared and lashed out with its front legs, hitting the ice slab with athud.
Angelique cringed but held tight to her magic.Please, she thought.Please don’t be an idiot. Stay in Verglas,Stil!
Rather than crumble under the onslaught, the ice wall grew, crackling as itthickened.
Angelique licked her dry lips and kept braiding more of her magic into the spell, expanding the area it wouldaffect.
Just engulfing him in flames won’t be enough—there’s so much snow, the area can’t really catch fire, so it will be a short-lived effect. I need some sort of physicalstrike.
She eyed Stil’s double-tipped spear but shook her head.I don’t want to use my war magic, she remindedherself.
Unaware of her thoughts, Stil trotted a little farther down the border, his spear hefted above his head. He paused long enough to dig a scrap of cloth with loose threads from his cloak and fling it over hisshoulder.
Animated by his magic, the cloth smacked the nightmare, hitting its left, curdled-yellow eye. The cloth’s threads grew longer as they slid around the creature’s head, keeping its eyecovered.
The nightmare thrashed, throwing its headwildly.
Stil chuckled and waggled a foot over the border like a properidiot.
The rider snatched the cloth from the nightmare’s head, the threads disintegrating in its grasp, then shot another crossbow bolt atStil.
Stil ducked, but it was unnecessary as a stalagmite of ice shot out of the ground, blocking the crossbow. “Temper, temper,” hetisked.
The rider hissed inanger.
As Stil kept the rider distracted, Angelique grabbed her muff and crept from the thicket, keeping low to the ground and staying quiet. She pressed her lips in a tight line and added more magic to the spell—she didn’t want to create a little bonfire, but rather something strong enough to rattle the nightmare and rider so they left Stil alone, but she didn’t know exactly how much magic thatentailed…
I’m probably close. She funneled more of her magic into the spell and was considering cutting it off when she noticed Stil’s oddactions.
He was ignoring the snorting nightmare and was instead frowning as he looked up and down theborder.
What is he lookingfor?
Eventually he caught sight of her standing at the edge of the thicket. His eyes widened, and he twirled his spear above his head. “Angelique—lookout!”
Chapter 4
Alow snarlfinally reached Angelique’sears.
She spun to the side to see red eyes drawing closer toher.
