Careful not to brush against the leaves, I slithered between the dangling branches to get a better glimpse. My stomach dropped—it was the queen and a guard.
What was she doing out here, wandering the halls close to three AM?
“Someone breached the kingdom’s defenses.” The man’s voice was stifled by the curtain of ice, but clear enough for me to catch his stressed tone.
I took a tiny step closer, the fronds clinking at the movement. The elves paused, turning towards me. Hildur’s lavender eyes flared. I froze.
“What do you mean?” she asked finally. They resumed their walk.
I dared a step after them, keeping to the shadows of the sweeping willow.
“We found him stumbling about on the tundra nearly frozen to death. He’s convinced we have something of his. We tossed him in the dungeon,” the guard said, and my heart thumped in my chest. “That shut him up.”
The air seemed to grow colder, my breath a wisp in the air, with just the mention of that wretched place.
“You did the right thing coming to me. This stays between us.” Her words were light, but vitriol sharpened her tone. “I’ll pay him a visit tomorrow. For now, no one can know—it’ll only cause panic that the Galdur wasn’t enough to ward him off.”
“Yes. About that…” He cleared his throat. “There’s been another breach, on the western end of the castle.”
“Creature?”
“Ice.”
“How odd.”
“The glacier,” he pressed with no absence of concern, “it’s melting. The Galdur can’t seem to stop it.”
A moment of silence. Thinking they might have turned down a corridor, I left the safety of the branches, ducking when I saw their silhouettes.
“Gods.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Shall we send in the Druids?” the guard suggested.
“No, no.” She waved a hand, her thick mantle hissing across the ground. “I have a plan.”
They disappeared down a hall, the rest of their conversation muffled by the thick stone walls. Worry burned my throat and curdled my gut. If the Galdur wasn’t enough to keep someone from trespassing, who’s to say it had the capacity to keep these people—these demons—in their cells?
Cold fingers grazed my spine.
Shoulders stiffening, I turned.
Flóki’s translucent blue eyes shone in the dark. “You made it.”
I barely heard the words over the rush of my blood. “Where did you come from?”
“You ready?” he asked, ignoring my question.
With a slight nod, I sucked in a breath.
“Let’s go.” He offered his hand.
I didn’t take it.
Instead, I busied my hands tightening my bun and wove behind him back through the foliage, the icy world passing by me in a blur. At the threshold of the branches, on the opposite side of the massive tree, he put his hand up.
A silent instruction to hold.
Footsteps echoed in the hall. A tired curse was muttered beneath breaths.
