I moved through the snow at a snail’s pace. The cold cut into my bones and caused me to shiver. For the first time, I wish I had my guard. They’d protect me and get me to a safe place. I wished Towman would come out of the snow, find me and carry me out of this freezing hell.
I’d become used to being queen, but I hadn’t accepted that a queen always needed help. There were reasons she was constantly protected. I refused to succumb to that crucial fact, had been stubborn enough to insist I could do it on my own, like I had before I became a royal.
It would be my death out here.
Black cloaks stood out against the whiteness. My stomach clenched and turned to stone as I recognized the skull masks looming out of the blizzard. I turned in place as a circle of them closed in on me from all sides.
I recognized them. These were therealcultists— the Black Claw’s oppressors, the ones Gabby had kept for her army within her fortress.
And I was surrounded.
The cultists closed in. Black clouds began swirling around me as the cultists summoned shadow magic. Their columns of shadow slammed into me, and I gave a shout of pain. It felt like being tackled by a dragon each time. I heard my ribs break, and put a hand to my side as the black smoke columns grew larger and larger around me, blocking out the storm and surrounding me in darkness.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
With each hit, my body grew numb. They were wearing me down, so they could abduct me without much of a fight.
Little did these bastards know, Inevergave up. No matter how many times you knocked me down.
“You won’t take me!” Irefusedto be Gabby’s sacrifice to Droga. With the hand that wasn’t holding my ribs, I pulled Unseelie magic from the necklace. I tossed black fireballs at the cultists, and as their shadowy forms swept by, the orbs made them catch flame. The cultists screamed out as the black fire forced them to return to solid forms, eating up their cloaks and their bodies.
I didn’t even look where I was throwing. In a panic, I summoned black orb after black orb, ricocheting them outward. Most missed, but I was tossing so many that it achieved my goal. The circle of cultists around me turned into fiery pyres of black flames. The Unseelie magic licked at their bodies, devouring them whole until all that was left of them were the remnants of their black cloaks slumped against the snow.
The wolven necklace grew hot against my neck, pressing against the old familiar burn that the dark necklace had left on me during the King’s Contest. I wept with pain. The cultists around me were dead, but more would come. I shuffled through the snow faster now, though I felt like an old woman. My knees shook, on the verge of collapse.
“I just have to make it to the treeline,” I told myself. “If I get there, I’ll be safe.”
Leaving the battlefield was no sure guarantee of safety. I’d be followed by cultists, and I could freeze to death before anyone found me— friend or foe.
The storm began to let up a little, and relief welled within my center as I saw the woodland ahead.Cover.If I could just get out of sight—
An ugly-ass man stepped in my path, and I felt disgust well inside of me as I met the shifter’s sinister sneer. Acolyte Vesper.Of coursehe was out here, looking for me.
But he was different since the last time I saw him in the woods months ago. His right arm was missing, cut off at the shoulder. I wasn’t sure where he’d lost it.
“We’ve finally found you, Worldweaver,” Vesper said. “It’s a very important day for you.”
“Seems like you’re missing something,” I said cruelly, eyes locked on his lost limb.
Vesper’s lip curled. “Yes… the queen took my arm, after she discovered I failed to provide her the griffin stone when it was in my possession. A careless mistake. One I’m not keen to make again.”
“Get out of my way,” I snarled.
Vesper cackled. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. You see, if I let you out of my grasp again, she’ll take my other arm. And I’m quite fond of it.”
Vesper morphed into a griffin. He crouched down on three legs, beak spread wide as he began to pounce.
I backed away, but really, where was there to go? He’d get me in his talons, then fly me off to Gabby. I prepared to draw upon the last reserves of the wolven necklace as Vesper went to strike.
Unseelie magic crackled in my fingers as Vesper jumped toward me. It died as a brown blur came swooping down from the skies, tackling Vesper to the ground. My jaw dropped open as a tawny wolven faced Vesper, tucking his massive wings to his sides.
“Run, Emma!” Lucien cried. “You must get somewhere safe!”
Lucien launched himself at Vesper, and the griffin lashed out. Vesper rammed into Lucien’s middle, knocking the wolven to the ground. Vesper latched his claws into Lucien’s pelt, digging in and drawing blood.
