“Fiadh, I’m so sorry.” Griff’s words were to the friend inside the monster.
Before she could react, Griff’s sword flashed reflexively, effortlessly decapitating her. The darkness burst forth from her in a column of living night, obliterating the house around us. I threw up a shield, attempting to draw on the earth itself to protect us from the shrapnel, but the earth beneath our feet was already withering, dying, after being exposed to infection for so long. With the darkness hammering away at my shield, I tunneled deeper and deeper, finding the new life below, sending it streaming upward in a beam of light to support the shield. I called upon my fire channel, directing it to the outside of my shield, burning everything I could find. It swept through, consuming everything in its path that wasn’t beneath my shield. The debris of Fiadh’s quiet cabin became a glowing red and orange bonfire in the blizzard. The three of us slowly backed away from it, watching the remains of the roof cave in.
“We need to leave!” Finn shouted over the storm.
I dissolved the shield so that we could teleport as Griff yelled, “No shit.”
He went to grab me, but narrowly missed as the shadows blasted us apart. And then they were on us once more.
I drew my sword, grateful for the length of it as I swerved and danced out of the hufen’s reach. Black veins spiderwebbed across every inch of skin I could see. Dressed in clothes that were barely more than rags, it didn’t appear to feel the chill. Its shirt shifted as it lunged toward me, and I could see a massive cluster of dark veinsover its heart. Luckily, these were the mindless soldiers Griff had told me about, puppets set forth for one duty—kill. But who was the puppet master holding the strings?
I didn’t have time to consider these questions, as several more appeared out of the snow, heading straight toward me. I pulled fire into my blade, the flames roaring to life and hissing with the moisture of the snow. The hufen paused momentarily, instincts telling them to be wary, before continuing their march forward.
Griff became death incarnate, his twin blades carved through the storm in perfect harmony. His first strike took the head clean off a hufen. The second blade followed, gutting another that tried to flank him. Tar-like blood stained the frosted ground around him as he moved on to a third and then fourth opponent. He fought like a force of nature, unstoppable, his every movement calculated to dismantle anything that dared threaten what was his.
I didn’t have time to see how Finn fared, although the whistle of steel through the air told me he was holding his own, as a hufen broke through the path Griff was cutting through its companions. I met it with my flaming steel, slicing through its head. But even as it fell, two more took its place. They moved differently than Griff’s opponents, as though they wanted to capture rather than kill me.
I realized I had been separated from the twins in the attack, almost by design. It was still fully winter on this mountain, but this blizzard was unnatural. Trees dotted around my position, further obscuring my view. A gust of wind caught me in my mid-section like a blow, throwing me backward against a rocky ledge, as if the storm itself was trying to keep me segregated from my companions. I landed hard and knocked my head against rock, stunned for a moment and blinded by the falling snow, when I heard a growling. Looking up, all I could see through the snow were orange eyes.
As if I needed one more problem, the heavy flakes slowed, revealing a gigantic gray wolf, his fur tipped with brown. I’d seen ponies that were smaller than this thing. My breath shuddered in my chest as my nightmare from the night before came floodingback. The wolf growled again, low in its throat, as it balanced on the ledge. And then it leapt.
My scream died in my throat as, just like in my nightmare, it leapt over me. Snarling, snapping, it surged back and forth in front of me, as a dark shape materialized through the blizzard. Hufen. As I went to stand, the wolf whipped its head over its shoulder, its orange eyes flashing as it snapped at me, as if telling me to stay down. The hufen swiped at it and it leapt back, never leaving its protective stance in front of me.
The sounds of the battle were muffled by the falling snow. I had no idea what was happening beyond my immediate vision.
“Lexa!”I heard Griff’s fear in my head. How did he do that?
But there was no time to ponder as I reflexivelytuggedon the thread connecting us, hoping he’d feel the bright link and follow the path. Ideally, before the wolf decided to eat me. As if it heard that thought, the wolf glanced over at me, something in its expression causing me to stay down. It continued bobbing and weaving through the deep snow, confusing the hufen. The battle sounds increased and then Griff was there, twin swords flashing through the snow to decapitate the hufen in a single movement.
As soon as Griff appeared, the wolf turned and came toward me. Instinctively, I raised a hand toward the wolf, even as my brain screamed that it was about to be bitten off. It nudged my hand once, its snout surprisingly warm, before bounding off, silently disappearing into the blizzard.
“Lexa!”Griff was searching around in the snow, shouting my name. The blizzard was so thick now that I could barely make out his shape.
“I’m here!”My mental voice was weak, but I gave another tug on that thread.
I made it mostly to standing, clinging to a small tree to remain upright, the blow from the rock still scrambling my balance.
He reached me in a heartbeat, sweeping me off my feet and into his arms. The abrupt change in position made my already dizzyhead ache. His eyes raked over me, assessing instantly where I was hurt.
“Where’s the wolf?” I asked, dazed.
“Wolf?”
“There was a wolf. He was here. Protecting me.” I knew I was babbling but couldn’t stop it.
“Finn!”
My head hurt with Griff’s mental scream. A second later, Finn crashed through pine trees to us and reached for Griff’s shoulder. Instantly, Griff spun us away, and we were home.
We landed hard in the yard outside the castle, shaking snow loose. Finn stumbled a bit before righting himself, but Griff was solid. Unmoving. But I could tell underneath everything he was deeply disturbed.
The courtyard was busy, people going about their everyday business, unbothered by the three snowy figures that had appeared in their midst. As though it was a common occurrence for the princess and her two companions to appear out of thin air, frozen solid and breathing heavily. Everything here at the castle was just how we’d left it, as if we hadn’t just been fighting for our lives in a blizzard. The change of temperatures was a shock to the system. Even though it wasn’t warm at the castle, it was certainly more comfortable than where we had just been.
“What the fuck happened back there?” Finn said, staring at the two of us in shock.
Griff gently lowered me to standing. I moved out of the cradle of Griff’s arms, stumbling, and he was right there next to me again, arm around my waist. I shook my head to clear some of the dizziness.
“I had been hoping you’d know,” I said.
