I felt myself being yanked back to my feet, vision blurred and burning body limp.
“Move!” Dax yelled.
He threw my arm over his shoulder, hauling me away.
My head flopped against my shoulder enough for me to look back, over the surge of soldiers.
The ice trembled, but it clung stubbornly to the ground, its glare harsher, as if scolding me for even daring to believe.
“Please,” I whispered. “Help us.”
A deadly hush fell over the forest.
I could no longer hear the wind, the soldiers, my own heart trying to beat out of my chest.
Instead, a low murmur erupted underneath my feet.
The ice’s glare suddenly shined purple.
In the next breath, half of the wall ripped from the wall with an otherworldly, ancient roar.
Its great mass cascaded toward the bottom.
It thundered down and smashed so hard into the crater, it threw Dax and I to the bloodied ground.
Most of the Northern soldiers lost their balance, too.
They barely had time to get their bearings before the ice turned into an unforgiving wave that swallowed everything in its wake.
Trees.
Rocks.
Soldiers.
But it was too fast.
Too ravenous.
It buried our rivals–but it was coming straight for us.
This time, I picked Dax up, helped by that same strange energy that refused to let me faint.
“RUN!”
Chapter 47
Allie
The dregs of the avalanche caught us.
It hit my spine with hate, the tear in my ribs stinging.
My lungs wheezed as the snow and ice swept us off our feet. It pressed against us as if it wanted to squeeze every drop of life. I held on tighter to Dax’s hand as the world around me turned white, then completely dark.
That same strange energy cocooned me, bathing me in a serenity that felt nothing but foreign. I clung to that strange thread and evened my breaths, just like I had when I’d woken up in the coffin.
The ice burrowing us cooled my blazing body.
