Ryker’s steady arms caught my shoulders and dragged me back to safety against his chest. Still, that insatiable pull tried to yank me toward the lake, as if asking for a sacrifice.
The gale of blue-tinged wind rushed to the crack, embedding itself into the ice. But just as the frost began to harden under Dax’s desperate grasp, a pulse of purple light shattered it.
Ryker and I gasped.
My blue tendrils snapped and jerked back inside of me. Hard and fast, buckling my knees. Only Ryker managed to keep me upright as my entire body burned.
“Why isn’t it working?” I yelled.
Right under my desperate eyes, Dax went under the ice, wings and all.
My heart collapsed with him.
Ryker turned me around, face taut and determined. He let me go for the barest moment, checking if I could stand on my own. I swayed, but my legs didn't give out.
He gave me a curt nod. “Don’t risk your own life.”
Before I could argue, his back rippled. The sound of bones cracking and grating against themselves ripped through the air.
With one last furtive glance my way, he was gone, turned into a blur my eyes couldn’t track.
But Ifelthim rush past the steep edge flanking this side of the hill and slide over the ice, his boot prints in the snow the only trace of him.
I couldn’t have done that, not even if I’d possessed Dria Vegheara’s legendary powers.
Becausehewas doing the impossible.
His own panic beat against me as he reached the break in the ice.
No sign of Dax.
I felt his jolt of dread as clear as if it were mine.
I didn’t have time to make sense of it, though.
Fully clothed and weighed down by leathers and furs, without any hesitation, Ryker dove into the cold waters.
For a moment, nothing moved. Not even the wind dared howl.
My heart thudded in the sudden stillness.
I was alone, both of them fighting for their lives in the icy water.
Without a second thought to the crown I left behind undefended or the dangerous drop before me, I crouched, gripped the edge of the cliff, and twisted my body over it, driven by nothing but adrenaline and the bone-deep need to protect them. The acrid scent of my fear radiated from underneath my furs.
I slid, dangled, and jumped off the sharp rocks as fast as my freezing limb could move. By the time I’d climbed down and thundered down the path to the lake, my fingers were numb, my left palm was bleeding, and my lungs ached from the effort.
I cursed my stupid human body, and ran as fast as it could carry me.
My eyes didn’t stray from the crack in the ice, begging, pleading for the merest glimpse of them.
Nothing.
No frenzied bubbles on the dark surface.
No figures thrashing underneath the ice.
Only silence.
