“Perri,” Ronan said quietly.
She didn’t look up. He crouched in front of her, brushing snow from her face with a gentleness I didn’t understand. When he lifted her, she didn’t fight, but she also didn’t reach for me. She didn’t do anything at all. That twisted feeling turned into something uglier.
Hands grabbed me from behind.
The two larger drakens pinned my wings painfully between my arms and my back. I fought them automatically,twisting, trying to break free, but they locked me down hard this time—no wasted movement, no openings.
“You’re done,” the large, black one growled.
“No,” I snarled back, straining against their hold. “She’s mine.” But even that didn’t feel quite true anymore. The wind howled louder, like it wanted to swallow the moment whole.
Ah, I see you’ve found them.
My head whipped around as a newcomer entered the storm, a large lykos covered in white fur with glowing gold eyes. He came with others, his pack moving fast, efficient. They didn’t waste time. They dropped to the snow immediately, digging, carving through it with practiced coordination.
Come, we will lead you to Hoveria. She needs warmth,the large lykos said. Or didn’t say. His mouth didn’t move, but the voice was clear in my head. His furry head nodded at the two new drakens.
Ronan straightened, looking almost embarrassed toward the other drakens.
“Er, sorry, I?—”
“Canavar,” grumbled the large, black one on my left.
The gold draken on my right nodded his head at the lykos. “Nasi.”
The lykos bowed his head, and his pack went to work, digging out a tunnel through the snow. I stilled, watching and calculating. If I broke free now?—
“Don’t,” Nasi murmured near my ear, quieter than the others. “You won’t make it.”
He squeezed my wing and I grit my teeth, trying to ignore the fiery pain lancing through my body.
“I don’t need to make it,” I shot back. “I just need to get to her.”
Canavar snorted. “You’re not going anywhere.”
The tunnel opened before us as the lykoses disappeared through it, dark and narrow, a gaping abyss cut into the white.
“I will not come with you,” I said flatly.
Canavar snorted, shooting a look at Nasi. “Fine by me. We can leave him here.”
They both dropped me face first into the snow. For a moment, I let myself lay there, bleeding and in pain, barely feeling the cold anymore.
Ronan moved toward the tunnel with Perri. She stirred then, blue fingers curling around his bicep as her tired, hungry eyes lifted to mine.
“Veskor …” Her voice was raw, almost lost to the storm. “Please,” she whispered, tears cutting tracks through the snow on her face.
Ronan hesitated.
Canavar didn’t. “We leave him.”
He stepped over me. I lifted my head out of the snow just in time to see indecision warring on Nasi’s face.
“He won’t survive if we leave him.”
Hot denial and spite exploded in my chest.
“Yes, I would!” I grit out.
