Page 73 of A Heart of Ice and Shadow

“You want it?” Gwen snapped at Nestra. “Then take it.”

Nestra’s body began to shake violently under Gwen’s hold as she unleashed the magick inside her and let it flow between them. The priestess hissed with rage and fear as the cracks in her skin grew wider and began to burn with dark fire. “No!” she snarled. “What have you done?”

Gwen pushed her away as Nestra began to heave and spasm, the hum of magick nearly overwhelming as it pressed around them. The dark priestess looked down at her palms as they burst into black flames. She screamed, and the wings at her back started to wither to ash. She stumbled back, not recognizing the threat coming up behind her nor the fact that her wall of fire had dropped.

A shimmer of silver spread through Nestra’s chest as Sirus struck her from behind. The priestess shrieked, her face alight with rage as she looked down at the sword sticking out of her. Another blade joined the first as Sirus plunged his other sword through her heart. Nestra threw her head back as the shadows she’d summoned turned to flames. Sirus yanked his blades from her body, and that’s when the fire truly took hold.

Gwen stumbled back but didn’t look away. The priestess’s screams echoed across the clearing as the shadows and flames she’d been wielding moments before consumed her, burning away everything she was. She fell into the snow, her frail form thrashing. Her skin turned black, and Gwen closed her eyes, unable to watch anymore. When she opened them seconds later, there was nothing left but black ash and a silver diadem.

It seemed almost impossible, but it was done. Nestra was gone. Sirus was safe.

Gwen’s knees gave out, but Sirus was already there. He grabbed her tightly, and relief washed over her as he held her. He laid her down away from all the carnage in the snow, his black eyes surveying her body. Gwen didn’t need to see to know. She felt broken.

It didn’t hurt. She didn’t feel anything.

His blood-soaked face was tormented.

“I’m sorry,” Gwen breathed, reaching up shakily to stroke his face.

His eyes shifted from black to their frosty blue, and her heart ached. A sense of calm washed over her as she looked up into his eyes. Sirus pulled her into his lap and held her close to his chest. He cupped her cheek and gently brushed it with his thumb.

Niah appeared in the distance behind him, and Gwen stuttered a breath of relief knowing she was safe too.

“I couldn’t leave you,” she told him.

“No,” he whispered. The pain in his voice tore at her heart. He leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. “You cannot go.”

Gwen was happy she was with him. If this was how it all had to end, at least she was here. At least he was safe. All she’d ever wanted was a chance at love. He’d given her that.

Sirus brushed her lips with a kiss, and Gwen savored the warmth it spread through her. It was the last thing she felt. “I love you,” she tried to say. Then there was darkness.

Chapter Twenty-One

Gwen stood in a familiar forest thick with ethereal fog. She followed the sound of crashing waves until she emerged at the edge of the wood. The rocky beach and vast black ocean were just as they’d always been in her dreams, but this felt—different.

Her head snapped to the left when she heard movement. She expected a wolf. A woman emerged instead.

The woman’s short purple hair matched her ethereal glowing eyes. She was small—smaller even than Gwen. She wore a black miniskirt, Van Halen T-shirt, leather jacket, and platform white leather boots over a pair of leggings covered in pictures of cartoon cats.

“Very curious,” the woman said with a smirk of amusement.

“Ominous.” Another woman suddenly appeared to her right. Her eyes were green but just as vibrant. She was much taller than the other woman and was draped in a simple dark green robe. Her curly golden hair cascaded all the way down to her waist.

“Unfinished,” a third added, stepping between the first two. Her eyes were yellow, and they pierced through Gwen like they could see far more than what was in front of her. She was broad and tall, like an Amazon, with long, straight dark brown hair and thick brows. She towered over the other two women and Gwen. Her dark red robes scraped along the forest floor as she came closer.

Gwen backed away as the three women descended on her. “Who are you?” she asked, not frightened, exactly, but nervous.

“Weavers,” they all answered in tandem.

Gwen blinked. She knew that word, she realized. She also knew what they were.

Celestial Weavers. The most ancient of beings.

“You’re a Star,” the green-eyed woman told her. Nor, the sower of fate and future.

“And flesh and bone,” the Amazon observed. Sága, the seer of all.

“So very curious,” the purple-haired woman repeated, this time with even more delight and intrigue than before. Eris, the artificer of chaos.

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