Page 52 of The Serpent’s Shadow

I’d thought my water display was impressive, but the elf’s ability to control and bend the earth to his whims stunned me.

“Showoff,” I hissed at him with a devious smile.

We both stood . . .

But the earth didn’t stop trembling, even as the islands Corym had created began to merge back together, causing the fallen Huscarls to scramble and scream to get out of the divots before the landmasses closed on them.

Toward the back line of the Huscarls, at the base of the incline, the trees shivered.

I expected more Huscarls to emerge.

But then I saw a flash of white, and my heart stuttered in my chest. “Gods save me,” I whispered to myself, blinking wide. “It can’t be.”

Black magic descended on the Huscarls at the backs of their ranks, formed in the shapes of shadowy, faceless men and women. Utter confusion and chaos followed.

Then a roar.

Sheer elation burgeoned inside me, starting dim and growing hotter by the second, until it was an inferno of excitement and adrenaline.

“They’ve come!” I shouted in stunned amazement, unable to help myself as I lifted my arms to the sky.

Through the trees, a bleached-white polar bear stampeded into the Huscarls, ridden by a shirtless, scarred, tattooed man with his arms raised, and a massive gray wolf beside them.

My mates had found us.

Chapter 17

Ravinica

MY HEART QUICKLY PLUMMETEDto my boots when I saw the next line of attackers after Grim, Magnus, and Sven.

Arne Gornhodr rushed into the melee. Beside him were five or six ragtag men and women, most of whom I didn’t recognize, but two I did: Dieter and Frida of the Lepers Who Leapt.

No!I thought morosely at seeing Arne.The others don’t know what he’s done!

I couldn’t concentrate on that aspect for longer than a blink before the wall of furred muscle rammed into the Huscarl’s back line.

Grim’s giant paws swung, violently eviscerating a man and sending his bowels to the ground in a steaming heap. He kept rushing past the dying, stunned Huscarl and barreled into the next, ramming his head and crushing a helmet and the skull beneath it.

Atop Grim, Magnus’ hands waved in a flurry, Shaping runes and sending a bevy of shadow-soldiers to do his bidding. The wispy cloaks of blackness wrapped around the Huscarls and disoriented them, making them spin in circles as they thrust and slashed at intangible foes.

Sven weaved in and out of the fray, striking with expert precision as he hopped from one enemy to the next. First it was a sweep of his claws, taking out a man’s legs from under him as he fought a shadow. Then the wolf shifter launched himself ontothe body of a woman, raked her bloody across the face, and left her a screaming, gurgling pulp on the ground. Only once Sven was done chewing her face off did he turn his bloody jaws to the next opponents.

Arne cast spurts of crystal-blue ice at the Huscarls, battering them with blow after blow on their shields and armor, forcing them into defensive postures. His face looked worse for wear, bruised and slightly misshapen from what appeared to be a terrible beating, and it made my hackles rise for some reason.

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