Page 152 of A Lord of Snow and Greed

Maybe not for long.

I raised a hand, and again, frigid fingers squeezed me from the inside.

“Please,” I whispered. “Save him.”

And when Samiya’s blade arched for Vale, cutting the end of his cloak off as he spun out of the way, my magic did as I asked. Blue light surged from me, uncontrollable and wild, and hit the vampire.

She screamed, slowed.

I sucked in a breath as Samiya blinked and her arm twitched. The second blast hadn’t been as strong as the first, so she wasn’t frozen like the others. However, my power immobilized Samiya’s arms long enough for Vale to swipe his sword. Her head soared away, and he spun, his eyes going wide at the sight of me.

“What in the nine kingdoms was that?”

“My magic,” I said, teeth chattering because the cold lingered deep inside me. “I-I-I don’t know how.”

“Is thatice?” He gestured to the trio, covered with glinting blue ice. At the motion, I glimpsed beneath his cloak to his tunic. It looked wet, probably with blood. My handiwork had not held well, though Vale was not likely to admit as much.

Seeing as he was still standing, not on the ground in pain, and awaiting my answer, I swallowed down the truth. “I don’t know, but we can’t leave them like this. They’ll drink from more fae. Let’s kill them and run.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but I raised my sword and, with as much might as I could put behind the swing, decapitated one vampire. Seeing me act brought Vale back to the moment, and he took care of the other two.

Once done, we stared at each other, four bodies surrounding us and red blood—showing that the assassins had all recently fed—spilling on the snow.

“Are you hurt?” I asked.

“I’m fine. The stitches opened but I can push through. You?”

Guilt clawed through me that he’d been injured, and I had not. “Not a scratch. Let’s get to Luccan’s. We’ll be safe there.”

“You willdie here,” a voice growled.

I craned my neck around Vale to find three more vampires slinking off the street. By the stars, how many were there?

One with long white-blond hair lifted a bow and arrow and aimed.

Vale gripped my hand, and his wings opened. “Fly.”

My wings snapped out, and together we launched into the air. We rose above the roof of the tallest building and even though the snow swirled and wind battered us, I was thankful for Vale’s quick thinking. That we’d been fast enough to avoid another fight. That?—

An arrow flew between us, then another to my right, but either the archer had poor aim, or the snow and wind were throwing him off. I was guessing the latter, for it was slowing us too.

“Let go,” Vale said. “And make your flight path erratic.”

Though releasing his hand was the last thing I wanted to do, I understood his line of thought and complied. As two targets, we were harder to hit and as the arrows came at regular intervals, only one of the vampires had a bow and arrow. All the others could do was track us as we flew through the gales and the snow. And if we got to Luccan’s and dropped into his yard, inside the warded gates, they’d never reach us.

It took forever, and at least two dozen arrows flew by before I caught the lights of Lordling Lane below.

“That’s it, right?” I yelled into the wind.

“Yes. Luccan’s is the one that—bleeding stars!”

An arrow sliced through Vale’s wing, and he grunted as he dropped toward the ground before catching himself.

“No!” I zoomed toward him and extended my hand. It was miraculous enough that he’d caught himself, speakingof too much training and a strong will, but any minute now the wind could fail. “Let me help.”

“I’m too heavy for you.” Vale winced, though he still took my hand. With both hands, I squeezed his fingers as tight as possible. It was taking all that he had to stay in flight.

“We need to land,” Vale panted.

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