Page 9 of Ties of Frost

The shifter in front of me snarled and swung one of his blades at my face.

“Whoa!” I parried his blade with a scowl. “Not my face of legendary beauty!”

“Ilifir, you vain fool!” Zidra shouted as she pulled her sword from the woman’s torso. Great Iskyr above, sometimes I forgot how fast she could move.

I was too busy deflecting the shifter’s rapid strikes and sending tendrils of ice in search of the third combatant to respond beyond a laugh. My magic brushed against other ice magic. I almost cried out at the sensation—far colder than anything I’d felt before, it burned against my power and pulsed with a darkness that made me recoil.

In my distraction, the shifter darted inside my guard and stabbed toward my heart. Cursing myself for leavingLaedresh without my armor, I formed a shell of ice over my chest. The shifter’s curved blade screeched across the ice, then glanced against my arm. I gasped in pain.

“Kyr?” Zidra called, sounding worried.

The fact that she cared renewed my focus. A blast of my cold magic sent my assailant stumbling back. Before I could press my advantage, a sword’s blade burst through his chest, then withdrew. The dead shifter crumpled, revealing Zidra.

Our eyes met. A smile broke across my face at the concern in her eyes. “Thank you. See? We’re a good team.”

She rolled her eyes. “The third one fled, but I want to catch him.”

Part of me was tempted to advocate letting the ice elf go, but Zidra would never agree. “All right, but we should be careful—”

I sensed the bolt of icy magic rushing at my back too late to counter it. Instead, I threw myself onto Zidra, knocking her to the ground. She released a painedoofas I landed on top of her. The bolt of ice magic crashed into a dirt wall. Its midnight-blue color was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“Get off me!” Zidra shoved me hard enough I tumbled onto my back next to her.

“Wait—”

As Zidra sat up, another bolt flew through the darkness. This time, it made right for Zidra. I threw up a protective barrier of shimmering ice in front of her and scrambled to my feet. The two magics exploded against each other with a flash. My ice shield exploded into powder witha force that sent me staggering sideways. I blinked dancing spots of light from my eyes.

Zidra stood, her sword at the ready. “Who are you? What do you really want?”

The ice elf glided forward on swishing snow. I loathed the rare instances when I had to fight a fellow ice elf who had chosen a path of lawlessness. Even if we weren’t related, it felt like battling family. Not so this time. Something about the twisted power I’d sensed from this ice elf disturbed me. I felt no kinship with him.

He reached into a quiver at his hip and pulled out what looked like an unfletched crossbow bolt, but it was dark blue and pulsed with a wicked light. “To fulfill my mission.” He threw out his empty left hand, blasting me with a volley of sharp ice needles. Despite the intensity of his unrelenting attack, I easily blocked it.

“Farewell, rengir.” The way he saidrengirmade the word sound like a curse. His hate-filled gaze remained focused on me, even as Zidra growled and sprinted toward the would-be assassin.

He raised the bolt of corrupt magic…

And at the last moment, threw it directly at Zidra.

“Zee!” I punched toward the bolt, sending an arc of ice and snow toward it, but the magic-powered bolt was faster.

Zidra dodged—

Too late. Too slow.

The bolt pierced her right arm.

Her earsplitting scream melded with a dragon roar and shook the cellar. Dirt rained from the ceiling. Her swordslipped from her fingers, and she fell to her knees.

In a haze of fear and fury, I unleashed a blast of power beyond anything I had before at the elf. Thethunkof icicles embedding in flesh and a strangled cry that cut off in a gurgle confirmed I’d hit my mark.

Zidra collapsed.

“Zee!” I dropped my swords and scrambled to her side. My knees hit the packed dirt.

“It burns,” she screamed. Tears streaked her face, glistening in the weak light of the candlestick resting on a nearby crate.

I stumbled over tangled reassurances, hardly knowing what I said. The bolt was embedded in her arm, pulsing with a darkness that chilled my soul. Zidra shivered and curled up like a child trying to get warm.

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