Page 121 of A Deception of Courts

My lips curved upward, and my chest swelled with hope. It took moments for my mind to piece together the strange, unexpected puzzle that was the gryvern’s presence.

Erix sliced through the sky among them, hands curved into monstrous claws. His growl was low and trembling, matching that of Duncan’s thunder. Steel-cold eyes locked with mine. There was no hesitation as he found me within the crowd from his height.

As tides do, this one changed back in our favour.

“Oh, Aldrick, I’m afraid you are in no position to compromise with me.”I coated my mind with ice and forced the reply back to Aldrick.“Look up.”

I thrust out my power, pulling on the dregs that lingered in the deep pit inside me, and pushed outward. The cold blast of winter wind coiled around me and forced the Hunters close enough to fall back.

It let up space ahead of me for a moment, and then Erix was there. Standing inches before me, with his blanket of thin leather wings blocking out the enemies at our back.

“So, you disappeared and found me an army,” I muttered, wishing to reach out and grasp him, just to check he was real.

Erix took me in his arms, holding me as though a soft breeze could’ve torn me away from him. “Forgive me, I had a feeling we would need help, and I had somesiblingsI thought I should call upon.”

The gryvern cried out in unison. I sensed their glee within the high-pitched nature of their noise.

“You can control them?” I asked, trembling at the thought.

“No time for explanations now,” Erix replied, flashing two sharp canines that overlapped his lower lip. “When this is over, I will tell you everything.”

Duncan cried out, his voice pitched with pain. I glanced over Erix’s shoulder and watched as Duncan disappeared into the wall of Hunters. Even as he drowned within the bodies, he fought for his life. The crack of a jaw as his fist connected. The snap of a bone at his elbow jolted into someone’s face. Then he was gone, just like that. Gone.

“I offer this to you one more time, give your power, or Duncan Rackley dies.”

“No,” I screamed as my power became a blizzard, drowning out all other noise. My heartbeat filled my ears, my throat and even shuddered painfully through my bones.

Erix sensed my action but was too late to stop me.

Then I ran, thrashing out deadly cold before me, Erix following at my back, wings propelling him forward.

I threw myself into the same wall of hands that took Duncan from me. I clawed through them, caring little as my nails tore with flesh. My skin burned with the frozen kiss of ice. Anyone who touched me would feel pain until it was my last chance.

Erix was never far behind. He forged a path at my side. The tipped talons on his wings swung and stabbed, his claws turned skin to ribbons and his teeth buried into anything he could reach until his face was masked in blood.

“Give him back to me!”I couldn’t help but plead.

“Give up the key,”Aldrick replied, calmer than he’d been before.Hearing his tone frightened me the most.

“Don’t hurt him. If you do, you’ll never get what you want.”

His soft chuckle vibrated through my mind. Goosebumps puckered across my arms as it rang like a bell through my skull.

“Fight them, Duncan,” I shouted, my voice rough as shattered stone.

I could no longer see Erix. I looked around at the glaring faces of Hunters with their greedy hands and fingers that pinched my skin and pulled my hair.

“Aldrick,” I bellowed aloud with as much vigour as I could, wishing for my voice to tear across the crowd and pierce him where he sat.

“Stop.”

The word was final. It was meant both for me and for the army of Hunters.

My knees hit the bloodied mess of the ground. There was no warning to put out my arms, so my face took the brunt of the fall. Everything went dark and quiet. I dared not open my eyes for what I might find. I waited, curling my body into the foetal position, waiting for more pain, more hands and fists and nails and blades.

Nothing.

“Here lies a king, cowering in a pit of dirt and death,” Aldrick sang. “What a sight.”

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