Page 46 of Fated to the Frost King

My boots hammered against the frozen stone, every step ricocheting panic through my spine. A vine snapped toward me from the left. I ducked, barely, the air hissing past my face like it meant to skin me alive.

The movement cost me, though. Momentum carried me forward too quickly, and my ankle twisted when I hit a patch of blood-slick snow. I tumbled forward before slamming into the ground, hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

Ice tore straight through my cloak and bit deep into my shoulder and the side of my head. I gasped and clawed my way upright, boots slipping, vision tilting.

It was almost on me.

Something warm trickled past my eyebrow and down my cheek.

Mana ignited behind me, raw and angry, lighting the air like a thunderstorm made of ice. Sigils flared into existence midair, burning bright with power as guards poured from the palace, shouting, hurling everything they had.

Blades of light. Shards of ice. Bursts of wind sharp enough to cut bone.

None of it mattered. The Mirrorbane just kept coming.

I cried out as I slipped again, crashing into a hedgerow with a grunt and a muttered curse. The thorns snagged at my sleeve as I tried to shove backward, hands scrambling in the snow. My vision blurred red.

Shards. This was it.

The damned Mirrorbane was going to reach me, and I wasn’t strong enough to get away. Wasn’t strong enough to fight back. I had nothing. Iwasnothing. Hollow.

My mind went fuzzy, unconsciousness threatening to pull me under. There was no escape. I could see all of the monster now, every crooked limb, every jagged tooth, every flicker of violet lightning crawling like veins beneath its skin.

And then?—

Crack.

The ground beneath us shook. Mana flooded the air, cold and sharp and merciless, more furious than I had ever felt it, but painfully familiar.

Draven.

His presence slammed into the garden like a living storm. Frost and rage radiated off him in waves, warping the air, as he stepped between me and the monster.

I never thought I would be relieved to see him, never thought I would be grateful that my husband was the bigger, morepowerful monster in any given fight. It felt traitorous to even let the thought cross my mind, after the things he had done.

But for better or worse, I knew he wouldn’t let that thing kill me.

I let out a breath, finally surrendering to the darkness tugging at the back of my mind.

The last thing I saw was the Mirrorbane exploding into thousands of shards of ice, like the Tharnoks in my nightmares had.

Then the world went black.

Chapter 18

Everly

The first thing I noticed was the silence.

Not the eerie, too-still quiet of a battlefield. This was thicker. Warmer. Like sound itself had been muffled beneath a blanket.

The second thing I noticed was the pain.

It throbbed behind my eyes and pulsed down my spine before curling sharp and angry in my shoulder. My mouth tasted like ash and blood and something bitter I couldn’t name.

The air smelled sterile and impersonal, like an infirmary. The last time I had been in an infirmary was…during my time with the mages. The scars on my back prickled as I frantically searched my fuzzy memory for any trace of what had happened.

I tried to force my eyelids open, but they wouldn’t budge.

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