Page 24 of A Kiss of Embers
A screech loud enough to pierce his ears filled the skies, and an icy mist curled around the translucent figure standing on the path ahead of them, wearing a cape of ethereal frost and a hood of translucent mist.
The creature extended a long, misty claw and released another death-defying screech.
Fear jolted through Bastien’s body when he remembered a similar creature killing eight patrol guards only seven years ago before they’d managed to bring it down.
Ice wraith.
“Blistering fire!” Seraphina cried as she hurried to untie Bastien from the tree. He tipped over without the additional support and dropped to the ground with a thud. She leaped in front of him just as a fierce, blizzardy wind shot toward them. She held her arms out on either side of herself and created a wall of fire to combat the chill, knowing just one touch of the ice wraith’s magic could freeze them entirely and kill them quickly.
Her fire battled the unforgiving blizzard, and she grunted with the effort it took to keep herself from being thrown backward at the force behind the attack. Hair whipped around her face. Wind tugged at her clothing. But she remained steady.
“Unfreeze me!” Bastien shouted through the shrill wind, a tinge of panic in his voice.
“No!” she grunted back. “I can’t have you running away. I need you!”
“You can’t need me if I’m dead!”
For a moment, she entertained the idea of cutting him loose from his paralyzing bindings. But either he would run away and leave her to fight the wraith by herself, and she would lose her bartering piece, or he would join her fight and then lodge a knife between her shoulder blades the moment she turned her back to him.
She ignored his pleas and instead decided to face the wraith on her own. When the blizzard ceased momentarily, she dropped her wall of fire.
And gasped.
Snow piled up around her, filling her surroundings as far as she could see. The white powder climbed the base of trees. It layered the ground up to her ankles. And it successfully blended the ice wraith against the white backdrop.
She spun around, eyes searching for the faint shimmer of a translucent robe. But no matter how quickly her eyes searched the vicinity, she could not spot the terrifying creature.
Which meant they needed to run while they still could.
But as she eyed the man lying wide-eyed on the ground, she huffed out a breath of long-suffering. As much as she hated to admit it, the Forest Faewassolid muscle. Transporting him would either be so difficult as to slow each of her steps, or he would crush her entirely.
Bracing herself against his inevitable weight, she grabbed his arm and stooped enough to duck beneath him as she barely managed to lift his top half. Her legs protested as she draped his large frame across her shoulders and held on tight. Her legs shook, threatening to collapse. But raw determination pushed her forward.
Labored breaths escaped her mouth as frosty puffs as she trekked through the snow, cursing her bare feet. She rarely wore shoes in the spring and summer. But winter was another matter entirely. Her feet could outlast sticks and thorns and every manner of rough surface. But they were not impervious to cold.
She moved off the path in an attempt to make herself more difficult to locate. Between the barrier of trees, she noticed a hillside nearby. Knowing she couldn’t carry Bastien for long, she started toward the large mound of earth with the intention to hide behind it, or if she was lucky, within it.
“You must pierce the creature through its eye,” Bastien murmured as if he, too, felt its presence somewhere nearby.
“What doyouknow?” she gasped back, struggling to walk, let alone speak, when his weight crushed her spine. “No one can kill them. Only discourage them from continuing their fight.”
“They’re near impossible to kill. But I’ve done it once.”
Her heart skipped at the startling realization. Although she’d never fought against Bastien in a fair fight, he was strong, fast, and smart. Though, she refused to declare it out loud.
Despite her desire to remain hidden, she couldn’t help but argue. “In order to pierce it through the eye, you must allow it to get close. Too close. You would die long before you defeated the wraith.”
“Not unless you have impeccable aim with a bow.”
Ah, yes. The bow she’ddiscarded. Of course, it had been a lie on her long list of misdemeanors, but she lived by the mantra to never throw something out if it still offered some use.
A shrill screech grated against her ears and reverberated across her forest surroundings. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
She cursed under her breath.
“I amnotgoing to die like this!” Bastien hissed near her ear. “Let me fight. Then you can continue dragging me around like a ragdoll to your heart’s content.”
“And give you a chance to run?” she shot back. “I need my sister back, and I will kill you a thousand times over if I have to.”
