Page 105 of A Bride for the Winter King
Shadow arrows ricochet off the nearest spiders, the projectiles ineffective against the creatures’ new armor.
A hailstorm suddenly envelops us in a cocoon, erasing the outside world from view. I take advantage of the chaos to attack, while Lori moves to catch Morrigan off guard, too.
The Gray Man parries my attack with an angry grunt, and as much as I want to focus on him, half of my mind is on Lori. Morrigan is the greatest Shadow huntress ever to live—even without the obvious magical boost she acquired. She stabbed Damian through the heart and eluded justice for decades.
But my wife proves to be a better fighter than I anticipated, meeting the phantom queen’s attacks with impressive stamina and flair, deflecting them left and right.
The Gray Man closes his hand around the arrow head sticking out of his body and pulls it straight through, his flesh melding back into fresh skin in less than a second.
By the spindle… this is the most advanced healing I’ve ever witnessed.
The audible smile in his voice raises all my hairs to attention. “Oh, let’s go.”
Sword fights hinge on footwork, timing, and analyzing subtle shifts in your opponent’s stance—dancing on a knife's edge, as my father used to say. Once again, my opponent’s impulsivity plays to my advantage, but when he strikes, he aims to kill.
The third slash of his sword misses me by a hair, and the momentum throws him off balance. My abs clench as the tip of my blade pierces his flesh, but the Gray Man heals as quickly as he did earlier. So quickly that I start to wonder if he can be killed at all.
His sword comes at me again and again, and my muscles tense under the relentless blows. A sharp rasp grates my throat as our blades lock.
A low metallic clink reverberates through the stillness of the frozen valley. We strain against each other, sweat gathering on our foreheads. The mask and metal plate concealing theGray Man’s face reveal no emotion, but his magic crackles with unrestrained hostility in the air between us.
I draw power from the glacier, the lake, and the souls beneath the surface. Ice thorns crawl over my arms in complex crystalline patterns, and each delicate shard pulses with a life of its own. With enough strength gathered, I unleash a blast of arctic wind that sends the Gray Man tumbling over the edge of the gazebo and onto the hard surface of the lake.
Ice embedded in his chest, he struggles to stand. Frozen fabric flakes off his shoulders, revealing the frostbitten skin beneath, and he trembles as he raises a hand to touch the cold injury. I might not be able to kill him, but I can certainlyfreezehim.
I flex my fingers, willing the ice to spread toward his heart, and dash forward to press my advantage when a pain-filled scream snaps my attention to Lori.
She’s fallen onto her back at the opposite end of the gazebo, a set of spider fangs embedded deep in her ankle. Her arms shake violently as she slashes open the spider’s stomach. The creature disintegrates into shards of shadow magic that quickly return to Morrigan, the witch now perched over my wife to administer a killing blow.
An ice spear flies from my hand before I can even think, slicing a deep cut into the witch’s arm and disarming her. Lori shoves Morrigan down onto her stomach with a well-placed leg swing and tries to mount her to shackle her hands behind her back. Just as she’s about to secure the restraints, another spider descends from the ceiling, splashing silk across Lori’s face.
My wife jerks backward, desperately clawing at the sticky webs. Her panicked movements send a chill down my spine. I can’t waste any time. I dash to her side and slice the spider in two, sparing her from the creature’s venomous fangs.
The phantom queen remains sprawled on her stomach next to Lori. With an annoyed grunt, she pushes herself off the floor, baring her teeth in warning as blood drips from her injured arm. “Looks like chivalry isn’t dead. Do you really want to win this fight only to bury her corpse next to the others, Elio?”
The jab grates my insides, but Lori seizes the moment to slam the hilt of her dagger into the back of Morrigan’s hand. The impact shatters the metal plate molded to the witch’s knuckles, sending a thunderous echo reverberating through the valley.
Morrigan shakes out her wrist, and her eyes widen as black tendrils slither through the sleet storm, the pulse of the Shadow King now palpable. Damian emerges from the veil of clouds behind me, with Seth close behind. The prince has created a protective bubble around them, and the blizzard fades.
The Gray Man watches us from a distance, pacing like a caged lion unsure of his next move. The ice injury he sustained glistens in the moonlight, its frosty surface contrasting starkly with the rest of his dark attire. Three other Shadow hunters encircle the gazebo, and he finally dismisses his sword.
“Sorry, Rye. You know we can’t afford to be taken prisoner,” he drawls in a dispassionate tone.
Seth’s gaze snaps to him, and his throat bobs. “Luther?”
From the prince’s reaction, it’s clear he recognizes him. The Gray Man’s grip falters for an instant, but he quickly recovers and hurls a dark, oily dagger at his associate.
Damian shields Morrigan with his body, the dagger intended for the phantom queen sinking into his chest instead as he lets out a low groan.Did the Gray Man really just try to kill her?
A warm wind lashes against my cheeks, lifting the snow from the ground to form a tunnel around the Gray Man as Seth rushes toward him. “Luther!”
Both men vanish into the storm, and when the white veil lifts, neither Seth nor the Gray Man is visible.
Dark blood gushes out of the laceration in Damian’s chest, and Morrigan purrs, “It pleases me to see you so concerned for my well-being, darling."
The Shadow King snarls as he wrenches the blade from his flesh. When Lori insisted we capture Morrigan instead of killing her, I knew there had to be a reason. But seeing the Shadow King protect his ex-fiancée—the woman who nearly destroyed him—shakes me to the core. The oily dagger burns out as it exits his body, flaring into a flash of purple flames.
“What was on that blade? More venom?” Lori chucks out.
