Page 100 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
Leaving my corset as it was, I burst through the door to my own room.
Wynnie shifted on her pillow, letting out a small yawn.
“So much for not wanting to be chained to his—” her faux smugness cut off abruptly when she lifted her eyes to mine.
“What happened?”
“I—I need my compendium.” Where had I left it?
Wynnie shot out of bed to help me look, moving aside furs I had piled on the couch by the bed.
My gaze landed on Lumen, lying as far from my sister as he could get and curled up like he was trying to look very, very small for her sake.
I froze in my tracks, remembering the reason he had first been assigned to me. He was more than just a guard wolf, he alsoserved as a guide. I could find the monster. Wynnie could warn the soldiers.
“I need you to go to Eryx and Nevara.” My voice was abrupt in the tension. “Tell them that Draven needs them at…” I closed my eyes, trying to feel through our bond. “The northeast end of the wards.”
“Of course, but, Everly, I don’t know the way?—”
“Lumen does.”
The wolf stood at attention. Wynnie swallowed, still not entirely comfortable being that close to him. But she nodded with the same unflinching spirit that had kept her going through a house of corpses and monsters.
“Whatever happens, Draven is strong.” She crossed over to me, holding my gaze in the shimmering aurora light. “I’m sure it’s going to be all right.”
I wanted to believe her. How many times had Draven gone to fight and had always come back all right?
But a rare simmering of panic was creeping through the bond.
“Honesty always,” I whispered, not sure which of us I was referring to. Her, for making promises she couldn’t keep, or me, trying to tell her all the things I couldn’t put into words.
A shadow crossed her face, but she squeezed my hand once, then squared her shoulders, heading for the door.
“Lead the way…Lumen,” she said quietly, disappearing into the hall.
Then she was gone, leaving me alone. As soon as she left, I went back to searching for my compendium. I found it in the study, where Mirelda had tucked it neatly onto my shelf with the other books.
I yanked it out, bringing it to the desk and flipping through the images the way I should have done last night—would havedone, if I hadn’t been so distracted by Draven’s hands on my skin and his unexpected offer to break the bond.
Something pricked at the back of my mind, but I forced myself to focus. Wards. I was looking for something that could harm the wards.
My heartbeat pounded too fast, too loud. The page winked out of existence, replaced by a shuddering image that punched the breath from my lungs.
Eight massive legs, jointed and hooked like barbed spears, slammed down into the ice. They dug trenches with each step, carrying a body plated in overlapping bone-white armor that caught the light and split it into shards.
The monster rose higher than any beast had a right to, each movement sickeningly deliberate, as though it remembered every step it had ever taken.
Frostbeasts weren’t supposed to grow this large anymore…
Not in this age. It shouldn’t be possible…
Ancient.
That was the only word that clawed through the terror consuming me now.
My stomach twisted.
Ice flashed from my—no, from Draven’s—outstretched hand. Frost roared through the air as he struck, but the thing only reared back, its tail arcing overhead like a whip. Its stinger dripped with an onyx resin that hissed as it struck the ground, burning holes into the ice.
