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Snarls and growls echoed through the air and water rose, but Talon roared, stopping everyone in their tracks. He spared them an icy glare that relayed his message loud and clear.

He’s mine.

Blood coated their mouths, but their swift movements didn’t pause.

A pulse shuddered through Arianna again. Ellie spoke, but she couldn’t hear the words. Couldn’t hear anything over the deafening roar suddenly filling her head.

She didn’t know when it had started, only that something in her veins crackled like thick ice over a river, the sound thunderous and deep.

Ellie and Eoghan released her arms and Arianna thought she heard her sister curse.

She stepped toward the chaos, the sheer force of the males’ powers causing a whirlwind to rise up that whipped her hair around her face.

Something in her core pulsed. An ancient, brutal thing crawling beneath her skin, waking from a long slumber.

She should have feared approaching, should be shielding her face from the magic flying as the males closed in on one another. Her arms raised, but it didn’t feel like her own movement.

It pulsed again, coursing through her like a heartbeat.

The warriors watching shifted their attention from the two males. Some backed away, others called out warnings she couldn’t hear.

Arianna stepped into the whirlwind. Her arms fell and the drumming pulse burst from her body, racing toward the males.

Ice coated the ground in a split second, shooting from her feet in a wave that collided with their bodies.

Their gazes whipped toward her, but not before ice covered their forms, forcing both males to curl in on themselves as they struggled to shield from it.

It strummed through her body again, pulsing out over and over and it felt . . . familiar. Safe. Cold, yet welcoming.

The males tried to call forth their magic, but the creature within her stirred and pulsed harder and faster, time and time again.

They were on their knees before her, their hands raised to cover their faces.

Arianna.

It whispered, caressing her soul in a sweet symphony of power.

Those at the tree line recoiled as a wave swept over them.

Arianna.

It whispered again, but the voice had changed.

One male rose to his feet and her eyes locked with his emerald green gaze. She studied it, as if she should know the one who dared to rise. As if he—

Rion.

The voice murmured a third time. No, not a voice, a tug. A plea.

He took another stepped forward, ice crunching beneath his frozen boot. His skin held a bluish hue, his lips, too.

That power strummed through her, begging for release, but she clamped it down as the hazy picture before her cleared.

Talon was on his knees, staring up at her, struggling to rise. Those at the tree line huddled together, hiding behind the large trunks. And Ellie, she turned just in time to see her sister directly behind her.

The ancient magic pulsed through her again, ready to intervene, but Arianna pulled back, gritting against the sheer force of will it took to restrain the magic.

“Arianna.” Someone grabbed her wrist and the pulse within her vanished, stripped away so suddenly she crumpled to the ground, sucking in air as if the wind had been knocked from her body.