Page 33 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

“No, Teddy,” Everly told me. “Absolutely not.”

“Elias. . . she’s killing him.”

Impossible as it was, I believed it to be true. Believed my fictional character was moments away from tearing Elias’s magic and soul from him.

“He’s fae,” she said as if that meant anything to me when the man I was starting to care for still hadn’t moved from the snow-covered ground while his magic leaked from him.

While monsters flew and stomped around him.

“He’s fine. Let him heal himself, and you’ll see he’s fine. ” She said it with such certainty .

I wanted to believe her but couldn’t. Not when my heart screamed at me with every hard pound, demanding I go to him.

I stood and ushered Victoria toward Everly. Everly grabbed my hand and refused to let go when I tried to shrug her off.

I looked out the window again at the fae who circled Elias like a shield while Everly wasted valuable seconds.

The black smoke that circled him fell before it too disappeared.

“I need to go out there, Everly,” I pleaded with her while I continued to fight her hold. “I can bring him back here so he can heal himself.”

“I’ll go.” She moved toward the door, and it was my turn to grip her arm.

“Stay with Tori,” I demanded.

With that, I ran out the door while Everly yelled my name. Just as I reached Elias, Everly came beside me in a jog. I looked over my shoulder and thankfully didn’t see Victoria running after us.

“She’s safe,” Everly huffed out. “Together, we can get Elias and bring him back into the store.”

Once we reached the fae that had formed a circle around Elias, Everly commanded them to move. I was surprised when one shifted enough to let us in.

I dropped to my knees where Elias lay with his blood soaking the otherwise pristine snow. His breaths came out in wet rasps, and his fingers dug into the snow while blood streamed from his nose and mouth.

He was alive. Hurt but alive.

“Elias,” I called out.

His eyes immediately found me. With one hand across his stomach and the other still in the snow, he shifted but fell back to the ground, his eyes closed.

I grabbed his hand, and when he opened his pain-filled eyes, I said, “You’re not dying today.”

He pulled in a raspy breath that rattled in his chest. When he wheezed, I helped him drag himself up. His face paled to a sallow gray.

I lifted his hand and ducked under his shoulder while Everly did the same on the other side. We lifted him, and his head drooped forward.

“You’re not dying today,” I reminded him, gritting my teeth under his weight.

Each breath was rough and gravelly, but he forced his feet forward as Everly and I carried him back to the store with three fae surrounding us with their weapons out.

“Teddy,” he rasped. “Go. I’m okay. Just need. . . to heal myself.”

My knees shook under his weight, but I refused to let them buckle, forcing him to take each step with us instead.

Just as we neared the store, more thunder clapped in the sky.

One bird, a beautiful orange and black, hung in front of us, her giant wings flapping hard.

She narrowed her eyes, and Elias pushed off us, swaying as he tried and failed to hold his sword up.

He blinked his heavy eyes at me, and with a quick wave of his hand, he conjured a shield.

He pushed Everly and me to the ground and placed his shield in front of us as the other fae did the same.

He grunted out in pain, and when I felt the heat of the bird’s fire stop, I jumped to my feet and took out my gun from the waist of my pants. I aimed for one of its eyes and shot.

It screeched, and I shot again, this time at its other eye. It flapped its wings violently, sending snow everywhere. I sent my third shot between its eyes.

With a pitiful whimper, it spiraled downward, landing hard a few feet from where I stood. I didn’t waste time as I pointed my gun at the next bird. This one died with a single shot between the eyes.

As two people spilled out of the store with their guns out, I tucked my gun away and helped Elias back to his feet. He kept one hand around his stomach and the other around my shoulders. He seemed stronger, though. Whether it was adrenaline or his super-fae healing, I didn’t care.

He was okay. He was going to be okay. He had to be.

Another snow monster edged toward us, a thick, white finger extending to us. It clicked its teeth at us, and I could’ve sworn it smiled.

“My mistress will be happy to hear about this. . . new development.” The monster’s voice came out like slithering poison.

Deep inside me, I knew he meant Leanora. I knew it and rejected it. Because she wasn’t real but a figment of my imagination. She couldn’t be real. But what else could that monster have meant?

Brenton gripped the thing with a small thread of gray smoke while Nalari breathed her fire on it. It melted into nothing in an instant.

After a glance around, I found Everly fighting alongside George. She swung his sword like some mythical goddess of death, and while I wasn’t sure how she’d learn to fight like that, I was grateful.

Our downtown may not survive this, but we would.

Elias stumbled, letting out a guttural grunt. Putting a hand beside his chest, right next to the hole that punctured his shirt and did little to cover his burnt skin, I helped him back to the store. One painful shuffle after another.

“You’re not allowed to die today,” I reminded him. “Got it?”

His chuckle was wet and shallow. “Got it,” he breathed out.

As soon as we made it to the store, an older woman held the door open for us while a younger woman patted a chair for Elias to sit on. I helped him drop onto it carefully, and Victoria rushed toward us with a glass of water she held out to Elias.

With shaky hands, he took it, but rather than drink, he leaned against my stomach and rested his head there. That same strange noise rumbled from his chest when I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Do you need anything?” I asked.

His hand found mine. “You.” He took a deep breath. “Just you.”