Page 119 of Blood Fist

His vision was distorted by the thick ice. Watery light filtered into the dark tunnel, splashing across the ground in shifting shadows. As his eyes adjusted, Brune gasped.

“Jonen! Ridan! He’s in here!” he didn’t wait for their response, yanking his hammer out and taking a step back. By the time the other two made their way to the ice wall, he had already slammed his hammer home. The head bit into the ice, sending small chips flying into his face. It barely made a dent in the solid wall.

“Corric!” Jonen screamed, slamming his fists uselessly against the wall. His scent was growing stronger with distress. Brune kept hammering into the same spot, trying to create a weak point in the ice. It was working, but slowly. Panic crawled up his throat. Corric had to be freezing.Were they too late?Brune shook his head and slammed his hammer harder until his arm shook with the effort.

Ridan had been on his other side, chipping away with a small dagger, but he had to stop to pull Jonen back. The short alpha was near feral. Fangs dropped and hands bloody as he tried to claw his way through the wall. His alpha had taken over and he wasn’t thinking clearly, just desperate to get to his mate.

There had to be a smarter way to get through the ice. Stepping back, he forced himself to stop the battering to take a momentto think.How could they get through something so impenetrable?

He glanced down at the leather bracers on his arms. They were covered in melting ice, droplets sliding off the Snap Jaw leather with ease.

“Ridan, throw me a dagger!”

Releasing Jonen with one hand, he tossed Brune a dagger hilt first. The alpha wiggled free and attacked the wall again, ignoring Ridan’s curses as he tried to hold on to his slippery friend.

Flipping the dagger, he set the point into the crater he’d already created with his hammer, wiggling until the point was nestled between the cracks. Twirling his hammer, he positioned himself. Brune would only have one chance at this. Putting all his weight on his back foot, he swung with all his strength.

The hammer hit the base of the dagger straight on. There was a resounding crack as the blade snapped off, the hilt flinging into the air to be lost. Arm trembling with exertion, Brune inspected his work. The daggerhad buried itself so far into the ice it had weakened it, sending massive cracks spidering out along the surface.

Jonen shoved past Brune and began clawing at the cracks, ripping off huge chunks of ice with his frozen fingers. Ridan yelled at him as he came to help. Between the two of them, and Brune’s hammer, they managed to break through.

The ice hadn’t even finished falling when Jonen ducked through the small opening, wiggling his shoulders so he could slide through. He crawled through, nearly falling on his face before he righted himself and race to Corric’s side.

Ridan was next. As the smallest of the trio, he had less trouble slipping through. Brune had to slip off Maladon’s Aegis so he could finagle his way through.

With no sun in the tunnel, it was freezing. His breath fogged up in front of him as he jogged towards Corric. He was so still and pale, frost clinging to his eyelashes, and his thin lips blue. All consistent with someone laying in an ice cave, but the weird thing was how he was dressed. Corric was barefoot and shirtless, only wearing a pair of thin pants. How did he get up the mountain like that?

Jonen didn’t waste time trying to rouse him, picking him up the moment he was by his side. Corric’s body was stiff, hair sticking up where it had frozen in place.

Ridan ducked back through the hole and took Corric’s shoulders while Jonen fed him through the small hole. By the time the two alphas made it through, Ridan had pulled Corric off the ice and into a patch of grass in direct sunlight. Jonen was back by his side in a flash, scooping him up to hold him close to his chest.

“Corric? Corric, wake up!” he cried as he rubbed his arms, desperately trying to break through the chill.

“Should we make a fire?” Brune asked a little breathlessly as he slung the shield back onto his back. There wasn’t much to use as firewood. The only plant life this high up the mountain was scrub like bushes, but he could probably make do with something.

Ridan shook his head. “No, it’ll be dark soon. We need to get him to a healer.”

Is he even alive?Brune wondered, but he wouldn’t ask. Not with tears shining in Jonen’s eyes as he nuzzled his mate's cold face. Ridan pulled off his cloak and shoved Jonen aside so he could wrap Corric in it. None of their boots would fit the omega, so Jonen ripped off his shirt to tie around his feet.

His uninjured feet.

There was no way hewalkedup this mountain.

Shivering in the mountain air, Ridan was about to stand when Corric stirred. It was just the twitching of fingers at first, but slowly his eyes opened. Frosted lashes parting until only the barest sliver of grey could be seen.

He rasped once, twice before shuddering. “The scale…is broken…” the words were barely past his blue lips before he collapsed back into Jonen’s arms.

“Surely he can’t mean?—”

Ridan cut him off. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get him down.” His words were confident, but Brune could see the uncertainty fluttering in his eyes. Wordlessly he slipped his cloak over Ridan’s shoulders, not waiting around to hear any of his protests as Jonen picked Corric back up and they made their way back to the horses.

Riding ahead, Ridan had Iylah ready in his tent by the time Jonen and Brune rode into camp. They broughtCorric to his and Ridan’s nest, laying him on the thick furs.

“Boy.” Iylah snapped her fingers at Brune without looking at him. “Stoke the hearth. We need it sweltering in here.”

While he did that, Ridan and Jonen helped Iylah take Corric’s damp clothes off. She tsked, but said nothing as she examined his pupils, skin, and pulse. He looked a little pinker than he had on the mountain, and his chest rose and fell in shuttering breaths, but he was still unconscious.

“It’s probably for the best,” the healer said as she prepared a tea for him. “The warmth returning to his limbs will not be pleasant.”