Page 23 of Bound to the Shadow Queen (Frostbound Court #2)

Draven

Another stream of blue fire tore through the dark, streaking straight toward the raven-haired male. I flung up a shield above him, the blue-flames hissing as they poured against the ice, buying Soren just enough time to duck aside.

Nevara’s shriek cut off, replaced by a burst of raw mana that split the air. Shards of fractured starlight spiraled outward like a thousand burning constellations.

“See? No need to panic,” Soren grunted, rolling away from the wyvern’s open maw.

“Spoken like someone who didn’t just see his own death several times over,” she shot back.

He surged to his feet beside her, shoulders squared, his palms ablaze. Crimson fire poured from his fists in molten arcs. Her mana twined with his, star-fire threads weaving through the inferno.

Their combined assault hammered one of the beasts higher, its wings faltering under the onslaught of flame and light.

Which left the second wyvern for me. It plunged lower, jaws gaping, angling for Eryx and Noerwyn. And I went to meet it.

A glint of gleaming black steel caught my attention. Purple sparks erupted from my wife’s dagger as her sister wielded it above her head.

Noerwyn was half sprawled across the rocks like she’d been thrown backward with a gust of wind. She got to her feet, wielding the dagger in one hand and gathering mana in the other. Dirt and debris gathered around her like a chaotic storm, just before she sent it flying into the sky.

It was enough of a distraction for Eryx to get the upper hand. Mana erupted around him like a wall of stone and frost, his strikes landing with crushing weight as if he were wielding the earth itself. Each blow drove the wyvern back, even as it snapped and clawed with fire sparking at its jaws.

I icewalked, reappearing at their side just as the beast lunged. Frost speared upward at my command, catching its wing mid-beat. The wyvern shrieked, staggering sideways.

Noerwyn screamed something wordless and feral, leaping forward with the dagger.

Eryx smashed the creature’s head against the rock with a surge of mana, creating just enough of an opening for her to ram the blade home.

The steel sank deep between its scales, violet light sparking to life beneath the beast’s skin.

Its wings thrashed once, twice, before it collapsed, blood and smoke staining the snow.

Noerwyn took several panting breaths before turning her attention toward the griffon’s saddlebags. I turned to find Nevara and Soren already approaching. She sagged forward, her starlight guttering out as Soren steadied her.

“A timely arrival,” she called out with a wince. “That big one was a real… icicle-sucking shitbeast.”

I shook my head as Soren turned to stare at her. The corner of her mouth tilted upward, the faintest flicker of amusement lighting her pallid features.

“It seems your time with the eloquent Lady Noerwyn has been… instructive,” I said dryly.

“To say the least.” Her smirk faltered as she pressed a hand against her ribs. “But she’s a capable healer.”

Soren’s hand lingered at her elbow, steadying her as he steered her closer. Concern darkened his expression. “A boon for us all, considering the wyvern’s clear infatuation with you.”

Her silence was telling. She had noticed it, too, the way the beasts had targeted her in particular, even with mana being fired from all directions.

“Drink it before I pour it down your throat.” Lady Noerwyn’s raised voice grabbed our attention and I spun around to face her.

She was standing in front of Eryx, glaring up at him like he wasn’t the Lord General of Winter’s armies. Her white-blonde curls were askew, her tiny frame a pale shadow in comparison to his as she held out a vial.

“Well, she is delightful,” Soren said, lips tilted in amusement as we approached. “The queen’s sister, I presume?”

Noerwyn huffed, slamming a vial into the Lord General’s chest before turning back to an array of unrolled bandages and scattered vials on the ground near the injured griffon.

Eryx arched a brow but obeyed, tilting the flask back. But Noerwyn was relentless, binding the General’s forearm next, then pressing cloth to her own shallow cut as she barked orders like a drillmaster.

Her crystal-blue gaze locked onto the three of us next, burning with the same stubborn fire I had seen too often in her sister. The resemblance was uncanny, not just in the shape and color, but in the way she dared to look straight through me, as though she could flay me open with her eyes alone.

She turned back to the handful of tonics she had salvaged, then stomped over. One flask she pressed gently into Nevara’s hands; the other two she thrust toward me and Soren.

“There isn’t much left of my supply,” she said, nodding toward the shattered glass scattered beside the griffon’s saddle. “But these will at least staunch any blood loss until we get to the palace.”

Nevara and Soren murmured their thanks, and Noerwyn crouched without hesitation, binding their wounds with the speed of a battlefield medic. Her hands were steady, but her jaw was tight and her fury palpable.

She continued to argue in low tones with Eryx, but I tuned them out, turning my gaze skyward. The air was empty now, but the memory of the circling shadows lingered. Acrid, sulphuric smoke clung to the wind, twisting upward like a scar carved into the clouds.

Finding a stray wyvern this far south wasn’t uncommon, but a flight felt ominous.

Had it been hunger or madness that drove them? Did the mountains no longer hold enough prey? Or was something else calling them here?

It all felt like one more link in the chain of unnatural shifts tearing my kingdom apart.

The Tharnoks hunting in packs. The Mirrorbanes breaching wards. Day-striding Brakhounds and Wretches. My court was constantly changing beneath my feet, and never for the better.

“Like hells,” Noerwyn’s voice once again cut into my thoughts with all the gentleness of a dull butter knife. “I know my sister is back.”

Shards.

Eryx stood stoically beside her, loosening the bandage she’d knotted too fiercely. His steely gaze flicked to mine, the barest twitch of his mouth betraying smugness.

She had confirmed what he already knew, with exactly all of the discretion I should have known to expect from her.

My teeth ground together. I might have answered her, but the words caught in my throat as I looked past the carcasses smoking on the ice.

Fractures split the ground in the distance, jagged seams spidering across the valley floor. Black and wrong, as if claws had raked the land itself. I wouldn’t have noticed it if the wyverns hadn’t melted the snow away.

The imbalance pressed against me like a hand at my throat. I could feel it in my veins, the mana of Winter fraying, buckling, unraveling beneath me. A bond as binding as the shards-damned ring on my finger.

One more omen. One more warning that my kingdom was slipping beyond my grasp.

My fists curled at my sides. We were too exposed here, and between Noerwyn’s shrieking and the echo of wyvern fire still clinging to the wind, another flight could follow just as quickly. Or something worse.

“Lord Eryx, please escort Lady Noerwyn to the queen’s suites when we return,” I said, my voice low and sharp. “Quietly,” I added with a pointed glare in her direction.

Her eyes narrowed, but for once, she didn’t argue. The group fell silent once more, like every one of them could feel the phantom gaze of a lurking monster that refused to show itself.