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Winter 1009 yap

9 months after events in Ice and the Elves

The Terrarinor River, separating the northern border of Moorehead from the southern border of Hemlit

M y brother’s magic lit his trail across the great Terrarinor River like smoke highlights the trail of heat from a candle. Ignoring it would be wisest—Alastor was technically an adult—but I’d embraced the habit of looking out for him years ago, and I couldn’t leave him to whatever fate he was about to find in the land of the elves.

Plus, I’d asked him to go hunting. If anything happened to him, I’d feel responsible.

I lifted my skirts up, carefully folding the pockets over so nothing spilled, and tied them around my waist. This river had never been passable during my life, but the wind storm last night had toppled a tree several hundred feet tall that now spanned the gorge like a bridge.

And naturally, my brother had to cross it.

I climbed up the icy, gnarled branches and spread my chilled hands to balance while I stood up on top of the bark. Underneath the makeshift bridge, stony cliffs guarded the ravine—cliffs that surrounded a terrifying river. I pressed one foot forward, closer to the death trap that waited below.

When the cliffs gave way to the raging river, my hands trembled. I dropped to my knees and clung to ridges in the bark.

What was I thinking?

I had worse balance than everyone I knew.

Of course, I’d only really known three other people well, but that didn’t matter. I always tripped. Always fell. Always stumbled. Always found disaster. And I thought I could cross a river on an icy tree trunk?

I forced a few breaths into my chest, tightening my hold on the tree. This tree was so wide that I could not hope to wrap my arms around it. The thing was more than stable enough for me to balance on while I crossed the river that separated humans and elves.

But if I slipped, I would die.

There was no way to survive that fall. And if I were dead, I could not help my hotheaded brother who felt like trespassing into the elves’ kingdom.

I had to make it across.

But I didn’t have to stand up. I reached forward and gripped another handful of frigid bark. I moved my other arm forward, and then my knees. It was a good thing I’d worn leggings under my skirts.

Alastor probably ran across this bridge . He might have even skipped or turned a flip. Just the thought of it made my stomach turn. He probably saw it and decided it was the perfect opportunity to find out what had happened to our mother when she left us to visit the elves and disappeared thirteen years ago.

My crawl was hesitant and awkward and freezing, but it worked. I kept my eyes on my hands and the surface directly in front of me. Eventually, I slid off the tree’s roots and onto the foreign stone cliffs. I sank to the ground and quieted my breathing like Motab had taught me decades ago.

Elves.

I now sat on Elven lands. I gazed across the river to the human kingdom I’d left behind. I didn’t really belong there, but I’d never been here before. And the things Motab and Fotab had told us about elves had always been enough to keep me solidly on my side of the river.

Until now.

If Alastor didn’t need rescuing, I was going to kill him myself.

I brushed off some snow that clung to my skirts with the last bits of residual terror about falling into the Terrarinor, and stood to follow his trail again.

For hours.

He hadn’t found any kind of path at all, but crossed a fairly straight line through fields and into a forest. The trees thickened, but the magic he’d dropped led me on—almost as if he’d wanted me to follow him.

I bit back a curse. Just because he had turned thirty this year didn’t mean he could now tell me what to do. He never would have made it this far without —

A roar filled the skies and interrupted my thoughts. I stumbled but caught myself before hitting the ground.

A dragon.

A dragon flew less than half a mile from me. It circled once, and then settled out of my view. Fotab had described the creatures in detail, but I’d never seen—or heard—one in real life before.

I ran forward. I didn’t want to confront the thing, but I had to see it. Surely I could find a way to spy on the beast.

The answer presented itself within minutes. A boulder with easy handholds and scores rose up above the bare winter trees.

As I scrambled up the giant rock, a thundering voice rumbled through the forest. “What. Are. You. Doing?”

I climbed faster. A sinking dread filled my stomach. It would be just like Alastor to do something offensive to a dragon in an elven kingdom.

The stone blocked the answer of whoever the dragon spoke to, but his rumbling voice filled the forest again. “YOU ATTACKED MY ROSES!”

I finally reached the top of the boulder and peered down. A frozen meadow sprawled away in front of the other side of the boulder. A hundred feet from me, Alastor planted his hands on his hips. “I did not,” he bellowed back. Apparently, he felt the need to compete with the dragon’s volume.

Smoke rose from the dragon’s black back, as if the beast could shoot fire from his scales. “You attacked my roses,” he hissed, “you put a hole in my protective barrier, and you lied.”

Alastor started to say something, but I couldn’t understand it because the dragon lifted a scaled arm and shot fire out of his palm.

Not a dragon, then. A drekkan. Dragons breathed fire. Drekkans breathed fire… and released it from their hands and tail.

Alastor raised his own arms and met the beast’s fire with his own. I groaned. Just because my brother had magic didn’t mean he needed to use it all the time. The opposing flames clashed between the two of them, growing into an inferno hot enough that I felt it.

I wanted to shake my brother. He should know better than to argue with a giant flame-throwing reptile!

But he didn’t stop. “Is that all you’ve got?” he yelled over the blaze. “So much for a legendary monster!”

Seriously?! What was wrong with him?

The drekkan did not say anything, but his tail snaked around his wings until it had a clear shot at Alastor. A new stream of fire from the drekkan’s tail blasted Alastor’s left side, throwing him to the ground.

My heart nearly stopped. I could not watch my brother die. Not here. Not like this. Not after I’d spent the last thirteen years keeping us both alive.

I rushed to climb down the boulder. I nearly fell trying to watch the drekkan while moving at the same time.

The beast blew another wall of fire at my brother while he was already down. Would the monster kill Alastor while he was incapacitated? I panicked at the thought, lost my grip on the boulder, and slipped the final ten feet to the ground.

I landed on the edge of my foot, which rolled under my weight. I lunged to the side with all the grace of a cave bear balancing on an ice pick. I hoped to take the weight off my ankle before I injured it, but instead I knocked the breath out of my chest .

I didn’t dare take the time to recover—I had to stop the drekkan from destroying my brother.

I ran, gasping and half-limping across the meadow. A wall of magic burned around the edges of the meadow, but my ability to see magic led me safely through a jagged opening. The fire-melted, muddy landscape clung to my boots, but my mind focused on how Alastor was about to die… and I had to save him.

My clumsy fall and blundering run caught the drekkan’s attention. His great head followed my movements and a hairless brow raised higher over one eye.

I ignored the curious look and kept running until I was directly between him and my brother.

My heart raced. I’d never seen a legendary monster before, and now one towered over me. Legs thicker than my entire body balanced his reptilian body with arms, wings, and a tail. His head lowered to focus on me as I planted my body in front of him.

I raised my arms as if I could block him from attacking Alastor. “Stop!” I cried, still panting.

What was I thinking, ordering a creature twenty times my size around?

“Please!” I corrected. “Please spare my brother.”

The drekkan’s eyes narrowed. “He trespassed, broke my barrier, attacked my flowers, and lied. He deserves a swift justice.”

“But if you kill him, he will learn nothing!” I panted, still catching my breath after my fall and run. The drekkan seemed to be considering my words, so I risked a glance at Alastor. His blackened clothes highlighted the burns on every bit of his exposed skin, but he still breathed… which meant he could still heal himself.

But Fotab had made drekkans sound like angry, unreasonable monsters. What if this one killed both of us just for crossing his invisible barrier?

Smoke puffed out of the drekkan’s nostrils as he lowered his head closer to mine. He softened his voice, but it still grated like a knife against a sharpening stone. “I will not leave him alive to return and destroy my roses.”

Whoever heard of a drekkan obsessed with roses? That was not in any of Fotab’s stories. I peeked at the rose bush the drekkan gestured at. The poor bush grew like two shrunken sprigs. Despite its withered size and the winter cold, six red roses bloomed along its little branches.

The roses were a strange cause, but… the weight of the drekkan’s words hit me. I will not leave him alive to return and destroy my roses.

I locked eyes with the drekkan. His head still loomed eight feet above mine. “He won’t return or destroy anything,” I said.

The drekkan stared at me. I wanted to crawl—no, run—away, but I ground my teeth and stared back. A glint of magic that reminded me of my mother flickered around the east like a halo. What could that mean? The drekkan’s head lowered into my space. It took all the courage and curiosity I’d ever mustered to stand my ground. Even if Alastor had done the things the drekkan accused him of, he didn’t deserve to die.

The reptile’s volume lowered again. “And what would stop him from returning and attacking me again?”

“I would,” I answered without hesitation.

A cruel, sardonic laugh shook the drekkan’s belly while a cloud of smoke burst out of his mouth .

I stepped back, closer to Alastor, and put my hands on my hips. “And what’s so funny about that?”

“You are child-sized,” the monster said. “You could not stop a rabbit from crossing a border, let alone a fully grown human...” His voice turned to a snarl. “A human that reeks like fae.” He tipped his head at me. “You, too, smell like fae, but your brother does not look like the monsters.”

I almost laughed at the irony of him calling fae ‘monsters,’ but I resisted—I didn’t want to offend him further. And the more we talked, the more likely it seemed that I could convince him to release Alastor.

He tipped his head again, like a giant overgrown dog who’d been confused by a hidden toy. “Why did you call this fae-acting creature your brother?”

Ah. He was confused. I could fix that. “We both share the same parents: a fae mother and a human father.”

His brows lowered and he raised his head. “A compelling reason to kill you both.”

“What?!” I clenched my dress. Was that what had happened to my mother? Is that why her magic flickered around him? “I’ve done nothing to warrant death!”

“I protect these borders and the elves inside them,” the drekkan rumbled. “Fae are the greatest threat I know.” A brief expression, almost like regret, crossed his bright green eyes, but he blinked it away. “Defend yourself, Fae.”

“No, wait!” Before I finished yelling the words, the drekkan released a stream of fire. I closed my eyes tight, as if not seeing it would keep death away from me.

An unexpected rush of heat came from behind me. I tore my eyes open just in time to see another wall of flames meet the drekkan’s.

Alastor.

I turned toward Alastor, still lying on the ground, propping himself up on one elbow to shoot fae magic at the drekkan. As their two fires crashed against each other, Alastor pulled all the oxygen out of the air immediately surrounding the drekkan.

The beast’s eyes widened as his flames disappeared.

Alastor dropped his fire too. “She can’t use magic, you monster.” Manipulating as much power as he had in his burnt, injured state put him on the edge of consciousness. My throat tightened and tears jumped to my eyes. He was using his last bit of energy to protect me instead of heal himself.

“Attacking her is no better than attacking a child,” Alastor added. “Your fight is with me, anyway. Let her go. She wouldn’t hurt you if she could.”

The drekkan raised a claw, and a line of fire skittered out of his palm, ignoring me, and landing like a whip across my brother’s body. Alastor fell back to the ground.

“No!” I dropped to my knees and felt his chest for a pulse. A sob ripped out of my throat when I found one. He lived. For now.

I turned back to the drekkan, still on my knees. “Please!” There had to be a way to stop him, something that could touch a black-hearted beast like him. “There must be something I can do for you!”

The drekkan’s giant face studied me, scanning my body as if I hid some secret. Then he turned his gaze to my brother.

“No!” I jumped to my feet. “Please don’t! He is dying.” The words caught in my throat, but I pushed on. “He needs time to heal. He can’t just keep taking hits like this!”

The drekkan’s gaze locked on mine. “What would you be willing to do for him?”

“Anything,” I whispered.

“Anything?” the rumbling voice questioned. “Do you know anything about elves or drekkans?”

I nodded. I had read a great deal about both elves and drekkans.

The monster brought his head closer to mine. “And you would do anything a drekkan asked in a land ruled by elves?”

“Anything,” I clarified, “if you send my brother home.”

A hand wrapped around my ankle. “No, Callista,” Alastor whispered. “I’m the one who started this. You should go home.”

“You’re in no state to argue,” I whispered back. “At least I can keep us both alive.”

“No, Callis—”

A hot cloud of ashy smoke from the drekkan cut off Alastor’s words. My brother rolled over, groaning and coughing.

The drekkan faced me. “I am willing to let him go if you stay here, bound to me with a mistek bond as assurance. If he crosses into my lands again, I will kill you instantly.”

My eyes widened. “You… want me to be a slave?” I hadn’t known drekkans could create the slave bond.

“No,” his voice rumbled. “You would not be a slave. You would be a prisoner. The mistek bond simply creates the collateral I believe necessary to allow a creature like him to live.”

“The collateral being my life?” I asked.

He nodded, tipping that great head down once. “Yes. You would be perfectly safe unless he crosses my magic border again.” Venom dripped from his voice. “I will feel his cursed fae magic inside my lands. And if that happens, you will die.”

“Such a strange request,” I muttered, as my mind listed all the potential dangers of such an arrangement.

“Not so strange,” the drekkan breathed. “I believe he cares about you enough to leave my kingdom alone in safety.”

Alastor didn’t move, but his breathy whisper was easy to hear in the eerie silence that hung heavy with my choice. “No, Callista. Go home.”

I knelt down by my brother for the last time and brushed a lock of black hair out of his face. He groaned, no doubt as much from the pain as from frustration with his inability to fight more. This was an easy choice. I would live in a prison if it meant Alastor could live .

I kissed the top of his head, above his round ears, and blinked back tears. “We’re both going to live, Al. Move to the human town. Start a new life. Find love–”

His hand gripped mine. “Callista, you cannot trust a monster.”

“I don’t trust him,” I whispered. “I trust you. Don’t come back, and I’ll be fine. We’ll both live. It’s a good deal.”

“She’s here,” he whispered back. “I felt her magic when I was hunting.”

“Motab?” I asked.

He nodded.

That explained a lot. But it didn’t change the situation at hand. “I’ll find her,” I promised. Hopefully, I would find our mother. I didn’t know why her magic—or something similar to it—kept appearing around the drekkan, but I wasn’t opposed to having time to find out. We’d expected her to be here for years—maybe some good could come from this unusual deal.

The drekkan’s voice filled the valley. “Are you in agreement?” Apparently, we’d reached the end of his patience.

I stood up. “We are.”

He shifted closer to me, raising his head and extending a clawed finger as long as I was tall. “I must put my finger on your back to form the bond.” It was the softest he’d spoken yet, though his voice still came out harsh and raw.

He did not move after his explanation. Was he waiting for permission?

I nodded my agreement, and he carefully touched the middle of my back. His touch was warm, almost hot, but gentler than I’d expected. If I hadn’t seen his claws earlier, I wouldn’t have known he had them.

“You will have to identify yourself and agree to the bond,” his gravelly tone whispered slowly.

I nodded again.

His strange soft voice rumbled through the air. “I, Aedan, High King of Hemlit, offer you a mistek bond, bringing you into my house and under my authority, for the duration of the bond.”

A silver stream of magic rushed around my body like a spinning wind. It tightened around my chest and swirled ashes in the air around us.

What was I doing? I knew that mistek bonds gave the elf—or drekkan—holding it power to command the other. And what kind of kingdom had a drekkan as a high king? Did I really want to give the monster in front of me the ability to pour pain into my chest? To feel my emotions? To force me to do his bidding?

But what was the alternative? Watching Alastor die?

No, this was worth it. And he had said I’d be safe. I had to hold onto the hope that deception was beyond a beast’s comprehension. He only wanted this bond as a threat to Alastor.

“I, Callista, accept your bond, Aedan, High King of Hemlit.”

The swirling pressure sank into my lungs, freezing my breath for an instant, but then releasing it and disappearing. I felt nothing, but I could see a thin magic cord running from my chest to the drekkan’s wrist.

And then my twisted ankle stopped hurting.

Had he healed it? Or was my focus on everything else distracting me from the relatively small pain? I looked up into the monster’s green eyes, and I thought I saw that shadow of regret again—but it was a fleeting shadow. He turned away from me, picked up Alastor, and laid him next to the hole in the magic wall at the edge of the meadow.

“Take yourself home, Fae ,” the drekkan rumbled. “The barrier is healing itself—leave before it closes. And if I ever smell your foul magic again, I will kill your sister.”

Alastor glanced at me. I forced myself to smile and wave, despite the nerves that made me want to vomit. He nodded and crawled to the edge of the meadow. Once he passed through the hole in the barrier, he collapsed, hopefully to rest and heal.

The drekkan swept back across the meadow. “We need to get you to the fortress. I…”

I looked closer at the monster. Was he nervous about something? Or was I misinterpreting his stutter?

He opened a fist. “The fastest way there is if I carry you. Is that acceptable?”

I raised a brow. “Doesn’t the mistek bond allow you to demand that I agree? ”

His bright green eyes bored into mine. “It does, but I already told you I would not use it that way. I will only use it as a deterrent to your brother.”

Lovely.

He was a noble monster. He would only use the slave bond as a fast way to kill me. Relief settled on me like a poor-fitting cloak, and I nodded. “It is acceptable.”

Two of the drekkan’s clawed fingers wrapped around my waist and lifted me without effort. Icy wind smacked my face as we soared into the air, but I ignored the numbing chill. I had never seen the world from this perspective… and I didn’t intend to ever do so again. This was my only chance to see everything.

Miles of snow-covered forests flew past us. From our height, the land looked like a painting for sale in the human’s Tutum market. The scenes could easily convince me that the world was a calm, peaceful place with no loss, no mysteries, and no prejudice. But I knew better. And my thoughts bombarded me with questions.

Why did the elves have a drekkan king? Why was he more honorable than the monsters in Fotab’s stories? Did kings always act as border guards here? Why was he obsessed with a little rose bush? Had he enchanted it to bloom in the winter? And how was my mother’s magic here?

I couldn’t ask any of my questions because we flew fast enough that my voice would have been lost in the cold wind that rushed past us. The longer we flew, the more I appreciated the heat that rose from his fingers. Did he realize that his hand’s heat was the only thing keeping me alive on this frigid ride?

Well, maybe not alive, but it definitely prevented frostbite.

A black stone fortress started to take shape against the white snow. As we approached, my thoughts fuzzed—his fortress was more than just a castle. It was…

It was mind-numbing. I’d read about it. I’d seen sketches of it, but nothing could have prepared me for its reality.

The fortress seemed to float in the air 200 feet above a frozen lake. But when I looked closer, it wasn’t really floating. It sat on top of a stone spire that rose from the middle of the lake. One terrifying, long, skinny, ice-encrusted bridge spanned the impossible distance between the craggy shoreline and a wide courtyard protected by walls and a portcullis in front of the castle keep.

An almost-friendly looking town surrounded the approach to the bridge. Icy shadows glared at me from the other end—the end that touched down on the spire in front of the portcullis. Those walls and ramparts and towers rose like ominous sentries that wanted to keep me out.

I scoffed to myself. No stone walls wanted to keep me out. No, it was the elves who lived inside them that I needed to worry about.

And the drekkan who defended them. He hovered over the courtyard in front of the castle’s main entrance while dozens of elves scurried out of his way. Did they scurry in fear or did they appreciate his visit?

He landed and set me carefully on my feet in front of the stairs to the castle door.

A dozen people moved toward us with curious expressions. An older elf dipped her chin toward the drekkan and descended the steps. “Who have you found, Your Majesty?”

Majesty. Right. The drekkan was a king.

I stared at the elves approaching. They seemed kind enough. Most of their expressions were friendly and some, like the older woman, looked positively welcoming .

The drekkan shifted, and I turned and saw him making eye contact with a soldier. “Mylo. She needs to be contained in a dungeon.”

A dungeon?!

Mylo didn’t say anything, but his deep bow and hard expression left me no doubt that he would follow his king’s orders. The drekkan crouched and spread his wings, as if preparing to fly away.

“Wait!” I cried, lifting an arm. I dropped my arm at his imperious brow raise. This was not some horse I could grab by the mane. This was a monster with a magical bond that could force me to do… anything. But my mouth had never practiced restraining my thoughts. “Couldn’t you contain me in a room?”

His chuckle vibrated through the air like a rolling thunder, and he shook his head as if I’d told a great joke. “I do not trust you to stay contained in a room.”

I tipped my head. “You don’t need to trust me. You have magic.” He could just order me to stay there. Or force me to promise. The bond would not let me leave in either case.

He brought his head lower so I could see his eyes better. “I will not use magic in such a way.”

I threw my hands up in exasperation. “But you’ll use it to kill me?”

Several elves around us gasped softly or raised their brows. Did they not expect this from a monster for a king?

“Correct,” he said, rising back up to his natural height. “Mylo.” The guard stepped forward, but so did the older woman. My heart sped up. Perhaps I would have an unexpected advocate in this woman.

“Is the girl dangerous?” she asked.

Girl. I nearly groaned out loud. Could she be any more condescending? I’d been an adult for more than a decade.

The drekkan took several long moments to fan his gaze across the entire courtyard before settling it on me. Even through his grinding tones, venom laced every word. “She is fae.”

Those three words threw the courtyard into chaos. Most of the elves screamed and ran away. The king jumped into the sky and flew out of sight.

I spun, frantically hoping to find any of the friendly faces I’d seen minutes earlier, but they all disappeared. Horror and fear stared at me from anyone brave enough to not run out of my view.

Two strong hands gripped my upper arms from behind me. I tried to turn and see my captor, but he held me still.

“Don’t move.” The instructions came in a soft voice just above my head. They left no room for argument, but they weren’t harsh.

“I’m not dangerous.” I hated how my voice trembled, but I couldn’t help attempting to explain.

“I know.”

He knew? Did that mean he believed me? But he still held my arms as if he expected me to attack. I tried looking over my shoulder and squirmed enough to see Mylo’s impassive face.

His hands tightened, and I faced forward again.

“Be still,” he hissed. “There is more at stake here than you realize.”

“What does that mean?” I whispered. “What are you going to do with me?”

He waited a few more seconds, until even the older elf I’d hoped would speak for me had left the courtyard. He let go of my arms, moved to my left side, and gripped my arm while drilling his stone-grey eyes into mine. “I will do exactly as my king instructed. Contain you in a dungeon cell.”