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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

N ever rest, Everest.

My heart pounded with adrenaline as I strode out of the training courtyard in the Vault of Frost, leaving my combat training session with several victories.

I was dressed for success today in a long-sleeved navy corset that had silver swirls rising up the bodice like surging waves.

My trousers were the same colour to match with the sea serpent Typhon swirling around my left leg in that same silver stitching.

I’d fitted slim guiser-metal pads into the lining over my thighs, shins, forearms and stomach for protection against magical casts.

They could withstand the hard strike of ice so well that I had barely felt it when the Minotaur Alexus Torvin had thrown an ice-coated fist straight to my gut.

The truth was, I was growing ever stronger, more skilled, my power a beacon inside me that blazed brighter with each passing day.

Where I failed, I learned; no longer dwelling in despair but growing from each mistake.

I had to be better than I was yesterday, that was my cardinal rule.

But some days that felt truer than others, and today was one of them.

A tickle on my neck made me think of Calcifiend, but the little Sayer Dragon had disappeared a few nights ago, no doubt returning to the company of his master. I didn’t like to admit that there was a cold, hollowness to my quarters without his steady breaths beside me in the night.

Sometimes I found my feet trailing to the door, cracking it open to seek out Harlon in the dark.

And sometimes two red eyes stared back at me from the gloom, and I shut the door tight.

If Kaiser insisted on guarding me like a dog with a scrap of meat, then let him waste his nights, let him grow tired by losing so many hours to sleep and suffer in his training.

I, in the meantime, would be growing all the more powerful in preparation of the fateful day I took his life.

I made a path for the stairwell that led to my quarters, only to pause as a cry of anguish sounded from a passage to my right.

Curiosity was my bane, because my feet started tracking that way.

I should have learned not to chase screams into the dark at Never Keep, but a part of me always sought danger, thriving on the thrill of jeopardy.

It was why I knew I was destined to be a warrior and dive into the fray of battle, one day crowning myself as a queen of carnage.

Another anguished cry made my footsteps quicken, that voice suddenly familiar. Galomp .

I pushed my steps to a run, rounding a corner to find Ransom in his Merrow form, his muscular body covered in thick, razor-sharp scales that were darkest blue, spines coating his knuckles and a length of spikes running up his back.

He had hold of Galomp from behind, one thick arm banded around his neck and the other holding a small cutlass to his side.

Alina had her hand slapped to Galomp’s forehead, her two eyes merged together into a single bulbous one as she used her Cyclops Order to get inside his head.

Galomp whimpered, his eyes unseeing while he was lost to her psychic power, and anger sparked in my chest.

“His legs,” Alina laughed. “What ugly things they were, is that why you walk like a maimed elephant?”

I lunged at Alina from behind, grabbing a fistful of her black hair, making her shriek as I whirled her around and slammed her head against the nearest wall.

The second I released her, she came at me with a blur of ice shards shooting from her hands but I melted them fast, the cold water splashing against me instead.

My fist connected with her nose, but before I could do more, Ransom dragged me away from her with whips of water while her shriek punctured my ears.

I was twisted around to face my half-brother and he shoved Galomp to the floor where he panted in the wake of Alina’s mind attack.

The cracks in my soul ripped deeper and I turned Ransom’s water chains to ice, shattering them with a blast of my magic. The ice crashed to the floor around me and I ran at him, forging a frozen blade in my grip while unsheathing my dagger from its concealed place in my trousers.

The scales coating Ransom’s body rippled, every sharp edge pointing outwards to protect his skin from my oncoming strikes, and in the same moment, he cast ice beneath my feet, sending me skidding toward him at an alarming pace.

I swung my ice blade at his chest and it shattered against his scales, but the darkness in me rose, answering the call of the fight and that beautiful, mysterious power somehow came to me in offering.

I cast at him all at once, every ounce of it spilling from me into him and his scales shivered out of existence, leaving him exposed as I crashed into him.

My dagger swung for Ransom’s neck, death calling his name. I was lost to the madness of the fight, remembering all my brother had done to me. The chasing, the beatings, the torment.

He staggered away from me in shock, backing up against the wall, his hands raised to cast, but no magic came out. He was weak, exposed, an ant beneath my heel.

“Everest, stop!” he cried and stars help me, the fear in his eyes melted a part of my hardened heart. I skimmed the blade past his neck, driving it into a gap between the bricks beside his head, the ringing of metal on stone punctuating my decision.

Ransom sunk slowly down the wall to the floor, sagging there beneath me with his throat bobbing. Naked and panting, reduced to nothing.

“How…how did you do that?” he rasped.

I drew back a step, tugging my dagger from the wall, unsure if I should have shown him the secret of the power I possessed. But I was done with him thinking of me as weak. I was a fearsome thing to behold and it was time he knew it.

Ransom tried to get up but I raised my hand in warning, water swirling at my fingertips. “You’re going to give me the key to your quarters or I’ll cut my name into your forehead and ensure everyone knows who put you on your ass, Ransom Rake.”

“Don’t do it, Ran,” Alina hissed and I glanced over my shoulder, finding her backing down the hall, clearly in no way planning to help Ransom out. “I’ll get the others.”

“ No, Alina,” Ransom snapped, his ego too damn big to let all his friends witness him beaten. Especially by me.

My half-brother reached for the clothes he had taken off when he’d shifted, tossed in a pile beside Galomp who was curled into a ball on the floor. He reached into his trouser pocket, taking out a brass key, his lips tight as he stared at it then reluctantly handed it to me.

My fingers curled around it, my chin lifting with victory. “What room?”

He gave me the directions in a mutter and I stepped aside, gesturing for him to scurry away with his bitch of a friend. He grabbed his clothes, pushing to his feet and lingering in front of me with his brow furrowing.

“You’re becoming more than I thought you ever could be, runt,” he murmured. “What the fuck is your Order?”

I remained silent, glaring at him coldly, the truth tucked tight in my throat. He growled a curse then shouldered past me and rushed away with Alina, neither of them looking back.

I let out a breath, soaking in my victory then dropping to Galomp’s side, resting a tentative hand to his arm.

“Oh no,” he groaned, his eyes squeezed shut and his fingers pawing at his temples. “Bad. Very bad. I do not like it. Please. I do not like this.”

“Galomp, it’s me. Everest,” I said gently. “You’re okay. They’re gone.”

He squinted up at me, his hands falling still as he released a shaky breath. “She saw the bad things, Miss Everest. The very bad things. Now they are here again and I do not know how to make them go away.”

“Tell me them,” I said softly. “Maybe they’ll go away if you speak them aloud.”

He nodded, wincing a little. “It was back when I was young. Only small, four or five. I was born with legs that tried to walk opposite ways, they said. They got worse and worse until I could not walk without limping. It hurt. It hurt so bad.” He winced again.

I ran my hand over his shoulder in a soothing circle, doing for him what my mother had done for me as a child.

“It’s okay,” I echoed her words, unsure if there was enough sweetness left in me to soothe him like my mama had been able to soothe me. “You’re safe.”

Galomp nodded, releasing a shaky breath.

“Uncle hid me away. He didn’t want the world to cast me out.

Legs like those can’t run into battle. Legs like those are good for nothing.

” A tear slid down his cheek and my heart squeezed for him, knowing exactly what it was like to face the rejection of this war-bound world.

“He begged the Reapers to come and heal me, said he would pay them any price. Said he would give all he had, but they would not come. So he…he… did what he did. He had to. I am glad he did it.”

“What did he do?” I whispered.

“He broke them,” he whimpered. “Tied me down and broke them, snap, snap, snap, they went, then he bound them with metal rods until I was straight again. Oh the pain, Miss Everest. I screamed and screamed. Sometimes I still scream when I dream of it. But Uncle did what he had to do. He made me right. He fixed me, Miss Everest. He gave me a chance to be a warrior. I am most grateful to him, I am.”

“I’m sorry you went through that,” I said, hurting for him. “I can’t imagine the pain.”

He reached for me, his hand curling around my arm as he drew me closer, and I hesitantly leaned down and embraced him. It felt so unnatural, every wall and block I had put up to keep people away was screaming for me to stop. But I didn’t. Because Galomp was worth being vulnerable for.

He released a shuddering breath and drew himself together, releasing me with a nod of thanks. “Oh dear, oh no, I am sorry to blubber. I do not like to be a bother.”

“You’re no bother,” I said firmly. “Now come on. Stand up on those strong legs of yours and show the world it can’t break you.”

He smiled a little as we rose to our feet and he wiped the tears from his cheeks. “That is better.” He took my hand, unfurling my fingers to reveal Ransom’s key, then let out a guffawing chuckle. “Oh boy. You have claimed a room. And a good room too. It is close to mine. Come!”

Galomp turned and ran back up the corridor and I raced after him, bounding along and revelling in what I’d achieved.

Was I under any illusions that Ransom wasn’t going to come at me again with the full might of his gang around him?

Absolutely not. My brother was as stubborn as I was - it might have been the only trait we shared.

Galomp led me up the tower with the stairs that were made of pure, clear ice.

Water swirled inside them along with a school of magical fish that occasionally burst into pockets of light then reappeared elsewhere.

I followed Galomp to the highest floor and he grabbed my hand, practically prancing as he towed me after him.

The ceiling of the long corridor was painted with a mural of the sea, the giant serpent Typhon coiling through the middle of a raging ocean and all types of creatures reaching toward him. There were only a few doors up here despite the length of the hall.

“That’s my room,” Galomp pointed to one entrance then dragged me to the end of the hallway and pointed to the door awaiting us there. “This one is yours now, Miss Everest.”

“I’m surprised Ransom didn’t try to take over the whole floor,” I said as I pushed the key into the lock.

“Oh he did. He and his mean pals have been trying to find my weak spots for months, yes they have. That Alina Seaman is a nasty toad wench, she is. I do not like Cyclopses, Miss Everest. They find your secrets. Read your mind. Steal your thoughts.” He shuddered.

“Agreed. Especially on the toad wench part.” I smiled at him. He smiled back, and a tug in my chest made me want to step away. Kaské, I’d done it now. I’d gone and started caring about him. We were bonded outcasts for fuck’s sake.

Knowing Galomp had claimed a room up here alongside my fearsome brother on day one at Never Keep really said something about the power he possessed.

He hadn’t been hidden away with the spiders and the damp like I had.

But hell, I was here now. I couldn’t dwell on my beginning; it was my ending that was going to matter.

The door unlocked, the arrogance of Ransom showing in the fact that he had cast no magical protections on his room the way Vesper had. That might just be his undoing in battle one day.

I had rarely been speechless in my life, but stepping into Ransom’s room stalled all words on my tongue. Never, in all my time at the Keep, had I realised that the rooms I was missing out on in the Vault of Frost would be this beautiful.

A white four poster bed stood to one side in an alcove built entirely from a glass fish tank, the same magical creatures darting along inside it as those contained in the staircase.

The sloped ceiling had beams criss-crossing above and icicles hung from the wood, glinting in the glow of a shining chandelier.

Beyond the bed, steps led down into a rocky pool where blue lights twinkled beneath its surface and the water swept away toward a vast window.

Snowflakes danced beyond it, landing on a balcony to the left of the pool through two large doors.

I swerved into a walk-in closet with a gilt mirror, and it didn’t take long to find my weapons stashed in there under a layer of Ransom’s armour.

Triumphant, I carried them back into my new room, laying them on a collection of navy armchairs beside a roaring fireplace, then headed for the final chamber, finding a bathroom of white, gold and blue that held a giant tub which was almost big enough to swim in.

“This is bullshit, Galomp,” I cursed then I ran for the bed, launching myself onto it and laughing at the feel of the softest sheets in the world. The mattress practically hugged me and I moaned in delight after so many nights sleeping on a hard, unrelenting floor.

“It is the shit of a bull?” Galomp questioned with a frown.

“Yes! The shit of a bull, Galomp – now come help me gather up Ransom’s things.” I sat up with a mischievous grin on my face. “We have work to do.”