Page 18

Everly

B odies littered the pristine snow like broken dolls.

Except dolls didn’t bleed like this.

And there was so much blood. Pooling beneath severed limbs and torn fabric that painted the world crimson.

Whatever had done this hadn’t just killed.

It had enjoyed it.

But how? How had someone—some thing done so much damage so quickly?

I scanned the surroundings, gaze tripping over the still-steaming remains of courtiers who had been alive only moments ago. My chest was tight, my breaths coming too fast.

Outside the carnage, there was nothing. No footprints in the snow, no one standing over their bodies. No sign of anything that was wrong.

“What happened?” the question escaped me in a useless huff of air.

Lumen let out another growl as the air around us shifted. It was wrong now. Too still. As if the world were holding its breath, waiting for the next scream.

Nevara stood a few paces ahead with Soren. Her expression was drawn as he detailed the scene. One hand gripped her staff, her fingers tight around the polished silver.

And then I heard it.

The muffled sound of bone scraping through gravel, the far off rustle of leaves, then the clipped snapping of roots.

It was coming from the obsidian tree that loomed above the bodies. But that… that didn’t make any sense. One of the courtiers on the ground moved, his head stretching up, his face a mask of horror before he let out a scream.

“It’s the tree,” I breathed in disbelief. “There is something wrong with?—”

Everything happened at once.

A flicker of movement drew my eye. Something shimmered along the trunk, like breath fogging glass.

No. Not breath.

A face.

It was jagged and wrong, half-hidden in the bark, like the tree itself had decided to peel open and become a nightmare. The illusion of stillness shattered as the middle tore open, forming…a mouth.

A long black tongue snapped out like a whip, the sound rending the air like a clap of thunder as it silenced the male on the ground. The shock and horror that had settled over the gardens broke instantly as the world devolved into chaos.

Claws shot up from the ground like roots, splintering through ice and soil as the beast crawled forward.

A Mirrorbane .

A string of curses slipped past my lips, lost to the wind and the screams of terrified courtiers.

My blood turned to ice. From what I had read, they weren’t as aggressive as Tharnoks, or as fast, but they were a terror in their own right, not just because of their ability to hide in plain sight.

But, there shouldn’t be one here.

They were isolated. They didn’t seek people out or climb towering walls. And they didn’t hunt in the daytime.

They couldn’t.

None of the frostbeasts could.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the creature moved fully into view. It was taller than any fae, hunched and rimed with frost like the cold had claimed it from the inside out. Its limbs moved in too many directions at once, joints bending at angles that didn’t make any sense.

With every step, its flesh cracked and shifted, mimicking the stone, and snow, and bark, as if it hadn’t yet decided what it wanted to be.

Nevara went from utter stillness to fury in motion. The light caught on her staff as she spun it through the air, releasing a pulse of mana that hit the creature broadside. A spray of iridescent light burst against its hide, forcing it to reel backward, but not far enough.

The Mirrorbane exploded into motion, shrieking in fury as it tore through the garden. It blurred between shapes—tree, snowbank, hedgerow—striking at the fleeing courtiers from impossible angles.

Shards damn it all.

I took advantage of the general bedlam to reach under my skirts for my dagger, keeping it tucked close to my side and out of sight.

A jagged root shot out, yanking a courtier near the fountain off his feet and splitting him in two. The male running next to him fell backward, his scream dying mid-breath.

Soren surged forward, his hands pulsing red with Autumn fire. He hurled it at the beast in searing waves that hissed and cracked against its shifting hide. The Mirrorbane screamed, louder this time, a piercing, unnatural sound that clawed at my ears and scraped along my spine.

Lumen lunged with a savage snarl, fangs flashing as he launched himself at the frostbeast. But the monster flickered, phasing in and out of reality, one moment a glowing tree, the next a bed of frostlilies, almost like it was enjoying the game.

Still, the wolf found purchase. His jaws sank into one of the thrashing, vine-like limbs. Black blood oozed thick and slow, hissing where it hit the snow. The creature shrieked higher, harsher, then lashed out.

Another tendril whipped forward, wrapping tight around Lumen’s torso. It yanked him off the ground and flung him across the garden like he weighed nothing.

Bile surged up my throat.

He hit a marble pillar with a sickening crack, the sound loud enough to shatter breath from my lungs.

“No!” I screamed, reaching for the wolf as even more fire and iridescent light came sailing through the air.

The sound of bootsteps on stone echoed in the distance as the remaining courtiers fled the gardens, while the guards stepped forth to protect them. Or tried to. Screams cut short and spells fizzled, the snow drinking down the silence just as eagerly as it had the blood.

Nevara was in front of me in a flash—her staff gripped tight, pulsing with pale pink light. She charged forward as her cloak whipped behind her like a banner of fury.

She moved with terrifying grace, each motion honed by something deeper than sight. Her staff sliced through the air, guiding ribbons of concentrated mana that struck the monster like flickers of lightning, carving glowing rents in its shifting hide.

Another unearthly shriek tore from the beast as it turned to mist and vanished into nothing.

Breath caught somewhere between my lungs and throat, every muscle locked tight. My knuckles whitened around the hilt of my dagger, and the tips of my nails bit into the palms of my hands hard enough to break the skin.

None of us were foolish enough to believe it had fled.

Blood dripped from my clenched fists onto the snow as I scanned the gardens for any sign of movement. The seconds ticked by like hours. My heartbeat drummed in my ears, thundering faster and faster until my breaths were coming too quickly. Panic clawed at my ribs, desperate to escape.

I took a deep breath in and held it as long as I could, willing my heartbeat to slow.

Across from me, Nevara stood tense, her staff glowing faintly where it touched the cracked stone.

Her shoulders rose and fell with ragged, controlled breaths as she tilted her head slightly, listening to something no one else could hear.

Her eyes were pinched shut, face taut with effort—until the ground beneath her feet began to rumble.

Then came the vines.

Blackened and gnarled, they shot up from the snow with a hiss. They wrapped around her, high and fast, forming a twisted cage of living bramble.

“Nevara!” I shouted lamely, gripping my useless dagger even tighter.

Soren let out a furious roar and surged forward, his arms igniting in a blaze of golden-orange light. He hurled a stream of flame at the vines, the fire scorching the twisted limbs until they were burning black and curling inward.

For a moment, it looked like it would work.

Then the vines shifted again.

They shimmered mid-burn, their charred texture rippling like a haze of heat before solidifying. They were no longer wood. But frost, instead. Ice. Hardened snow laced with pulsing veins of blackened mana.

Soren swore and hurled another burst of flame, this one hotter, sharper, furious. It struck dead-on, but the ice only cracked, then knit itself back together around Nevara, stronger than before.

Her staff spun in precise, practiced arcs, tracing the air like a blade. Eyes still closed, she moved with pure instinct, reacting to the slightest shift in wind, the flicker of sound. Threads of mana snapped from her like a living web, but even she couldn’t hold it off forever.

The creature flickered again.

Where there had been a bramble cage, now there was something else. A shadow taking shape behind her. Limbs reforming. Jaw widening.

No.

More guards were coming, but they wouldn’t make it here in time. Hadn’t made a difference even when they did.

I shook my head, panic surging up my throat as I worked the small, warm bat from my sleeve. Her eyes were wide, her body shivering as she covered her face with a wing.

“Go,” I whispered, tucking her into the crook of the fruit tree next to me. “Hide.”

I didn’t look back, I didn’t think. I couldn’t. My mother’s desperate voice echoed in my head.

This is the only defense you have. Hide it always.

And I had, always, from everyone but Wynnie.

But right now all I could see was one of the few people in this palace who had treated me with something close to kindness, her guarded expression when she told me she didn’t know if we would be friends, the smirk on her lips when she defended me to the court.

Her waifish form trapped in the jaws of a monster.

I hurled the dagger.

It had been years since I’d actually needed to use the skill, but instinct took over. My aim was true, straight toward the center of the writhing frostbeast.

The dagger sailed through the air, spinning end over end, its blackened steel catching the dying light. The Mirrorbane shifted again, flickering between snow and stone, trying to vanish.

Too slow.

My blade struck just below its ribs with a sickening thunk, sinking deep into something not quite flesh. A burst of violet sparks erupted from the wound, a flare of otherworldly light that emanated from the blackened steel.

The Mirrorbane screeched, twisting toward me.

My heartbeat stuttered in my chest.

Everything else fell away as the monster barreled forward, knocking Soren to the ground like he was nothing. Lumen tried to scramble closer, a snarl ripping from his throat as he limped toward the monster.

He wasn’t going to make it in time. And I was out of weapons.

I ran.

My boots hammered against the frozen stone, every step ricocheting panic through my spine. A vine snapped toward me from the left. I ducked, barely, the air hissing past my face like it meant to skin me alive.

The movement cost me, though. Momentum carried me forward too quickly, and my ankle twisted when I hit a patch of blood-slick snow. I tumbled forward before slamming into the ground, hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

Ice tore straight through my cloak and bit deep into my shoulder and the side of my head. I gasped and clawed my way upright, boots slipping, vision tilting.

It was almost on me.

Something warm trickled past my eyebrow and down my cheek.

Mana ignited behind me, raw and angry, lighting the air like a thunderstorm made of ice. Sigils flared into existence midair, burning bright with power as guards poured from the palace, shouting, hurling everything they had.

Blades of light. Shards of ice. Bursts of wind sharp enough to cut bone.

None of it mattered. The Mirrorbane just kept coming.

I cried out as I slipped again, crashing into a hedgerow with a grunt and a muttered curse. The thorns snagged at my sleeve as I tried to shove backward, hands scrambling in the snow. My vision blurred red.

Shards. This was it.

The damned Mirrorbane was going to reach me, and I wasn’t strong enough to get away. Wasn’t strong enough to fight back. I had nothing. I was nothing. Hollow.

My mind went fuzzy, unconsciousness threatening to pull me under. There was no escape. I could see all of the monster now, every crooked limb, every jagged tooth, every flicker of violet lightning crawling like veins beneath its skin.

And then?—

Crack.

The ground beneath us shook. Mana flooded the air, cold and sharp and merciless, more furious than I had ever felt it, but painfully familiar.

Draven.

His presence slammed into the garden like a living storm. Frost and rage radiated off him in waves, warping the air, as he stepped between me and the monster.

I never thought I would be relieved to see him, never thought I would be grateful that my husband was the bigger, more powerful monster in any given fight. It felt traitorous to even let the thought cross my mind, after the things he had done.

But for better or worse, I knew he wouldn’t let that thing kill me.

I let out a breath, finally surrendering to the darkness tugging at the back of my mind.

The last thing I saw was the Mirrorbane exploding into thousands of shards of ice, like the Tharnoks in my nightmares had.

Then the world went black.