Page 53

Everly

F eeling returned to my limbs in a rush of adrenaline. I edged myself in front of the child, scanning the sky and the trees for possible routes of escape.

“What do you want?” I demanded, keeping my voice low.

Even if someone in the house had been able to hear me, I didn’t want to lure them into the trap, and I didn’t want to draw any monsters who would devour the child along with the Unseelie.

Though it was hard to say which monsters were worse. The frostbeasts, or the Wild Fae.

The male stepped closer, and I fought not to shrink back from the wings that loomed over me. I was taller now than I had been then, but those leathery wings still managed to make me feel small.

The male smirked like he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Isn’t that sweet of you, protecting what’s already ours.” Silver eyes glinted with amusement. “Alaric, get the child.”

The name tugged at something in the back of my mind, but my thoughts were racing too quickly for me to pin it down.

“I already told you I will handle the child, Tavrik.” That voice was lighter, more feminine, but no less cruel.

She pushed from the trees with a huff. The moonlight illuminated her violet hair and lean muscular frame and glinted off a crooked nose. She was smaller than the male, but I wasn’t fooled. She was no less deadly.

She scowled at Tavrik, rushing over to the sniffling child and hurling me into the snow before I could move to protect him. Like I weighed no more than the blanket around his shoulders.

Tavrik sighed like the notion of caring about children freezing to death was exasperating for him. “The boy is fine. Just be glad we didn’t use him as bait for the first attack, since you’ve gotten so attached to him.”

“Next time, tell the Thane’s pet Seer to be more specific, or I will exact her punishment myself.” She grabbed the boy and flew away without waiting for a response.

My mind was reeling, and I didn’t know how to feel about her taking the boy. Grateful he was safer than he would have been with monsters? Just…a slave? Leverage?

No, that’s not what Tavrik had just said.

Bait. Bait for the first attack.

They had come here on purpose. Lured the monsters here…with bait? Winter Fae? More children?

Acid churned in my gut, rising up into my throat. I didn’t get to my feet yet. Instead, I surreptitiously scanned the ground for anything I could use as a weapon. A branch I could stab him in the eye with. A discarded pitchfork from fighting the monsters. Shards, I would settle for a weighty rock.

Or, if all else failed, I could always claw his eyes out instead.

Then I could at least try to run instead of shivering in the snow while they took whatever it was they so clearly needed from me.

Apparently, I wasn’t subtle enough.

Tavrik made a tsking sound as he strode across the snow on eerily silent footsteps.

“That’s enough of that.” His tone was all false cheer, his wings bathing me entirely in his deadly shadow. “Of course we admire your spirit, but you’ll really only wind up hurting yourself.”

He gestured to the treeline, and three more shadows stepped forward just enough for me to make out their bows.

“So come on, there’s no need for us to be uncivilized. Stand up, or I can pick you up like the child you’re behaving as.”

Anger chased away a small amount of the panic, but not all of it. Since his threat was obviously sincere, I got to my feet, trying not to let him see me shiver.

“If you want to be civilized, you could start by not letting children be slaughtered by monsters or freeze half to death.” Or be tortured , I wanted to add. “So, just tell me what you want with me,” I spat, clenching my teeth so they didn’t chatter.

Because it was clear that they had come for me.

The pieces came together like the jagged edges of a puzzle. With the palace warded, guarded, and large enough that neither Draven nor I could ever be lured outside alone, they needed another access point.

So their Seer had told them to come here to my sister’s ruined home. Placed a child far enough away that an ordinary fae couldn’t hear his cry.

To what end? Not to kill me, or I would already be dead.

“The Thane just wants to talk to you. He believes you could come to a…mutually beneficial arrangement.”

I tried to breathe, but the cold burned too deep. I couldn’t even feel my toes anymore.

Whatever the hells a mutually beneficial arrangement was, I wanted no part of it. Not with their Thane. Not with any of them.

Just their proximity had panic rising up in my chest. Already my nails bit into my skin, fresh blood dripping into the snow to meld with all the rest.

“I regretfully decline,” I bit out.

Tavrik opened his mouth to speak again, but another voice cut him off.

“This is taking too long. Just grab her and go. She’s just a Hollow; it’s not like you have to be scared of her.”

Tavrik’s wings went rigid. “The Thane wants her to come willingly.”

“He’d rather her come at all, and we’ll lose any chance of that when her husband comes out. Or did you forget the Frostgrave King is sleeping two hundred feet away.”

I prayed to the Shard Mother that was true. That he was sleeping. That the ring didn’t wake him and send him here, into this trap.

One he would despise me for, even if he didn’t fall victim to it.

Another voice chimed in, female this time. “Perfect, two little Seelie birds with one stone.”

“You’re an idiot, Zerina. The only thing that will happen if King Frosty comes out is that we’ll all be frozen here looking at each other’s ugly faces for eternity. Just get the girl and go.”

“The only idiot here is you, though coward might be a better word,” she mocked.

“The king spent all night blasting apart monsters, has wards up here, and there’s no way in the stars that he left his palace unguarded.

He is powerful, but he is not the Shard Mother herself, so you can stop shaking in your heeled boots. ”

A few snickers went up around, and the male shuffled self-consciously.

Shards .

I would not let them use me as bait for him. I backed away, preparing to flee, no matter the cost. I didn’t actually think their precious Thane had given them leave to kill me if he went to such trouble to take me to begin with.

It was a risk I would have to take.

I spun on my heel just as another shape came hurtling from the darkness, pinning me to the ground.

“I agree with Corven; it’s a stupid risk to take. I’ve got her. Let’s just go.”

He shifted to grab my arm as an argument erupted behind us.

Then everything froze.

I didn’t need to see him to feel him. The way his power raced over my skin, both a burn and a balm.

Draven.

A sharp woosh of mana erupted, a violent wind exploding outward. Frost and mana whipped through the night. Bright purple mana met it mid-air, the sound like the first clap of thunder in a hurricane.

The male who had pinned me now pulled me to my feet, crushing my back against his chest. I tried to shake my hair out of my face, but a sharp bit of steel bit into my throat.

Frost damn it all.

Tavrik cursed under his breath about all of this going to hells while the male behind me called out in a mocking tone.

“One step closer, and we carve your wife down to bone.”

The mana pulled back, but I still felt it pulsing over to me.

A gust of wind blew through, finally clearing my view.

It wasn’t pretty.

Another body in the snow. Zerina? Pierced through with a shard of ice. Another fae knelt at her side, his features startlingly familiar.

No. Those were memories I couldn’t afford to revisit right now.

Finally, I turned my eyes to Draven. He stood, barefoot and shirtless, halfway between here and the wards. Halfway to me. There was a predatorial grace evident even in his deadly stillness.

His frost green eyes glinted silver in the moonlight as he swept his gaze over me like he was searching me for injuries. A muscle clenched in his jaw, his hand fisting when he turned his attention to the male holding me.

“You would all be dead before you could try,” he growled.

“See, I don’t think that’s a chance you’ll take,” Tavrik said, stepping forward. “The way I’ve heard it, you never let anyone near your shackled bride.”

Heard from who? Who the hells were they working with?

Frost spread from Draven’s clenched fists all the way up his arm, but he didn’t move to kill them.

They were right. Whether it was for me or his kingdom, he would never risk them killing me.

“What do you want with my wife?”

The one holding me chuckled, speaking low in my ear. “Someone’s been keeping secrets.”

My mouth was too dry to respond. Because enormous wings crept closer to Draven, creeping between him and the wards.

“Dra–” I started to warn him, but the dagger bit closer into my skin.

“Ah ah. You have your secrets, and we have ours.”

No.

The male who had first shot the arrow at me stepped closer, raising his bow. Six others stepped from the shadows, holding identical weapons.

My ring went cold.

They weren’t just any arrows. They were made of rowanwood, and tipped in cold-iron. That’s who the Unseelie were. Savage creatures who made even more savage weapons. They didn’t fight fair, they didn’t play by Fate’s rules. They devoured and destroyed.

Panic surged through me. Draven was a barely contained storm, but his green eyes were fixed on the blade at my neck instead of the weapons aimed at him.

The clearing was silent, but for Zerina’s pained gasps and the frantic murmurs of the Unseelie male trying to staunch the flow of blood.

Tension thrummed through the air, both sides paralyzed with the implications of making a move.

Death for yourself. Death for someone you loved. Why did everything come down to death?

“Don’t,” I whispered, not sure if I was talking to them or to him.

Don’t let them hurt you.

Don’t spill more blood in the snow, not for me. Not like this.

I couldn’t stomach losing a single other person I cared about. Hadn’t Fate taken enough from me?

Two of the warriors crept closer to him, obscuring him from my view. My breaths came faster, my hand uselessly clutching the arm that held the dagger.

Then, an Unseelie female shifted, just enough to broadcast her intent. She stood across the clearing, closest to the treeline, further than I could hope to get even if I managed my way out of my captor’s grasp.

No .

Vengeance shone from her eyes, and the worst part was, I understood why. Shards, weeks ago, I might have thanked her for it. I knew what it was to look at him and see nothing but the blood he had spilled. The frozen bodies in the snow. An heiress shattering across a marble floor.

But I also saw a body stepping in front of me, shielding me from every kind of monster. Warm arms sliding over my shoulders. Gentle fingers tracing my scars and running through my blood-soaked hair.

Maybe Draven was a monster in his own right, but he was my monster.

Mine.

She hadn’t fired yet. There was still time.

I wouldn't let them hurt him, even if he despised me for it in the end.

It happened in a single blink.

I closed my eyes, letting every ounce of my panic and fury flood my veins.

I let it sear through me like a wildfire, scorching underneath my skin.

My nails sharpened into silvery talons, and my back screamed in protest as I finally gave in to what my body had been begging me for from the day I ran away from home.

I dug my nails into the Unseelie’s arm just as my wings tore free from my back. Pain lanced through me, followed instantly by relief and the sound of fabric ripping.

I took advantage of the distraction of the threat of the claw on my wings stabbing him to move away from my captor.

He cried out, but I didn’t give the Skaldwing time to react. Instead, I launched forward like an arrow unto myself, tightening my wings and twisting up in the air for momentum just as the female loosed her own volley.

An arrow whirled through the air, the high-pitched whine echoing in my ears like death knells.

Close . I was so close.

The giant brute that had been blocking me from Draven’s view spun to face me, but I swooped out of their reach.

I felt fingers brushing my ankle, felt a wave of shock emanate from the bond, saw aurora eyes widening in something perilously close to horror, all in the same heartbeat that my hands connected with my husband’s bare chest.

And shoved him back through the wards.

A hand latched around my ankle, yanking me backward. Pulling me away from my husband, who was looking at me like he had never seen me before.

Like he didn’t even notice the arrow buried into his skin.