Page 23 of The Frost Witch (The Covenants of Velora #1)

A warm hand slid up the inside of my thigh, increasing the pressure of the touch with every upward inch. My hips lifted of their own volition, desperate for the contact, urging it higher. It had been so, so long. I needed that pressure at my center, where the ache built with every heartbeat?—

My heart doesn’t beat.

I startled awake to the crack of ice.

One crack was an animal. A crow landing. A wayward squirrel.

Two cracks were an attack.

And even the squirrels were dead in Velora.

I opened my eyes as the two figures crashed through the spiked stalagmites I’d created around me. The ice barely slowed them down. But that hadn’t been the reason for it. It had been a warning system, and that had worked. Somewhere in the distance, a crow cawed.

I braced my feet in the snow and ground my back into the tree roots, pushing myself up to stand. Two shapes came into focus as my eyes blinked, the Dark God’s gifts sharpening the details. But even before I could make out their faces, I knew my attackers.

Rilk dodged to the side as Nash swung his massive sword wildly, searching for me in the dark. But Rilk couldn’t see either. He howled with pain when Nash clipped his arm.

“Shut up,” Nash hissed—as if every one of the other supplicants could not hear them.

But I kept my mouth shut. They couldn’t see me. I was not going to give them a hint by opening my mouth, no matter how tempting it was to mock their incompetence.

Rilk got his screams down to whimpers. Nash did not bother to stop and check on his accomplice. He edged closer, swinging his sword in front of him with every step.

“We know you’re here somewhere,” he called into the darkness. “We mean no harm. We want to invite you to join our alliance.”

Alliance. I choked on an involuntary laugh.

No wonder none of the humans had ever successfully made it through all seven gates if this was the sort of nonsense they engaged in. We did not need to take one another out; it was a waste of energy. As Garrick had pointed out the night before, the gods would do plenty of damage on their own.

But people like Nash… I’d met plenty of men like him over the centuries. He could not handle the idea that there were people stronger than him, worthier than him. He needed to cut down his opponents before the gods could confirm that fear.

The scent of blood began to flood the clearing. I couldn’t quite make out the blood from their dark clothes, but Rilk’s wound was substantial. I could use that. Too bad he wasn’t the primary danger.

Every instinct screamed at me to move. Another yard, and the end of that pointy sword would reach me. But a layer of ice had formed over the top of the old snow. Any attempt to move would only bring them closer faster. I had to trust in my?—

“Argh!” Nash’s rage ripped through the clearing, every pretense of quiet and comradery gone. “You bitch,” he swore, writhing in place to try and break his legs free.

Sweet, familiar power filled the air between us. The spell I’d muttered in my last throes of wakefulness had done its job, the water on the ground soaking into their boots and pants and then instantly freezing. It wasn’t particularly clever, but it was sufficient.

The spell held them in place, but it wouldn’t last for long. My power to cast was weakened by the lack of connection to my coven. While my active power did not yet seem to be affected, I was not going to take a chance on the efficacy of my spells.

This was my opportunity to get away. I clambered over the tree roots, not caring about how much noise I made. I had to put as much distance between myself and my attackers as possible.

My muscles groaned, still not recovered from the Mercy Gate. But once I was free of the tree roots, I could run. Run where, I didn’t pause to think. More ice cracked and in the next second, a huge mass fell upon me, crushing me to the ground.

I braced myself for the pain, expecting the sword to pierce my flesh at any second.

Nash’s fetid breath clouded my senses, but then I felt it, pressed not to my side, but to the back of my neck where he’d pinned me down in the snow.

The threat was clear, but I had no choice.

I could not get my hands free, but I could still speak.

I turned my face up so I could watch while my spell eviscerated him.

“Where you stand upon the ground, let water?—”

He slapped me across the face, knocking the words of my spell loose before I could finish.

“I said—I don’t want to kill you.” So much for we . I could still hear Rilk a few yards back, free now of my spell, but making no attempt to join us. Nursing his wound, most likely.

“Then get your blade off my neck,” I hissed. His hand remained poised above my face, ready to hit me again. Even if I tried, I would not be able to turn my face away into the snow fast enough. And I’d never get an entire spell out.

“Soon.” He shifted his weight above me. “Rilk, get over here.”

Dark God spare me, he stank. When was the last time he’d cleaned his teeth? Ever? When I was human, the rich had prided themselves on extensive, expensive bathing rituals. Things could not have changed that much in three hundred years.

“What do you say,” he said, shifting again. This time, an elbow landed hard in my back.

“I say get the fuck off of me,” I bit out. There had to be a way to get him off. Spells spun through my brain. If I could get him talking, maybe I could whisper one beneath my breath. Or if he turned again, I could get a hand free.

“Such a vicious mouth,” Nash laughed, leaning in closer. My stomach turned at the rancid stench of his breath. “But that’s what I like about you. I want to see just how good you are with it.”

Cold shot through me that had nothing to do with my power.

“I want one of those clever little spells—well, not just one,” Nash said. He shifted so that his knees bracketed my waist. My left hand was underneath my leg. If he leaned forward just a bit more?—

Metal sang through the air. Instead of moving, Nash froze, as surely as if he’d been turned to ice.

A voice just as cold spoke from the darkness behind us.

“Your friend is dead. And if you do not do exactly as I say, you will be, too.”