by A. K. Koonce
“That’s it.” He kisses me slowly one more time, and it hurts when he finally pulls away.
I watch him the entire time as he strides out just like the others. At the last second, he lifts his hands and tears his shirt over his head, scales ripping across his flesh like they can’t wait to dive into the snow and blood.
Then it’s just Kain and me.
“Anyone ever tell you that love is dangerous, girl?”
And Seara.
Right.
She swings her attention toward me with a heavy glare that sobers me.
She’s right.
It’s dangerous. Distracting. It’s enough to get me killed. To get us all killed if I’m not careful.
“Ready?” I ask.
Kain nods. As for the mage, she doesn’t say anything. Her dress is thin and tangles around her legs as she walks out into the cold battle without any warmth, or armor, without a single weapon.
Aside from the magic brewing within her.
Kain’s palm presses low on my back, and he leans into me, his lips parting like he’s thought about what he’s about to say more times than he can count. The concern and apprehension are what I notice first.
Except it doesn’t stay long.
Red eyes blaze wildly, and the sword that comes down on us is just as vicious. It cuts through our privacy. The demon slices that blade down, and Kain barely shoves me out of the way in time. His fist snatches the hilt of the weapon. The two men heave and shove against one another, and I can’t look away until Kain’s boot meets the metal chest plate of the man. He thrusts hard, sending the demon to his back and stealing away the sword in one forceful blow.
The easy way he rips the edge of the blade across the demon’s throat is too much to look at. Blood splatters across pure white snow.
Kain studies the blood that’s bathing the shining metal, appraising the length of the weapon and everything it’s capable of. He seems completely in control in this moment. The flex of his arms, the stiffness of his shoulders, the confidence of his stance; it’s all composed and controlled.
And I’m suddenly not worried about my alpha shifter anymore.
Unless these demons start treating him more like a threat than a mortal soldier. A little flash of magic is all it would take…
I force myself not to think on that too much.
The cold wind burns into my flesh, and the pain only intensifies when an explosion of red fires ice and rock into the air. It cuts across my face. I shield my eyes with my hands and push into the crowd of clattering iron and deadly magic.
The noise is deafening, building so loud that I oddly can’t focus on it at all. It all turns into a muted ringing. I divide my attention from dodging slicing swords and trying to find Kain with each passing second. I’m a woman walking among men, and I seem to be an unnoticeable thing. No one turns on me, and I can’t differentiate one man from another. I can’t identify who’s friend or foe. I can’t tell who’s with Ellise and who’s a Minden soldier.
I’m really not sure if the mass of violent men fighting one another know either.
A long, white fur cloak with a hemline dragging across the bloody snow catches my attention. My feet slide across the icy land, but I don’t even pause to check on Kain. All I see is that heavy cloak. I chase it into the crowd. Magic burns in my fingertips. It rises in me with every step I take.
I lift my hand at the same time as the person turns with a pretentious posture.
And I come eye to eye with King Barron.
A man I once loathed so much.
Now we’re on the same side. What is my life coming to?
He eyes me even as I start to stride past him.
His voice rings about among the screams and the fighting.
“He’ll protect her. He wants her dead, but you and I both know he’ll protect her in the end.” He coughs harshly, billowing cold puffs of air out and wheezing so hard he doubles over.
It’s painful how tight I’m clenching my jaw just to keep the nerves within me from rising all over again. I block out the words the King of Minden just said to me, but it’s all I hear in my mind now.
He’ll protect her in the end.
Roars come to life on the far side of the valley. Big wings glide down, and hot fiery liquid pours out on the men below. The new creature soaring above sends the demons into a frenzy. Some shoot bright lights into the sky, missing the inky dragon by mere inches. Hundreds of others run. They rush toward the castle, sending me down to the ground. My fingers sink into the freezing snow. Ice slices across my skin while several men kick at my arms as they run. A foot steps on my back, pushing me facedown even farther into the painful frost.
A roar chases after the fleeing demon, and I feel the chill bite into the air just before ice rains down on us in spears of pointed glass. I cover my head but I’m more likely to die from the stampede than I am from the ice above.
None of it touches me. The breath is lost in my lungs, and a heavy blow pounds into my spine as another man climbs over me and keeps on going.
One more boot lands on my shoulder before it all builds too high for me to contain.
My magic sears out of me in a bloom of pure colors. It flashes like a bomb, sending showers of heavy snow and flailing men right off of me until nothing surrounds me within a twenty-foot radius.
My fingers tremble, but a calm finally finds me. I can breathe again.
“Arrie,” Sinister says my name, but it’s a muffled sound that’s too far away.
Boots crunch into the snow at my side. Warm fingers push down my spine, and he lifts me, pulling me to his lap as he kneels in the snow. Dirt lines his cheeks, and there’s a thin slice dividing his brow, sending a small trickle of red blood down the side of his face. Big crimson eyes search my face, and he pushes back my hair and looks over every part of me.
He seems unaffected by the small wound, though.
“Fuck, Arrie.”
I slide out of his arms, stumbling just slightly before I stand.
“I’m fine.” Cuts are all along my fingers, but I brush my hand across my numb cheeks nonetheless, and my palm comes away bloodier than before. “I’m fine,” I say once more.
I can’t feel my toes or fingertips. Magic churns through me to try to find some heat, but it’s all lost in the back of my mind. There are a thousand other things racing through my thoughts that are much louder than the coldness of my body right now.
Like the serious look Sinister gets just before he tells me exactly what I want to hear.
“I found her.”
Seventeen
The Last Remaining Mages
Pain shoots through my side with every step I take, but I can’t stop looking for her. Every soldier we pass, every daunting cloak, every wave of magic, I search for that bitch.
I’m ready. My mother and Seara are trailing a bit behind us, Sin is at my side, and my mates are soaring the sky. I just need to catch her off guard.
“Kain is following her. If she roams anywhere, he said he’d let you know.”
“You left Kain with her?” My voice is a croaking tone that only makes my heartbeat drill harder.
“He was supposed to be watching after you, not the other way around.” Sinister pushes his way through the dwindling crowd.
The men appear less murderous and more desperate now.
A demon spins on his heels as we pass. His fist strikes out at Sin so fast I barely see it. But my mate is ready.
Sinister’s hand doesn’t shake as he thrashes out pure power. He holds the man in place with ease. His jaw clenches, and he keeps his glaring gaze on the large demon he’s holding back with unseen magic. His other hand motions for us to pass. It’s a leisurely gesture, as if none of this is any trouble at all for him. I glance up at the demon with the sneering face, and he watches me, a growl shaking through him. His shoulders tremble oddly, and all at once a bursting sensation flies through the air, sending me falling back as he rushes forward with too much power.
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They collide, the man’s fist pounding into the side of Sinister’s face just before the demon rears back with glowing crimson highlighting his hand. He sends it down on Sin in a blur of color, and it blooms across my mate’s jawline with so much power it slices deep into his skin like a knife itself.
Sin’s groan only lasts a second before he slams the man back with a wave of striking magic. Sinister gets to his feet with blood streaming down his throat, his body shaking with aggression
“Go,” he yells to us. “She’s straight ahead. Just near the side of the castle.”
I take a single step toward him, but a hand clutches my wrist. I stumble, and my mother drags me away, my gaze watching for him, even after too many people drift between us.
Even when he’s out of sight I still look back for him.
I have to focus. Love is dangerous. It’s deadly.
It’s…empowering.
Kain needs me.
I run, my feet slipping along the snow, but my legs never stop for a single second. I can do this. We can do this.
The brick walkway around the bend of the castle is slicker than the valley. My fur boots skim over the ice, and my shoulder slams right into the corner of the building when I turn.
What’s waiting for me on the other side isn’t at all what I expect.
Linden falls to his knees, his jaw tipped up so high it’s painful to see. Every muscle in the prince’s body trembles from the magic that’s pulsing through his frame.
His mother stands above him.
“Send your men home, dear.” Her fingers arch, and a choked noise gargles from Linden’s throat.
I take a step forward, but Kain stands farther back near the messy crowd, his head shaking at me, his eyes pleading with me not to make a move.
“You can stop all of this. You have the power. You don’t realize what you’re capable of, son. You have the ability to save lives. Right here. Right now. If you send your men home.”
Harder she tilts his neck back until I’m certain it’ll snap entirely.
Linden’s my friend. He’s helped me time and time again.
And I can’t stand here and watch him die.
It’s now or never.
I lower my palms, and all the magic I’ve saved in my entire life flies from my hands in blinding colors that I’ve never even seen before. She stumbles, and it only encourages my power ever more. Energy pools within me, cold and frosty but destructive and resilient.
More magic casts around me from the two mages at my side. A third mage drills powerful familiar magic into my stream of bright white magic, and it all feels overwhelmingly destructive even for me. All that destruction strikes down on Ellise. It pushes and pushes and pushes until her back hits the gray brick wall. I pin her in place there, spread out with a look of…manic amusement in her eyes.
“I knew you were special,” she whispers, barely getting the words out before her voice cuts away with a gasp of pain.
I hate staring her in her eyes. I trusted those deep-emerald eyes once.
I was naïve.
But I’m not anymore.
Blood slips from her nose as more magic thrusts from my palms in painful strings of uncontainable power. Sinister’s arm wraps around my hip, and he falls into me, his weight leaning into mine like he can barely stand. But he doesn’t pause for a second before casting fiery light into the Solstice’s Queen face. It’s a burning color that’s tinged with a smoky cinnamon scent.
That soft blonde hair of hers catches on fire the moment the magic hits.
And that’s what sets her off.
A scream rips from her throat. The sound claws through the clattering noise, screeching. An invisible force slams into my chest. The five of us scrape across the snow. We land several feet away.
Dark smoke drifts above me, and it’s the first thing I see before she’s looking down on me, her long locks singed but her beautiful face untouched.
“I said you were special. I didn’t know you were stupid, too.”
Kain’s big body slams into hers. They barely hit the ground, white snow flying around them before she digs her red nails into his throat. Blood slips down his skin in trickling lines.
She punished him once. She’s going to kill him now.
I leap without thinking. I throw Kain off of her with so much force he groans when he lands.
But he’s safe.
I can’t say the same for myself.
She shakes her head at me, but I don’t give her time to say one more fucking word.
Deadly magic rises within me; it rushes out in vengeful waves. I press it down on her, stealing the air right from her lungs and choking her slowly, letting her watch what she did to herself rather than giving her the kindness of an instant death.
None of this had to happen.
She hurt me for so long. She hurt all of us. And now I’ll repay her.
I can’t help but feel satisfaction from her shallow gasps.
The smile that cuts across her lips steals away all that gratification. My body lifts; the noise cutting through the air halts. Everything around me, the dragon’s swooping down from the sky, the mortal men in combat, the mages and the demons, they all stop, frozen in place as reckless energy drifts out of the woman lying flat on the ground, bloody and smiling. She sneers up at me as she lifts me higher and higher into the slate-white sky.
Cold air snaps against my skin, but it’s nothing compared to the hold that’s slithering around me like chains locking me in place.
“You’ll never be enough, Arlow. I could have made you more, but you never would have been like me. My magic is forged from pain. I didn’t wallow in it, I strived from it. All the best magic is made this way. That’s why I knew you’d be strong. But you’ll never know pain like I know it.”
She stands carefully. Snow clings to her pale hair, and I can see the shine that lives in her deep gaze. She’s beautiful even from here.
Even with the deadly smile on her lips.
Her hold on me tightens, and pain cuts through me. A crunching sound causes a stinging sensation to crack through my ribs, and tears sting my eyes.
Pain builds magic.
She’s building me up as she tears me back down.
As she kills me.
A familiar face with crimson eyes appears behind her. It’s a split image, sliced abnormally right down the center. His hand lifts quickly. Blood stains her white gown. It spreads from just over her heart, and she glances down on it with parted lips.
Clattering and screams and battle resumes, just as I start to fall.
The breath meets my lungs, and I push my hands out, but my magic fails me. Nothing happens. I can’t feel the energy in my body anymore. I used too much too fast. My eyes flinch closed, and I steel my spine for the impact to come.
A light tickling sensation skims along my skin. It’s a gentle touch and it guides me down until my feet meet the ground with a gentle ease.
Tired eyes look up at me, her hand blocking out the brightness of the white sunlight.
Patricia peers around slowly, her shoulders still hunched forward in a protective way.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” she whispers.
I’d smile if my lips could find the effort to turn up.
A cough rattles from a few feet away, and it blooms hope all through me when I see Ellise clutching her chest, blood sliding through her quaking fingers.
I can feel her energy all around us. She focuses on her wound intently, and I know she’s trying to heal herself.
Part of me wishes the split-face demon would have ripped the black heart right out of this woman’s chest.
But as I said, she doesn’t deserve a quick death.
I lift my hand, but there’s no magic left within me.
It’s spent. I wasted it all on the games she played.
The woman at my side, she has some to spare.
“You said I’d die before I could ever be of use to you.” Patricia smile’s softly down
on her queen. “I’d rather die than ever be of use to a mage who hates her own kind.”
Patricia’s hands shake as her gentle magic slips out in faint whisking colors of silver. She works against Ellise.
Ellise looks to her son with tears streaming down her face. Linden’s attention is held on his mother, even as, little by little, he steps away from her.
The queen was once the most powerful mage in the entire world.
It takes the elder mage less than two minutes to end her.
Just before the queen’s lids close, her gaze slowly drifts around at the last surviving mages who are gathered here today to lay to rest one of our own.
The woman who started it all.
The one I admired and the one I despised.
The Solstice Queen.
Epilogue
Several Months Later
It’s a new day. I smell it in the warmth of the air even. I see it in the happiness of the thousands of villagers’ faces that surround me. I feel it deep inside myself.
“I never thought I’d be clapping for the Prince of Minden,” Rime whispers into my ear, his body coming closer until his arm sneaks around my waist.
“Well, he’s your king so…” I shrug coyly, just enough to make Rime roll his eyes at that title.
Chaos bumps the ice shifter’s shoulder, leaning into us until his quiet words are barely heard over the growing applause. “Prince Rime is not amused, my lady.”
Now I’m rolling my eyes. Goddess help these arrogant men.
“As if our snowflake could stand royal life or even politics for that matter.” Sinister glances over at his friend, and Rime slowly nods.
“Only Arlow gets to call me Prince.” Rime pauses. “In the bedroom.” The smallest smile pulls across his lips, and he pretends not to notice the way I glare at the side of his ridiculously handsome face.
“The way she’s scowling at you makes me think you won’t be hearing that pretentious nickname anytime soon,” Kain steps in front of me, lowering his head until our temples just lightly touch.
His broad shoulders block out the warm sun until all I see are deep-emerald eyes. It’s like looking directly into springtime, calmness, happiness.
