by Everly Frost
Radiant Fierce
Bright Wicked 2
Everly Frost
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Stay in Touch
Infernal Dark (Bright Wicked Book 3)
Storm Princess Saga : The Complete Collection
Assassin’s Magic Series
This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1)
Also by Everly Frost
About the Author
Copyright © 2020 by Everly Frost
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
Frost, Everly
Radiant Fierce
Cover design by fantasybookdesign.com
For information on reproducing sections of this book or sales of this book, go to
www.EverlyFrost.com
[email protected]
For my son, who will probably never read this book, won’t be allowed to read it until he’s much older, but whose creative mind, determined spirit, and sense of justice are a daily inspiration to me.
P.S. You were right about Nathaniel.
Chapter 1
I try to exhale the sour air, but there’s no escaping it. The cold mist envelops me on every side. Visibility is reduced so severely that I can’t make out any shapes around us as we run through the foggy marsh. Nathaniel’s hand anchors me in space and time, my only connection with the living. He tugs me to the left and then the right, as if he knows the path by heart.
Neither of us has spoken since we entered the mist.
Now the silence feels fragile. The trust between us is like the first layer of ice on the Spinning Lake. Breakable. Unstable. Thin.
In two days, one of us will kill the other. We don’t have any choice. I unwittingly invoked the Law of Champions, not knowing that it would tie my fate to Nathaniel’s. The Law was sealed by the Vanem Dragon himself. The old magic now demands that we fight to the death by the end of the third day.
Our first day is over. The second day has just begun.
Mist drips down my face and neck as my arms and legs pump, the fog so heavy that it mingles with my sweat. The black full-body armor I’m wearing was designed for stealth, not prolonged exertion. I would peel the top half of the armor down to my waist, but my underwear is far too skimpy and I need to remain protected from whatever dangers lurk in this marsh. Animals. Humans. Even the environment here is a treacherous unknown to me.
In the last twelve hours, the foundations of my world fell apart. The Queen I trusted—the woman I would have given my life for—threatened the people I love. She revealed that she will crush anyone who dares to question her. She will allow the vulnerable fae in our society to die. All to maintain her power.
The Queen I served has become my adversary.
To escape her, I’ve run into enemy territory—Fell country. A place of dark magic and old law. Human law. I’ve chosen to flee into darkness, leaving Bright behind.
We’ve only run for a quarter of a mile, but I already sense the different lifeforms within the misty marsh—creatures I’ve only heard about and never encountered before. They wriggle beneath my feet in the muddy sludge, glide in the air beyond my sight, and crawl across the stones at the base of the trees we pass. The trees themselves are fleeting silhouettes, set far apart from each other, each one leafless and bony, struggling to survive without sunlight.
Nathaniel’s presence is the strongest of all, filling my senses with overwhelming strength. He’s taller than me, his broad chest clothed in the tight black shirt I chose for him to wear to the Ball last night. The sleeves hug his biceps in a way that makes his muscles look even larger as he runs. The dew clings to his jaw, strands of his walnut brown hair plastered against his cheeks, while the dark flecks in his brown eyes are somehow more forbidding in our new environment. If I allow myself to focus fully on him, his presence would fill my senses entirely.
I am never far from his attention, his hand gripping mine, his quick glances telling me he’s making sure I’m still with him.
“Stay with me, Aura.”
His command as we left the border echoes in my ears. He hasn’t let go of me since.
His true nature is a mystery to me—who he is. Who his father was. Why Nathaniel came to Bright for me—
Movement in the far distance forces my attention away from him. My already heightened senses pick up the movement as if I can see it with my eyes.
Creatures are racing toward us from afar. There are at least ten of them, canine in nature but larger than any dog I’ve ever sensed. They’re far enough away that they aren’t an immediate threat. But they soon will be.
My senses explode with the violence pulsing from their oncoming bodies. Their growls are a faint whisper in my heightened hearing, their actions telling me they’re darting around the trees—and they’re gaining on us.
Nathaniel won’t hear them with his human ears. Not yet. Not like I can.
I try to keep my voice low, but it’s difficult while I’m running. “Nathaniel! Wolves!”
He doesn’t miss a beat, appearing completely unsurprised. It’s almost as if he’d been expecting them.
His response is clipped. “How far away?”
“Less than a minute.”
He doesn’t waste time, his focus shifting from me to our surroundings—a quick assessing glance—before his speed increases and he urges me to run faster. The muscles in my legs burn and scream, but I refuse to slow Nathaniel down. I’m counting on fear and adrenaline to power my movements when my muscles are finally pushed beyond endurance.
The wolves are running toward us at a pace that astounds me. I still can’t see them, but I sense the shape of their bodies, sleek and large, picture their heads and necks kept low to streamline their forms as they leap lightly through the mud and over rocks, the breath rasping past their sharp teeth.
Nathaniel’s quick glance in their direction tells me that he finally hears them, his human ears picking up the sound of their movements sooner than I thought he would.
He darts right, driving us in a straight line in that direction as if he knows exactly what’s there.
“Tree!” he shouts.
A second later, the largest tree I’ve seen in the marsh so far materializes in the mist. Its craggy branches spear outward before they angle sharply upward in shapes that resemble immobilized swings that sit high above the ground.
I’m sure Nathaniel wants me to climb it, but the wolves’ heavy breathing is amplified in my hearing now, sendi
ng fear shrieking through me. I’m not about to run from a fight with them, not when I can use my power to take them down.
Starlight gathers inside my chest, shooting through my shoulder and arm toward my free hand—the one Nathaniel isn’t holding. I’m ready to let my power loose the moment I see the beasts—sooner if I sense them clearly enough to take a clean shot.
Just one more second…
The mist shifts beyond us, violently swirling as the creatures disturb it, multiple unstoppable forces.
Just as I prepare to release my rage, Nathaniel shouts.
“Aura! Up!”
My focus snaps back to him at the same moment he plows into me. He knocks the air out of my lungs as his arm clamps around my ribs, his other arm slipping beneath my backside. I gasp for breath as he swings me right off my feet and into the air, throwing me with astonishing strength and speed toward one of the highest branches.
All the times I’ve leaped onto Treble’s back has given me the muscle memory I need to react swiftly. Soaring upward, I twist my body to reduce my velocity and guide my flight. Planting my outstretched hand against the tree’s trunk, I swing my legs across the branch Nathaniel threw me toward, finding myself sitting neatly along it. It wasn’t a graceful maneuver, but I don’t care.
All I care about now is the thud below me.
To hoist me in the right direction, Nathaniel plowed himself into the tree. The shuddering wood tells me he hit it hard. His shout indicates he hurt himself, but he’s already rising to meet the oncoming threat.
A scream forms in my throat and my power shrieks into my hands again as the first animal bounds out of the mist, its jaws open wide, its teeth slashing the air.
I wobble violently on the branch as I reach outward, ready to release my power, but the wolf is already too close to Nathaniel for a clean shot. I can’t risk hurting him.
To my shock, Nathaniel doesn’t try to get out of the animal’s way.
At the last possible moment, he drops, dives forward onto one knee, and presses his palms upward. With split-second precision, he plants his hands under the wolf’s torso—one on the leaping animal’s belly and the other beneath its shoulder.
In one powerful move, he launches himself upward, using his rising strength to thrust the beast away from himself. The creature yelps. Its body arcs at an awkward angle as it flies through the air and lands in a scrambling heap in the mud, still alive and apparently unhurt.
The whole move is over within the blink of an eye, leaving me breathless and gasping, but Nathaniel’s focus is unbreakable.
The next wolf leaps at him, but Nathaniel darts out of its path, spinning on his heel to face it as it skids to a stop so it doesn’t bang against the base of the tree.
Nathaniel goes on the attack, lunging at the animal with a threatening roar that sends a shiver down my spine. In an instant, he becomes the predator instead of the prey.
For nearly the entire day he spent in Bright, he was dominated by fae. He defended himself but never struck back. He couldn’t. The Law of Champions prevents him from hurting a fae until the final fight is over. But now I catch a glimpse of a wild nature I’ve never sensed in him before—a fury and abandon that makes me shiver in anticipation. Of what, I’m not sure, but my heart is pounding in my chest.
He leaps at the wolf before it can turn to face him again, scooping one arm under its belly and smacking its cheek with the flat of his free hand to push its gnashing mouth in the other direction. He keeps its jaw at bay for the split second it takes him to fling it after the first wolf. The second beast rolls over the first, which is just getting to its feet, knocking them both into the base of the neighboring tree.
Their yelps echo around the clearing as the remaining eight wolves emerge from the fog, slower now, heads hanging low and teeth bared as they circle around Nathaniel.
He grabs his shoulder, but not in a way that indicates he’s hurt. It’s as if he’s reaching for something that should be there.
His hand comes away empty.
He curses, low and soft.
Whatever’s wrong, he shakes it off quickly, hunches his shoulders, balls his fists, and roars at the wolves again.
“I acknowledge your right for revenge!” he shouts. “Take my life if you can. But whatever you do, I will not dishonor you.”
For a moment, I wonder if the wolves can understand him like my thunderbird can understand me. But I don’t think so. It felt like Nathaniel was shouting at himself as much as at them. I don’t know what he means by revenge, but there’s an edge of regret in his voice that I wasn’t expecting.
One of the wolves prowls closer than the others. It’s hard to tell, but I sense a distinctly female nature. She is the largest, her charcoal fur tinged blue while her nose is inky black.
Nathaniel stares her down, his shoulders relaxing, and his expression softening, but it seems deliberate, as if he’s preparing himself. He hasn’t tried to escape or climb the tree. In fact, he seems resigned to face each and every one of the beasts.
I’m not inclined to wait and watch this fight play out. Every instinct in my body tells me to jump to the ground and fight beside him. It cost him a lot to throw me onto the branch and I don’t want to squander the safety he gave me, but that won’t stop me from blasting the wolves apart with my power from above.
Starlight pools in my palm as I aim at the leader of the pack, ready to kill her the moment she makes a move.
The female wolf growls deep in her throat, her teeth bared as her gaze flickers upward in my direction, but she hangs back.
Too late, I realize she’s a diversion.
Without warning, a wolf with fur the color of coal leaps from the side. Once again, it’s upon Nathaniel too fast for me to help him.
Nathaniel reacts like water, flowing away from the attack, avoiding the wolf’s claws and teeth before he lashes out, his open palm following the wolf’s path, his flat-fisted punch cracking across its ribs as it flies past.
My eyes widen when he pulls the hit.
I’m sure he could have broken its bones, but he didn’t…
Even so, the impact is like a trigger. All of the creatures bound at him at once. He reacts as swiftly as he responded to the Border Guards’ attacks yesterday morning, evading every attempt to bite and maul him before he fights back, sending each wolf sprawling through the mud.
The breath catches in my throat as I watch him move. He is impossibly agile, every muscle in his body primed to deflect, his palms flattening against a wolf’s shoulder, another’s jaw, a third’s hide, pushing each away before he strikes back—but only enough to send each animal to the ground, not to hurt them. He is even stronger here, surrounded by the gloom of this place, than he was in Bright.
It strikes me with frightening clarity that he’s at home in this murky darkness.
How many times did he narrow his eyes in the glare of Bright’s sunlight? How much slower were his reflexes compared to now? As if, like me, sunlight is his weakness.
I’ve barely had time to take a breath when three wolves run at him from the side.
As fast as he is, he won’t be able to avoid all of them.
My power shrieks from my hand, hitting the ground in front of them, forcing them to split up. They scatter around him, racing wide of his position.
Damn. I’d meant to end at least one of them.
I suddenly find myself the focus of Nathaniel’s attention, his dark eyes flashing at me. “Don’t kill them!” he shouts.
Fear floods me as I realize that distracting Nathaniel was the worst thing I could have done.
The female springs from his other side, her body a dark blur.
She knocks him to the dirty ground.
Nathaniel twists as he falls, his hands flying upward—just in time—to plant under her jaw and keep her slashing teeth at bay, inches from his face.
Her claws press against his chest. Her snarling mouth lurches toward his neck.
He isn’t wearing armor l
ike me.
He has less than two seconds before she mauls him to death.
Chapter 2
I don’t think or even scream. I don’t have time to consider what I’m doing.
Launching myself from the tree, I throw myself across the space between us. Fear controls my movements and with it comes power.
Starlight pours from my hands, chest, legs—every part of me glowing with a force fueled by panic as I drop and run, light streaking around me as my feet pound the earth.
The surrounding wolves yelp and scatter as starlight bursts from my body and fills the clearing. Bright, white light floods across Nathaniel and the wolf, but I rein it in with a desperate scream.
I refuse to hurt him.
Struggling with the wolf, Nathaniel’s shout echoes in my ears—a sustained roar—his teeth gritted as he pushes against her savage attempts to sink her teeth into his neck.
I recognize the quick shift in his grip. He’s preparing to break her neck, but he wouldn’t have told me not to kill her unless he meant it.
I reach them in the next moment.
Throwing myself at the beast, I collide with her side, starlight pouring off me as I shove her as hard as I can. I dig in my heels at the last moment, dropping to my knees beside Nathaniel, my hands outstretched, extended protectively across his body.
The wolf yelps in shock as she flies backward, my power sizzling through her spine and ribcage, lighting up her bones. It’s not enough to kill or hurt her. Just enough to give her a frightening zap.
