Except now I wouldn’t be so easy to kill.
The Sinach approached, scorching the earth with consuming fire. I countered with a plume of frigid air that doused the flames. The Sinach’s dark wings beat the air, and he opened his mouth to roar, his fangs glinting in the dull winter light.
Another incendiary burst from the dragon’s maw seared the air, but my magic crackled up my spine and erupted from my chest. Frost raced along the dragon’s scales, turning them white and glazed. The Sinach’s movements grew jerky and uneven.
Moria turned her dragon away from me, heading back to the castle. I followed her on foot again, feet pounding in the snow .
As I raced toward the castle, I spied a figure with black wings like a moth’s. My world tilted.
Ava, my love, what the fuck are you doing?
40
AVA
The world below was a sea of white interrupted only by the line of bare trees to my right. Icicles hung from their dark, spiked boughs.
As I flew, my mind snagged on what Cala had said. Nothing happens here without the queen’s consent…
If that were true, how had I escaped at all?
Except the queen had told me quite clearly what she wanted, hadn’t she?
Slowly, the puzzle pieces slid together in my mind.
Everything that happened in the Court of Sorrows had been under her control. The imprisonment, the duel, the rules about not seeing each other on pain of a horrible death, the many promises to throw me off the tower…
Every single thing that had happened there had been a test, with the specific purpose of discovering if the queen could get what she wanted.
The sound of distant screams sent fear prickling up my nape, interrupting my thoughts. Every inch of this place, every rock and slope of snow, every sharp blade of ice—it all exuded menacing brutality. When I’d first arrived for the competition, Faerie had seemed sinister. Now? The cold, rocky earth breathed violence.
The scent of sulfur and ash floated on the wind. And from the direction of the amphitheater, a monstrous form swept through the skies. An icy shiver danced through my nerve endings.
A dragon soared beneath the steely clouds, wings beating under a wintry sky. Perched on its back was a figure dressed in crimson, a smear of bittersweet nightshade against ink and bone.
My stomach plummeted. My plant magic, though amazing, was not the best defense against an actual inferno of hellfire. And with the thick layers of ice like a tomb over the earth, I needed to stop and concentrate to rip vegetation free.
I flew toward the cover of the skeletal trees. As I turned, the dragon soared closer, scorching the air with a blast of solar wind that singed my exposed skin and wings.
A tendril of panic twisted through my gut as I careened for the trees, angling my wings for speed but sacrificing control. I landed in a tumble of wings and limbs and snow. Pain shot through my wing bones, and I winced. But there was no time to nurse my wounds because the dragon was hurtling toward me.
Fear ignited my thoughts like lightning.
I lay at the edge of a forest, bare, black trees jutting like antlers from the white earth. This was my army, the trees, my soldiers. As the dragon swept closer, ready to breathe another stream of fire, the sharp boughs swept out above me like hands reaching for the dragon. Icicles dropped into the snow as the branches shifted, and the tree limbs twined around the dragon’s throat.
The monster crashed to the icy ground, the force of the impact shaking the earth. A cloud of shimmering snow puffed around the dragon, frosting it. Snow dusted my body.
My blood roared with the predatory thrill of a hunter bringing down prey, and the trees formed a cage around the dragon.
In the puff of snow, I’d lost track of Moria.
I stood, wincing at the pain from my bruised wings. Winter kissed my skin.
The dragon lay only about fifty feet from me now. The creature was facing away from me, but if I didn’t put enough distance between us, the monster might turn and ignite me with flames.
I flexed my wings, once, twice. My plan was to fly close to the trees to avoid the dragon, but with my injured wings, I wasn’t sure I could do it.
Each time my wings thumped the air, a sharp pain burst through the left one. The snow whipped at my face, and I gritted my teeth, trying to fly higher, faster. I made it a few feet off the ground, but one wing felt weighted down, and my flight was uneven and meandering. Desperately, I wanted to get to Torin. Had I given him his power back? I hoped so. And what if Moria had already killed him? After all, she was flying away from the amphitheater, like she’d just finished the job .
A storm of dark, frantic thoughts whipped through my mind. I absolutely could not lose him again.