I sighed. “However that’s done.”
“You’ll learn.”
“But obviously not today.” I sank into the snow and pushed the powder to the side until I found gray dirt beneath it. A tangle of thorny stalks encrusted in ice lay on top of the soil.
My lips tugged down. “How long has it been like this?” This field looked even sicker than Harrivee’s.
The prince sat beside me. “Over a full season. It was the first to fully die, the fields around it dying next, as though the orem’s death started here.”
Digging my fingers into the cold ground, I felt for a hum of life. Unsurprisingly, I found none. “It’s the same as the field by Barvilum. Nothing’s here.”
“At the moment no, but that’s why I brought you.” He leaned back, lying on the snow as though it were a bed.
I snorted. “Making yourself comfortable?”
“Considering we’ll be here for hours, I don’t see why not.”
Sighing, I set to work. Similar to last week at Harrivee, I sank my fingers into the dirt as I would have if I were laboring back in Mervalee. Not even sure what I was doing, I simply did what I’d done before—poured my concentration into the soil and imagined that I connected with it as though it were my garden back home, and a part of me wondered if that was why my affinity had worked. I did a lot of visual imagining while I worked the fields, and perhaps I’d unconsciously called my budding affinity to the surface without even knowing it.
I worked quietly, and the prince remained silent. Outside of his bubble, the wind raged, the sound loud enough that its faint scream slipped through his Shield on occasion.
I loosened more dirt between my fingers. “You seemed to enjoy Lady Endalaver’s company yesterday.” As soon as the comment left my mouth, I wanted to kick myself.
Why did I just say that?
The prince pushed himself up on his elbows. His lips curved as he regarded me with unveiled interest. “She’s certainly not shy, is she?”
I glared at him. “It doesn’t matter to me if she is.”
“Really? Is that why you asked about her?”
“I don’t know why I asked. Forget I said anything.”
“I don’t think I will.” He pushed up more, his smile growing, and now I wanted to strangle myself. “Lady Endalaver is powerful, but she’s not as strong as you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Considering I can barely call forth my magic, that’s debatable.”
“Don’t mistake practice for strength. She’s had several decades of training on you.”
“Yet I’m supposed to catch up in a matter of months.”
“It’s imperative that you do.”
“Why? You don’t fancy marrying Lady Endalaver?” Just the thought made bitterness coat my tongue, but I swallowed it down.
“Not particularly.”
“She seemed to have you wrapped in her affinity yesterday, so you could have fooled me.”
“Her affinity.” He scratched his chin. “Yes, that manipulation affinity she possesses is quite dangerous.”
It wasn’t lost on me that he didn’t deny being enthralled by her. Not wanting to continue any talk of Georgyanna Endalaver, I sank my fingers more into the soil, relishing its coldness as that old anger began to simmer inside me again. The fact that he hadn’t denied enjoying Lady Endalaver’s company only strengthened it.
It heated my blood, roaring through me even more at the reminder of what my future held.
Ignoring him, I let my anger stew and threw my energy into the field, letting it take me away to a place far, far from here where there was no starvation or strife or potential war. Just soil, plants, and life. I hummed, caressed, and coaxed the dead roots and plants toward me as I found one after another. I moved along, clearing snow as I went.
Black roots. Chipped thorns. Dry stalks.
The prince’s protective bubble expanded every time I moved even though he stayed where he was, but his bubble grew larger and larger.
I put as much distance between us as I could and pictured this field growing to life once more, kissed by the gods and teaming with crops.
I got so lost in what I was doing that I barely noticed when the prince suddenly crouched right beside me. “We need to leave soon. You should eat before training.”
My stomach growled as though in agreement. “Let me do one more thing.” I dug my fingers into the dirt. I’d felt the touch of a large root, one that traversed most of the field. If I could just reach it, I was certain it could perhaps speed the process up here. “I think I’ve almost—”
A wicked-sounding roar cut through the blizzard, the sound like razors down glass, and the dome around the prince and I shuddered from something large and heavy slamming into it.
I was on my feet in an instant, just as the prince cursed beneath his breath, and his Shield shattered.
“Snowgum!” The prince threw himself over me as a rush of air brushed my cheek.
Something huge flew over us, and then four massive paw prints appeared in the snow only feet away.
That was it.
Paw prints only.
Because the snowgum’s magic had made it invisible.
“Oh Mother, save us!” I whispered.
“We’re getting out of here. Now.” The prince’s arms wrapped around me as his mistphasing magic rose.
But just as fast, the snowgum slammed into us, tearing me from the prince’s arms as the prince rolled to the side.
“My prince!” I called.
He yelled in pain as blood suddenly soaked through his tunic.
“Oh Blessed Mother! Oh Mother!” I scrambled to my feet as the invisible predator sank its fangs into the prince.
A blast of the prince’s affinity had the creature shooting off him even though I couldn’t see it. But I felt it. Power. Air. The rush of something massive being thrown through the howling wind.
The whiteout still raged around us. I could barely see the prince through the swirling snow, but I leaped toward him, using his black tunic to guide me.
I landed at his side, and with a sickening sense, realized it wasn’t only black surrounding him but red. Blood seeped through his tunic, and it was pooling beneath him at an alarming rate.
“Where did it bite you?” I clawed frantically at his clothing.
He groaned and slowly sat up.
“Can you mistphase us?” I tried to help him straighten, but he winced.
“Yes, come here,” he rasped and pulled me close again, but his magic didn’t rush to the surface as quickly as it had the first time.
“My prince?”
He groaned again, and his face grew paler. Muscles quivered in his neck, and his aura grew more and more diminished. A huge gush of blood appeared on the snow beneath him, then a shudder ran through his entire body.
“Prince Norivun!”
His eyelids dropped, and his limbs went slack as he fell in a heap. His full weight hit me like a huge stone.
Breaths coming faster, I struggled to hold him, but he weighed too much and collapsed back onto the snow.
Panic consumed me. “Prince Norivun!” I screamed again and began to shake him.
Nothing.
Frantically, my gaze shot over him as I tried to assess what was wrong.
Clawing at him again, I whipped the tunic out of his belt and lifted the material to his chin. All of my fear collided into epic proportions of terror and despair when I saw his true injury.