CHAPTER 33

My back pressed into labradorite stone as the Hunters continued their attack. Magic-fuelled humans and steel-carrying Hunters came in waves, each one I forced back. Bodies froze to ice, shattering like glass. Flesh scorched then exploded as Duncan called down his lightning. On we fought, killing many, and yet more came. Soon enough, I felt the rough edge through my jacket, scratching at my skin. The discomfort reminded me I was very much alive, and this was very much happening.

The ground trembled with the stampede, the air alive with the cry of battle. I steadied my footing, calling forth the power that lurked within, and brought it to the surface. The force split through my skin and exploded in a wave of furious mist that shot forward across the garden. Whatever it touched turned to ice. I felt every rotten blade of grass and flower shatter beneath the force. The first wall of Hunters didn’t care for the cloud of mist that greeted them until it was too late. My starved power clung to flesh and spread like a plague. The first humans it graced didn’t have a chance to cry out. My ice claimed them. Their bodies froze to the spot so suddenly that the Hunters behind them couldn’t slow down. Humans barrelled through my wall of frozen statues of flesh. The bodies of my victims exploded in smatterings of blood and skin.

As long as they ran toward me, giving Althea and Jesibel time to evacuate, that’s all that mattered. I’d let Aldrick watch as I destroyed everything he’d worked for, and then he would follow.

I inhaled the cold sharply, drawing it back to myself.

Snakes of pure light crackled at my side. A Hunter, who scrambled carelessly over the pile of dead comrades, gathered himself and ran toward me. He made it a few steps from the barrier of frozen corpses before he joined them in death. A burst of light struck him, tearing him from his feet. One moment he was racing toward me, the next, his body cracked into another oncoming group of enemies. Melted flesh smeared across those he hit. Even from a distance, the smell of charred hair, meat and skin suffocated me.

“Are you all right?” Duncan panted, placing his body before mine. It was shrouded with bursts of hot, blue light that charged the air around him.

“Excellent,” I replied through a smile. “But they’ll keep attacking until they are freed from Aldrick’s control. We either kill every single one of them or the strings that tether them to him.”

I couldn’t locate Aldrick amidst the bedlam, but his cry still rang out through my mind. The more time passed, the more frantic and desperate his pleading became. He was losing and he knew it, the sound was a joyous thing to hear.

“Take the Icethorn heir. Duwar will bless the brave warrior who sees his blood is spilled upon the stone!”

“Lies,” I spat. I could’ve given my power to the stone if I wanted, and Aldrick knew that.

“I need to get you out of here,” Duncan said as he sent a chain of his lightning into the Hunters closest. The spark of light shot between four bodies before fizzing back into the static air.

He didn’t see the threat of a blade coming in from his side. But I did. I conjured one of my own, spilling my power into a spear of ice that grew into a sword. The cold bite burned into my palm, and I welcomed it. I thrust the cold edge into the belly of the Hunter who lunged for Duncan. The force ripped the ice from my hand.

As the Hunter fell to the ground, she landed upon the spear and forced it deeper into her belly. She didn’t move again.

“I’m not going anywhere until Aldrick is dead,” I replied, grunting as I gathered a pressure of frozen wind between my palms before sending it into the chest of another Hunter who drew close. “Duncan, I’m not leaving you, either. We started this together, we end it together.”

I expected him to refuse me, but he didn’t.

An arch of fire exploded in the distance. It moved with grace and control. It drew the attention of the Hunters and drew them toward it like moths to an open flame. It eased the wave of those who tried to reach me.

“Althea?” Duncan breathed, now pressing his back to mine. I felt his deep voice rumble through him. We moved as one unit, throwing power out to anyone who drew close enough to cause risk.

Another burst of unnatural flame answered Duncan’s question.

“She must’ve got Jesibel out of here,” I exhaled, relief swelling in my chest.

Time was a strange concept when all I could do was worry for my life and the life of the man I loved. Knowing we were together made us fight harder and smarter. I growled through my exhaustion, grappling with the adrenaline that would soon wane. Every step we fought our way from the labradorite stone was slow. It felt as though we were kept in place. Stuck in a web with dwindling hopes of getting out.

Aldrick’s fuelled commands would quieten, and I grew hopeful that Althea or Gyah had reached him. But the Hunters didn’t stop, and Aldrick soon returned with more demanding pleas.

“Kill the Icethorn. Duwar will reward you. Do. Not. Stop.”

I wished to form words of encouragement to share with Duncan, but I couldn’t hold a breath. Even the desire to shout for help, as the wave suffocated us, I couldn’t so much as gasp as I threw arrows of winter outward and conjured ripping winds of ice to devour those who got close. And they did. Each attempt was getting closer. Fingers grasped at my skin, and swords were thrust out toward me in the hope they would cut flesh and spill blood.

The Draeic beasts didn’t discriminate over who they attacked. Their powerful wings forced gusts of scorching, stale air upon us as they dove and picked people from the ground and took them skyward. It was another reason I’d drawn all of Aldrick’s warriors, beckoning them forwards to become a shield of flesh – just like how Aldrick used Jesibel. He could control his followers, but not chaos-made monsters from Duwar’s realm.

I delighted in the terrified screams as bodies were sliced in two by serrated teeth and plucked between the Draeic as they fought each other to devour the limbs. Blood fell from the sky like rain, splattering across my hair and face as I continued my fight.

As much as I wished I was limitless, that wasn’t the case. Exhaustion soon crept up on me, a silent assassin. I longed to throw out my power, as I had at Imeria, but I couldn’t. Not as the crowd around us was filled with my allies. So, I kept my magic gathered and intimate. Which allowed the Hunters to press closer with each passing second.

A swell of enemies coursed forward as one. Duncan cried out, trying to carve a path through them. But it was no good because every Hunter we killed, another two took their place.

It seemed the tide was changing, and not in our favour.

Until something slammed into the ground before us, sending bodies flying in all directions from the force. The comet of gold and grey blurred with speed and barrelled into the unexpecting Hunters who pushed toward us.

Dove-grey wings unfurled, and a golden hammer swung in one wild move that popped skulls like grapes between teeth. By the time Rafaela righted herself, the smooth edge of her weapon was coated in chunks of bone and gore. Her skin glistened with the blood of those her fall had killed. The cream robe she wore had stained to a dark crimson that would never truly be cleaned from it.

“You did not give me the signal!” Rafaela shouted as the flat head of her hammer split the skull of a Hunter with ease.

Her presence alone rejuvenated the adrenaline within me.

“I haven’t exactly had the chance!” I grunted, ducking as a blade passed over my head, but I thrust pelts of ice forward, tearing the skin from the face of my attacker.

“Focus,” Rafaela cried, twisting her wings and knocking multiple humans down with little effort. “Don’t let the gate taste your blood. It will not stop drinking until you are empty.”

“You said it didn’t need my–”

Rafaela’s eyes flew wide. “I have said a lot of things that are not true, Robin Icethorn. Keep your blood away.”

If I had the time to contemplate her words, I would’ve perhaps faltered beneath the realisation that she’d lied to me.

Aldrick was right, and I’d unknowingly put myself in danger.

I swallowed hard, hyper-aware of the labradorite behind me. Its presence seemed to be the only thing to offer a sense of calm patience. It was waiting for me, stalking my every move. My false sense of control slipped away like ash on the wind, carried so far away there was no hope I could claim it back.

I opened my mouth to question her, but Rafaela worked her way through the crowd as more Hunters attempted to overwhelm her. And it was working, cleaving me a path to get far away from it.

There was no chance but to take it – until my window to move was swallowed by a wave of leather and flesh.

Feral, skin-flaying screams split the air. Thunderous roars responded. I couldn’t look up at first, not as a Hunter grappled onto my jacket and pulled with all their might. Stumbling over my footing, I almost fell, but Duncan reached out and grabbed my shoulder. His grip pulled hard backward, giving me a moment to thrust another spear of ice straight up from the ground beneath the Hunter. It pierced, at an angle, through his chest and neck. He hung there with wide, all-seeing eyes. It took a moment for death to claim him.

“We are close to victory,” Aldrick screamed, forcing his voice into every mind. I’d enjoyed the knowledge that he was lying before, but now the truth hit me as hard as the fist careening into my jaw. I wondered if it was my deep-rooted exhaustion, or the Mariflora that was weakening, because, for the first time, I felt his innate demand. For a moment, my soul wished to bend to it.

My head snapped to the side, teeth cutting into the insides of my cheeks. I blindly reached up, watching as Duncan fought with a sword he’d taken from a Hunter at his feet, trying to reach me. He swung it, two hands holding firm. Lightning twisted down the metal of the blade until it glowed a furious red.

I fought, tooth and nail, to get out from beneath the Hunter atop me. I bit at his hands and arms and gouged my fingers into his eyes. He shook me violently, slamming my back against the ground with such a thud my breath evaded me.

“Robin!” Rafaela’s muffled cry reached me. Her voice was laced with fear for the first time, she knew we were close to failing.

Someone growled. The air hissed with the cut of steel. I barely had a chance to close my eyes before blood exploded over me, raining onto my face, into my mouth. When I opened my eyes again it was to see the headless body swaying to the side, falling off me.

“No man touches what is mine and comes away with their head,” Duncan growled, standing just shy of where I lay, his blade dripping fresh blood.

I took his hand, and was hoisted up. “Thank you–”

“ROBIN!” Rafaela screamed again.

I turned back to find her but could no longer see her among the sea of Hunters. As I scanned the crowd, fey roaring with each burst of their magic, I noticed that Althea hadn’t announced her location with fire for a while. Nor had I seen Gyah in her Eldrae form. All around me were the angry faces of our enemies whose bodies no longer belonged to them but to Aldrick, who pulled the strings from his unknown location of safety.

I forced three words into my mind. “ This must end.”

“You know what is required. Give yourself up freely,” Aldrick replied quickly, as though he had waited for me to reach out. “ Hasn’t enough blood been spilled? If you stop, I will call back my warriors. No one else needs to die today.”

Duncan snapped his head to me. His wide eyes revealed he had heard Aldrick. “This is not–” his teeth parted as he emitted a growl, hacking through the arm of a Hunter before pulling his blade back and driving it through their soft belly– “the time to be the hero, Robin. Give him what he wants, and we all die. Aldrick does not know mercy. We have a plan, your plan, stick to it.”

Deep down, I knew Duncan was right. I couldn’t trust a word Aldrick said.

“Give the gate your power. One sacrifice to save them all.”

Another scream lit the air. Then another. And another. But they were different. It wasn’t the keening cry of death, or the song of agony as fey and Hunters fought. This was a sound that once haunted me.

I risked a glance and saw the sky filled with winged creatures. Like flies to rotten meat, they swarmed the three Draeic. The cloud of grey limbs slashed and picked at the demons whose roars no longer sang with terror but bled with their own fear.

Gryvern . A cloud of claws and fangs attacked the Draeic. I felt a drop of blood land upon my upturned face. I lifted a finger to my cheek, and it came back black.

My lips curved upward, and my chest swelled with hope. It took moments for my mind to piece together the strange, unexpected puzzle that was the gryvern’s presence.

Erix sliced through the sky among them, hands curved into monstrous claws. His growl was low and trembling, matching that of Duncan’s thunder. Steel-cold eyes locked with mine. There was no hesitation as he found me within the crowd from his height.

As tides do, this one changed back in our favour.

“Oh, Aldrick, I’m afraid you are in no position to compromise with me.” I coated my mind with ice and forced the reply back to Aldrick. “Look up.”

I thrust out my power, pulling on the dregs that lingered in the deep pit inside me, and pushed outward. The cold blast of winter wind coiled around me and forced the Hunters close enough to fall back.

It let up space ahead of me for a moment, and then Erix was there. Standing inches before me, with his blanket of thin leather wings blocking out the enemies at our back.

“So, you disappeared and found me an army,” I muttered, wishing to reach out and grasp him, just to check he was real.

Erix took me in his arms, holding me as though a soft breeze could’ve torn me away from him. “Forgive me, I had a feeling we would need help, and I had some siblings I thought I should call upon.”

The gryvern cried out in unison. I sensed their glee within the high-pitched nature of their noise.

“You can control them?” I asked, trembling at the thought.

“No time for explanations now,” Erix replied, flashing two sharp canines that overlapped his lower lip. “When this is over, I will tell you everything.”

Duncan cried out, his voice pitched with pain. I glanced over Erix’s shoulder and watched as Duncan disappeared into the wall of Hunters. Even as he drowned within the bodies, he fought for his life. The crack of a jaw as his fist connected. The snap of a bone at his elbow jolted into someone’s face. Then he was gone, just like that. Gone.

“I offer this to you one more time, give your power, or Duncan Rackley dies.”

“No,” I screamed as my power became a blizzard, drowning out all other noise. My heartbeat filled my ears, my throat and even shuddered painfully through my bones.

Erix sensed my action but was too late to stop me.

Then I ran, thrashing out deadly cold before me, Erix following at my back, wings propelling him forward.

I threw myself into the same wall of hands that took Duncan from me. I clawed through them, caring little as my nails tore with flesh. My skin burned with the frozen kiss of ice. Anyone who touched me would feel pain until it was my last chance.

Erix was never far behind. He forged a path at my side. The tipped talons on his wings swung and stabbed, his claws turned skin to ribbons and his teeth buried into anything he could reach until his face was masked in blood.

“Give him back to me!” I couldn’t help but plead.

“Give up the key,” Aldrick replied, calmer than he’d been before. Hearing his tone frightened me the most.

“Don’t hurt him. If you do, you’ll never get what you want.”

His soft chuckle vibrated through my mind. Goosebumps puckered across my arms as it rang like a bell through my skull.

“Fight them, Duncan,” I shouted, my voice rough as shattered stone.

I could no longer see Erix. I looked around at the glaring faces of Hunters with their greedy hands and fingers that pinched my skin and pulled my hair.

“Aldrick,” I bellowed aloud with as much vigour as I could, wishing for my voice to tear across the crowd and pierce him where he sat.

“Stop . ”

The word was final. It was meant both for me and for the army of Hunters.

My knees hit the bloodied mess of the ground. There was no warning to put out my arms, so my face took the brunt of the fall. Everything went dark and quiet. I dared not open my eyes for what I might find. I waited, curling my body into the foetal position, waiting for more pain, more hands and fists and nails and blades.

Nothing.

“Here lies a king, cowering in a pit of dirt and death,” Aldrick sang. “What a sight.”

The mass of Hunters had moved. Now, they waited in a circle around me. There wasn’t that many of them left, we’d been so close, but I was blinded by the need to protect Duncan from a fate that I couldn’t bear the thought of him falling to.

Death.

Aldrick was there once again, mud splattered up the wheels of his chair and sticky among the woollen blankets across his lap. Besides that, he was untouched. Unscathed, whereas I felt like my soul had been flayed from my body.

“I will admit, Robin Icethorn, you really had me for a moment. The glamour, the body, all of it. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed.”

I pushed myself up enough that my chest peeled away from the wet ground. Gathering a lump of bile, I spat before him. “Fuck you.”

“Now, there is the human lurking inside. Rough around the edges and flawed. It must have been so terribly exhausting playing pretend all this time. I would not be surprised if you have had enough. Here…” Aldrick offered out a hand, palm raised to the sky, still filled with the gryvern’s screams. “Allow me to help you rid yourself of the responsibility the key gives you.”

I scanned the crowds, looking for a sign of Duncan. Erix. Althea. Gyah. Rafaela. Anyone who might help. While the sky was still a battleground for the gryvern and Draeic, everything on the ground seemed so still.

“What have you done to them ?”

“Does it matter?” Aldrick replied. “Give me what I want, and I will give you what you want. Seems like a fair trade.”

He was asking me to trade the world for the sake of a few people – and yet, they were my world.

“I’d rather die.” I stood slowly, hoping that Aldrick did not see my legs tremble. It was only the two of us within the circle. No guards protecting him. Only his daring, but that would do little to save him.

“I can arrange that. You die, and I take the key, or you give it freely, and I take the key. Cooperation is not something I am concerned about.”

I lunged toward him, feet slipping across the slick ground. My power had depleted, but that didn’t matter. I would tear his throat out with my bare hands. I was so close, my nails a hairbreadth from his wrinkled skin, when another voice rose from the crowd.

“Little bird.”

The wall of Hunters peeled away, allowing Erix to pass through. He moved awkwardly as though his legs were not his own. His face was painted with apology and fright; both emotions were in clear conflict with one another. “This is not me. I am not doing this.”

“Your guard does not lie to you, this is my doing.”

“Get your fucking hands off me,” Duncan screamed as he, too, followed out of the wall of Hunters. He was being dragged, his hands clasped behind his back, a blade pressed to his throat. Still, he fought, even with death a literal swipe away.

Duncan was forced to his knees, held down by a small group of Hunters. And I watched as Erix came to stand above him, claws grasping at his chin and neck. I saw his hand tremble with hesitation, but they didn’t move away.

“ Mariflora .” Aldrick mocked me from my mind. Then he continued out loud so everyone could hear. “Highly effective when ingested by a mortal but rather useless to monsters. And look what you brought to the fight, one cut from both cloths.”

My lips parted, expelling a feeble gasp. “Erix, I command you to resist him.”

Erix’s silver eyes twitched, his mouth drawn in a pinched line.

“Robin,” Duncan said, demanding my attention to meet his. Our eyes met, his verdant gaze brimming with defiance. His chin was raised, his shoulders back as much as the bindings allowed. Muck coated his face, deepening the hollow of his cheeks and the etching of the scar down the side of his face. Now, more than ever, it looked like a permanent tear engraved into his hardened expression. “Let it go.”

I didn’t know if he spoke about my power or him. But knowing Duncan, he’d rather die than hand anything over to the very man who ruined his life.

“One thought, that is all it would take, and your beloved dies,” Aldrick grinned wildly at the revelation. “There is no more fight left. No more bloodshed. One thought, that is all it will take, and it is over for Duncan Rackley.”

I didn’t know where to look. I was being torn between Erix under his spell, Aldrick smiling and Duncan looking almost peaceful as he faced his end.

“Robin, don’t you dare listen to him. Do you hear me.” I recoiled as Duncan shouted at me. Spit burst out of his mouth as he snarled his own demand. “My death is not what matters. I do not matter!”

“You do,” I exhaled. “To me.”

I dared to look away as tears filled Duncan’s stare. He refused to blink and provide them with escape.

Erix fought against Aldrick’s control. His entire body shook like a leaf caught in a breeze. Yet, still, his claws didn’t retract from Duncan’s neck.

“The choice is yours,” Aldrick said calmly. There was something about his tone that reminded me of my father. It was paternal, as though used to trick me into doing what he wished. “Think wisely about your decision. The lives of those you care about rely on what you do next.”

I glanced at the labradorite stone. The Hunters had deposited me right at the foot of it. As I had before, I sensed its thirst for me, more so now that my body was cut open in places, wounds leaking blood. As though it understood the conversation and sang with its longing for me to give it what it desired.

“You speak of life as if it is important to you,” I said, turning my focus back to Aldrick, hate sparking in my gut, the desire of his blood a song I couldn’t ignore either.

But he was no longer alone.

“No, no.” I leaned forwards, screaming at her.

This wasn’t happening.

Jesibel sauntered from the line of Hunters like a wisp of smoke. Bare feet, her dress barely clinging to her, dark eyes wide with a feral agony I recognised.

Aldrick turned his body to look at the person who moved with free will, sensing my distraction. Although, he wasn’t surprised to see her. “Come to me, that’s it.”

Like with Erix, Aldrick was controlling Jesibel.

I thought she’d gotten away, that Althea had saved her. But here she was, as if she’d never left. Perhaps she had, but Aldrick’s power reached far, like a leash, and dragged her back.

Jesibel didn’t look anywhere but at Aldrick – her focus entirely locked on him.

“You say that Mariflora is useless to monsters, then explain what I am,” Althea’s shout rose from the Hunters until I spotted her. She wasn’t on her knees like Duncan but standing among them. “What you have made me.”

“Wait, fey,” Aldrick commanded Jesibel, who stopped so suddenly and rigid I knew she was under his spell. But Aldrick didn’t care for her, not when Althea had just stolen every enemy’s attention in that moment. Including Aldrick, who almost forgot Jesibel was beside him.

Althea’s face was masked with red hair that billowed in the winds. The deepest ruby, as the colour of blood that covered most of her. “I’m a monster, and I am free from you.”

“The last Cedarfall,” Aldrick sneered. “Perhaps I should rectify that.”

“I welcome you to try,” Althea hissed, her eyes smiling with equal want for that very thing.

What happened next was so quick I refused to blink to miss it. Jesibel moved – the first sign she was not under Aldrick’s spell as I first thought. She leaned into Aldrick’s ear and whispered something.

His eyes flared open, a shout gargling out of his throat as he spun back on Jesi, likely surprised at what she said, or that she could even say anything without him commanding it.

The air split with light just beyond Jesi. I saw the small frame of a familiar boy for a second, then he was gone, taking Jesi with him. Aldrick stared at the empty space, shocked at what he’d seen. But it wasn’t empty for long, because the light parted again, flashing the determined scowl of Daveed the teleporter, followed by the ravenous Althea Cedarfall.

She’d traded places with Jesibel. Seconds, that was all it took.

“Boo,” she snapped at Aldrick, who didn’t even have time to lean back in his chair before she attacked.

Althea clapped her hands on either side of Aldrick’s face, silencing him. Her thumbs dug into his eyes and squeezed. His scream was a song of pure agony. There wasn’t time for him to send out a command to his followers, not as pain overcame him.

I watched, arms pinned helplessly to my side, as dark gore streamed out of Aldrick’s eye sockets and slipped into his parted mouth. Aldrick choked on his blood. He grasped at his neck with liver-spotted hands, attempting to claw at his skin for a reprieve.

But there was none to be found for him. His time, as we all recognised, was over.

“This… this is for my family,” Althea whispered into his ear as fire blossomed across her hands and spread across Aldrick’s face. The bright spark of furious crimson engulfed his skin, masking his silent scream in the roar of burning flesh.

“ Stop her–”

“Burn,” Althea bellowed her war cry above the final command Aldrick attempted. “You bastard .”