36. Maddy

Chapter 36

Maddy

" P rincess, we know you're here!"

My heart quickens. That's Dimec's voice.

Why is he here? Why is anyone in this glade?

Only a second ago I was completely vulnerable, inside my mind in the gallery. The memory I brought back is still replaying, and I try to wave it away. Pulse racing, I stand up, keeping my back to the tree, and will the breeze not to lift the branches and reveal where I am.

I hear a smattering of whispered voices, including a female one. Shit. Dimec's not alone.

"Found you!" Thira, the female earth-fae, whips the sheet of willow to one side and steps through.

Adrenaline surges through me as she is followed by four others stepping through the curtain of foliage—Dimec, a small shadow-fae female called Ulrika, and, of course, Inga and Orgid.

I realize with a jolt that every single one of them is armed. Inga and Dimec have bows, Thira has a small blade, Ukrika has a short spear, and Orgid is holding his staff high, his other hand on the sword at his hip.

Inga levels her bow at me, the arrow pointed straight at my head.

"Leave me alone," I say, relieved my voice betrays none of my rising fear.

"We're supposed to be practicing hunting," Orgid sneers.

"Yeah. We're hunting useless princess scum," says Dimec, and the others laugh.

"You'll be punished worse than last time," I say, praying to Freya and the fates that the statement's true. I don't even know if or how they were punished for trying to drown me.

"We want to see your bear," Inga says.

"And we figure that this is the best way to draw her out," Thira adds.

I raise my eyebrows at them. "Really? You're threatening my life so that my killer bear can show up and attack you all?"

Dimec snorts. "He's not going to kill us."

" She told me herself that she wants to kill you," I say slowly. "Now fuck off before she gets here."

Please show up, Thyrvi. Please, please, please, for the love of all the gods, please show up, I pray.

"Not until we see her," Orgid says, and then Inga looses her arrow.

I hear the twang, and thankfully my reflexes kick in early enough for me to shift just a few inches to the left. The arrow thunks into the wood right where my eye was .

"Are you fucking crazy?" I shout as all of the others laugh.

"They're fucking dead." Kain's voice rips through the laughter, and I see every single face around me change as they look for him.

One minute, there's no sign of him, and the next he is tearing through the rooks like some terrifying harbinger of death.

He's broken two noses within seconds, and bright crimson spatters the rich green of the willow tree. He's moving between my tormentors so fast it should be impossible. I can see his wolf beside him, and every few seconds it disappears into his body and he gets a burst of speed, then it flies out of him again, snarling and snapping and flaming.

It's magnificent, and I'm so caught up in it that I don't even realize what's happening right next to me.

"Why does he get to fight and we don't?"

I gasp as Thyrvi's voice sounds in my head, and I spin to the side. She's right by the trunk beside me, watching Kain lift Dimec clear off his feet and slam him onto the leafy ground. I grin at her.

"By all means," I say, and with a roar she leaps toward Inga, who's firing arrow after arrow pointlessly at Kain, and hasn't realized that my bear has arrived. Thira does notice, even through her already swollen eyes. She screams, turns, and runs, and I don't think I've ever seen a rook move so fast.

Thyrvi reaches Inga and knocks the bow from her hands hard enough to send the fire-fae sprawling on the ground. Inga's dark skin pales as she tries to scramble to her feet and finds herself looking up at my monstrous bear's wide-open maw. With a twinge of horror, I realize that Thyrvi is lifting her colossal paw, claws flexed and ready to eviscerate.

"No, don't actually kill her!" I shout. Inga's eyes flick to mine, I see a flash of pure terror, and then she's running from the glade. Orgid, bloody and limping, looks at the bear, and then he and Dimec run after her, Ulrika close behind.

"You told me I could fight," Thyrvi says, turning to me.

"Fight, yes, not kill. These are my teammates," I tell her. My heart is hammering against my ribs and I'm getting that same weird, light tingling I did last time I had to defend myself. Only this time, I did nothing. It was all Kain and Thyrvi.

"They're veslingrs ," the bear says.

"They're shit teammates," growls Kain at the same time.

I turn to look at him. "You followed me here," I say.

"No. I followed those pricks when I saw them arming themselves."

"Why is this wolf see-through?"

I spin to Thryrvi at her voice.

" You can see his wolf?"

The massive bear is staring at the flaming spirit wolf, which in turn has his eyes fixed on Thyrvi.

"Yes. It is the bloodlust and stamina magic of this angry warrior fae. I like him. He wants to kill people. "

"Huh," I say, looking at Kain. "I assume you can't hear her?" I whisper to him.

His rigid shoulders drop a little, and the sparks settle in his eyes. "No. But from the look on your face, I wish I could."

"She… likes you."

"Then she is the first in two hundred years."

"It's because you want to kill people."

He looks between my face and the bear. "Then I like her too."

I take a deep breath and turn back to Thyrvi. "Thanks for your help. Are you going to stay this time?"

"I have no idea. I'm just here to slay our enemies. Only you won't let me."

As she says it, she begins to fade. Frustration wells, but I know I'm going to see her again. "See you soon, Thyrvi," I say. "I promise I'll work it out."

"Next time I'd better get to kill someone," she answers, before she vanishes from view.

"You should not let others hear your power animal's name," Kain says.

I look at him. "Oh. Yeah. I forgot." I glance down at his wolf, who is now staring at me. "I bet he has an epic, fierce name."

"As fierce as Thunder Warrior?"

I give him a look. "I didn't choose her name."

"She named herself?"

"Yes."

His eyes darken, and his wolf disappears. "She names herself and decides which of the people around you she likes. She sounds more like the familiars of the ancient gods than a val-tivar ."

Sigrun's words come back to me. This is ancient magic, older than I am.

Has Kain worked that out? How does in see me in a way that nobody else seems to?

"Who did that?" I ask, stepping toward him and looking at the cut on his cheek.

"Orgid. I do believe I've made an enemy of that little shit." His eyes flick over my face.

"Will you get in trouble for hurting them?"

"I would have been punished for killing them," he snarls. "But attacking an unarmed fae five on one?" Sparks fly in his eyes. "It is their cowardice that will be punished." His righteous rage is infectious, and the adrenaline is rushing through my veins like electricity. The longer I look into his face, the more I agree. They need punishing. They deserve the broken bones and bloody noses. They deserve worse.

I feel a delicious shiver of cold flow over me, countering the rising heat my body is creating from the inside.

"You are making snow," Kain growls.

I nod and look down at my hands as cool frost tingles over them. They are both frozen in seconds.

Before I can even think it through, I touch my finger to the cut on his cheek. He stiffens so much that I think he might fall over. There's a sizzle as my fingers make contact, but I feel no burn.

A rush of something moves through me, hard, and I nearly stumble. But I hold my ground. Kain's blazing eyes burn hotter than any part of his skin ever could.

"Princess, what the fuck are you doing?" His voice is strained to breaking point, and the flames in his irises are filling them entirely.

Slowly, carefully, I trail my frozen finger along his jaw.

The ice is melting, and I feel the heat now. I move my hand faster as he tenses further, into his collar, along his shoulder. Down his chest.

He steps back, out of my reach, a rush of breath leaving his body.

"Please," I gasp.

"Please what?" His voice is barely more than a croak. "What do you think I can do for you? How long do you think that will last?"

His eyes move to my hand, now wet with ice that has already melted.

I look back into his eyes. "Then tell me what to do."