The power of Winter rose ever higher, fed by fury and the nightmare glamour swirling throughout the ruins. The very ground was steeped in it—anger, fear, hate, rage, an intoxicating mix of volatile energy that the Unseelie nature reveled in.
I cut down a nightmare leaping toward me, hating them all, feeling my rage soar with every swing of my blade. Monsters and abominations. If I had to destroy every one of them to protect my family and my world, I would. If I had to become the very evil I was facing to save everyone, so be it. Let the nightmares come. In the end, they would be the ones who would know true fear.
And still, I could feel myself holding back. Not giving in completely. Perhaps it was subconscious. Perhaps it was my very soul that kept me from becoming a true Winter fey again. Though the power beckoned and my Unseelie nature goaded me on, urging me to take that final step and embrace the darkness, I still hesitated.
Puck dropped beside me, breathing hard. “This is never-ending,” he muttered, ducking as a winged nightmare swooped over his head, and a few strands of bright red hair went spiraling to the floor. He raised an arm as it swooped back, and a branch from a nearby tree hissed down and smacked the creature from the air. “Ugh, they just keep coming. Not that I don’t love a good fight against overwhelming odds, but even we can’t keep this up forever.”
With a guttural snarl, a massive, wolflike thing clawed its way up from the hole, panting and slavering as it heaved itself into the open. It was even larger than our Wolf, its shaggy head brushing the tops of a few trees as it swung around. It raised its head and howled, and its jaws split its entire chest, baring a maw of fangs to the light. Lowering its head, it bunched its muscles and charged, huge unnatural jaws gaping to swallow us all.
There was a ripple of iron glamour behind me, and several roots broke through the surface, stabbing into the air. The branches glittered with steel thorns as they shot forward, twining around the nightmare wolf, which gave a very human scream of pain as the roots contracted, pinning it in place. I leaped forward and brought my blade down on its neck, and the shaggy head tumbled free, thumping against the stones.
The wolf’s body shuddered, slumping against the branches. Panting, I glanced back at Meghan and Puck, who met my gaze wearily. Meghan, especially, looked exhausted, but before I could say anything, the head of the nightmare wolf, lying in the dirt, twitched. Faster than I thought possible, it flipped upright, jaws gaping, and lunged at Meghan. As the slavering maw snapped shut, completely hiding her from view, there was a crackle of energy, and lightning strands erupted from between its teeth. The wolf’s disembodied head jerked, twitching and convulsing, until it finally slumped to the ground. Its jaws opened, tongue lolling between its fangs, and it finally seemed to die.
“Meghan!”
I reached the wolf’s muzzle, pried it apart, and dragged a grimacing Iron Queen into the open. She was breathing hard, and blood welled from one shoulder where a wolf fang had caught, but she was alive.
“I’m all right,” she gasped as I pulled her close. “I’m okay, Ash. I just need...a second to catch my breath.” Eerie wails echoed up from the pit, causing Meghan to glance over with a grimace. “Of course, they’re not going to give us that, are they?”
Rage battled relief and a growing desperation. This wasn’t working. We couldn’t keep this up, not with the amount of creatures coming through the gate. Meghan was hurt, Nyx was gone, and we were all reaching the limits of what we could do.
With piercing cries, a flood of creatures spiraled up from the pit, descending on us in a glittering swarm. Their faces were elven and beautiful, but their bodies were wasplike, with serrated limbs like a praying mantis. They surrounded us, slashing with their arms, their movements frantic and quick. Still kneeling, I cut several down, protecting Meghan as best I could. But a curved blade scored my back, tearing a line of fire across my skin, and my rage soared.
Enough. Die, insects!
I reached out, drawing on the glamour surrounding us, and released it in an icy burst. Ice instantly spread over everything, pointed spears glittering off trees and stones, and the swooping creatures went crashing to the ground and careening into rocks as their wings froze, some impaling themselves on the spikes. I breathed in the fury-drenched air, feeling the power surge through me, and slashed a final Evenfey in half as it fell from the ceiling.
Meghan shuddered against me. “Ash, you’re freezing,” she whispered. “What...?”
She stiffened, and the hand gripping my own turned my palm over, revealing my wrist and forearm. Blue-black veins stood out against my skin, crawling up my arms like inky tendrils. Staring into my face, her eyes widened. I saw my own reflection in her gaze, my eyes glowing icy blue, my pupils shrunk down to pinpricks. More tendrils of darkness crawled up from neck, spreading over my jaw. Meghan touched my cheek, and her fingers were like burning coals against my skin.
“What’s happening to you?”
Her voice was suddenly terrified. Blood streamed down her arm, her face was pale, and her muscles shook with exhaustion, but she had not wavered or shown any signs of fear until now. “Ash...”
“I’m fine,” I told her. More than fine. I felt powerful again, the strength of my Winter glamour fully restored. The anger and hate swirling through the ruins fed my Unseelie nature and made it stronger than ever. My blood had chilled, all pain, doubt and weakness of the flesh frozen to nothing. My back had been slashed open by the claws of the praying-mantis fey, and I couldn’t even feel it.
A stale wind howled through the opening before Meghan could answer, and the rush of glamour accompanying it made my senses prickle. Fear, mixed with pure, undiluted rage. Something was coming, looming ever closer on the other side of the gash. Something...enormous.
A massive claw, nearly as big as I was, suddenly gripped the edge of the portal. Another appeared on the other side, as something huge and terrible began rising up from the depths. A head emerged, chilling and familiar, a massive creature with blazing white eyes and antlered horns crowing its shaggy head. Black tendrils crept out from the portal and spread across the floor, as the Monster, the thing that had destroyed Touchstone, hunted us through the Briars, and nearly ended our lives before, came through the opening, lifted its head, and let out a roar that shook the pillars.
The dreams of the king. His Elder Nightmares brought to life.
“Crap,” Puck whispered. He staggered back a pace, grimacing, as the nightmare creature took one thunderous step forward. “Not this thing again. I barely remember how we beat it last time, and I’m not feeling nearly so cheerful now.”
Meghan took a deep, shuddering breath. “We’ve killed it before,” she said quietly, though I still held her hand, and felt it tremble under my fingers. Despite her words, she was nearly spent. Even the Iron Queen’s power had limits, and her reserves of glamour was almost gone. “We can beat it,” Meghan insisted. “We just have to work together.”