What was? my bleary mind asked. Keeping … who … what … at bay? I couldn’t even think straight through the heat spreading inside my limbs. Couldn’t remember why this was happening.
As if in answer to my unspoken question, a new growl filtered into the air as a large creature—like the rest—stepped forward. It was much bigger than the others gathered around with an ugly mug of a face and a scar that ran the length of its face on one side, splitting through an obviously blind eye. The alpha, I realized. There always was one. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit!
Curses rained from above as the guys descended faster, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough. The alpha drew back, its hackles rising as it prepared to launch. Despite my glow, it wasn’t going to go down without a fight. But it would find that neither would I.
The alpha lunged and at the same time, the glow from within me burst forward. It exploded out of me, illuminating the darkness surrounding us, taking over everything. Shoving back the alpha and its pack of creepy wolf-like creatures. I heard yelps of pain just as the light dimmed and disappeared and the smell of burnt fur reached my nostrils.
Just as quickly as it had come, my magic was gone again. My only thought before my mind fell away into the blackness was, what the hell had I done?
Chapter 13
Sorrell
I could feel sweat collected at the base of my spine as I strode down the corridors, my steps echoing up the cold stone walls of the castle—my mother and Roan’s mother’s court. When I’d gotten the news that Roan and Orion had come in nearly an hour before, my blood had raced in my veins. Something was obviously very (?) wrong. Neither had tracked me down, and the rumor mill was already spreading.
Don’t rush, I silently urged myself. Remain calm. Remain cold. Do not let anyone see the emotion. Emotion was a dangerous thing in this place.
“Your Highness?” One of my mother’s ladies in waiting saw me and shuffled to the side, her eyes going downward in deference to my status as she curtsied and bowed her head. This was another thing I hated about the Court of Frost. The pomp, the circumstance, the fucking theatrics of it all.
I searched my mind for the girl’s name. “Davina,” I said shortly. “Have you seen Roan or Orion?”
She nodded. “I just saw them enter the infirmary, my Lord.” It annoyed me that she kept her gaze down and her eyes averted. The Changeling would do no such thing. She’d lift her eyes and bat those lashes at me and spit vitriol my way in that reckless way of hers. When I’d turned back to see her slip into the Bavarian Pass’s crack and my brothers dive in after her, my heart had damn near stopped in my chest. It had taken everything in me not to go after them. I knew Roan and Orion and knew that Roan, at least, had traversed the lower paths before. He would lead them out. They would keep her and each other safe. I’d believed that deep in my soul. And yet, I’d worked tirelessly to pick up the pace. We’d breached the pass and had arrived at the Court of Frost only to be informed that they hadn’t yet arrived. I’d been on pins and needles ever since.
“Thank you, Davina. You may go.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.” She gracefully got back to her feet and strode away. I all but raced to the infirmary. I was within viewing distance of the double stone doors that led into the medical wing when they opened and Roan stepped out.
I stopped short, horror assailing me. At first, I thought it was just his powers coming back after being in the Bavarian Pass for so long, but the red I saw was too dark to be fire. It could have only been blood. It coated his hands and smudges littered his arms and face. There were deep gouges along his biceps and forearms.
I started forward again, walking slower this time as if I were approaching a wild animal. “What happened?” I asked, keeping my voice even.
Roan’s head lifted and his eyes found mine. The fire I thought had been missing was suddenly found there. It raged incendiary in the depths of his gaze. He bared his teeth and hissed as he released a breath. “The Gods damned bortugals found us,” he said.
Not by a flinch did I reveal just how emotional I was. Bortugals were bloodthirsty creatures—often starved for meat in the icy wilderness of Alfheim. They were on the decline, but only because they had begun eating their young when there was no other food to be had. And in this declining realm, there rarely was.
“How did you manage to fend them off?” I asked. “Did you turn them to ash?”
Roan’s wild eyes met mine. “We didn’t fend them off.”
I could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed that statement. “What do you mean you didn’t fend them off?” I demanded. “You’re here. Orion’s—” My eyes widened and shot to the doors at his back. No. He couldn’t. Orion had lasted years on the battlefields. He’d been squired at such a young age. He was brutal in war, cunning, decisive. But oh, I’d seen how he was around the Changeling. He was softer with her. He was gentle. As if he’d waited his whole life to show that other half of himself that I knew he’d kept buried in his years of bloody service to the war with the humans.
“He’s fine,” Roan said quickly once he realized where my thoughts had gone. “He’s hurt, but it could have been much worse. He’s being treated as we speak.”
“Then what…” The doors opened and Orion stepped out, stopping what I’d been about to ask. There were new scars on his face. They’d been cleaned and bandaged and would likely heal by the end of the day now that we were no longer entrapped in the magic depleting vortex of the Bavarian Pass. The scars would remain though. They always did on him. It was hard to recall a time that he hadn’t had many small markings on his person. He’d had them even as a child—a testament to what he’d faced in the Court of Midnight. If ever there were a place more dangerous than the Court of Frost, it was my friend’s home court of darkness. Of pain. I shuddered to think of what might have happened if he hadn’t been sent to us.
“She’s resting,” Orion said, speaking directly to Roan. The tension in Roan’s shoulders seemed to ease as he released a breath.
“Good,” he said with a nod. “That’s good. Did the physician say there would be any lasting effects?”
“Lasting effects of what?” I asked, glancing from one to the other.
Logically, I recognized that they must be talking about the Changeling but they still had yet to tell me how they’d survived the lower paths. Orion lifted his head. “There was an incident in the crevice,” he began.
“I saw the girl fall, and I saw the two of you dive in after her.” I said the words with as much civility as I could muster, which wasn’t much. I couldn’t help but think that had the girl not slipped and fallen, we would not be here right now. Had the girl not even existed, we likely would not be faced with attending to the Court of Frost at all. We wouldn’t have the knowledge that we were breaking about a dozen laws, committing the highest of treasons, by hiding a human refugee in our court, and potentially putting ourselves in a position to not only get our titles stripped, but to end our very lives. The Mother Queens of the Court of Frost were not known for their tolerance, nor were they known for their mercy, even against their own sons.