The chains snapped back, and the creature rumbled, “You are coming with me, little heir.” Swiveling around, she slammed her boot hard down on the creature’s leg, her calf screaming as her wound tore open more. Sweat coated her skin as she threw her body weight backward, pulling toward Brokk. He was lightning streaking across a stormy sky, and she cried as he was closed in, his fur covered in blood, and she became feral as he stumbled. The binds that held her to her humanity untethered as he fell.
“No!” Her voice cracked, and she was spinning into that eternal blackness that clutched the edges of her world, dragging her down. There was a crack like thunder and she snapped her head up, homing in on the completely obliterated doorframe of her home. Adair stood there, looking out at the courtyard with a cool hunger that made him predatory. And the world exploded into flame. She was wrenched back, clawing at empty space as she watched her oldest best friend turn into someone she didn’t recognize.
She looked to the creature as he forced her to stumble after him. “We have to go back! I don’t care if you bloody kill me, at least let me save my friends. Please.”
It stopped for a moment, flashing her it’s grotesque teeth. “You really don’t know? Your friend back there is the reason your parents are dead. And is the reason that the darkness that once held the world will rise again.” She balked, and he laughed, tugging her harshly. “As I said, that is our cue to go.”
They plunged down the rolling hill, and she swallowed hard against the bile clawing its way it up her throat. No, no, no. The forest loomed before them, looking like a city carved from ice, and as they ran into its cover, all she could smell was smoke and ash.
Blinking away the memory, she sucked in a breath as she took in the forest around them. Shivering against her shock and the bitter cold, her fingers turned blue and her mind desperately tried to plan. With chattering teeth, she growled. “Where are you t-taking me?”
“Back to my lair.”
“What are you?”
It snapped at her, “An ancient creature that has been long forgotten. I have been trapped between time waiting for this day to come. Usually I take a blood price to feed my magic. I’m sure you know, little Fae, that our power is always give and take.”
Her mind raced as she pieced it together, the only creature she knew from myth that took a blood price. A seer, and exchanger of truths. A myth, a legend. “Gortach,” she whispered more to herself.
He rumbled, “Clever girl.”
She was sure early hypothermia had set in, her limbs becoming more sluggish with every second and her mind diving into the betrayal. Adair killed your parents. He killed your parents. Licking her cracked lips, downy flakes of snow shook off the trees, drifting lazily toward them. One landed on her nose, melting, the icy droplets turning pink from the dried blood as tears slipped down her face. How did she not see the change in him? Each day he had become more withdrawn, each day he had pulled further and further away, how did she not see it? That all along, he was the nightmare. The threat. She looked forward, steeling her heart. If the Gortach didn’t kill her first, Adair would.
The snow crunched underneath their feet, and they wove through the trees, deeper and deeper into the heart of the woods. Hours must have passed, and they were lost to what was happening. It was an amazing effect, how entering the forest was like entering another world, everything peaceful and quiet when outside its confines the world was being ripped apart. Stumbling she landed on her knees, throwing up in the same moment. Tears stung her eyes from the force, the foul acidity filling her senses.
“Get up!” The Gortach snarled, but she couldn’t move. The iciness of the snow held her, and she bowed her head. Tremors raked her body, and she was frozen. “Pathetic human, move!” He pulled as she fell face first in the snow, ice shards tearing her skin. That’s when she felt it. The sharpness in the air, the churning of energy. Gravity left her, and in a flash, she was being held up against the Gortach’s chest, his inky talon pressing against her throat, poised to end her. Vomit and blood covered her as she swallowed, her gaze roaming the seemingly empty woods. The wind picked up, blowing more snow off the branches as the Gortach roared, “If you want her to live, come out now!”
It was a split second as Memphis stepped out from the dying light, his blond hair matted and stained as he roared, “Now!” The snow around them shifted state, turning into water as the wind became savage. The trees bowed as the water rose and rose, gathering into a roaring wave. She saw two figures behind the water, their green hair sparkling. The wave crashed down, and they were both succumbed, drowning on land. Water speared through her chest, knocking the wind out of her as she was dragged down with the Gortach, the chains binding her, the collar cutting off her oxygen. She felt his talons rip through her clothes, clawing at her back.
Frantically kicking her legs, she tried to swim upward, her chest burning. It expanded and expanded, her ribs straining against the pressure. Water filled her nose,
