He looked over his shoulder at me like I was an idiot. “You think I’ve lived to see him and speak about it?”
I sent out my seeker feelings and felt something sickeningly dark just in front of us. With a burst of power, I shot sunlight from my hands to light up the space, and my eyes fell on the most terrifying creature I’d ever seen.
Holy mother of nightmares.
He was… a ghost. Or at least he appeared that way right now. His black semitransparent form rode a pale horse, and he wore a thin cloak. But his hands… there were just bones, and his eyes were sunken pits. When I looked closer, he appeared to be crawling with… bugs.
His horse charged full steam ahead, but my light had done something to slow him. The horse reared up, and that’s when he transformed. The bugs flew from his skin, surrounding us as they grew bigger and bigger. It was like something straight out of a horror movie. When they were the size of a small dog, I realized they were scorpions.
Fucking scorpions.
Ghostly scorpions.
How did you stab a ghost?
You didn’t.
We were screwed. Only Jasper and I would be able to fight these things I feared. Bursting through the circle of protection, I screamed. “Get behind me!”
The light still emanated from my palms and was creating some kind of shield because the horse and rider were holding back so that they didn’t walk into it. Same with the ghost scorpions.
Everyone seemed to notice and started to funnel behind me as I held my palms out and created a light barrier to encase us in.
Liam reached up and shot an ice shard at the rider, but it went right through him.
“Shit,” he cursed.
Next, Elle emptied her clip right into his chest, causing him to tip his bone skull back and laugh, a deep and haunting sound.
Oh gods.
A small army of the scorpions charged the light dome I’d made, and I panicked. What if it didn’t hold? What did their sting do? I didn’t want to know.
“Jasper!” I screeched, and the warlock sidled next to me.
With a burst of green magic from his palm, the scorpions reared backward toward the rider. There was movement on the horse, and I looked up to see the man… float off and fly over to us, barely skimming the edge of the light barrier. A sadistic grin pulled at his paper-thin lips to reveal sharpened teeth.
“To dine on the soul of a royal would give me untold power.”
Dine on.
I wanted to vomit. Hell, no, dude.
Slowly, I unslung the bag containing the crystals from my shoulder and passed it to Liam. He hesitated, knowing what this meant, but took it.
“Let my friends go into the portal, and then you and I can fight. One on one,” I said.
The creature tipped his head back and laughed. That hollow sound made my stomach turn. “No, no, that won’t do. My children must be fed as well.” He indicated to the dozens of scorpions that scampered across the ground at his feet.
I thought he might say that. This entire time, I’d been pulling on the power inside of me, and now I felt so full with light that my skin burned. When I wasn’t sure I could hold any more light, I thrust my palms out, in a wide arc, and blasted a supernova of light at the rider and his creatures.
“Run!” I shouted to everyone else and took off into the forest without waiting to see if I’d killed him. Liam leapt in front of me, flying a few feet into the air and zipping through the trees to lead the way. I had no freaking clue where the portal was. I was just trying to escape that monster.
The high-pitched wail that cut into the night told me two things.
He was alive.
He was pissed.
“My children!” he screeched in an inhuman wail. Then, the sound of hoofbeats thundered up behind me. The majority of Liam’s men didn’t have wings, so I couldn’t just fly off and escape this guy, leaving them to die.
“It’s here!” Liam shouted. Right in front of us was a tall glimmering… mirror. Right between two trees. I’m sure it held an illusion for humans, but I saw it well and clear. Our way home.
“Go, I’ll hold him off,” I yelled, pivoting to take on the rider and his horde.
“No,” Liam growled.
“GO!” I yelled without looking behind me. “I’m right behind you.”
I didn’t stop to see if Liam went through. I was too busy shooting beams of light at the demonic ghost rider to keep him back. His scorpion horde was gone, so I was guessing I’d killed them, and it was a relief to only have one foe to worry about. When the last of Liam’s men had run past me and everyone else in our group, I turned, ready to leap into the portal when a thought struck me.
If I didn’t kill the rider, Liam and his brothers would never be able to see their mother again. The fae from Montana who I’d invited to come live in Faerie would never reach it. But if I killed the rider, The Winter King would easily be able to pass into the portal and back into Faerie.
I was stuck. I couldn’t decide what to do.
My split-second indecision was just what the rider needed. Liam had just slipped through the mirror when an ice-cold hand grabbed my right wing and yanked me backward.
Hard.
A yelp tore from my throat as I was ripped backward, landing flat on my back. I hit the ground hard, first on my ass and then my head. Knowing that this was the worst possible position to be in, I threw my legs forward, trying to kick up to my feet… when he straddled me, pinning my arms at my side beneath him.
Frigid cold consumed my body, and panic jumped into my throat.
He was solid now… like a man with skin over
