Page 163 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

At her side was a long thin sceptre, wrapped in engravings in the old language of gods.

Aurora and the sceptre.

When blood had reached Snow’s shoulders, I lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around my waist, holding tightly onto me.

“What is that?” she whispered, seeming almost out of breath.

I looked up to where she pointed. At Aurora's side stood another drawing, the figure of a heavily chained man kneeling at the centre of a circle made of moon phases.

Her lover?

Snow whimpered in my arms, burying her head in my neck and clawing my body. The crimson thick fluid had reached my waist as I guided the two of us towards the other side of the room.

“Stop, please,” she called in almost a cry and I pulled her tightly to me. She let out a soul tearing sob and writhed in my hold. “Kilian.”

I stilled at the whisper of my name. “I’m right here,” I said, softly pressing my lips to her forehead and lifting her body higher. “I’ve got you.”

The veil had only affected her. They called it the veil of fear, one of the many tricks Dark Crafters had under their sleeve. It brought to life what you feared most by tricking every sense in the body. Sometimes almost too vividly. My biggest fears had gone a long time ago and I had made peace with most of them anyway. Fear was also taught out of me, with steel and fire that had marked me inside and out—it had made me a master of it. Until I met her. Then I had to re-learn it all over again. Re-learn to fight it all over again.

“What do you see, my love?” I asked as moving became difficult. “Tell me, we have to fight it away otherwise this will drown us.”

She pushed from me, her eyes completely veiled black. “Let me go, I have to get to them.”

“It is not real, Snow,” I said, tightening my grip around her at the same time she began thrashing with a force no woman of her stature and height can possibly possess. “They are not real. Not inside here.”

“Let me go!” she bellowed. “No! He’s killing them! Gods, please. Please!” Her cries shattered me—entirely shattered me. “Please!”

“Almost there, my love. We are almost there.”

She kicked and punched and scratched me with all force of her body as I pushed to reach the end of the room. “Let me go! Let me go!”

Sobs wracked her body and mine along. It was painful to hear them.

Holding her tightly, I kicked the wooden door repeatedly with my foot, the density of the blood straining my every movement and with Snow wrestling me, it took me several long moments to push it open. Wood cracked, sending the door to split and push open just as the blood reached my neck.

When we stepped on the other side, all evidence of the blood soaking us had disappeared. The remnants of the veil, however, still lingered within Snow who hiccupped and shivered on my arms. I held her so tight, but it felt as if I couldn't get her close enough. “It’s over. It’s all over.”

“One…moment. Allow me one embarrassing moment,” she murmured, still clinging onto me.

“It will be our secret.”

“Our secret,” she breathed and rested her face on the crook of my neck. After she’d gathered herself, she looked up at me. “Why didn’t it affect you?”

I wiped the tears under her eyes away. “I have only ever had one fear. And it came true.”

“You can put me down now.”

“I don’t want to.”

A screech made us both turn to attention.

A gust of wind suddenly blew in our direction, almost toppling us and before we knew the cause, a large, winged animal was aiming its talons at us.

Snow jumped from my arms and we both unsheathed our swords just as it came in close reach. With a few manoeuvrings between Snow and I, the beast was cut to pieces, and we were both bone tired as if we’d been wrestling a dozen of them already.

“What in the hells?” Snow said, turning to inspect our surroundings.

Like a curse, screech after screech filled the empty space.