Page 61 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

His wolf sprints to the right, racing toward the rubble that remains of the next tower over. Stopping at the highest mound of snow, she begins furiously digging.

Stellen runs behind her, his feet leaving the air as he leaps over the mound, gaining air before he crashes down on the nearby block of stone keeping the snow constrained. His punch cracks the rubble into two, sending frost flying and broken stones tumbling across the ground.

What the actual…?

I’m running before I know it, my bare feet crunching on the sharp icicles now forming down the side of the mountain.

I leap from the next jutting outcrop at the side of the ridge and land at a crouch a hundred feet below. Now at ground level, I break into a run.

I’m only two hundred paces from Stellen and closing quickly, but he doesn’t give any indication he’s concerned about my approach, continuing to dislodge rubble where he stands.

“Stellen.” I snarl. “What are you⁠—?”

“Listen,” he says, his power compelling me to hear beyond my own pounding heart.

I drag myself to a stop.

A very faint thumping sound drives me into another crouch. As hard as I can, I strain my ears to hear the soft thuds coming from the ground.

Thump. Thump-thump.

Nearby, the wolf has hit solid ice, her claws scrabbling against the hard surface. The white air wafting off the snow brings the bite of powerful frost.

“Are there chambers dug into the earth beneath these towers?” Stellen asks.

I shake my head. “Not to my knowledge.”

His unearthly eyes send a chill down my spine as his head tilts sharply again. “I count at least ten heartbeats.”

“You can hear heartbeats?”

He blinks at me. Then indicates his left ear, jabbing at the pointed top. “I’m a fucking Lethian. In case you missed it.”

I’m more surprised by his anger than his sarcasm. He was anything but cold and strategic when he was holding Thyra, but I thought that was an anomaly. Now, I’m unsettled by how much feeling he’s portraying.

Something’s changed.

Not my biggest priority right now.

“Ten heartbeats here,” he says. “Twelve more over there. Still more in that direction. The beats are slow. Whoever they are, they’re running out of air. Assuming Iron Fae weren’t tunneling beneath your towers, your warriors must be trapped within the ground somehow.”

They’re alive.

Countless lives to be saved.

I don’t know how they’ve ended up in the earth, but I’m not about to waste another second asking questions.

“Stand aside, wolf,” I call to the white beast, barely controlling my flames long enough for her to leap clear before fire blasts from my hands.

The wolf quickly backs away and circles behind me, a disconcerting path since I can’t keep her in my sights.

My focus has to be on melting the ice and freeing the fae trapped beneath it.

“Easy, Nara,” Stellen calls to the wolf, inclining his head toward the next tower. “Let’s mark the spots so Maxim knows where to burn.”

He sweeps to the side, his bloodied robes dragging in the snow, the wolf on his heels as he hurries to the next tower. Once there, the wolf digs furiously while Stellen smashes through stone, making it clear where I need to melt the snow.

I focus first on the spot in front of me.