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Those harrowingly violent purple eyes bored into mine.
“Until we meet again, Ella Snow.”
He pulled his hand away. Without control of my body, there was no way to catch myself as my body pitched to the side. My fear spiraled in on itself as the floor came at me, and I slammed into the stone with enough force to knock me senseless.
The last thing to freeze in place was my eyelids. Wide open, I was forced to watch every moment of that terrifying bloodbath. No matter how much I wanted to turn away, to close my eyes to the reining violence, I could not.
Every cell in my body was frozen solid. I wanted to scream in agony, but my voice had been stolen from me. There was nothing I could do except lie there and try to survive it. I have no idea how long I laid there for, but eventually the screaming stopped, and the halls went silent.
A single tear fell from my eye, freezing in place on my cheek.
Finally, my consciousness gave out, and the blissful blackness of sleep fell over me.
Was this what it felt like to die?
CHAPTER14
Nykor
The entire castle was in an uproar. Just a little while ago, a shocking number of orcs had laid siege to the wall. Those taking refuge had tried to escape into the city with their lives, but there wasn’t time enough for that. The orcs had appeared with no warning, hidden behind a magical barrier until the moment before they’d attacked. It was a devastating tactic in which the death toll had already proven astronomical. As soon as the news broke, I directed every soldier in the city to protect our greatest defense, the ice wall.
After I’d given my orders, I’d taken to the skies and had only just made a dent in the disturbing number of soldiers the Dark King had sent through the rift. I tried to take comfort in the fact that Ella would remain safe in my quarters, even though I wasn’t there to protect her.
I hadn’t thought they would attack this soon. I had thought I still had weeks of preparations, time to organize our forces and reinforce our armories before they struck, but I had been very wrong.
With the steward out of commission, I had taken the lead, meeting with the council. I had marked where I thought the majority of the Dark King’s forces were on the strategy board. It had proven too dangerous to keep any sentries in the north, so my word was the only information brought to the table. In the last few months, many of the northern villages had traveled south. A great number of them had taken refuge here outside the wall.
The attack on the wall would have been one thing, but it was much worse than that. Several hauntingly catastrophic reports had come through of attacks by wraiths throughout the city, the most alarming one occurring right here in the castle. The doors of the great hall had been magically sealed shut, only opening upon the light of the rising sun.
I had witnessed the violence these terrible creatures could render, but this was worse than anything I’d ever seen. The floor was slick with blood. Elves, fae, dwarfs, and humans alike all lay dead together. Some were ripped apart. Others beheaded. There were several unidentifiable limbs scattered across the room.
My sorrow was overwhelming. I’d fought all my life against devastation like this, and I was just about to turn away so that I could gather myself when a great white wolf bounded into the center of the room. I looked back at it quizzically as it padded around pools of blood with measured calmness until it stopped beside one of the giant rock pillars that supported the great hall. The creature sat back on its haunches, icy blue eyes meeting mine for a long moment before it turned aside to look down at a body on the ground.
Curious, I followed its line of sight.
The grandeur of the dress met my eyes first. Something about it was vaguely familiar. I swallowed hard, taking a step closer, squinting as the body started to come into focus.
Then, a beam of sunlight passed through one of the windows overhead, illuminating the glass beaded slippers.
A sickening feeling came over me. With rising fear, I burst forward, breaking into a full run across the room. I didn’t care that every step I took splattered my pants with blood. The only thing that mattered was getting to her.
My entire world centered on that single focal point.
It couldn’t be her. This was some terrible mistake. She wasn’t here. She was safe up in my chambers behind the magical barrier, where no one could get to her without me. She couldn’t be down here.
I stopped short and dropped to my knees. Jarring pain lanced through me as I reached for her face. It was covered by the mane of her blonde hair. Even as my fingertips took ahold of her golden locks, I kept telling myself that it was just a coincidence, that it couldn’t be her.
My heart shattered into pieces when the glaring truth smacked me right across the face.
Her golden eyelashes were frosted with snow. Her glowing pale skin was deathly white, translucent enough to reveal the deep purple veins beneath. Every limb was stiff, frozen solid with rigor mortis. Her flesh was freezing cold to the touch. Her blue eyes stared back at me, but there was no life left in them.
The dark blue fabric of her dress was stained with blood. A quiet cry escaped me as I pressed my fingers to the wound. She’d been stabbed directly in the heart.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered in horror.
The pure white snow wolf threw its head back and howled, the sound mournful. I jumped at the sound, having forgotten it was here next to me in the harrowing discovering of Ella’s body. I glanced at it only for a second, noticing the mystical energy glowing within its knowing gaze. This was not a normal snow wolf. It had been sent to deliver a message.
“She doesn’t have much time left. You will need to venture into my realm if you wish to save her.”
