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  Whatever animals made the woodland their home were gone—in hiding from the storm or hunted down by the Shadow Hunters, and the forest felt empty, like an abandoned house; but the abandoned house was a trap and we knew it. The woods weren’t really empty. Myst’s forces were out here: Shadow Hunters and snow weavers and, no doubt, goblin dogs. She still managed to control some of the Ice Elementals, too, the ones who hadn’t fallen out from her spell and under my rule. So the forest wasn’t empty by any means, but full with our enemies.

  Ulean swept ahead of us to help keep us on track, since the path was buried far beneath the snow and landmarks were almost impossible to read. As we silently passed through the trees, I fell into a light trance, moving forward on autopilot, as my thoughts drifted into the slipstream. And then . . . I was standing on a hill, in another snowstorm, and once again, I was running from Myst.

  The hilltop was exposed under the night sky, but the storm was raging around me, and I anxiously looked for Shy. He was here somewhere, waiting for me. We’d made the agreement some time ago. There was no choice—no other option, and we had to go through with it now that we’d both run from our people.

  And then, stepping out from a huckleberry bush that was covered by the snow, he came. Shy, my love. My one connection with Summer. This was the man who kept me from spiraling into the depths out from which I’d dug myself. My heart leaped, and I rushed forward, into his arms, as he wrapped me in his embrace and kissed me.

  “Cherish, my love, you were afraid I’d change my mind?”

  I didn’t want to admit it, but the fear had been there. We were from such disparate backgrounds, and our natures were an antithesis of the other. He was the morning light, and green grass, white wine on a summer night, wanting to play and lounge in the fields. And I was the night sky during winter, blood on snow, ready for battle, willing to destroy and maim. My hunger was fierce, and the drive to carve through flesh ran deep in my veins, but somehow, this son of the Summer had caught me in his web, and I had lost my heart to him.

  I kissed him, edging his lips with my teeth—the needle-sharp edges severing skin till drops of blood appeared on them. Licking them off, I let him slide his tongue in my mouth, probing deep, unafraid of me. And that was one thing I loved most—he didn’t fear me. He accepted me, all of me, my bloodlust included. And that lack of fear had become an aphrodisiac. He danced with death and loved it, and in turn, he had sparked in me emotions I never knew I possessed, and I’d offered him my heart on a silver platter.

  “Oh, my Cherish. Are you ready? We can’t linger long here. They’ll be after us soon.” Shy’s eyes were haunted. It had taken everything he had to turn his back on his people. I was far more fickle; it was easier for me because cunning and deceit were born and bred into my blood, but I understood what this meant for him and that made me love him all the more.

  “I’m ready. Whatever happens, Shy, we’ll face it together. Whatever the future brings, we’ll walk into it side by side.”

  And with that we were off and running.

  It took two days of us racing through the forests for the slipstream to fill with whispers that we were being followed.

  I’d hoped for a longer head start. Sometimes I was gone for a week at a time from the Barrow, and Myst, my mother, knew that I would return. But she had been watching me closely as of late. A few weeks back, she stumbled on my secret and ordered me to end the relationship. To be exact, her orders were harsher than that. She’d demanded I bring Shy’s heart to her; that I destroy what I loved the most to prove my allegiance to the Indigo Court, and to her.

  And Shy had been ordered to put an arrow through my heart.

  The Court of Rivers and Rushes had known about my people for some time now. They had been watching us as we swept through and hunted the yummanii who inhabited the area. We were cautious in our culling. You just don’t decimate a herd, or you destroy your easiest food supply. So we took animals and Cambyra Fae to supplement our diet. But after years of hiding out, we came to the notice of the Summer Queen, and she’d been quick to alert the Winter Court.

  Which meant the Indigo Court was preparing to go into hiding. Before, when it became necessary to escape before we attracted too much notice, my mother had left a few of our people to populate a small nest in the area as we vacated. And so we managed to create a network through this new land that had become our home not so very long ago. We had pockets of allies strung across the continent, left behind as we worked our way northwest across this massive spread of land we’d discovered when the Great Fae Courts had forced us to take to the ocean and leave our old world behind.

  And now we’d reached the edge of the ocean. But we still weren’t strong enough to take the locals, so my mother had planned our next move—to retreat into the shadows and build our strength. But she wasn’t about to let me keep any ties to the Summer Court. My love for Shy was a weakness.

  “You are a disgrace—worse than a disgrace! You are a blemish to the name of the Indigo Court. You will end this dalliance immediately, and to prove that you honor your Queen—your mother—you will bring me the boy’s heart. Rip it out of his body. You are Vampiric Fae. You cannot love! I didn’t raise you to be a traitor.”

  I’d always admired my mother, emulated her—until I met Shy. In that one meeting, my world changed, and everything I ever thought I knew dropped away, like a cloak of snow that melted in a sudden sunbeam. The ice around my heart had melted, too, and I’d been forced to make a choice. And my choice had surprised even me.

  Now, having defied our respective peoples, we had taken our love and were on the run.

  Two days in, and the hounds were after us on both sides. And we had some decisions to make. In my heart, I knew they’d catch us. But not before we blazed a trail through their forces. We’d burned our bridges, and the only way forward was to destroy anything and anybody that stood between us and our love.

  “What happens if they catch us?” I turned to Shy as we stopped to rest. We’d run a hundred miles or a thousand, maybe. I had no clue where we were, but we were headed north—that much I knew.

  “I guess . . . we fight till the end.” Shy’s beautiful blue eyes were cold as steel. He might embody the sun, but the sun could burn and crisp as well as warm and illuminate. “I’ve been thinking . . .”

  I turned to him. “We aren’t going to make it, are we? Be honest with me. Neither my mother nor your queen will let us go. We’ve stepped too far beyond the boundaries, and they intend to make an example out of us.”

  He paused, then his lip trembled. “I think you’re right. I don’t know if there’s anywhere we can get to where they won’t hunt us down and send their assassins after us. We broke the rules damned good, woman.” And he pulled me to his chest, engulfing me in his arms that felt like they could keep out the world. “I am thinking of something. There is a way . . .”

  I looked up at his face, and I saw the certainty in his expression—the finality. “If we have to die, I don’t want them to separate us.”

  “There’s a way we can keep that from happening. I have a potion . . . I bought it from a sorceress I know. She is the most powerful of the magic-born. The potion will bind our souls so that we can return in the future. Return to each other at a time when our love won’t be forbidden.”

  My heart thudded. I wasn’t afraid of death—hell, I was death incarnate by nature. But I was afraid of losing Shy. He was my all, and now the only fear I had was of seeing him hurt or taken from me.

  “I like that. We’ll fight to the end. Maybe there’s some way we can survive and escape. Maybe some miracle will allow us to win through, but if we can’t . . . If we can’t, we’ll drink the draught and flee into the future.”

  And just like that, we agreed that, to ensure our life together, we’d do whatever it took. Even if it meant dying to do so.

  Snapping out of the flashback, I looked around. We
were deep into the heart of the Golden Wood, past the turnoff for both the Marburry and Eldburry Barrows, headed toward the higher elevations. The going was getting tough, even for us, and I glanced back to see how Kaylin was faring, but the guards were making sure he stayed atop the snow, helping him along. They were able to go at our normal speed by carrying him under the arms. I had the feeling he wasn’t too happy about this, but there was nothing for it. While the vampires could keep up with us if pressed, Kaylin couldn’t, and he’d been warned to expect this.

  As we curved around a thick patch of trees, a figure glistened through the veil of falling snow. And a second—and a third. Ice Elementals. They turned toward us and began moving. Were they aligned with Myst? Or were they my own?

  I stepped toward the front, pushing through the guards. There was only one way to find out. Holding up my hand, I struggled for that odd mind link that I’d had to learn when dealing with the sentinels of the ice. It was like the slipstream, only a few steps removed. Once I found the current, I could speak into it, project my intentions and communicate with them that way. But it had been a tough path to master because the frozen giants were so alien in their nature that I had to think in a pattern to match their frequencies.

  I gathered my thoughts, then projected out a question, probing their intentions cautiously. If they were bound to Myst, she might immediately know that we were here, and she would guess what we were searching for.

  Waiting for the answer, I held my breath. Would they be friendly? Would they obey me? Or would they attack? At that moment, one of them caught the current and turned, followed by the others, and began to walk toward us. Now, we would see.

  Chapter 14

  As the Ice Elementals moved closer, the guards raised their swords, waiting. But then, with a rush of cool wind, Ulean flowed around me.

  They are unaligned. You can take control of them. They are not bound to Myst, so better you make them yours than let them run free for her taking.

  I knew the spell to bind them to me—Strict had taught it to me first thing, but it took concentration. It also took a confidence I still didn’t have down pat.

  But you’d better get with it girl, or you’ll never manage Myst. The thought echoed in the back of my head, and I realized that there was no more time to learn, no more time to question myself. I motioned for the others to stand back as I moved toward the approaching creatures.

  Ice Elementals lived in a world of their own. I had several bound to me at such a level they would die—cease to exist—before betraying me. During the formation of my heartstone, they had become my own guardians. They stayed back in the realm of Snow and Ice, though, waiting by the outer door of the Barrow should I need them.

  Elementals were so far from human that they might as well be aliens. They lived in a world bounded by their own element, and while they often showed up on the physical planes, they still ran true to their natures. Fire Elementals would never be found in the snow, and Ice Elementals would dissipate and return to their own plane of existence if they were suddenly transported to the desert.

  Elementals were inherently neutral; they were neither good nor evil—they couldn’t even think in those terms. If someone bound them, they would obey, but there was no malice or goodwill in what they did. They had no emotions, not of the human kind. Oh, they hungered, and they had their own agendas, that much I had learned, but jealousy? Anger? Love? These were generally foreign concepts to their worlds, as were their motives to us. Elementals simply were.

  Avatars of the forces making up the whole of life, Elementals encapsulated energy—and that energy could be harnessed and directed. And while all things seemed to have some desire for freedom, the Elementals didn’t resent their use any more than a frying pan resented being used to cook food.

  I was still tapped into the current of communication that had been established between us, and now I began to sing the charm of binding that Strict had taught me. It would bring them under my control, and since I was the Queen of Snow and Ice, they wouldn’t resist like they might normally do. But it took focus, and confidence. I had to prove to them I had the right and power to take control, and once that was done, they would be mine for life.

  The energy wove between us like a frozen tendril branching out, a vine of ice that came from deep within me to swirl around the group of Elementals—and the notes of my song froze in the air, a bluish vapor that narrowed into a beam of light to entwine around the shimmering creatures who now watched me with what seemed to be utter fascination.

  They stood still, having stopped their movement, as the icy fire began to burrow into their chests, the tendrils burying themselves into their very core. I pushed harder and the ice tendrils glistened as they blended into the energy making up their bodies. Another push—there was minor resistance but it was nothing to worry about. They were simply curious and hesitant, having never been bound before.

  So deep in the spell casting was I that I didn’t notice the movements off to the side. It was only when Ulean gave me a shout that I wrenched my attention away from the Elementals. The charm had taken, though, and they were mine. I could feel the bond there, the obsessive focus they were giving me. They would await my every command.

  Cicely! Tell your men to watch out!

  At Ulean’s cry, I whirled around. Out from behind a stand of trees to the left emerged a sparkling cloud. It was hard to discern it from the falling snow, except for the fact that it glistened and shimmered—illuminating itself like a neon haze, the color of LED blue lights. What the hell?

  What is that? Ulean, what the hell is going on?

  It belongs to Myst’s realm, whatever it is. I sense a sentience, and a malevolence, but I have no idea what the thing might be.

  We backed away—by now my men had seen it—watching as it drifted closer and closer. The Ice Elementals shifted, and I sensed their discomfort. I couldn’t easily ask them what it was, but they were loyal to me now, and they moved in front of me, forming a barrier between whatever the cloud was and us. I turned to Hunter.

  “Do you know what this might be? Have you ever seen anything quite like it before?”

  He frowned, cocking his head. “Once, but it was a long time ago. And I’m not certain it’s the same thing.”

  “What was it you saw, then?” A half guess was better than nothing, and right now, the vapor made me nervous. “Ulean says this thing has a nasty feel to it, and the more I look at it, the more uncomfortable it makes me.”

  “It was like some spirit in the woods—not a ghost, but a being that belonged in the forest. It had been awakened when something went out of balance and allowed it to enter the woodland. I don’t know where it came from—some chaotic portal a step away from our own realm, perhaps? But whatever it was, we knew that it was an astral entity.” Hunter stared at the cloud. “We didn’t know it was hiding among our people until too late. We lost ten men and fifteen of the women and children that day before it had sated its hunger and vanished. We never did find out what happened, or how it killed them, or why it showed up.”

  The cloud had stopped, it was paused just yards away from us, but it seemed to be pondering. I frowned, lowering myself into the slipstream as I tried to figure out what it was and what to do about it.

  As I searched for its energy—if Ulean had been able to tap into it, I should be able to as well—the austerity of the forest hit me.

  I could sense the crystalline presence of the Ice Elementals, though their thoughts ran on their own current, and the hush of the trees—deeper still. And I could even feel the spirit of the storm, driven by Myst. Brooding and powerfully hungry, it was eager to gobble up the forest for its own. And then, a layer below that . . . Yes, there it was—the cloud that faced us.

  The energy was alien, just as alien as the Elementals, but in a far different way. While both were sentient and aware, the cloud had an agenda, though the hungers and desi
res present on the slipstream were jumbled and hard to read. But it wanted at us—it wanted in. It wanted me. Which brought me to the question: What was stopping it from attacking?

  The more I examined the currents running between the cloud and us, the more I was able to pick out something. I began to see a barrier—a shimmering field of energy that surrounded us. Then I knew. I knew what was keeping this being in check.

  “Ysandra and her crew have managed to erect a protection field around us. The cloud can’t get through. I don’t know what that is, but if the protection spell is broken, it’s going to attack us the first chance it gets. And while I’m not certain what damage it can do, I am not eager to find out.” I turned to the others.

  Hunter shook his head. “I think it’s the same type of creature we faced so long ago. As to the damage: It can kill. Easily, swiftly, and without warning.”

  “Since Ysandra is protecting us, if we leave the area—walk on by—will it follow us or just wait for the next unsuspecting person to come along?” Not that there would be anybody meandering through the woods today. Hell, the way this storm was going, anybody not from the realm of Snow and Ice would die out here without help. Kaylin was surviving because of us.

  “I believe that it will follow us. But there’s not much we can do about it. I don’t know how to fight it. Neither do you.” Hunter shook his head. He looked worried. I could vaguely see his expression—our eyes were better suited for the night than most other races. Even Kaylin was able to see in the night more easily than most magic-born or yummanii. His demon had given him some pretty hefty adaptations when it had wedded itself to his soul.

  I debated trying to attack it here and now, but that might break the spell. And if we didn’t even know what it was, but we did know that it was deadly, blindly rushing in was something better left to fools. I might be stupid sometimes, but I didn’t have a death wish.