Lex shook her head. The queen wasn’t after Lex or Garrin? She wanted the king?
Garrin shoved her behind him, threw out his arm, and aimed at a mountain off to the side.
The ground rumbled and snow shot up and into the air.
An avalanche sped down the mountain and buried the four alchemists beside Amund within seconds.
But only the alchemists. Amund was still crumpled off to the side.
Lex’s heart raced. Her mother had never actually died in an avalanche, but that didn’t mean Lex wasn’t woefully aware of how deadly this land could be. And how deadly Garrin was.
Camille nearly carried Amund over to them, his large arm draped over her much smaller frame. His eyes were open and he was walking, if unsteadily. His powers must have been subdued by the alchemists.
“Fool,” the queen said. “You think downing a few of my men will stop me? I would have made you heir, and here you betray me.”
“I am already heir,” Garrin said.
“Not if our people discover you are not a child of my body.”
The alchemists on either side of the queen didn’t move, barely registering their prince’s impressive power over the elements. “My queen,” one of them said. “Would you like us to dispose of him?”
The queen’s eyes narrowed. “He has become a nuisance, has he not? Allow me.”
And just like that, the queen shot a lightning bolt at Garrin, throwing him off his feet and tossing him several yards away.
Lex scrambled to him, touching his face, his chest. “Talk to me,” she said as he lay with his eyes closed.
Seconds later, Garrin blinked and sat up, shaking his head as he did. Into the muzzles of two djune snarling above them.
The djune were quick and silent. Lex hadn’t felt them near until they were practically on top of them.
She clung to Garrin and sensed his magic flow out a second before the djune yapped and backed away, the scent of singed fur filling the air.
Garrin looked at the queen. “Why are you doing this?”
The queen touched her flawless hair as though ensuring no strand lay astray. “The question is, why not? I had hoped to have you at my side, but you are proving less mercenary and more common by the minute. I haven’t decided if it’s worth it to wait and see if you’ll come around.”
She walked slowly toward them, her men giving her a wide berth, the djune fanning out, and Lex’s heart thrummed in her chest.
“Why would I marry a man several times my age? For that matter, why would he marry me? We had an agreement. I was blessed with dual abilities—one in particular your father wished to utilize—and I would use my magic to make him more powerful. What else is there?”
Garrin rose unsteadily, his hand pressed to his chest where the queen had struck him. “You feel nothing for our people? For the kingdom?”
The queen smiled. “You always were soft in that way. Caring about the people. Our royal magic and lineage keeps the food from freezing. It keeps them fed!” She let out a slow breath as though to calm herself. “Without us, there would be no Dark Fae.”
Lex sensed tension radiating off Garrin, but his voice was level when he said, “What did you get out of the arrangement?”
The queen’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth turned up slightly. “That is the question, is it not? Your father, in his infinite wisdom, thought being queen was all a young woman of his realm could ever desire. That I would be satisfied with the power my new status provided.” She chuckled. “He never did understand women.” She glanced at Camille, still holding up Amund. “Not your mother, and certainly not his first wife.
“To be fair, his first wife hadn’t my ambition. She was more like you and cared for every little whim of the people. And look where that got her? A frozen grave. Ironic, is it not? Your father’s first wife wanted nothing more than to continue the legacy of Dark Fae, and in the end, her demise and your father’s punishment is what entrapped us. Well, you can see why he needed me.”
She strode closer, power emanating off her in waves. “Your father needed someone to help him…navigate. To persuade.” She grinned, and a chill ran up Lex’s arms.
Lex read the power and realized the queen was using it to dampen Garrin’s anger. Using it to make them believe the queen only wanted what was right, and even Lex felt the pull to side with her.
Garrin squeezed his brow. “Stop it, Mother. You don’t need to convince me of your innocence.”
Had the queen persuaded Garrin into believing her?
Before Lex could figure out the answer to that question, the air shimmered next to them.
Lex held up her arm to block her eyes against the glare of magic on white snow, and then a portal opened.
The king and two guards stepped onto the mountaintop.
One of the guards immediately threw up and collapsed, his face ashen.
The king looked at the sick soldier and snarled at Garrin. “You will suffer for your disobedience. Look at what you subjected me to. I had to use the only other portal creator in the land. His power is so weak after a couple of leaps, he is barely conscious.” The king’s gaze slid to the queen. “Wife, what precisely do you think you’re doing?”
The queen smiled. “Holding our son for you, dear husband.” She waved her hand, and a light sparked from the alchemist beside her before she and the alchemists disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The queen’s retinue was gone, except for the dozen or so djune who’d been tethered to her, and no longer were.
The djune tore across the empty space toward Lex and Garrin, wide paws and claws cutting through the powder.
Garrin sent a burst of power at the animals, and an upwelling of snow and mist formed a menacing wall. His magic was so tangible to Lex now—whether because of their bond or otherwise—it had become more familiar than all the others.
The djune sniffed the air and scampered back.
They must have decided Garrin wasn’t worth the risk, because they turned and disappeared down a ridge and into the snowscape.
Though she could easily see Garrin’s magic, Lex hadn’t seen the alchemists’ magic that allowed them to disappear—because they’d moved themselves and the queen without innate ability. And that made Lex nervous.
If alchemists didn’t use Fae magic, she couldn’t see what they were doing. And if Dark Fae had alchemists to move them from one place to another, what else could they do?
The king and queen seemed capable of getting around Dark Kingdom well enough, but if there was one thing Lex had learned, it was that you could not travel the Land of Ice on limited magical ability. The alchemists might be capable of getting the queen here and there, but they couldn’t cross the Land of Ice, or the queen would have done it by now. Wouldn’t she?
The king’s gaze flickered to the snow-covered mounds where the buried alchemists were making their way out. “I see you’ve been busy, son.”
Garrin stepped back, inching Lex along with him. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“Don’t you?” the king asked. “Why else do you run from me? Cowardly, that.” He leveled a look at Camille, who was no longer holding up Amund. “You’ve returned. How predictable.”
“I returned for my son,” she replied.
The king ignored Camille and stared at Garrin. “Let’s make this easy, shall we? You and the girl come with me, and I’ll allow this woman to live.”
Garrin stepped toward his father and away from Lex.
Lex glanced between king and prince. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
Garrin’s shoulders stiffened, and he slowly turned toward her, his eyes cold. Cold in a way she’d never seen before. “There’s no place for you here.”
“Now, now,” the king said. “I need her. Don’t run her off just yet.”
“Leave!” Garrin shouted, and he looked over Lex’s shoulder at Camille.
Before she knew what was happening, Lex was grabbed from behind and shoved into space. Again.
“Nooo!” But it was too late. Lex spun through light, caught off guard. Only this magic she’d come to understand. She pushed out her own, and the pressure changed.
Lex landed, along with Camille, on a different mountain—and nearly rolled over the edge.
The beautiful woman who was Garrin’s true mother climbed to her feet. “Are you all right?”
Lex crawled off the edge and dusted snow from her clothes. “We can’t leave Garrin. His father will kill him.”
Camille closed her eyes as though pained. “I promised Garrin in the cavern that I would take you away should the king find us. If this is the only thing I can give him, I will do it. We must leave and return you to the Earth realm.”
Wind whipped Lex’s hair, cutting through her heavy coat and chilling her to her bones. The one thing she’d wanted when Garrin first found her was to return to her dorm and her old life. Now, she couldn’t even picture that life, let alone the person she used to be. “I won’t leave without him.”
Lex walked in the direction they’d just come from, then stopped. She was headed the wrong way; the magic was behind her. But when she turned in that direction, none of the mountaintops looked familiar.
She growled in frustration. “Take me back.”
“I cannot.”
Lex closed her eyes briefly and took a steadying breath. “If Garrin is truly your son, how can you abandon him?”
Fire burned for the first time behind Camille’s blue eyes. “I have never abandoned my child. He was stolen from me.”
Lex wrapped her arms around her chest and rubbed them. “Neither the king nor the queen can be trusted. They’re traitors to their own people.”
“That is precisely why I cannot do as you say. I won’t do the very thing his father has done his entire life and betray him. We will not go back,” Camille said, but Lex sensed doubt in her voice.
Lex looked in the direction of where they’d left Garrin and drew on her power. Her arms lightened and a familiar tingling coursed through her. She focused her energy on the magic Camille used to get them here, studying it—the shape, the weight, the force behind it—and created a portal.
That sputtered and dissipated into thin air.
Lex screamed in frustration.
Camille walked over, looking astonished. “Child, you are getting better. With your magic, we will surely survive the Land of Ice even without provisions. I promise, I will return for my son once you are safe.”
Ignoring Camille’s words, Lex tried to create a portal again, and the same thing happened. She was no longer cold, but warm from the exertion of molding her magic into Camille’s. “It won’t work.”
“You will practice along the way,” Camille said, and placed a gentle hand on Lex’s shoulder. “With both of us portaling, we will arrive in New Kingdom and then the Earth realm in no time.”
Camille wasn’t listening. Lex looked her in the eye. “I will not go to New Kingdom or Old Kingdom or the Earth realm. I will return for Garrin or go nowhere at all.”
Garrin’s true mother went silent for a moment and looked off. “We are only two against many. If you should die, my son…”
She was right. Garrin would not be happy to see Lex. He’d told her to leave. He even spoke harshly, when he never had before. But he couldn’t have been serious. He’d wanted to protect her from the king, that was all. “We can do this, Camille. The others are not powerless. We’ll find Garrin, and then we’ll find our allies.”
Camille let out a shaky breath. “If I agree to this, it is only because I want what is best for my son. But if there is a moment when your life is in imminent risk, I will take you away and not return.”
It was enough. Lex nodded in agreement.
She didn’t know how much longer Garrin had. They couldn’t wait.
As Camille’s portal began to form and shimmer, Lex studied the power, truly absorbing it this time. And when they entered, Lex added her own strength to it.
One second they were on one mountain, and the next second they were on another, as though blinking in and out.
Camille stared in surprise as they stood on the mountain where they’d left Garrin and Amund. “I’ve never experienced a portal like that.”
Lex looked around, her hands shaking with adrenaline. “They’re not here.” Garrin and the king were no longer on the mountain where the queen had intercepted Amund’s portal. “Where did they go?”
Camille closed her eyes, and Lex sensed her drawing on her powers again. She observed this too, different, though similar.
Camille pointed across mountaintops. “Over there. They’ve returned to the grave caves.”
