Page 74 of The Iron Vow

“Ash,” I gasped, looking up at him. “The Nightmare King is—”

The floor beneath me vanished, and I fell into shockingly cold water that closed over my head, muffling all sound. Holding my breath, I looked around for Ash, but he was gone. Everyone was gone. Seeing a faint, blurry glow above me, I instinctively kicked for the surface and reached for that light.

My hand struck something hard and cold, making me blink in shock.

What? Ice?

The surface of the water was covered in a solid sheet of ice. I pounded on it with my fists, trying to see through the translucent barrier, but nothing happened. My lungs burned, and I slammed my fist against the ice in desperation, but it didn’t even crack.

“Do you fear death, little dream?”The Nightmare King’s voice echoed in the darkness around me.“How long before the mind snaps? Before the heart seizes in terror and ceases to beat? In dreams, one has only to wake to escape the terror, but you are not asleep, are you?”

My vision was starting to darken at the edges. With the last of my strength, I raised a hand to try to blast my way free. But my limbs were stiff with cold, and the glamour flickered weakly at my fingertips before sputtering out. The last breath left my lungs in a trail of bubbles, and the blackness at the edge of my vision flooded in.

I floated.

27

ONLY HUMAN

Wake up.

The voice was a whisper in my ears, barely audible. My consciousness stirred, though everything felt hazy and delirious. I had heard somewhere that, once you got past the initial panic, drowning was a peaceful death. Was I still drowning, or was I already dead?

This is the Dream, the voice whispered again, rippling through the water like the tiniest silver fish.But you are real. You are not a part of it. Your fate can still be changed.

“Who are you?” I asked, or maybe it was just a thought, as I was still underwater. “Have we met before?”

Once, in a vision. It does not matter now. Look to the tree. It is the essence of this nightmare. The false king waits to devour your world if you do not stop him here. Now, wake up.

My eyes flew open. My lungs still screamed. I was still drowning beneath the ice. Throwing out a hand, I released a surge of magic and desperation, feeling glamour sizzle through the water and slam into the ice overhead. There was a muffled explosion, and I kicked frantically for the surface.

I broke through the hole in the ice with a gasp, and blessed oxygen rushed into my lungs. Coughing, I heaved myself onto the surface, emptying water from my nose and mouth as quickly as I could before looking up.

The Nightmare King hovered overhead, as impassive and eternal as death. Around us, the sheet of ice spread as far as I could see until it vanished into the darkness. But across the frozen surface, the silhouette of the Nightmare Tree glowed red against the void.

Dragging myself upright, I gazed at the figure above me. Icy cold had numbed my fingers and deadened my limbs, but I forced myself to speak without trembling. “Where are the others?”

Those abyssal eyes stared down at me, expressionless.“They will not hear you. You are alone. It is only you and I now.”

I looked around the icy landscape, and my heart stopped. Puck, eyes open and staring, his red hair in a cloud around him, floated lifelessly below the ice. I fell to my knees, pounding my fist against the barrier, but the ice didn’t crack.

“Puck, hang on!”

“You cannot save him,”the Nightmare King droned as I put a hand against the ice.“What would you be without magic? Without the power to save those you care for? The only reason you are special is because of your half-faery blood. Without it, you are nothing.”

I ignored the king and took a deep breath, intending to shatter the ice beneath me to get to my best friend. But when I tried to summon my glamour as I had hundreds of times before, a yawning emptiness filled me. There was nothing there. I couldn’t use my magic.

I...had no magic.

“What are you now?”The king’s voice echoed in my head as Puck’s body sank beneath the water and was lost from view.“No friends. No family. No allies. All were made possible because of your power, because you were fey. And now you have nothing.”

I knelt on the ice, staring between my splayed fingers, at the empty space where Puck had been.He’s not gone,I told myself, fighting back the despair clawing at my insides.None of them are. I won’t believe that he’s gone.

“Futile.”I looked up, and the Nightmare King was suddenly right there beside me. I went for my sword just as a blow to my face hurled me across the ice. My blade was torn from my grip and skidded away, and the terrible form of the Nightmare King continued to glide toward me.

“It is paralyzing, is it not? The knowledge that, as a human, your life would be worthless. You met your best friend because you were a faery royal. The love of your life was only interested because you were half fey. None of them loved you for you. Because humans are insignificant and evil and do nothing but destroy. Without magic, you will show them exactly what you are, and they will despise you for it.”

Gasping, I put a hand to my jaw. Warm slickness met my fingers, and several drops of crimson hit the ice below me. I looked up and saw my weapon lying on the ice a few paces away. The Nightmare King continued to glide forward, his terrible black blade held loosely at his side.

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