Page 13 of A Sword of Ice
Her heart beat up to her throat and caught. She gasped, turning in time to see the gleam of the iron sword as it arched in her direction. She yelped and dodged to the side. The blade struck against the glass, scratching the surface.
Her familiar bellowed, banging himself against the barrier that separated them to get to her. To protect her from the soldier.
Leather and steel decorated his body in overlapping scales of red and black. She could see his eyes beneath the helm he wore and little else. Shadows and the curve of a smile.
She heard his heart beat, but the proximity of iron dulled a lot of her senses. He took a step towards her and her palm met the glass dome, as if it could keep her upright. It gave her momentum to push herself back on shaking legs.
He swung, the force of the blow was strong enough to take her head off.
Iona watched the swinging blade, her mind working so fast it felt like the human soldier was moving too slowly. She knew what she had to do, what instinct, and therefore Mana, demanded.
Her palms shot out and magic surged. Her veins glowed bright blue against her skin, and frost coated her gloveless fingers.
The human didn’t have time to reel back before her magic enveloped his body, coating him from the tips of boots to the point of his sword in hard, blue ice.
He froze, all but a statue in front of her that threatened to topple over. She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief, though. Not when her mind was racing, when her familiar still banged against the glass, blood coating his jaws as he tried to break free of his confines.
If one human had come for her, that meant more would follow.
This wasn’t what she’d expected from the soldiers. A sweep of the city this fast? They were invading Porir just like they’d invaded the Jade Court.
Realization settled over her as thickly, as softly, as the ashes had all those years ago. She could no longer stay in Porir.
Iona hated to run. Hated how cowardly it was when instinct and muscle memory urged her to stay and fight. But life had changed as quickly now as it had then. She no longer had the luxury of taking her time and making decisions. She had to be assertive, act fast.
And she knew what she had to do.
Taking in a breath, she pressed her palm tightly against the glass, dropping the temperature of the water within.
“Calm,” she whispered.
Her familiar settled instantly, but his eyes reflected his distress.
“I will come back for you,” she vowed. “I will get us both out of this place. Tomorrow. I promise.”
And he howled, a pain-filled sound that cracked Iona’s heart as she turned…
…and ran.
9
George Apidae
The streets that Iona had grown used to seeing nearly empty, occupied with the staggering steps of soldiers who didn’t care, had quickly become filled with the marching feet of those who would punish the Fae for existing.
She stuck to the shadows as best as she could, hiding and darting between buildings. At the first sign of leather and steel, she ran faster, quieter. Fear pounded a terrible rhythm in her chest, but she forced it down. There would be time to feel later, she vowed. Now it was time to move without being seen.
She tried not to think about what she’d left behind, or the fact that she didn’t feel safe going back to her rented room. A part of her wanted to believe it was mere coincidence, but every time the thought spread through her mind, Mana shot it back down.
Their arrival wasn’t coincidence. And it wasn’t coincidence that they’d found her at the zoo. Petey had something to do with it, she knew it. And if they’d known where she worked, then he would have told them where she lived.
All of her money, all of her things were there.
Iona wasn’t a materialistic Fae, but the money? She needed that for where she was going.
On the northern side of the city of Porir, the buildings were all aligned like a maze. Crumbling, seemingly abandoned structures with hollow insides that pounded echoing footsteps against steel walls.
It was the shittiest part of the city, where criminals came to slither through the cracks and stay out of sight. It appeared all but abandoned, drenched in poverty, where humans littered the streets with tattered clothes that hung from ghost-like frames, and contagious diseases that others avoided. There was no law on this side of Porir.
