The realmlands spread before us, but I’ve got the most beautiful part of Autumn by my side.
“Suck.” I shove my fingers into his mouth. A shiver runs through my entire body as his tongue swirls around my skin, the soft sounds of his pleasure.
I prepare him quickly. “How long has it been?”
“What?”
“Since we fucked?”
A slight frown appears on his face. “Before Rosie left.”
“No wonder I want you so badly,” I growl.
When I feel he’s ready, I gently place my cock at his entrance, then push inside. Our joint moans are proof of how much we both need this. I rock my hips forward, feeling him clench around me every time our bodies connect.
I press Farron harder against the wall, using it as leverage as I take him deeper. His breathing quickens.
“You’re hard again.” I smirk, satisfaction rippling through me as I gaze at his perfect cock.
“Always for you.” He sighs. “Always, Day.”
Something painful clenches in my chest. I feel completely alive in these moments with him, and I let that energy pour through me as I thrust faster. His moans become louder and more desperate. His body moves in sync with mine, so fucking perfect out here in the open. Perfect except for the thorns around his neck.
“I told you I hated the collar,” I rumble. “But I hated the way he looked at you more.”
“Caspian?” Farron’s fingers dig into the stone.
“Like he owned you, like you were his.”
Farron tilts his head back as I drive in hard. “Yes, deeper, please.”
I’m more than happy to give him what he wants, adjusting my angle to hit every inch of him. “But you’re not his. You’re mine.”
He moans at my words, and I think that might be drool dripping down his chin.
“Say it,” I demand, slowing my pace to firm, languishing strokes.
“I’m yours,” he bites out, saying the words like a mantra with each thrust of my cock. “I’m yours, I’m yours, I’m yours.”
I grip his steel length. “And I’m pretty sure we’re both hers.”
A low mewl sounds from his throat as his whole body stiffens and his release sputters out, coating my palm.
I groan, feeling my cock spasm, so relieved to have claimed him. “Farron, I—”
White hot pleasure flashes, and everything releases into him, ecstasy rippling through me in waves. Pure fucking bliss.
Farron’s body relaxes as we both come down from our high, falling in a tangle of limbs to the stone floor.
His face is flushed and his eyes bright, and for a stupid idiotic moment, I think he’s going to tell me something he never has before. But he just shakes his head. “They’ll be mad if they find out we got distracted.”
“Hey.” I tug him against me. “It’s hard work to remind you of your perfection.”
We kiss until there’s no air left in our lungs, then slowly dress and make our way down the tower to clean up in the cool stream.
As I finish lacing my pants, ice crystallizes along the water.
“Hey, Fare,” I say. “Something strange is happening to the stream.”
I pull away just as the water below solidifies into pale-blue ice.
Our gazes track upstream, where the frost first emerged. Everything past the chrysanthemum field all the way to the forest is completely frozen.
Rosie, Ez, and Kel wander out from the south end of the Emberwood, thankfully away from the water. But to the north…
There’s a creature, a staggering being of white-blue skin. It’s too far away to make out the details, but the frost trails in its wake.
It’s heading toward two smaller silhouettes walking on the edge of the trees: a little boy and a dog.
“Flicker and Koop,” I breathe.
Farron’s brows shoot up and he trembles. Then he shakes his head and takes off in a run. “We have to help them.”
“I stand with you, High Prince,” I say, running after him. “Always.”
37
Farron
Dayton and I run alongside the frozen stream, my feet nearly tumbling out from beneath me.
“Kel! Ezryn!” Dayton booms. “Rose!” They turn to us. “This way!”
They run to us, and we meet along the edge of the forest. My words are ragged in my throat. “It’s Flicker. He’s in danger.”
Rosalina covers her mouth and gasps. “Oh no.”
Then we’re off again. “There!” I point near the maple trees. Flicker’s small body writhes against the frost that covers his feet, trapping him to the ground. Ice captures Koop’s small legs, and he howls miserably.
Ezryn is fastest, not even stopping to assess the situation. Ezryn leaps on the frozen stream, using the slick surface to slide toward them. He vaults onto the brown grass and runs to the boy.
“Ez!” I call. “Watch out!”
Ez turns just in time to raise his sword against the stumbling pale-blue creature.
I’d hoped it had been a hallucination, a trick of the sun beaming off the growing frost. But I realize with sickening fear, this thing is real.
A walking corpse made entirely of ice, frost, and bone. Its body is a crystalline structure, glinting under Autumn’s cold sunlight. With empty sockets for eyes, its mouth hangs open in a silent scream. Each movement is jerky and unnatural from the frozen solid limbs.
The temperature seems to lower, and I shiver uncontrollably. This thing is not alive—not in any way that I understand. It’s a creature of the winter, a being of frost and snow and cold.
Holding tight to Ezryn’s blade, the wraith pushes against him, and he slips in the grass. Then a glacial frost grows over the sword, emitting from the corpse’s touch. Ezryn’s entire blade cracks then shatters.
“Ezryn!” Rosalina screams. He leaps back, disbelief evident as his helm tilts down at the shards of his blade.
“Fuck this.” Dayton sprints ahead of us. “Blades are a no-go, eh, ice-bones? How do you feel about magic?” He throws his hands forward and a gale bursts from him, a wind of salt and storm, summoned straight from Summer’s Blessing.
The frozen corpse screeches, a sound like cracking ice. Holes tear through its flesh, revealing moon-white bone. Dayton grunts, continuing the wind, but smiles as more and more frozen skin peels away from the creature.
I hold my breath. It’s working. He’s got it.
The wraith falls.
Kel and I catch up, and Rosie runs to Flicker. She touches his head, his hands, asking if he’s okay.
It’s all right, I tell myself. It’s dead now.
Ezryn slaps Dayton on the shoulder, but Dayton doesn’t respond. He stares straight at the corpse, eyes all too serious. “Wait…”
The creature spasms and jerks. Then it rises. The holes Dayton ripped through its body… They’re knitting together, frost filling the gaps. The wraith tilts its head, then charges.
I leap to stand in front of Rosie and Flicker while Ez, Day, and Kel trap the creature in a semicircle. The ice making up its form is mottled with dark veins, like frozen blood vessels. Its joints rattle with each movement as if it’s about to fall apart. And yet, it keeps moving forward, milky eyes darting between each prince.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” Rosalina says. She grabs the small dagger we’d given her before our journey today and starts chipping away at the ice trapping the boy’s feet.
Flicker’s face is knotted up with courage, but his nose is bright red. “I’m… I’m real cold.” Koop lets out a mournful howl, half his body now covered in ice.
I stumble away from them. My heart races. I need to help, but what can I do?
Keldarion paces before the wraith. It grabs for him, mouth agape in hunger, but he dodges easily. “You are no creature of Winter,” he growls. He bends his knees, then surges upward, arms reaching for the sky. “You’re a monstrosity!”
Huge ice spikes shoot up from the ground, impaling the creature through its legs and chest. The wraith lurches and a gurgling squeal fills the valley. Then its head jerks, eyes like twin points of frozen lights. The ice spikes creak and groan… and merge with the being. It grows, as if enveloping the magic, Kel’s ice making the creature bigger, taller.
“I think you fed it,” Dayton says.