Cold Queen - K Webster Page 0,47

were trapped there. That the Moral War was not real. He never told me the people living there were worse than The Damned.

I feel duped.

People, just a couple days’ worth ride away, were being kept by monsters. Fed to them. And they’re worse than beasts because they’re human.

“Have you always lived here? Trapped with them?” I ask, the snow thickening around me by my own doing.

“Not always. My parents kept me safe, deep in the woods, until a cluster found us. They slaughtered my father and then…my mother…” Her chin wobbles. “You don’t want to know what they did to my mother. As for me, well, you can see what they did to me.” She rubs her stomach, and even though I can’t tell, she’s indicating her pregnancy.

Rage burns up inside me. So many small children and women locked inside these cages. I start forward, ready to destroy the lock, when the woman cries out.

“Watch out!”

I swivel behind me as a man sneaks up. With a roar of fury, I sling nearly a dozen diamondblades piercing through his heart. He falls with a thump into the snow.

When I turn back around, the woman is kneeling, hope shining in her brown eyes. “You’re a queen, yes? Save these people and you’ll have our undying loyalty. We need protection, which you can offer. And you need information, which we can offer. Please. I beg of you.”

All the other women and older children are nodding rapidly.

“Can you fight?” I ask, breaking a diamondblade from my crown and offering it to her.

Her brown eyes gleam with violence as she takes it. “I can, your highness.” With those words, she slings the blade right at me. It whizzes past me and stabs into the throat of one of her captors.

I like her already.

Summoning my ice, I create a long blade from my fist and then saw through the rope holding the cage closed. As soon as it breaks free, I fling open the door. The woman helps everyone out and exits last. I grip her arm before she can go far.

“What’s your name?”

“Valari.”

Thundering hooves pound our way and then a wave of heat washes over me. Ryke hops off his horse and storms my way, his face morphed into one of anger. “The area is clear.” His gaze rakes over Valari before lifting his brow in question.

“Captives. And The Untouchables?”

He grunts. “We killed them all.”

“The ones in this cluster, your highness, but many are in these woods between here and Castle Highland.” Valari points toward a mountain in the distance.

“And what’s in the castle?” I ask. “More of them?”

“The Untouchables, yes,” she spits out. “They reign here.”

Ryke and I share a dark look.

“Not anymore,” I tell Valari.

Ryke smiles and grabs my hand. “We do now.”

For months now we’ve been travelling to Castle Highland. The clusters, although unorganized, are plentiful. Rescuing women and children is a time-consuming effort. But I’ve never felt so alive. So filled with purpose.

The Eyes of the White have grown to trust the Volc army. Both sides have acclimated to one another. Friendships have bonded. Trust strengthens the army as one. Ryke has taken to calling them the Bloodstones. When he’d merged our names, I’d thought it was foolish at first. And I was slightly angry. I was a Whitestone. He was a Bloodsun. Why ruin hundreds of years by blending our names? But he kindly reminded me that we are better than those before us. As Bloodstones, we are something new and more powerful. We reign together, as equals, over all the lands we choose to claim as ours.

“Your highness,” Valari says, emerging through a copse of trees, dragging a deer behind her.

“Ahh, someone’s been hunting.” I chuckle when she drops the dead thing at my feet. “Better than nap time for the children?”

She makes a sour face. “I was meant to be out there, not tied down to littles.”

I step closer and touch her stomach that has grown bigger. Sometimes you can feel the baby move. “And this little?”

“Belongs out here in the wilderness.”

Danser storms out of the trees, an angry look morphing his usually impassive features. “I told you to wait for me, woman. Couldn’t even give me a minute to climb out of the damn tree. You shouldn’t be hauling around that heavy carcass by yourself.”

“You must be quicker than that, old man,” she says, shooting him a smug grin before walking away.

His eyes narrow. “She’s maddening.”

“You like her,” I tease. “You want to make her yours.”

He snaps