the magical bond. It peeled free, dissolving in my fingers as soon as it lost contact with his skin.
The dagger stopped, not yet piercing anything vital. Then the dagger clattered to the ground. Falin stared at me, his eyes wide. Unbelieving.
I was alive. He was alive.
“What? Knight, I said kill her.” The queen stepped forward, her icy gaze narrowed.
Falin wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close and locking his mouth on mine. His lips tasted of amazement and joy. With my shields open, I could almost see the emotions in the air around him. But as he clutched me tight, pain blossomed across my back. My shirt was hot and wet with blood. I could feel it soaking into my pants. I must have winced because Falin pulled back, concern written in his face.
“You need a healer.”
I did, but . . . “I think we have bigger things to worry about.”
“Obey me, Knight,” the queen screeched.
Falin twisted around to face her, deftly moving me behind him as he did.
“Never again.” His words were cold. Unmovable.
Her mouth opened and closed twice, her shock making her look like a broken doll.
“Then you will both die,” she yelled. She threw out her hands.
I saw the glamour forming. I’d never seen glamour taking shape before. But now, with my blood spilling onto the floor in this patch of reality I’d made mine, I saw it. A dozen ice spears that would spring up from the ground to impale us both.
And I denied them.
This was my reality. I didn’t let her glamour change it.
Her eyes widened in shock. Falin scooped up his dagger in one smooth movement as the queen formed an ice spear in her hands. She hurled it at us. Two yards in front of us, it hit the edge of my magic and dissolved into nothing, unable to cross into the reality that was mine.
Falin threw his dagger. It flashed through the air, hurtling straight at the queen.
She formed an ice shield, but after the last two failed glamours, she must have doubted herself because she also threw herself to the side. The shield was too far away for me to do anything about it. Falin’s dagger embedded itself deep in the glamoured ice. The queen hit the ground, unharmed, but her panic had made her sloppy. It cost her time.
Time Falin used.
He dashed across the room, sword in one hand, his second dagger in the other. The queen scrambled back to her feet a breath before Falin reached her, getting her sword up at the last moment. She blocked his swing. Blocked a second. Attacked. He blocked with his sword and swung out to score a glancing blow with his dagger.
She hissed in pain, jumping back as red blood spilled down her silver gown. Then she charged forward.
They both moved in a blur of attacks and blocks. A gash opened on Falin’s cheek. Blood trickled from two wounds on the queen’s arm.
“You are the Winter Knight,” she said amid attacks. “Your oaths belong to me.”
“You own nothing of me, and never will again,” he said between gritted teeth as he dodged her attack.
“Is that a challenge?”
“Yes,” he said, swinging hard.
She dodged and laughed, though it was a thin, slightly panicked sound. “You will always belong to me. I hold your oaths, Knight.”
Blue wisps of magic stirred between them, as if the bond woke at her words, looking to attach itself.
No.
I rushed forward, but what could I do? If I tried to get close enough to grab the forming bond, I’d distract him and she’d cut him down. If I did nothing, she’d ensnare him and he’d be unable to move against her.
Falin faltered.
I’m too late.
The queen struck outward, her sword arcing for a death blow. “You will always be mi—”
She froze. In slow motion, she looked down. A dagger protruded from her middle.
Her sword clattered to the ice floor. Falin had taken part of her strike to his shoulder, and the wound bled freely, but it had allowed him to get under her defense.
She stumbled back. “No,” she whispered. “You are mine. Winter is mine.”
“You have been doomed to lose winter for a long time,” Falin said.
She fell to her knees, her head shaking in disbelief. Blood soaked the front of her dress, trailing down to the icy floor.
“You loved me once. You were such an awestruck youth who looked at me with such adoration. Can you find that loving youth inside you still?” Her voice was barely a whisper,