Page 45 of Queen’s Gambit

‘Lady Roksana, there’s a Void Cube in the dungeon. The king needs you,’ the messenger shouted from the entrance.

So that was Niersen’s parting gift …

‘Irsha, take charge,’ I commanded, ready to leave.

‘Wait, I’ll go with you.’ Annika staggered in my direction, her breath misting in the cooling air. I shook my head.

‘Only a vivamancer or a berserker can withstand the cold. Stay here, protect my people. If any wraiths appear, use fire to destroy them,’ I said just as Orm moved beside me.

‘And you forgot the fucking dwarf, Drah’sa.’ Tova strode ahead, gesturing for me to follow. ‘Let’s pray it’s not fully open.’

My delicate heels slowed my steps, but there was no time to change them. We descended to the courtyard linking the old citadel with the palace, a fog already crawling out of the dungeons. Somewhere in the middle of this icy inferno, Reynard was once again fighting Void wraiths.

‘What do you need me to do?’ Ormond asked, his eyes overtaken by golden berserker halos.

‘Find Rey, stand by him and don’t let the wraiths escape. They freeze everything they touch.’ I paused for a heartbeat. Rey had my necklace containing my vivamancer’s power. Ormond only had Erenhart’s Wild Magic in his veins, and that might not be enough.

‘Bow,’ I commanded, and despite his momentary confusion, he did as I asked. I barely noticed the pain as I bit my lip and smeared the blood on my thumb. It glistened with an emerald sheen as I drew a simple warding rune on Orm’s forehead and then turned to Tova. ‘You too, and no whining. No one is safe from the frost.’

Makosh, sweet goddess of life, please make it enough, I prayed as we descended into the bowels of the old castle.

The corridors were a maze of dead ends, the thick walls covered in questing tendrils of frost. The unmistakable scent of decay and mildew clogged my lungs as we pushed forward. With each step, the air grew colder, and the ice thickened on the stones, slowing us and siphoning my Aether.

The trap was perfect. Set outside, the dragons could help. Inside the palace, someone would spot it before it fully activated. Here, in an abandoned part of the old citadel, it sat, dormant, until the Lumivitae began casting the large-scale illusion spell.

‘Did I cause it?’ I muttered, pondering my catastrophic slap and Iasno’ta’s subdued reaction. Was it my fault, or did he use Lily to manipulate us into thinking of him as an ally? ‘No, too much planning must have gone into this, and he knew how to push me.’

Tivala refused to attend, knowing what would happen. The Lumivitae accepted because what better way to win a war than to cut off the enemies’ heads in one fell swoop?

They’d almost won that way. Well, they still would if we failed here.

‘Fuck,’ Orm groaned, bending over to catch his breath.

‘I know,’ I agreed as the draining pressure of the cube intensified.

A string of muted curses and the clang of steel cut through the exhaustion, and I broke into a run.

‘Drah’sa, wait!’ Tova caught up but slipped on the icy stones. ‘For fuck’s sake, woman, wait!’

I didn’t stop. If anything, I ran faster toward where Rey was fighting for his life.

Rey was making his last stand in a small, round room, likely an old guard post. When I burst inside, he snarled, swinging his sword at the wraith charging from the corridor below. My magic acted on instinct. A stream of fire burst from my hand, sending the creature back to the Void.

Rey dropped to one knee, blood dripping from his mouth. He pressed a hand to the three deep gashes and grey, frozen flesh in his side where the monster had wounded him.

I didn’t have time to help as a pale blue light brightened the corridor stairs. My mother’s necklace warmed, pulsing with my heartbeat as I faced the unknown threat.

The thundering steps and Ormond’s shouts of Rey’s name told me my escort had caught up.

‘Orm, help Rey,’ I said to the hulking dragon rider before looking at my friend. ‘Tova?’

‘Where you go, I go, Drah’sa. Family stands together,’ he answered, hands tightening on his axe.

‘This is the only exit,’ Rey said, pointing to the eerie blue archway. ‘Below is a single cell. It’s often submerged, but those fuckers found a way to put the cube there.’

‘I love you.’ The flames on my palm intensified, casting an eerie glow on the dungeon walls.

‘Come back to me,’ Reynard shouted, pain filling his eyes. ‘Promise me, Sana!’