The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey) (26 page)

I looked at Keirran. He stood with his eyes half-closed, his hand raised in front of his face. And he was glowing. Like the night in Mr. Dust’s office, only this time, instead of the cold, frozen aura of Winter, he flickered and pulsed with light. Like Annwyl, shedding fragments of sunlight, it melted the ice at his feet and turned the air around him to steam. His eyes opened, glowing amber, and his voice was calm and matter-of-fact.

“Waking it up.”

He knelt, driving his fist into the ice. There was a flash as he flared painfully bright for a second, cracks spreading out from his hand, and a spear of light shot toward the thing under our feet.

“Well, that’s torn it.” Puck sighed.

A rumble went through the ice around us, and the ground started to shake. The cracks Keirran had put into the ice widened, spread out, sprouted new ones that raced over the lake. Icicles and stalactites fell from the ceiling, smashing to the ground in ringing cacophonies, and I struggled to keep my balance.

“Right, I vote we do not stand here anymore,” Puck offered, and we scrambled away, fleeing to the edge of the lake as sounds of cracking ice grew deafening and the ground began to heave.

The ice exploded, surging up like a frozen geyser, before raining sharp bits of icy shrapnel down on us. A huge, stony foot emerged from the hole, smashing down onto the ice. Another followed, and a monstrous creature of ice and stone lurched onto the surface of the lake, shook an enormous blocky head and roared.

Okay, so it was even
bigger
than I’d first thought, probably stretching close to eighty feet from snout to hindquarters, looming up to an impossible height. It was shaped, vaguely, like some huge bear, with a little porcupine thrown in. Its head, back, shoulders, legs and sides were covered in stone, like a bulky suit of armor, and huge icicles jutted out from its shoulders and down its back, sharp and lethal. Beneath the stony hide, a frozen blue light pulsed through the joints in its armor, and two giant glowing eyes shone beneath its helmeted head.

“Oh, good,” Puck remarked as the colossal beast turned toward us, shaking the ground. “We get to fight a mountain.”

“Kenzie, take Razor and get back!” I called as the giant creature spotted us and lurched forward with a roar. Its mouth opened, glowing blue light spilling from its jaws, as it breathed a blast of frigid air toward us. We ducked behind a stalagmite as a jagged line of icicles surged up where the creature’s breath passed, stabbing into the air. I yelped as a cold, frozen tip jabbed into my arm, ripping my sleeve and drawing blood.

Puck grimaced, peeking out from behind the stone, watching the monster through a cage of ice spears. “Right,” he muttered. “So, I’ll be the distraction again, while you two decide how we’re actually supposed to hurt that thing. Sound like a plan?”

Without waiting for an answer, he darted out from behind the stalagmite, sprinted a few feet away and blew out a piercing whistle.

“Oy, Rocky! Over here! Turn your big stony ass this way!”

The thing roared and blasted Puck with icicle wind, which ripped him apart in seconds. But a flock of screaming ravens emerged from the chaos, spiraling into the air and circling the creature like a dark cloud. It bellowed and shook its head, looking more annoyed than anything, but its attention was not on us anymore.

I drew my swords and took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

“Ethan, wait!” Kenzie grabbed my hand while Razor gibbered terrified nonsense from her shoulder. “Don’t,” she whispered, sounding terrified, while I stared in disbelief. Something had finally given her pause. “You can’t fight that thing. It’s huge—you’ll be killed!”

I glanced at Keirran, who watched us with impassive eyes. He had already made up his mind. He was going to battle that massive, moving fortress, with or without my help.

I sighed and squeezed her hand. “Remember what I said about me standing in front of the dragon for you?” I told her softly, trying to smile. “I wasn’t kidding about that.” She took a breath to argue, and I quickly overrode her. “I’m doing this, Kenzie,” I said, making her slump. “I have to. We can’t turn back now.”

“Here, then.” Bowing her head, she reached around her neck and pulled out Guro’s amulet, spinning from its cord. I stared at the disk in surprise; I’d almost forgotten she had it. The metal flashed in the hazy light as Kenzie reached up and draped it around my neck. Her fingers trembled as they brushed my skin. “You need this more than me.”

I tucked the amulet into my shirt, wondering if it would really protect me like it did her. Ghostly shadows springing up to deflect lethal sword blows still seemed too good to be true. But right now, I’d take all the help I could get. “Thanks,” I told her. “I’ll get this back to you later.”
If I’m still alive.

She blew out a shaky breath and leaned forward, hugging me around the neck. “Be careful, tough guy,” she whispered in my ear. “Don’t get killed. We haven’t even had our second date yet.”

I held her tightly for a moment, memorizing the feel of her body pressed against mine, three little words dancing on the tip of my brain. I wanted to tell her right now...in case I never got another chance...

No.
Not here. I wasn’t going to die here. I was going to kill that big ugly bastard and take Kenzie home. When we were safe, back in the real world with no life-threatening faeries surrounding us, I’d tell her exactly how I felt.

After we killed this thing.

Gently pulling back, I met Kenzie’s eyes and jerked my head toward the edge of the lake. “Go,” I told her softly, and she gave me a desperate look and fled, slipping into the shadows with the gremlin on her shoulder. I swallowed, then looked at Keirran.

“Ready?” he asked calmly.

“If we survive this,” I told him, “I’m going to kill you.”

One corner of his mouth turned up. “You’ll have to get in line, I’m sure.”

We charged. Dodging rocks and giant icicles spearing up from the ground, we sprinted across the lake toward the massive creature in the center. The swarm of birds around its head had vanished, and I could just make out a red-haired figure on the thing’s enormous skull, a speck of color atop a mountain.

As we approached, the creature spotted us. With a roar, it lowered its head and opened its jaws, bathing us in blue light. “Split up!” Keirran yelled, and we veered apart, just as the blast of frigid air sent a line of jagged spikes down the center of the lake. I dived behind a boulder as the creature blasted me again, nearly impaling me as the huge spines curled around the rock. Peeking around the edge, I saw Puck leap from the blocky head, land on the enormous muzzle and drive his dagger into one glowing blue eye.

The creature bellowed, rearing up and tossing its head, and Puck went sailing through the air. He turned into a raven midfall and flapped away, and as the thing came back down with a crash that shook the entire cave, Keirran darted beside it and cut at its chest with his sword.

The blade screeched off the armored hide, and the raspy echo sent shivers up my back. It didn’t seem to have hurt it at all. With a roar, the beast turned on Keirran, smashing at him with a stony paw, and the Iron Prince barely avoided being trampled into gooey paste. It pressed forward, but a big black bird swooped out of nowhere with a screech, flapping right into its eyes, making it flinch for just a second. Keirran dodged back and leaped between two boulders as the beast stomped at him, and the thing bellowed in frustration.

Dropping its head, it opened its jaws and breathed, but this time a cold white mist emerged and rippled over the surface of the lake. I felt the temperature drop, and my skin crawled with cold, even through the effects of the flamefruit.

“Ethan.” Keirran appeared beside me, panting, making me jump. “It’s no good,” he gasped, staring at the monster, still breathing fog over the ground. “Its hide is too tough. I can’t get through.” He narrowed his eyes at the beast, face darkening. “How are we supposed to kill it if we can’t even hurt it?”

“Yeah, well, when I said this was an impossible task, I wasn’t kidding,” Puck added, dropping beside us. “I think this is some kind of ancient elemental. The rocks aren’t a part of the thing. It just uses them for armor. The squishy center is inside.”

“So how are we supposed to hurt it?” I asked.

Before either of them could answer, a scraping, rattling sound echoed all throughout the cavern, making the hairs on my neck stand up. The bits of rock, stone and ice scattered over the lake were moving now, shifting and drawing together where the mist touched it. Slowly, they began whirling through the air, spinning faster and faster, until a brand-new group of eddies rose up from the fog and glided toward us.

“Huh,” Puck commented. “So that’s where eddies come from. Who knew?”

“Great,” I muttered, raising my swords as the first of the swirling creatures rounded the boulder. I smacked a rock away with one sword and lashed out with the other, but then two more eddies swirled toward me and I stumbled away, into the open. I looked up and saw the ice elemental opening its jaws....

“Ethan!” Slashing through one whirlwind, Keirran lunged out and tackled me, sending us both sprawling to the ground, just as the blast from the giant elemental ripped through the spot where I had just been standing. Scrambling behind another, smaller rock, we huddled against the stone as the eddies glided toward us and the giant roared angrily behind them.

“This is impossible,” I told Keirran as we faced the opponents coming at us once more. Puck, standing in the center of another group of eddies, fought determinedly but had his hands full. I grabbed the prince’s shoulder. “Keirran, we have to get out of here. We can’t beat this thing. It’s not worth dying for.”

“Yes, it is.” Keirran’s voice was steady. “It is for me. Go if you want, Ethan. I can’t give up.”

He ripped his arm from my grasp, raising his sword as the eddies closed in. I cursed and leaped to help him, fending off rock and ice that spun through the air. There were too many of them, and they just kept coming. Stones and jagged bits of ice struck my skin, tearing me open even as I parried or blocked most.

The ground trembled, and the huge head of the ice spirit loomed above us with a roar. Apparently, it had gotten tired of waiting for the eddies to flush us out. I cursed, scrambling backward as the armored skull swung down and smashed into the rock protecting us from the wind. Stone and ice flew in all directions as the thing pulverized the stalagmite—and most of the eddies—to dust. I turned to shield my face from the explosion, but something struck the side of my head, making me see stars.

When I looked up, I was lying on the cold ice near the center of the frozen lake, completely out in the open, and a mountain of stone and light was standing directly in front of me. Puck had disappeared. Keirran was nowhere to be seen. The thing regarded me with soulless blue eyes, ancient and depthless, a lesser god looking down on an insignificant mortal. For a moment, I hoped it would deem me inconsequential, a speck of dust that couldn’t really hurt it, clearly not any kind of threat.

Then it opened its jaws, and I felt the cold blue light wash over me, right before the wind shrieked forward to tear me apart.

I flinched, covering my face and eyes, as useless as that would be. For a split second, I thought of Kenzie and my parents, and how sorry I was that I broke my promise, that I’d never see them again.

The wind screamed in my ears, bone-numbingly cold. I heard the crinkle and snap of ice as the jagged spears surged into the air...but didn’t touch me.

Heart in my throat, I looked up.

A dark figure stood between me and the ice monster, one hand outstretched, the billow of his long coat settling around him. The line of ice spears had split at the point where the figure stood, slicing off to either side. I blinked, both horrified and relieved that he was here, that he had found us.

“’Bout time you joined the party, ice-boy!” Puck yelled from somewhere overhead. The Summer prankster appeared on the monster’s head again, grinning down at us. “I was wondering if Furball would ever find you. Hey, remember that time we fought those hill giants throwing boulders at us down Redwater Gorge? This is so much worse than that!”

I scrambled upright as the ice monster roared and blasted us again. But Ash raised his hand, and the wind sheared around him once more, splitting off to the side. I guessed the former prince of the Unseelie Court had a few centuries of Winter magic under his belt; the cold just didn’t affect him. The ice monster bellowed angrily, and Ash turned his head and gave me a furious glare.

“Ethan, get out of here, now!”

“No!” I panted, lurching forward, needing him to understand. “We can’t leave!” I insisted. “We have to kill it, Ash! Keirran won’t give up until it’s dead.”

“Keirran. Where is he?”

With a roar, the elemental started forward, intending to crush us now that it realized it couldn’t breathe us to death. Ice eddies came to life and whirled around it, forming a small but deadly army as they pressed forward. I spotted Keirran then, crouched behind an ice spear, glaring up at the monster as it passed. Ash saw him, too.

“Keirran!” he roared, and Keirran flinched, glancing at him with wide eyes. Ash pointed to the elemental bearing down on us. “Get below it!” he called. “Its underside isn’t protected! A strong pulse of Summer glamour to the heart is the only way to take it down!”

Keirran’s eyes narrowed. Raising his sword, he darted around the rock and sprinted at the monster.

Ash drew his blade with a chilling rasp. “Go help him,” he said, his voice hard and cold. “I’ll keep it off you both. Puck!” he called, and Puck’s face appeared, peering over the monster’s head. “Keep it distracted a little longer! We’re ending this now!”

The elemental turned its massive head toward Keirran, but Ash stalked forward, flinging out an arm. A flurry of ice daggers struck the monster in the face, shattering harmlessly on the rock, but the thing turned back with an angry roar and plowed toward him.

Puck dropped to the monster’s snout, right in front of its glowing eyes, grinning cheekily. “Hey, ugly, lookee here! I’m doing the Macarena on your nose.”