"We answer to King Andraste of the Western River, not Biston's king," the elves replied in their silvery voices.

Marilyn jerked her head back, face creased with rage. "You slime. There's no longer any reason. Tell him it's over."

"That is for His Majesty to decide, not a hybrid wretch."

How fucking arrogant. How dare they? Eleanor interrupted, "A hybrid wretch will someday sit on the Western River's throne. What then?" Andraste's heir was hybrid.

"We will see." The glint of their silver eyes argued something could change fate but they couldn't overthrow Ceres' younger daughter. If Gildon didn't crush them, Ceres' elder daughter, the Onyx Empress would. Andraste's royal elven blood had given rise to the most powerful hybrid women of all New Pangaea, with the exception of Eleanor.

"Andraste is my uncle. Step aside, or I'll tell him." That was all she could do. That was the depth of her power.

"You may pass but she may not."

Marilyn's arm slipped away from Eleanor. Go on.

How? Without Marilyn's help, Eleanor would freeze in the mountains, if she made it that far looking like this. Dizzy and weak, Eleanor tottered. Exhaustion threatened to spill her at their feet. Her gaze fell to their bare hands. "You don't wear gloves." How did they guard a hybrid?

"Try it," one challenged. Don't, Marilyn warned.

How much energy could two elves in Biston possibly have in winter? Probably not enough to ease the ache in Eleanor's nearly empty body. How did they even survive here without human or dwarven fateds to keep them warm?

Eleanor fell forward, reaching for their hands.

But they spun about. Steel scraped free from their scabbards.

Her head struck the door and panic squeezed her heart. In desperation, Eleanor screamed the darkest spell. She sucked up heat from the air and every non-plastic thing in the room. Like mint oil, it splashed through her.

Ice instantaneously formed and clung to every surface. It stuck to their boots and slowed them to humans' pace. Their blades flashed as ice slid from the smooth steel.

Eleanor rolled away, just as their twin swords crashed down and shattered. She yelled the spell for fire but nothing shot from her outstretched hand. They'd silently countered her spell.

"Drain them," Marilyn screamed.

How? They'd counter the energy-transfer spell meant for flesh and the temperature-draw spell was too powerful to differentiate between elves, hybrids and humans. Eleanor barely distinguished inanimate things from living tissue with that darker spell. What if it drained Phil and Marilyn too?

Do it.

Two minds crashed against Eleanor's mind shields and she shrieked. They dug and struck. Each blow seemed to rattle her skull.

They came for her. Rage creased their perfect faces as they fell on her.

She wasn't fast enough. Her scabbed flesh tore in their grips as she kicked and pushed. She couldn't get away.

Marilyn tried to pull them off. She screamed spells that never fruited. The elves countered her magic.

Eleanor's pounding heartbeat and ragged breath deafened her to whatever the elves said. Please say that wasn't a spell. She couldn't counter any spell. Clipped and helpless.

Something tugged on Eleanor's insides and cold bit her fingers. Earth, they were trying to steal her energy.

"Do it, child. Rob them dead." Marilyn screamed.

Eleanor wailed ancient elven words. Energy burst into her flesh, hot and pure. It buzzed inside, louder and louder, massaging every cell. A higher pitch rushed adrenaline through her body, erasing all pain. So much energy. It even tingled on her tongue. Nothing had ever felt sooo good, until blue flames blazed from her flesh. Oh, sweetest ecstasy. Power overflowed from her invigorated skin. Power to burn the heavy weight pushing on her chest.

The assault on her mind halted but the surprisingly heavy elves nearly crushed her.

Eleanor shoved them off. Like stiff boards, they clattered to the floor, half frozen, half burnt. What the...?

She couldn't think straight. Blood pounded hard through her shaking limbs. Her blurry vision narrowed no matter how hard she blinked. She actually heard energy hum in her nerves louder than any thought or voice.

Eleanor pushed herself up, nude, clothing burnt away. But skin, real skin had replaced most of the scabs. Pain no longer shot through her body with every movement. She'd not only survived but healed herself. How?

"Earth, child," Marilyn gasped. Her face lengthened, jaw slackened. "You're like a bottomless hole. Energy just pours right through you." But disgust didn't lower her voice. She seemed excited.

"I thought they'd counter me." Eleanor's pitifully few spells were no match for ancient, elven kings' magic wielding elves. She should have lost.

Marilyn laughed darkly.

How was that funny? They'd nearly died. Eleanor's face heated and tensed.

"Your hunger was stronger than their counters. If you could make that much energy on your own, there would be no stopping you."

Chills ran down Eleanor's spine. Earth, she wished that was fear. But she'd thrilled in gaining that burst of power at the expense of the elves.

They deserved it though. Racist jerks. Their frozen grimaces faced the plastic floor, shoulders and arms curled back as if they'd tried to back away.

A dark satisfaction curled up Eleanor's lips, despite her attempts to prevent it. Was it wrong to enjoy success at someone else's failure?

Chapter Twenty-One.

December 27, 9544 AR

Valetta, Biston

Erick's brain sloshed against his skull. Agony pierced his head all around. "Wake up."

Shit, he'd been dreaming. Those fucking dreams again. He'd thought they'd ended. He hadn't dreamt of Ellie since he met Violet at the masquerade. Well, not including that night Violet didn't come to him.

Something stung his cheek. A hand.

Erick sucked in air and gulped as much as he could. His chest hurt as if it had been smashed. He patted his ribs, hands shaking. None broken. Head intact too. What had his mother done to him?

He started to twitch like a dying animal at the feet of a hunter but he lay in his bed. Phil must have dragged him here.

Then a trickle of thoughts that weren't his. Phil's worries bruised Erick's already sore mind. He saw, repeated in the background like an awful song that stuck in his head. Marilyn, was the chorus.

Saw what?

Eventually, thoughts linked up in sequence and Erick's stomach lurched. Bile rose, stinging his throat, filling his mouth. Erick sat up to keep from choking. "You fucked my mother." The demon. That thing was Phil's secret girlfriend. Phil, his eldest oath-brother, had snuck away in the dark to be with that thing in the tower.

"Don't talk about her like that." Phil stood up from Erick's bed. Anger hardened his features, as if he had the right, as if she wasn't the demon who'd repeatedly tortured Erick. "What were you thinking of going to her?"

Erick swallowed bile and forced out, "I could ask you the same." Traitor. He'd trusted Phil. He'd put his life in the man's hands. Heat filled Erick's aching lungs. He held it in to keep from bawling like a child.

The old man squeezed his shoulder awkwardly and Erick shoved the comfort away.

Phil's voice deepened and trembled. "I never betrayed you. I can't choose who I love but that never interfered with my duties and love for you."

Erick broke. Shame couldn't stop the blubbering misery. It shook his chest and wet his face.

His oath-brother's arms wrapped around him.

"I'm all right." Erick tried to harden his words and push free. No, you're not. Phil squeezed tighter.

Earth, that hurt. Erick's mind seemed to liquefy into Phil's. Silent thoughts sucked him in. Worries about Erick's weaknesses and Eleanor's defiance. Deep beneath, he spilled to the mouth of a cavern Erick had never seen in Phil's mind before.

Pain seized them both, clenching their guts, straining their backs. What the fuck?

Phil's mind jolted. "Stop." He grimaced and his thoughts wavered as he struggled to push Erick out. Edges of shields dug into Erick's mind but couldn't scoop underneath.

Erick tried to pull free but couldn't solidify his mind. Shit. He couldn't feel his body anymore.

He leaked into the cavern and splashed into a sea of hidden memories. They swirled through him, in a quick rush. Fragments flashed. Eleanor sobbed as a child on a bloody floor. The promise of a better life to a beloved. Hope for a child, abandoned to hope for a grandchild. None of it made sense at first. But when the swirls solidified and clicked into place, Erick nearly drowned in his own stupidity. He wished he could explain it away but it was so clear.

Phil couldn't give the demon a daughter, so he promised her a granddaughter of both their blood-through Eleanor. But that wasn't the worst of it.

It couldn't be true. Erick flipped through the memories again, hoping to find a fault in the ice. He watched innocent Ellie struggle and weep while he lay unconscious. She knelt between him and Queen Ceres. Shaking and covered in blood, Ellie sobbed, Please, don't hurt him. I love him. I'll do anything. Please. The image shifted to Eleanor, grown and in his lover's dress casting spells gifted from the demon.

With a hard grunt, Phil forced him out. He panted for breath, crouched on the floor on all fours and dropped to his elbows. "Ask," he rasped. "I'd have told you whatever you wanted to know."

Cold realization chilled Erick's limbs, just before steam puffed from his gut, through his chest and into his neck. "You knew?" Erick screamed and rose to his feet. "You knew what she did? You were there. You saw it happen. And you never told me. Why?" Shit. Shit. Earth, it was true. Everything she said. Eleanor hadn't lied. She hadn't faked those sobs that shook her on the floor. Erick winced. A lump hardened his throat and pain emptied his lungs. He didn't deserve to breathe. He choked out, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did. I told you it was her. You chose not to believe me. I warned you to be gentle with her."

Earth, why hadn't he known? Why hadn't he seen? She'd always been there. His dreams had tried to tell him. Henry knew. Anre knew. But they never said a word. And Ellie...she... Erick raked his hair. "Where is she?"

"Gone. They're both gone."

Erick squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't think straight. Everything seemed upside down. That was what that wizard had meant. Erick's head throbbed and his body wobbled like jelly on a shaking spoon. "I threw her away." She'd loved him and he'd never noticed her until she put that mask on. Earth, how could he have been so stupid? She'd given up her childhood innocence for him but all he'd noticed was the dark change. Even though he'd felt men's minds bleed into his as they died on his blade, he'd hated her for the battle scars that pained her. He knew the pain. Yet rather than comfort her, he'd insulted her and jabbed the tender wounds. She'd been just a child the first time. He'd turned her away then just as he did now. "I'm a bad man."

"Go after her and make it right."

"What am I supposed to say?" What could he say? That he was a moron? That he was so fixated on his failures that he couldn't see her. No woman would accept that as an excuse. She deserved more than that, more than a blind idiot who'd offered her the position of king's whore, if that. She'd pegged him right.

The hard ball in his gut dropped like an anchor and tugged him down onto the edge of the bed. He'd lost her without ever realizing who she was. His fated.

"You haven't lost her yet. Get up," Phil snapped. "It doesn't matter what you say, only that you say it. Make an effort. She's probably heading for Gildon. She'll freeze in the mountains if you don't stop her."

December 29, 9544 AR

Damien Pass, San tarra Mountains

Marilyn's gentle fingers rubbed a foul-smelling balm on Eleanor's back. Some sort of wizard concoction. So gross.

Eleanor squirmed and grimaced. Earth, it felt like fire consumed her flesh. At least the boils and scabs were gone. A few pink spots lingered but Marilyn promised they'd disappear by evening.

"All right." Marilyn capped the jar and set it on the dusty nightstand. "Get up and show me the spells again."

Eleanor groaned and hid her head beneath her rolled-up coat. The practice all last night had drained her too much. There wasn't enough energy in all of the Santarra Mountains to fill the emptiness that ached throughout Eleanor's flesh. "I can't."

"Yes, you can. Come on. I want to make sure you can do it before I leave."

Like the mother Eleanor had always wanted, Marilyn pushed her through challenges. Spells Eleanor had coveted all her life would finally be hers. But Eleanor was so tired. If only she'd ignored her father and Erick earlier. Fear wouldn't have stopped her from going to Marilyn all these years. Eleanor could have learned at a much more comfortable pace with rest in between.

"You can sleep when I leave."

Eleanor and Marilyn had decided to cross Damien's Pass separately. That way they wouldn't freeze each other and they wouldn't have to share the very few elementals who quietly whispered beneath the mountain soil. A day of sunlight in between should replenish at least some of the stolen heat used to command the elementals with kings' magic. Although Marilyn said elementals had always hummed beneath Damien Pass, Eleanor hadn't noticed them until last night. Maybe Marilyn's strange tea had made Eleanor stronger.

"Come on." Marilyn flicked Eleanor's shoulder.

"Ouch." Eleanor rubbed the sting away. "I'm getting up." She sat up from the squeaky bed. Strange that someone had abandoned it and everything in the small cabin.

Dust had coated every surface last night but Marilyn must have cleaned it up after Eleanor passed out. Sort of homey. A basket of sweet-smelling goodies rested on the little table at the center of the room. Even better-smelling steam rose from a bubbling pot on the wood-burning stove against the log and mud wall. Mmm. Rabbit stew. Eleanor's mouth salivated in anticipation.

"You can eat afterwards." Marilyn pulled Eleanor to her feet.