fₒᵣ ᵢ ₐₘ bₑcₒₘₑ dₑₐₜₕ, dₑₛₜᵣₒyₑᵣ ₒf wₒᵣₗdₛ
Anastasia Morozova is a kinslayer. Anya Varamyr is a murderer. Anastasia is a decorated soldier. Anya is a backstreet cutthroat. Anastasia would die for her country. Anya would die for her friends.
Anastasi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Before the group had even fully recovered from the horror that was the Grisha pyre, they were hit with yet another hurdle to their plans.
Anya grabbed onto the shaft of Kaz's cane, crouching close to the ground as it shook, almost knocking Nina to the ground. "What in Ghezen's name was that!" she cried, looking up in shock.
"Are there fault lines this far north?"
"Not that I know of," Matthias called over to them. Anya took Nina's hand as the girl helped her back up to her feet, but before she had fully risen, a slab of earth sprung from the ground, sending Matthias tumbling back into the two girls and sending them all sprawling across the snow.
Anya groaned, keeping her face buried in Nina's side to hide her shifting eyes. The younger girl used her hand to clutch her hair to her body, trying to block her from the others' view.
"What the hell is this?" Jesper's voice cut through the wind.
"Some kind of earthquake!" Inej shouted back.
But Anya and Nina could sense the change in the air around them. "No," Nina called, looking over at something in the distance. "No. We're under attack."
"Squallers," Anya was muttering, mostly to herself. "Squallers. I can't believe it. The jurda parem - it has to be. I didn't realize it was so -"
And Nina understood - because someone was flying towards them, ice cutting through the air.
"I need a distraction!" Jesper was calling from the other side of the storm.
Anya looked up at Nina, eyes morphed into something so inhuman, Nina almost stumbled away. Claws were poking through her gloves, and her shoulders kept shifting, almost as though something was begging to be released. "No, no. Anya! Anastasia! Look at me. Not now! Stasia!"
Anya's eyes shifted from dark brown to the horror that was the gaze of a nichevo'ya. "Nina," she gasped, voice tainted with a darkness she was ashamed to possess. "Nina! I can't - I can't stop it."
