Hoofbeats.
Faint shadows had moved in the trees behind me. Silver had danced at their hips.
Horsemen. Pounding hooves on the earth. Screams had filled the air.
Impossible. Impossible. Impossible.
The earth had crumpled beneath hooves. Voices had shrieked in the air. One chance. Two lives for one girl.
My fingers had fumbled at my quiver. Mud had stained the white feather fletching. An arrow had rested on the pale string. I had drawn back.
A strange power and fury had coursed through my blood, hammering at my temples. A roaring fire that had taken captive my heart.
I had fired.
The arrow, its iron head, had whistled through the air, striking one horse in the chest, crumpling it to the earth. I had shot two more arrows in succession. The tips had buried into the neck and eyes of another horse, throwing its rider back. I had seen his head land upon the earth with a snap, and his body moved no more.
"Go!" I screamed. Silverwing plunged into the trees.
Thundering hooves. A cage of whipping leaves. Skipping leaves. Dancing stones. A roar in my ears.
Flying....
My jaw had slammed into the earth, making me clamp down on my tongue. As the blood filled my mouth, I watched as the earth swallowed Silvering alive.
********************
My eye snapped open.
My cheeks were awashed with tears.
A wolf, its maw inches from my face with teeth of butcher's knives.
"Do not move, human. Or you will never speak again. Who are you?"
My fingers wrapped around my sword and I brought it slashing across the wolf's face, trying to slit its throat.
A maw of teeth clamped down on my arm.
Impossible! There was more than one wolf.
A shape slammed into me, knocking my breath from my chest.
The wolf's snarling voice spoke again.
"Drop it. Or he will snap your arm."
I could not suffer a broken arm. The hilt dropped from my fingers.
"Release her."
Unlocking its jaws from my arm, the wolf stepped back, keeping its glittering eyes fixed on me.
I rolled over, flexing my wrist, sure the teeth had severed my veins and nerves.
The White wolf cast his blue eyes over me as if I were his next fat meal. The second wolf kept me at bay, trapped within the cage of the Dark forest. Cold blue eyes stared at me through long scars slitted through white fur.
"I give you a choice, girl, snarled the white alpha, a second before he should eat me. Release your weapon, or suffer your Fate."
"Fate?" The words echoed in the cold night.
"That is correct, Fate."
"And you know I have a weapon? Did you just not threaten me with ripping my arm off with the sword?"
"You are gripping a dagger."
I stared at the huge wolf. The dagger had slipped free of its sheath and flashed in my palm. Blood trickled over my fingers, dancing over the rust-coloured blade. "And what if you try to eat me when I put down the blade? It may be a ruse."
YOU ARE READING
The Cursed Prince - Fire and Ice (Book One)
Fantasy"What she remembers can never be spoken... " A young prince is raised by a king. His adopted sister hides the dark secrets of her mind within her heart-one that is locked away-filled of secrets. But all secrets and promises made are shattered when t...
