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I prayed none of them waited on the ice, their coats perfectly blended into the terrain

The Night Court’s relationship with Winter was fine enough, still tenuous, as all our bonds were, after A, I ree of nausea, dozens of Winter Court children

I couldn’t irief I’d never had the nerve to ask Rhys, in those ed to What the consequences had been If it was considered the worst of Amarantha’s crimes, or just one of countless others

But despite any tentative bonds, Winter was one of the Seasonal Courts It ht side with Tamlin, with Tarquin Our best allies remained the Solar Courts: Dawn and Day But they lay far to the north--above the demarcation line between the Solar and Seasonal Courts That slice of sacred, unclaie

We’d be gone before we ever had to set foot in that lethal, ancient forest

It was another day and night before we cleared the rew, and I could only tell ere on solid land by the dense snow packed beneath Otherwise, too frequently, the ice was clear as glass--revealing dark, depthless lakes beneath

At least we didn’t encounter any of the white bears But the real threat, we both quickly realized, was the utter lack of shelter: out on the ice, there was none to be found against the wind and cold And if we lit a fire with our feeble ic, anyone nearby would spot it Noa fire atop a frozen lake

The sun was just slipping above the horizon, staining the plain with gold, the shadows still a bruised blue, when Lucien said, "Tonight, we’ll h to soften it--and build a shelter"

I considered We were barely a hundred feet onto what seemed to be an endless lake It was impossible to tell where it ended "You think we’ll be out on the ice for that long?"

Lucien frowned toward the dawn-stained horizon "Likely, but who kno far it extends?" Indeed, the snowdrifts hid much of the ice beneath

"Perhaps there’s so back toward our abandoned little camp

We looked at the sa at the lake edge S

Eris lifted a hand wreathed in flame

Flame--to melt the ice on which we stood

CHAPTER

13

"Run," Lucien breathed

I didn’t dare take my eyes off his brothers Not as Eris lowered that hand to the frozen edge of the lake "Run where, exactly?"

Fleshin a line that shot for us--

We ran The slick icewith the effort of keeping ht

Ahead, the lake stretched on forever And with the sun barely awake, the dangers would be even harder to spot--

"Faster," Lucien ordered "Don’t look!" he barked as I began to turn rip ister that I’d stuo