I managed to get myself back to my feet. Disoriented, I looked all around, my head twisting this way and that. A cacophony of sound from the valley beyond the hill washed over me in violent and indecipherable waves. More gunfire? Explosions. And...

Engines revving up.

I didn’t have time to make sense of it all before I was forced into movement yet again. A riot of snow was pummeling down the hill towards me, a small avalanche spurred on by whatever force had thrown me down. My heart in my throat, I just barely managed to haul myself behind a tree when the snow hit, obliterating as a tsunami. I slammed my back against the tree, clutching at it through my gloves, as ferocious white sprayed in furious opaque sheets on either side. The tree trembled, and my eyes fell closed as I silently begged the huge crystal cone not to topple over onto me.

It felt like I was stuck there forever. Like the tidal wave of snow would never stop. Thankfully, it finally did slow, though. The snow on the hill hadn’t been terribly deep, but the hill was so huge, that it was still a massive volume coming at me. By the time I opened my eyes, the snow on either side of the tree had created drifts higher than my head. The avalanche had slowed but was still moving enough that I couldn’t safely leave.

But it turned out I couldn’t safely stay, either. The snow at the tops of the drifts on either side began to cave in, falling down around me. I blinked, and I was buried up to my waist.

Pure, animal fear gripped me.

I’m going to be buried alive.

I couldn’t even do anything to stop it. I tried to dig myself out, but more snow collapsed inward on me. Only a small crystal overhang on the tree above my head kept my upper body clear as everything fell inwards, walls of impenetrable white all around me. And still, the snow moved outside, adding to the walls, the weight, until I was completely encased.

Entombed.

Terror froze me more powerfully than the cold. I couldn’t move. Could barely breathe, and I doubted I’d even be able to do that for long, considering how fast the carbon dioxide would build up in my small bubble beneath the snow.

What do I do? Fuck! Think, Torrance!

What did I know about surviving an avalanche? Was I supposed to spit? I’d heard that, once. But then I remembered something about the spit helping you tell which way was up and which was down, which I already knew considering I was still standing upright. So that was fucking useless.

My hands were trapped against my sides, and I agonized over whether I should try to pull them free or not. Too much movement could make the snow above and ahead of me crash inwards into my bubble of air. But if I didn’t move, I’d die here.

I love you, Dad. But I’m not ready to join you just yet.

Slowly, carefully, I wiggled my fingers, trying to see what I was working with. Pain lanced up my injured wrist, but I ignored it. Man, I was stuck. Like, really, really stuck.

Panic threatened to overwhelm me. My heart beat so hard in my ears I barely caught the sound of voices. I held my breath, my eyes opening as wide as possible behind my goggles as if that would somehow help me hear better. I quickly decided that it wasn’t helping, and I closed them, focusing everything I had on the sound out beyond the snow.

Everything was muffled in here, but the voices were closer than the explosions and engine sounds beyond, and the people seemed to be shouting. I caught half-words and snippets screamed by a voice I knew well.

Min-Ji.

“Rance still ow air!”

Thank God. They must have been clear of the avalanche where they’d been working further along the hill. I should have stayed with them!

Then came another voice I knew. A voice I hated.

“I don’t... Life sigh!”

He doesn’t see my life sign.

Shit! Sometimes physical barriers could prevent a good reading on a life sign, especially when using the small, weaker scanners we took out into the field. The snow was hiding my life sign.

I fought to keep my dismay under control, listening harder. Major Corey was saying something else.

“Eez prolly ed! We’re ot! Tha shi... eve out us!”

That what? That shit? That shiv?

That ship?

Out us...

Without us.

They’re leaving.

Min-Ji screamed something else, or maybe it was Suvi this time, but I didn’t catch it. I was too busy taking the deepest fucking breath I’d ever taken in my life. If I could hear them from outside, if I yelled loud enough, maybe they’d hear me, too.

Just as I opened my mouth, another explosion rang out, terrific and terrible. It cut off my scream and made my snowy house of cards quiver alarmingly around my head. More explosions followed, and I lost track of how many there were or how many minutes ticked by. By the time the reverberations died down, there were no more voices outside. No more gunfire from what I could tell, either.

And the sound of engines...

Was quieter. Getting quieter every fucking second until I couldn’t hear anything outside at all.

I tried to lie to myself. Tried to tell myself that maybe it just sounded quieter because more snow had drifted around me. Or maybe because my own frantic heartbeat was drowning out everything else.

But I knew, deep in my snow-buried bones I knew, that they had left. Left the atmosphere.

Left me.

The ship was gone.

But what was even worse?

The thing that had hauled itself out of the sky, caused the explosions, and forced an entire military crew into retreat despite weapons and shields and machinery...

Was probably still fucking here.

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER SIX Wylfrael

The sky door Maerwynne had opened for me from Heofonraed formed near my castle. Thankfully, Sionnach wasn’t located in the dark part of his star map, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to open the door here and I would have waited for some more of my strength to return. I owe him a great debt. I would pay it as soon as I was able. I did not like owing things to others.

I liked being weak even less.

But I was not too weak to confront and kill these ones. The ones in the valley. My valley.

I crashed to the ground, sending shockwaves through the snow. Calamity ensued at my arrival, and I felt a bitter stir of malevolent satisfaction at their fear. How dare these weak, wingless creatures think that they could come here and dig into my world like worms while I was gone?

They should have known that I’d be back.

My satisfaction turned to fury when some of the humans, the ones not running, aimed small machines at me. Weapons. A vicious spray of sound filled the valley, and rock-like projectiles pinged off of my hide. Stone of the sky. I was weaker than I’d realized. Some of the tiny things they sent my way actually penetrated, leaving bloodied marks along my chest and wings. One hit my cheek, skidding just under my eye and leaving an infuriating burn.

Enough.

I heaved up the last vestiges of strength I possessed, concentrating my energy on the snow. I roared as my star map glowed brighter and thrummed with power. I raised my hands and the snow rose with them, becoming a freezing spear that crashed over the group of humans aiming those tiny machines at me. Maerwynne was right. They are weak. Not a single human recovered from the blow.

I turned, fangs bared, from that group, my gaze slashing over the scene. Many of the humans were running into a large, disc-like thing. The contraption that had brought them here, no doubt. It was entirely different in design from a Tvarvatra machine, so at the very least I could surmise they were not allied with those foul beings. The disc machine whirred.