“Summer, you’re freezing.” He looks around to the frost icing the walls, the waterfall . . . now frozen solid. His gaze drops to the chain pulled nearly taut between us. “Shit. I had no idea—”
Voices draw our attention to the wall of ice just in time to see it explode as Eclipsa and Asher bust through, Ruby a second behind them. They halt when they see us, Ruby slamming into the back of dragon boy’s head. I can tell by their silence they’re wondering if they’re too late.
Eclipsa steps forward carefully. “Summer, are you okay?”
I nod, even as I want to point out the chain around my fricking neck, which is abso-fricking-lutely not okay.
I know it’s not Valerian’s fault—I know that. If he hadn’t claimed me, someone else would have, but . . . I’m still pissed and ashamed to be leashed like an animal. And that he did it so stealthily while I was busy grinding over his body like it was a stripper pole and . . . oh, God.
Wait till I tell Mack—Oberon’s beard, Mack! “What happened to Mack?”
“She’s back at the Selection, safe,” Asher assures me.
“And is she . . .” The word claimed sticks in my chest like glass.
“She’s my shadow,” Asher says carefully.
And for some reason the diplomatic way he says this reminds me of Valerian, who had absolutely zero qualms declaring I was his like a toddler fighting for a toy on the playground.
You’re mine.
Eclipsa takes another step—
Valerian lodges himself in front of me, growling low. I guess we’re still on the playground.
My stupid leash jerks taut, the metal biting into the back of my neck. Cold blasts through the cave, a blizzard of giant snowflakes pummeling the walls.
Asher growls his annoyance, glaring morosely at the snowflakes, but Eclipsa holds up her hand. “It’s me. Eclipsa. Your friend, remember? You’re still under the influence of the hunt’s magic. We’re not going to hurt Summer.”
Asher circles around to me, slowly, his eyes on Valerian. Ruby has crept stealthily around the backside of the cave and takes her spot on my shoulder, ready to battle.
“I thought you died, Kid,” she murmurs.
“Nope, unless you can die of shame, I’m still very much alive, unfortunately.”
Frowning, her gaze slides to my metal collar. Fury settles in her eyes, and I realize that she’s also bound to the Evermore, basically a slave.
I wait, expecting some sort of snide remark. Or worse, pity. But she simply holds my stare, a look of solidarity passing between us.
Eclipsa dares another step closer. “Look at Summer. She’s freezing. You need to get control of your magic.”
Valerian glances back. Whatever he sees breaks through the protective urges driving his actions, and the blizzard abruptly stops.
Asher holds out a hand to me. “Let her go, Prince. I’d hate to have to kick your ass in front of an audience.”
I tense as I wait for Valerian to react poorly. But his shoulder’s loosen, the violence bleeding from his posture. “You could try, fire lizard.”
“There’s the cocky prince we know and love,” Eclipsa quips, her stance going from primed for fighting to casual indifference. “I thought I was going to have to kill you, idiot.”
He chuckles, his voice back to that familiar teasing arrogance. “You tried, remember? You ripped open my side.”
“Yeah,” Eclipsa says. “And you deserved it, you animal. If you’d gotten to Summer in the beginning, in that state . . .”
Her words hang in the air, their implication clear. The others glance at me, and the pity in their eyes is like the cherry on top of this whole effed up scenario.
Chased by hellhounds on a Wild Hunt. Check.
Nearly tortured and given as a present to the psychopathic Spring Court heir. Check.