In the Land of Fae ♔ (gxg)

17. bloodlust

"Ice fae!" someone screamed from within the circle of logs around the fire pit.

An array of gasps were heard as everyone craned their neck upwards to search for the enemies claimed to be seen. Once everyone had their sights on the white figures flying circles above them, the screams let loose.

"Everyone to your cottages!" Aerwyn screamed, guiding Ilmari and his friends in the direction of an air fae cottage. "Hide! Lock the doors!" his old voice strained to push itself out of his chest, coming out in bellowing echoes.

Nyx stood up, dropping her cup of tea and hearing the porcelain shatter. She looked around as everyone began frantically scurrying around, all loading up inside the cottages. Abitha and Aerwyn stayed outside, bringing everyone inside before closing and locking the cottage doors.

The two figurehead fae looked at the sky above them, seeing those icy, evil irises and those sneers that shone in the moonlight. The ice fae circled slowly, wings lazily flapping. Nyx counted five of them, but a sixth figure joined the group, except the newcomer did not join the circle but instead hovered right in the middle. Nyx could see the reflection of a silver crown, diamonds sparkling in her eye.

She gasped. "Eira."

"Run!" Aerwyn's voice rang in her ears, but she could not process his words.

For Eira's eyes had locked onto hers from above, and she remembered the day in the woods that seemed so long ago. She remembered the coldness in her body, the hands of ice on her throat. She felt frozen again like she did that day, but Aerwyn's commands came ringing louder in her skull.

"Run!"

Gasping, Nyx quickly turned and jumped over the log she had been sitting on, making a sprint towards the forest as fast as she could. She heard a chuckle echo through the clearing before hearing the dreadful sound of wings coming towards her.

Eira grabbed the back of the girl's cloak and took her off her feet, flinging her backwards with force. Nyx let out a choked cry as the button of her cloak dug into the front of her throat. She felt slight reprieve when she landed on the ground and rolled until she landed flat on her face, and the cloak loosened from around her neck. Spitting out the mouthful of dirt she had gotten, Nyx quickly tried to pick herself up off the ground as Eira landed on her feet only a meter in front of her and made quick strides towards the pathetic crawling human.

The Ice Queen's platinum tendrils that elegantly deviated from her neat updo flowed as a breeze circulated through the trees. She looked at the dirt-covered girl and laughed despotically. "I cannot tell you just how long I've been waiting to—"

A large gust of air howled and was sent right towards Eira, the force knocking her off her feet and pushing her back until she landed in the dirt.

Nyx turned to look at Aerwyn, seeing that he was conjuring another gust of air as the ice minions began flying down from the sky towards them. She looked back towards Eira to see that she was getting up.

"Where is Alastair?!" Nyx called to Abitha who began raising the sand from the earth and throwing ribbons of it into the ice fae's eyes to ward them off for longer. "And Caspian?!"

"I don't know!" Abitha, who was too focused on lifting the sand and aiming it, yelled back. Nyx covered her face as sand rained down on her. The wind was blowing fiercely because of Aerwyn, the tops of the tall trees bending tortuously, threatening to just snap and break. Nyx's golden hair whipped all around, its ends almost touching the fire in the firepit next to her.

Eira began to stand up, obviously knocked out of breath from her fall, and Nyx jumped to her feet to run, but a scream from the sky distracted her. Before she could even look up to see what was happening, two figures suddenly slammed down on the ground right before her.