War of Winter (Iron Fey Fanfiction)

Chapter 38 - Beginning of War

                Crystal's heart leapt into her throat as she turned and sprinted back to camp behind the others. She could already smell the irony tang of blood on the air as they broke through the trees and beheld the chaos beyond. 

              Fey were fighting blindly it seemed, members of the Black Rose, all dressed in black, tore at the Winter soldiers as if there were no tomorrow. Glamour of both Summer and Winter swirled through the air, freezing a goblin and setting white fire to a sidhe knight. Crystal palmed her blade and dodged through the fray, trying to reach her tent to grab more weapons. 

          Along the way she stabbed several black clad warriors with ice daggers, barely dodging a fireball thrown her way. Finally, she reached her tent, quickly ducking through and freezing two Black Roses where they crouched over her weapons trunk. She shoved them over, letting their icy bodies shatter on the ground. Crystal hurriedly armed herself with several knives, four throwing stars, a hatchet, and her bow and arrow. 

          Racing back out of her tent, she knocked an arrow in her bow, aimed and fired, the arrow hitting home in a Black Rose's heart. And so began the dance of battle: place, aim, fire, over and over again until it became almost as natural as breathing. Crystal spotted her mother not far away, using her glamour to form ice sabers, brandishing and then cutting dark fey down like they were stocks of wheat. 

          Mab was freezing fey left and right, driving ice weapons through their hearts. Yet, even she struggled a bit, going up against at least a hundred other Winter fey who'd either deserted or were under the guise of fear via the Blood Roses. Crystal didn't spot any of the red cloaked ghosts around, but she doubted they were far. 

          A certain prince's face suddenly swam into Crystal's mind, distracting her, and she faltered, her aim off and hitting a dark fey in the leg instead of the heart. Angered, he turned toward her and let loose a string of fire that ate up the ground almost as fast as she could blink. Crystal dove out of the way, the fire singing her calf as she hit the ground. Grinding her teeth, she straightened, brandishing her knives and calling her glamour to her. 

          The male dark fey was in front of her in an instant, grabbing for her throat. She whipped her knife around, and he screamed as two of his fingers fell to the ground, blood gushing out of the stubs and coating his hand. Crystal prepared to make another move but then, faster than lightning, the fey kicked her hard in the gut, making her let out an oof, the air knocked out of her. She stumbled back and tripped, one of her knives falling from her grip. 

         The Black Rose took advantage of her struggle and leapt on her, straddling her and locking his hands around her throat. She tried to throw him off, jerking her hips this way and that, but he only adjusted his position so that his knees squeezed either sides of her ribs, his hands aiming to crush her windpipe. 

           Crystal instinctively dropped her dagger and grabbed at his wrists, trying to remove them. "You're done for now, ice bitch," the male fey snarled at her, and for the first time, Crystal got a good look at who was killing her. 

          "How the hell did you get...out of Mab's dungeon...?" she choked out. Black spots were beginning to cloud the edges of her vision. 

           Snare grinned, showing bloodied teeth. "The Blood Roses rescued me, of course. They came for me, unlike Titania, and now I fight alongside those who deserve to rule Faery!" he squeezed harder on both her throat and her ribs and she let out a strained cry that sounded more like a squeak as she felt a sharp pain in her side. 

          "You'll...never...rule...us..." she croaked out before Snare was abruptly thrown off of her, letting her suck in air like she'd never tasted anything sweeter. Crystal saw out of the corner of her eye the sidhe who had thrown off Snare. He now hacked at the former Summer faery's face, bloodying it until all that was left was a meaty pulp, unrecognizable as a face at all.