The Impostor Queen (The Impostor Queen, #1)(66)

And then he gets to his feet. His eyes are still closed. It’s like he’s retreated inside himself just to survive—but his grip on my body is desperate and unrelenting as he pours excess ice magic through the places where our skin touches.

One of the priests reaches toward the large central fire in the cave, and the flames leap toward him like a trained animal. His eyes glow as he flings them at us.

My fingers curl tight against Oskar’s scalp as I watch the inferno coming. My eyes narrow and my lips pull back from my gritted teeth. No, you won’t touch him.

A wave of cold rolls across Oskar’s skin. He pivots sharply, his eyes opening, his body pulsing with power. “Enough!” he roars, and, still holding me against him, flings his other arm outward. His fingers spread wide and then close into a fist.

My whole world spins as a strange pulling sensation fills my chest. Ice and snow swirl in the air, drawn from everywhere—the ground around us, the hill, the drop-off, the melting crystals on the grass. There is a deafening boom, and Oskar collapses. He lands on top of me as my back smashes into stones.

We’re surrounded by silence. The priests have stopped their attack.

Oskar slowly raises his head from my chest. He’s shaking, his breath fogging in front of his face. His lashes and hair are covered with rapidly melting ice crystals—but his forehead and cheeks are beaded with sweat. With a stab of horror, I remember Sofia dying in front of me, parts of her freezing while others burned.

“Elli?” he says, his voice laced with pain. “What—wh-what—”

I lay my palms on his frigid cheeks, trying to drain away the magic that’s hurting him. “Are you all right?”

He blinks. “I d-don’t know.” His big body is on mine, his muscles are twitching.

“Oy!” shouts a voice I recognize as Jouni’s. Boots slide in rocky terrain nearby. “What in the stars above?” His exclamation is followed by several others, full of puzzlement and fear.

Oskar rears back on his knees as if he’s just remembered the threat, his arms rising to defend us. But then he goes stiff. Several of the cavern men have run down the trail, probably alarmed by the noise, and are pressed against the steep incline of the drop-off, staring in awe.

Before us is a scene of devastation, a moment literally frozen in time. Starting a few yards from where we sit and ending at the mouth of the cavern is an enormous, crystalline block of ice. It’s the size of a large building, and within it are encased the constables, the priests, Harri the traitor, and Leevi. Many of them are suspended several feet above the ground, as if they were being thrown through the air when the ice hit. Their arms are spread wide as if to stop the onslaught. Their eyes are round with the horror of it but cloudy with their sudden deaths. Their mouths are gaping, held open by the unforgiving ice that has flowed down their throats, up their noses, into their ears. The sun shines down on all of it, adding a merry twinkle to the ghastly, transparent coffin.

Jouni whistles and yanks off his cap, running his hand through his messy reddish-blond hair. “Oskar. Did you . . . ?” He tears his gaze from the scene and turns to us. Then his jaw goes slack, like he’s been hit over the head.

Oskar looks over his shoulder at me when he registers Jouni’s shock. “Oh, stars, Elli, you—you’re—”

That’s when I realize I’m naked. I may be immune to magic, but my clothes aren’t. All that remains of my gown and stockings are smears of ash. My boots are lumps of charcoal that crumble as I wiggle my toes. Oskar yanks off his fur cloak, which is blackened and full of large holes. He leans forward to spread it over me.

“Wait.” Jouni grabs Oskar’s wrist before he can cover my legs. “What’s that?”

He points at my blood-flame mark, stark crimson on my pale, goose-bumped leg.

Oskar tears his arm away and covers me. “The priests and constables attacked the women,” he says to Jouni. “Go make sure they’re safe.”

Jouni’s eyes trace over my copper hair and focus on my ice-blue eyes. “Is that mark what I think it is? Did those priests come here looking for you? I’ve heard—”

“Jouni,” Oskar snaps. “Now is not the time.”

“But I heard rumors that the Valtia had gone mad and run away! Did Elli do that?” Jouni points to the mountain of ice before us. The others are edging around it, staring at the terrified faces of the men entombed there. “I’ve never seen ice magic like that before.”

Oskar gives me a sidelong glance. “No. I did it.”

Jouni laughs. “Sig told me you were a wielder, but this kind of thing would have required—”

“Stop arguing and go see if the others are all right!” Oskar’s voice breaks as he sinks unsteadily to the ground, his teeth chattering. His back is covered in blistered patches I can see through the ragged, singed holes in his tunic. The ice inside him must have made him cold enough that his clothes endured the attack better than mine did, but he’s still injured.

I sit up, clutching his burned cloak over my chest and curling my legs against my body. I want to touch him so badly that my fingers ache. But Jouni is still standing over us, his gaze on me. “Harri mentioned that the priests were offering a reward for anyone who helped find her. And then he brought them here.”

“I’m not the Valtia,” I say quietly. Oskar gives me a sharp, searching look. “I’m not.”