Natazia didn’t speak to Zyryxa for the rest of the day as they delved deeper into the blizzard. When they camped for the night, she ordered Pelzyq and Lexyn out of their tent and claimed it as her own. It didn’t matter when Lexyn suggested that sleeping alone was a risk or when Pelzyq boldly called out that she and Zyryxa needed to kiss and make up.

  Zyryxa shared a tent with the lovers, overhearing their smooching and the lovey-dovey talk that she silently envied. She stared at a corner of the tent, alternating between wishing she could be doing the same with Rivux and reminiscing on the days where it was just her and Lexyn. The most annoying part of the evening wasn’t being ambushed by a horned mammoth after she’d finally fallen asleep, but trying to block out the sound of their sex while she pretended to be asleep. Lexyn tried to stifle those moans, but Pelzyq’s bestial grunting made her wish she could share a tent with two mammoths fucking instead.

  Thus, Zyryxa woke groggy and grumpy on the day with the highest probability of her life ending (so far) with Pelzyq’s exposed front a foot from her head. She broke the tent down while they still slept so that Pelzyq had to rush out of the collapsing canvas with his cock flopping around in the blizzard.

  “What the fuck!” Pelzyq shouted, shivering wildly as he donned his furs.

  Zyryxa smirked. “What the fuck, indeed. It’s bad enough I had to listen to you grunting like a gura that was dropped on its head at birth let alone wake up to you trying to poke out my eye.”

  Pelzyq guffawed. Lexyn was less amused, emerging from the collapsed tent with a sour face. “I would’ve appreciated a warning.”

  “Me too,” Zyryxa said, her smirk breaking into a true smile.

  The three of them were laughing, tending their drakes and making sure everything was tucked in when Natazia emerged from her tent. At one look from her, the laughter died.

  She didn’t meet Zyryxa’s gaze. Instead, she gave them the redundant order to break everything down and pack up. She ordered Zyryxa to break down her tent too.

  Zyryxa cocked her fist, felt her muscles contract, ready to shove her bitch face into the snow and tell her to do it herself. Lexyn put a hand on her arm and offered to help. Pelzyq joined them a moment later while Natazia looked away, doing nothing.

  Zyryxa hoped that the qione got Natazia today. Either way, she hoped this was the last day she’d have to follow Natazia’s orders because she wouldn’t last much longer like this without either leaving her or beating her to death.

  She held tight to Zyrxl while they moved, trusting the drake to sense something in this blurred world of snow before she would. Then again, she remembered sneaking up on Zyrxl when they first met, her cover only blown by Dryxl’s appetites. Even the drakes were struggling to tolerate the cold and Lexyn, with the warming tonic, looked like she would freeze in place before too long if they didn’t kill the source of the blizzard. Natazia had even grudgingly and quietly taken the warming tonic, doing everything she could to avoid Zyryxa’s triumphant sneer. The blizzard didn’t bother her. The ice was hers. Not Natazia’s apparently.

  A movement ahead caught Zyryxa’s attention. She released Zyrxl’s reins and drew her axe, stepping closer to the mysterious creature. The rest of the party drew their weapons after she did, trying to see into the storm. Natazia’s expression grew taut, her posture weak. Zyryxa lifted her hand, motioning for them to stay put as she stepped toward the beast. Natazia didn’t try to countermand her, either from cowardice or the hope that the creature would rid her of Zyryxa. She took pride in having that effect on the cold bitch.

  Creeping through the snow, the beast took shape not as a ghostly woman but as a mythical horse than many believed didn’t exist. Zyryxa’s mouth open, she realized she and Amarzallax had a competitor. The legendary Blizzardmane was a majestic beauty. Bearing a body of deep blue fur that struck a perfect balance of sleek and powerful, a glorious mane and tail that looked like blue fire, and a snow-white horn above its icy blue eyes, no drake would ever compare. Sorry, Zyrxl. Not sorry, Dryxl.

  Zyryxa tried to catch her breath as it fogged in front of her. She needed to tame this legend, suddenly remembering her father singing songs about the creature and promising that if she was a good girl and did her chores and stayed away from boys she would one day ride the Blizzardmane. Zyryxa didn’t know if the tales that being a maiden pure of virtue were true, but she was suddenly grateful that it wasn’t her stuck under Pelzyq last night or licking Lexyn.

  She whistled to the beast, causing its head to snap her way. The Blizzardmane answered with a soft snort, taking a stride toward her. Waving at the beast, Zyryxa thought her heart couldn’t fill with more love but it did. She reached her hand toward the Blizzardmane.

  It reared up, standing on its hind legs. Releasing a loud neigh, the Blizzardmane dashed into the blizzard. Zyryxa was left stupefied, wondering where she had gone wrong. She felt like a jilted lover even though she had never been kissed, her dreams of a relationship shattered even though the future had been laid out perfectly.

  Her lament was disrupted by a woman’s high-pitched shriek. It didn’t belong to Natazia or Lexyn. It certainly didn’t come from her. Relieved that it wasn’t her that scared away the Blizzardmane, Zyryxa drew her axe already furious with the monster.

  “Form up!” Natazia shouted. “Watch for the floating orbs of ice. Remember. Ranged attacks.”

  The blizzard intensified, snow swirling so fast that any ranged attack risked hitting the wrong target if you lost your positioning. Zyryxa lost sight of her companions, seeing only blurred forms in the storm. One of the ice balls shot toward her, a large circular orb of blue with red eyes, no nose, and a huge mouth emitting frost.

  Zyryxa dodged to the side of it, bringing down her axe as it floated past her, confident that she could endure its dying burst. Cracks spread across the creature’s icy visage. It huffed in the cold, some of the cracks thinning and fading, as it expanded in size.

  She spared a thought for her throwing axes but hesitated, wanting both to be saved for the qione herself. Zyrxl leapt onto the orb monster, claws raking against the ice, teeth gnashing, forging cracks. The monster whirled in the air, faster and faster, spiraling around Zyryxa while it carried a clinging Zyrxl. The coldscale slipped off, landed hard on the ground, and rolled a few times before clambering back to her feet.

  Zyryxa took the opening, swinging her axe through the monster’s open mouth as it expanded again. The axe cleaved the creature in two, slicing straight out the back of it. Instead of falling dead, the bisected ball glowed a brighter blue, the air around it distorting. Zyryxa’s bones vibrated as it shook. She only had a moment to react. Diving down, face to the ground, the ball burst with a thunderous boom.

  Dozens of ice shards pierced into her back, cutting through her abominable furs. She spared a moment to hope that the scrapes wouldn’t leave any scars on her, then sprung back to her feet ready for more. The area around her was surrounded by shards of ice protruding from the ground. She reached behind her, yanking free several that had clung to her. There might be pain later, but now Zyryxa just felt the ice. And the ice was hers.

  A woman’s voice crooned a soft melody. Zyryxa wanted to go to it, to bear witness to whatever gorgeous woman sang the song. Taking a few careless strides, she followed the voice, needing to see who it belonged to, wanting to feel the cold kiss of the singer, to be locked in an eternal embrace with them.

  “Pelzyq! No!”

  Lexyn’s scream broke the spell. Zyryxa’s head snapped to her voice instead, no longer bound by the qione’s siren song. She dashed toward Lexyn, shapes moving in the blizzard ahead of her but too indistinct to make out. She found Dryxl immobilized on the ground, frozen in place beside Maxilla. She couldn’t think of them now. Perhaps they were alive, but there was nothing she could do to help until the qione was dead.

  “Die, you bitch!” Natazia screamed, her voice sounding faraway through the blizzard’s howling.

  Zyryxa stumbled through the snow, tripping on a third drake, Xilliax, when an ice monster crashed into her, hitting her hard in her right flank. Her axe was flung from her hands. She twisted to face the creature’s icy bite and slammed into it, her legs propelling her forward as her arms wrapped around the orb. She tackled it, pressing it to the ground. It resisted, shooting its icy breath into her face, bobbing back and forth with its weird limbless body.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She clung to it, this ball twice the size of a human head that tried to fly free of her grip. The cold penetrated her gloves. Her blessing was either gone or not enough to negate the cold. She only grew angrier. “Fuck you,” Zyryxa spat.

  With a roar, she slammed to ball to the ground, using it as hammer and the earth as anvil. Cracks spread across the monster, bleeding snow and frost as ice fractured. She slammed it down again. And again. After the fifth time, the cracks glowed, the beast continued to expand. Feeling Qoryxa empowering her, judging this creature as vile, she lifted it up as it continued to gain in mass, now the size—and weight—of a boulder. How this bastard floated would forever be a mystery to Zyryxa. However, it was a ball and float it did.

  Zyryxa hurled it into the storm, away from her and her allies. She ducked down, making herself into a ball, covering her head with her arms. The creature exploded, as loud as one of the Monzqora eruptions. Sharp crystals rained down into Nix Tezyk, their whistling braced Zyryxa for even more cuts. None came. She lifted her head seeing the barely visible space in front of her blanketed with huge ice crystals jutting out of the ground, the closest one only a handspan away.

  There was no time for celebration. Lexyn cried out for help. She hadn’t heard Pelzyq say anything since the battle began. Natazia grunted off in the distance, her fighting sounding more desperate and frustrated. The qione continued to sing its melody, a now-horrific sound that was as hideous as it was sweet. She knew who she was going to protect.

  Lexyn was coated in frost, several inches thick. She stumbled through the snow unarmed. “Pelzyq,” she cried, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

  “Where is he?” Zyryxa demanded, laying a hand on her. Qoryxa’s flaming eyes! She was cold. Zyryxa was amazed she could still stand.

  Then Lexyn fell. On the ground, shivering, her teeth chattering, she spoke with her eyes, twisting her neck just enough to guide Zyryxa forward.

  “I will be right back,” she promised.

  Pelzyq was coated in frost just as thick as Lexyn’s, wearing a huge, ugly smile. “Pelzyq is coming,” he said, the words strained but also euphoric. The qione appeared ahead of him, a pale woman, pale even by Ice Tribe standards, with a blue-white aura glowing faintly from her body. She was… well she was busty enough that the word wouldn’t fit Lexyn or Zyryxa anymore. It’s cute baby-like face made her look young and innocent. The only part of her that appeared solid was perfectly-straight sapphire blue hair that trailed down her six-foot frame all the way to the ground. The qione sang, her ghostly hand inviting Pelzyq in as her thick, plump lips made a kissing movement.

  “Pelzyq is coming,” he said again.

  You stupid ass, Zyryxa thought watching him pull down his pants, venturing toward his death with open arms and a stupid smile. His frozen pants caught around his ankles. He tripped into the snow, landing erection-first into the ice. Maybe he had a future as a bard? The qione glided toward him, its feet floating just an inch above the ground. She bent down for the kiss of death.

  Zyryxa hurled her first axe. The qoryxite blade coated in fire oil connected with the qione’s breasts—the divinedamned horror’s easiest target—and passed right through. It let out a high-pitched shriek as the flames flickered out at its chest. Zyryxa had to cover her ears. Zyrxl beside her let out a whine that wasn’t helping with the cacophony.

  When the shriek ceased, Zyryxa rushed to Pelzyq’s side, slapped him as hard as she could, and shouted, “Get it together, dumbass!”

  He jerked his head, blinking his eyes as if just waking up, and stumbled to his feet, falling again as his ankles were still bound by the pants frozen around them.

  Another explosion of ice rang out, followed closely by Natazia screaming in pain and pleading for help. Zyryxa hesitated but Zyrxl dashed toward Natazia and Zyryxa wasn’t about to be outdone by her coldscale. Natazia looked as if she’d been stabbed by a dozen knives of pure ice. The front of her furs were torn open, her breasts bare to the blizzard, viscous blue blood trailing down her chest, belly and legs.

  The qione appeared behind her, materializing from the snow itself.

  “Behind you!” Zyryxa shouted, grabbing her final throwing axe.

  Natazia lurched forward, rolled through the movement, and sprung. She reclaimed a spear from the ground, twisted, and blindly threw it. Zyryxa’s handaxe whipped toward the qione. This was it. Surely the monster wouldn’t survive their combined assault?

  A moment before collision, the qione dissolved into snow. The flurries flew with unnatural speed toward Zyryxa, materializing again into the qione. She hesitated, partly from surprise, partly from the baby-like face staring at her with innocent red eyes. She reached for her axe but was too slow.

  Claws of ice emerged from the qione’s dainty hand, her innocent face twisted into a hideous, hateful visage. The creature ripped through Zyryxa’s furs, tearing into her arm. She didn’t even have time to spare for a worry about having a scar. The cold seeped into her bones, rendering her sluggish of body and mind. Her fingers couldn’t grip her mother’s axe. It fell, clanking against the icy earth. The qione’s other hand twisted into a claw, it went up poised to rake Zyryxa’s face.

  Natazia’s spear grazed through the qione, into the ethereal form, and out as if it pierced naught but a flurry of snow. The creature let out a hideous shriek, dissolved into snow, and disappeared.

  Zyryxa nodded toward Natazia, retrieving her axe. For the first time in days, Natazia nodded back. Despite the cold of this unnatural blizzard, despite the icy tendrils of the qione’s essence that still lingered in her arm, she felt something thaw within her. There was hope for them yet. But they needed to survive this day. And that might be too much to hope for.

  Snow and ice rushed toward them, blowing both women and the drake back. The qione laughed, a haunting, diabolical sound that would make Zyryxa cringe if it were part of a bard’s tale. This entity of pure hate unleashed its judgment upon them. Zyrxl fell first, then Natazia. Zyryxa tried to endure but this made Amarzallax, or even Praedax’s, breath feel like a summer paradise north of Frostmelt. Zyryxa cried out, staggering to a knee. Frost enveloped her, trapping her as it coalesced into ice. She tried to hammer at it with her fists. But how could you beat a weather pattern with your bare hands?

  She refused to fall, but with each step forward she was blown back three. The qione’s face emerged in the storm, grinning, bursting into fits of laughter. It pushed Zyryxa back, leaving Natazia and Zyrxl as frozen figures on the ground in its wake. Her body felt so weak, so powerless, against such a divine force. She couldn’t move forward anymore, only slow how far the qione forced her back as her body turned to ice.

  “No!”

  It might have been Zyryxa’s thought. But it wasn’t her voice.

  “I refuse!” Lexyn yelled.

  Zyryxa swelled with power, feeling as if Lexyn’s arms were around her just as they had been so many times when she felt lost in her grief. Zyryxa’s body felt like it could take on a thousand wyrms, like it could transcend blizzards, and fracture tiny pieces of divinity like this big-breasted demon. She shattered the ice shell that restrained her.

  The qione hesitated. It’s storm ceased, leaving the area around them clear. Then an arrow burst through its eye, sparks of fire where once was ruby red. Shrieking, it blinked away, snow swirling toward Lexyn. When it emerged, Pelzyq’s axe drove it away before it could strike. The qione dissolved, re-emerging in the center of them all. Howling, the snow around them swirled faster as it gathered power. The drakes, led by Zyrxl, crashed toward the monster, forcing it to release its focus on whatever spell it conjured. It dissolved before Lexyn’s next arrow could pierce its other eye.

  Zyryxa felt brand new, like she had just woken up with all the energy in the world, more powerful than ever before. There was no pain in her back, even the wound on her arm had closed, leaving no traces that claws had ripped it open. She retrieved a throwing axe, tracking the movement of the snow. It was so much easier now that the heart of the storm had dissipated. Natazia did the same, her spear poised for a throw. When the qione emerged, arrow, spear, and axe were ready. All three connected, the qione’s cacophonic cries louder than ever.

  Zyrxl was on it within a heartbeat, sucking in the monster’s snowy essence, preventing it from dissolving. Pelzyq was closest, his axeblade glimmered red with the fire oil they’d all coated their weapons with. He swung, two-handed, over the top of his head, bellowing like a madman. The qione burst into flames. It screamed for a few heartbeats while Pelzyq held his axe in its vapory skull. Then it exploded in a bomb of ice like one of its ugly minions.

  Pelzyq was flung back, landing on his back twenty feet away. When he rose, it was with that ugly smile of his. “Sorry! Pelzyq is not interested!”

  Leave it to Pelzyq to drop a stupid one-liner when they’d all been a hair from death. Still, Zyryxa grinned, looking forward to the years ahead where she could bring up Pelzyq’s cock-first collision with the ground anytime the moment called for it.

  Needing to confirm its death with her own eyes, Zyryxa dashed toward the qione. Nothing remained except a puddle of blue fluid and its hair. She dipped her axe in the fluid, coating it with something that should give her an edge in battle for the remainder of their journey together, something that could help deliver justice to Saevah. She also claimed several strands, tucking them away in her pant pocket as proof of their triumph.

  Natazia did the same. They nodded to each other, Zyryxa ready to give her a salute and put this tension behind her.

  “Lexyn? Lexyn!”

  Pelzyq knelt over the half-Leverian warrior as she crumbled to the ground. With the qione’s death, the temperature rose, but Lexyn was still felled by the lingering cold. Shivering, she curled into a ball, whispering that she couldn’t feel anything.

  Dryxl, Maxilla, and Pelzyq huddled with her for warmth as Natazia and Zyryxa rushed to create a shelter and build a fire. The celebration on hold, Zyryxa had to face another foe she couldn’t destroy with her axe, feeling more afraid now than anytime during the battle.