A PEARL OF fear burst inside Ravenna's chest.

She sucked in a small breath of air, her lungs expanding around it. Her fingers twitched nervously as she focused her gaze on the small man in front of her.

"You can't just cast us aside," Vyses said. His voice was cold. "You have no actual proof that we have used magic."

The guard waved his rock. "This is all the proof that I need."

Ravenna's eyebrows furrowed. She blinked once, twice, forcing tears to appear within the corners of her eyes. "Sir, do you really think that we are using magic?" she asked. Her voice trembled. She lifted a hand to her chest, fingers splayed across her heart. "Our town, our home was just massacred by people who use magic. We just witnessed our neighbors... our friends get murdered. Why would we attempt to use it ourselves?"

That made the guard narrow his eyes. Another guard stepped forward and placed a hand on Ravenna's shoulder, his blue eyes swimming with sadness. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I know it's hard. We just can't take any chances right now, not with all that has happened."

"You need to leave, now," the first guard quipped. "I will not say it again."

Vyses locked eyes with the man, his expression vacant. "And what will happen if we do not leave?"

Both guards tensed. The kinder guard glanced back, over his shoulder at the wall behind him. The other glared heatedly at Vyses. "If you do not leave now, we will make you leave. And I can't promise that it will be all in one piece."

Ravenna's eyes narrowed. A hand curled around her shoulder. She glanced back, meeting Vyses's calculated gaze.

"We understand," Vyses told the guard. "We will leave peacefully. I apologize for any inconvenience."

The short guard smiled smugly at them.

Ravenna's jaw clenched. Her hands curled into tight fists at her side. Vyses seemed to be giving in to their whims way too easily, which meant that there had to be another way into the city.

His fingers dug into her shoulder. "This way, darling," he said, pulling her away from the guards. "We will just have to find another place to take shelter."

As Vyses lead her further away from the guards, Ravenna glanced back over her shoulder. The second guard seemed genuinely upset. His features were twisted with discomfort and sadness. He obviously didn't like the idea of refusing them entry.

"Hold on," Ravenna whispered under her breath. Vyses glanced down at her curiously. "I have an idea," she told him.

He frowned at her. "We should move on to another city," he warned her. "The only way to defeat these walls is from the inside out. And we obviously won't be able to slip past the guards. Not now."

Ravenna rolled her shoulders back, shaking Vyses's hand away. She sent him a dark look and lifted her hand, fingers brushing her fake tears from her eyes. She crouched down in front of Lyth. With a watery smile on her face, she reached out and lightly grabbed his arm.

He eyed her warily but didn't not react.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," she told him. "But we aren't going to be able to go into this city."

She pointed toward the guards. The shorter one had already moved on to the next family, skewering them with a sour look and waving his handy rock around. The other guard, the kinder one, seemed to be watching Ravenna from the corners of his eyes.

"Those men will not let us enter," she said. She lowered her hand. "It is their fault that we cannot find a safe place to stay tonight."

Without blinking, Lyth politely asked, "Would you prefer that I kill them, then?"

Ravenna paused, a little startled. "No," she assured him in a hushed whisper. "We must wait until we enter the city. Right now, I am attempting to guilt one of the guards into allowing us entry and I need you to play along. Please act upset."

Lyth's face began to pinch up. The skin on the bridge of his nose wrinkled and the corners of his eyes crinkled. Tears appeared, faster than Ravenna could react. He lowered his head and lifted his hands to his eyes. His entire body began to tremble with quiet sobs.

Vyses reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It will be alright, son," he said. His voice was calm and reassuring, and loud enough for the guards to hear.

Ravenna pulled Lyth into a hug. His arms curled around her neck and his face pressed against her shoulder. Her fingers rubbed small circles into his back.

From the corners of her eyes, she noticed the kinder guard began to shift around uncomfortably. His gaze remained glued to Ravenna, to Lyth. The moment Ravenna's gaze met his again, his eyes dropped to the earth.

A small sigh escaped Ravenna. "He isn't budging," she whispered, low enough so that only Vyses and Lyth could hear. "We need to find another way in."

Vyses helped her stand. "There isn't another way," he told her. "The only way into Zeporia is through those gates."

Ravenna didn't believe him. She reached out and grabbed his hand. His fingers curled tight around hers. "Oh, come now, husband," she said, shooting him a soured look. She began to walk away from the entrance. "Surely there is some way into this stupid city. Either by a spell. Or by other means. More human means."

Vyses's eyebrows crinkled. "I don't understand," he murmured under his breath. "Human means?"

"You really need to start thinking like a criminal," she remarked. "How does this city get water?"

He glanced at the fields around them. "I'm not sure. The city is too large to rely on a single water well. I assume that there might be an underground system of tunnels that have been spelled to direct water in from a nearby body of water. But the entrance to that will be heavily guarded."

Ravenna arched an eyebrow at him. "Do you think it will be as heavily guarded as the entrance to the city?"

He frowned at her. "No, but the moment we attack, I'm sure that an alarm of some sort will be sounded. It could alert the rest of the guards and make it harder for us to defeat them. I'm sure that they have precautions set up for the humans that do attempt to sneak into the city through the water system."

She slowed to a stop and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, do you have any better ideas then?"

"Not really, lass," he admitted. A small smile grew upon his face. "I'm willing to give it a shot if you are."

"Excellent," Ravenna said. "Now, do you know of a spell that can help us locate all the nearby bodies of water? We will need to start moving quickly, further away from the guards. The spell we use will need to be something that won't be detected by the guards behind us, at least not immediately."

Vyses grinned at her. "I know the perfect spell."

hey guys! 

It's been a little while. If you have been following along with the messages I've "announced" on my profile/board/whatever it's called, then you know that my life has been a little crazy as of late. Things have definitely started to calm down, and I'm seriously hoping that I'll be able to update more frequently now. I seriously cannot thank you enough for your continuous patience and support with this story! 

I know that this chapter is a little shorter than usual. The next chapter (chapter 81) should be posted Wednesday night, hopefully to make up for that. I'm sorry about the wait! 😭

Also, I wanted to point out that this book is super close to hitting 500k reads!!! It's so freaking exciting and amazing! It's so exciting to see just how much this book has grown and I'm so unbelievably thankful to everyone that's even just added it to their reading list. 

Thank you so much for your endless support and patience with both me and this book. Y'all are amazing! 

-ash ❤

ps. The Fiction Awards have reopened! I'm really not expecting anything, as I haven't had time to update or really be active on Wattpad. But while trying to nominate some of my favorites the other day, I did notice that Wattpad no longer really displays the main genre of the book. It's a little harder to get the books in the right category now. So just in case, if you actually did want to nominate Ice this year, it is technically considered Fantasy. Please don't feel pressured to though! There are so many amazing books on this website that really deserve it! ❤