Hi guys! Just a quick reminder of the Wylde Quote contest! The quotes have been submitted, and now we have through Friday to vote for them! If you have a moment, please vote for your favorite quote(s) in my Sabrina Chats book! (I'll also put a link on my profile today) Otherwise, enjoy a chapter you've been waiting for since the end of book one ;)

"How close are we?" Nassir asked. "It feels familiar, but I wasn't this far along with my senses when we were here last."

Spring in the mountains was abuzz with insects as we walked through the trees. The climb from Sulls, to the plains, to the mountains got steeper and steeper with each passing day. So much so, that we began to zigzag on the thin walking trails that were the only sign of passage between the people of the mountains and the rest of the world.

"Not far," I said. "My old home is gone, but Mila's cabin should be a great place to stay for the night."

"And tomorrow, we find out who is watching the borders," Schula added.

"Caw!" Puko agreed as he flew overhead, bouncing between the trees and catching his fill of buzzing pests.

I pushed a low hanging branch out of my way, the pine branches full of sticky sap and I grimaced as I wiped my palm on my pants. "I want a bath."

Schula giggled. "I think we all want a bath after this. I don't typically like the hot weather of summer, but you should see the baths they have in the Summer lands. Pure bliss."

"I don't know," Nassir chuckled. "The hot springs deep in the Winter's Teeth are very nice as well."

Schula sighed. "I wonder if there will ever be a day I can explore the Winter lands."

"There will be," Spaulder rumbled from the back of the line. "I'll make sure of it."

I smiled. His connection to us was already so strong. He felt her needs as deeply as I did, and I quietly swore to help him achieve that goal.

Once the ground started to even out a bit, I knew we were coming up to the places where the humans built houses. Silver lake was probably not far away, so neither was Mila's cabin.

Walking through the dying light, the crickets began to play their night songs. My stomach growled, reminding me how long it had been since we last took a break.

"We're getting closer," Schula said. "I remember this place."

"Hmm." Spaulder paused from the back of the group. "I think we need to be on alert."

That made my heart speed up a beat or two. "Do you sense danger?"

"I am... not sure what I sense," Spaulder said. "But danger is always a possibility."

"Wise words," Nassir said. "Should we increase the pace to reach the cabin?"

"We're really close," I said. "It's just over the next rise."

"Then, let us proceed," Spaulder said.

My ears twitched at every noise now, which was quite a bit since we were in the tree covered mountainside. Birds, insects, and bigger things that crawled in the trees kept catching my notice as we went.

Thankfully, the rise was easy and we looked nearly straight ahead to a small cabin with a wildly overgrown garden.

"Ahh, finally," Schula said. "I hope she has a bathtub, I can't remember from before."

I chuckled. "Sorry, Schula. It's rivers for us until the Wyldes. Do you remember how overwhelmed I was by the bathtub at the outpost?"

Her expression sank. "I do."

"Oh, but I can heat the water like I did back in the valley of the witches," I offered.

Her expression went right back to pleased. "Perfect."

I laughed, and Puko came down to land on my shoulder. He nuzzled his head into my neck. Reaching up, I stroked the feathers on his back.

"I know, we're at Mila's home," I said. "Do you miss her?"

"Caw."

"Me too." I sighed, looking over the garden that used to be so pristine. If, or rather when, Mila came back this way, she would surely grumble about it.

"Hold," Spaulder said, holding up one hand as he frowned ahead of us. "Something is not right."

His caution startled me, and I worried over it. If his senses could reach across the world to stir me and Schula after we fell Icehold, what else could he sense?

Thwip. An arrow blurred past my left side and sank deep into a pine tree.

My eyes darted around the space where the arrow could have come from. There, barely a shimmer in the grasses before us was a sickly green colored fae. Without a glamour over him, his skin appeared to have a thin layer of moss over it.

"Winter!" Schula yelled, reaching for the ground with her open palms, sending her frosty magic from where she stood toward whatever enemy she saw.

I crouched down, trying to get the best look at him I could, and summoned the magic in the air around me. Vivid, burning, purple witch fire settled in my palm and I shot it to the fae in the grass.

Spaulder roared, a noise I didn't think his human-like throat could make, and rushed to another unseen foe in the dim light.

"There's a lot of them!" Nassir warned. "They'll be very hidden, tree sprites and dryads."

Nassir's words registered as I watched my fire hit the spot in the grass and scorch the creature. It screamed, and my magic allowed the fire to fizzle out without burning the grass.

Schula hissed and rushed at another one, only to be taken over by two more that jumped out from seemingly nowhere.

"Schula!" I called. "Join hands, like in Icehold!"

Her head whipped to me, despite struggling with two tree sprites holding her limbs down as a third scrambled away from her attacks.

"Spaulder!" I called. "To Schula!"

Spaulder was in a tangled mess of his own, but he was fending them off well. He roared, and charged along toward Schula. I sprinted toward her as well, trying to spot any more enemies on my way.

Nassir was doing the best of all of us. Mostly because of how he could see the world around him. The night that dimmed our vision did nothing to his abilities, and he had no problems opening up cracks in the mountain earth and swallowing the creatures up to their waist.

Crack. A huge sound split my ears. I looked up to where it came from, and I cried out as I saw Mila's roof cave in sharply.

"No!" I shouted, but from behind I was hit with something solid.

I grunted, turning and pushing away whatever it was with hands ablaze. A creature, surely something unseelie, bludgeoned me in the ribs with a club-like fist. A blackened tree come to life, with glowing white eyes and a mess of a horrible mouth that was cracked through the bark in a hidious smile.

"Urgh!" I shoved at it, trying my best to burn it. It's skin, or bark, was coated in a slimy substance that was harder to ignite.

"Wren!" Schula screamed. I pushed the thing away, or tried to, as it raised another arm to hit me with.

"No!" Spaulder had reached me. He grabbed the thing's arm as it raised into the air, and he pulled it back so roughly that the tree creature screamed as it's limb began to snap and creak like a falling tree.

"To the north!" Nassir called.

I rolled onto my hands and knees, the creature now dealt with by Spaulder. I wrapped an arm gently against the side that had been knocked on, and my vision blurred with pain. I gasped, letting up the pressing of my fingers on the broken ribs.

"The cabin!" Schula yelled.

I looked up. Pieces of the splintering wood were being pulled down by the tree sprites and dryads. Pulling the dead wood into themselves, adding jagged spikes of splintered wood to their own bodies. It made them more dangerous, and they climbed away from the cabin to hide in the grass. Twice as deadly as before.

I grunted, and tried to stand. Breathing came sharp, but standing was somehow a little easier than the hunched position on the ground that I had been taking.

"Wren," Spaulder said. "Stay. I will guard you here."

"But, Schula," I said.

"I'm coming to you!" Schula said. I watched as she shoved splinters of ice through the dryads she fought. It didn't kill them, but it did pin them in place. Nassir then brought the rocky earth up around their legs, firming up their trapped state.

"Wren, fire," Schula snapped, then rushed at another of those horrid black trees.

I still held my ribs with one arm, but with the other I raised a hand to summon the purple flames. I couldn't see as well as my fae companions, but my elven eyes still gave me enough sight at night to throw my fire at the enemies close by.

"There are many more coming," Nassir called out.

"A trap then," Spaulder growled out. "Gather together, back to back. It will make this stand easier."

"We need to run," Schula said.

"I... can't," I grunted.

"It will be uncomfortable, but I could carry you," Spaulder said.

I groaned, summoning some more fire to defend us with.

"The north!" Nassir called again. "Something else is coming."

"Oh no," I whispered. "What now?"

"Schula, to your back!" Spaulder said.

Schula whipped around and shoved ice clean through the middle of a sprite low in the grass behind her.

"Another," Nassir said. "Spaulder, your left flank!"

A motion behind me told me that Spaulder had dealt with it. I did't have time to watch, as I spotted another one creeping up on us from the other side. I quickly sent it running with scorch marks.

Quickly and sharply, a terrible roar sounded from the north. My blood chilled in my veins. Whatever this new addition to the battle was, it was furious.

"I'll guard the west side," Schula panted, finally coming up next to me and Spaulder.

I reached out. "Hands."

Schula nodded, and grabbed one of my hands and one of Spaulder's. Spaulder took ours in return, and I sighed as some relief flooded into me. Our magic was truly stronger together, and what little extra healing my elven bones had was beginning to knit my ribs in a slightly more comfortable position. Slightly.

"It's coming!" Nassir said. It sounded like he was a bit closer now than he had been.

Thunder in my ears. That's what it sounded like as something rushed at the fight.

A flash of silver claws. It's eyes shone like the stars themselves on it's black body. It was sleek, cat-like. It's every movement furocious as it tore into it's enemies.

I took a sharp breath as I watched it cleave a dryad in two with ease.

"I can't believe it!" Schula shouted.

A rustle alerted me to another enemy, and I had to look away from the thing that joined the fray long enough to deal with a sprite with a bow. It drew the weapon in its hands, nearly loosing an arrow on our clustered party when I managed to set it aflame with witch fire. Crying agony, it fled. But as it did so, it illuminated two more, and I had to let go of my triquetram's hands and keep fighting.

Ripping, tearing, cracking wood. The sounds assaulted my ears as I tried to keep up with the calamity around us. But it was impossible. I had never been in a true battle before, and it overwhelmed me. Yes, Schula and I escaped Icehold, but it was ever a forward battle in a series of corridors. An open field was another matter entirely, and I was easily overwhelmed.

"Just focus on a short range in front of you," Spaulder leaned in to tell me. "Just control that one space, and then add a little bit to it as you are able."

I nodded, shifting my concentration to a smaller space that I could control. Just focus. Breathe. One... two... three...

It worked, for a bit. I could handle whatever came into the space in front of me, trusting that Schula and Spaulder could do the same. Nassir wasn't far off either, and he seemed to be handling himself fine.

It was the unknown thing that frightened me. It was fast and fierce as it tore into the things around us. At least it was attacking the enemy, but there was no telling it we were next on the list.

As the fighting finally simmered down, and there were few things left in our way, the four of us were able to spread out some more. I could stand in a somewhat comfortable position for my ribs, and though it was growing exhausting, I could still summon some fire. When the magic in the air around me was depleted, I had to switch to the orange flames I had started my magic with. I just had to be careful not to set the grass aflame.

When there were only two enemies left, two larger versions of the black tree that had broken my ribs, I watched in awe as Spaulder rushed up to one of them, breaking it in half. The unknown warrior rushed at the other, shreading it with silver claws.

Gasping for breath, Schula came over and helped me support my weight while pressing her blissfully cool fingers into my broken bones, numbing the area with cold.

"I can't believe you're here," Schula said, but she was addressing the unknown fighter.

I looked more closely at it. In the dim light, I had thought it was black, but really it had skin as blue as midnight.

My heart pounded. Only one person I knew had that coloring. My eyes widened as I took in the skin, the dark hair, the old scars down this creature's arms and chest. His silver eyes. The fangs in his mouth. It wore black pants, but it's shoes and shirt were gone, if he even wore them to begin with.

Slowly, the creature faded into something else. Something still wild, but less beastly. My lips parted. My free hand flew to a smooth stone that hung around a chain on my neck that had somehow not been broken in the fighting.

"Thain?" I whispered.

He finished putting his glamour back together. The fae I knew, the fae that held my heart, stood before me.

"Wren," he whispered. His jaw tightened, he looked around. "Schula, Nassir."

He looked to Spaulder, a question in his eyes that he didn't ask out loud.

"We need to get somewhere safe," Schula said. "There will be time to fill you in later."

Thain nodded sharply, and he made a straight line for Schula and me.

"You're hurt," he frowned.

I nodded. "My ribs, I think."

He reached around me to lift me in his arms. I winced.

"Try your back," Schula said.

Thain nodded, and I was shifted from his arms to a better, stretched out position on his back. My heart felt warm, laying on Thain's skin as I wrapped my arms around his neck and he held onto my legs for support.

"Can you all make it to the outpost?" Thain asked.

"That's too far," Schula said. "We'll need sleep before that, we've been going hard for days."

"To the village, then," Thain said.

And he walked us toward what was once the village of Silver lake.

I pressed my face into his back. He smelled like the Wyldes.

Finally, we had reached it. For better or for worse, we were here.