Seconds.

That's how long I had to find Sparrow before the forsaken ones were close enough to strike. When I saw her body plunge into the icy river, I jumped off of Beau and ran to its side. Scanning the waters, I knew the odds of my survival was thinning, but I couldn't leave her behind. If she died, so did the little hope ignited from the mere discovery of her existence.

Looking up from the rapids, I could see the forsaken approaching, their pale faces cloaked in smugness as the light fall of snow wisped around, orbitting them as they stalked closer.

Beau's urges for me to hasten only added to the pressure as I searched for her darkened hair in the raging stream.

"Come on, come on, come on," I found myself pleading, throwing the lingering chunks of ice out of the way so I could see clearer. My hopes were that Sparrow was able to fight the current, and hadn't been washed downstream.

As the ground around me cracked, shifting underneath me, I knew it was caused by the influence of a cursed one—the creation that had fallen out of God's grace. Their gifts had not been revoked, however, and they used them to terrorize those still in the Creator's favor. They were forsaken, but I knew that only made them more dangerous, for they had nothing left to lose.

"Easy, Daerden," a voice so blisteringly cold said, causing my eyes to lift in its direction. "We don't want to kill a lynk, do we? It would be such a waste."

At that moment, the owner of those words stepped out from behind the tall thin male that's hand was lifted in my direction. Much like her, his hair was pale blonde, almost white in color, and although he was larger than her, he seemed to follow her suggestions as if they were orders.

I recognized her immediately. She was the same girl Beau found lurking around the camp's perimeter. She was deadlier than she appeared—of that, I was certain.

"I can't say I agree, sister," the man, Daerden, replied with flared nostrils and a tight frown.

"But you will, for now at least," she smiled, keeping her unsettling eyes on me. "Luckily, however, we do not have those concerns for the bear."

With one swift movement, she stepped to the side and a dark haired man moved into place, widening his stance while raising his hand toward Beau.

Get out of here! Now!

Obeying my demand, I could hear the heavy thumps of his paws clawing through the snow as he ran further away, despite how much he wanted to stay with me. In this circumstance, he would not rebel against me. He was my shadoe, and I refused to let him die by the hands of these monsters.

So, when I heard him growl out in pain, my teeth grinded together in anger. Looking forward, I could see the pleased smile on the forsaken's face. His torturous grip had reached him and was showing no signs of letting go. I hated how fear started to swell up when I realized I had know idea what this man's gift was—I had no idea what he was doing to Beau.

The more my shadoe growled and yelped, the wider all their smiles grew, reveling in his pain. Through it all, Beau was doing all he could to keep me from feeling his torment, but I knew those walls couldn't stand forever, and soon I would feel everything they did to him.

"You know what happens to lynks when their shadoes die, don't you?" the dark-haired man taunted, taking a step closer.

The veins in my neck were likely to burst as I strained them, trying to stay silent. That's when I remembered that Sparrow was still in the river and I needed to find her, fast.

"No?" the man chuckled sickly, continuing on with his game. "Would you like to find out?"

His words slithered into my ears like a poisonous serpent, scraping away at my nerves as Beau's roars got louder. I had no words of comfort for my shadoe, and he knew I was not one to plant false hope; right now, I had none. I was at the forsaken ones' mercy, and their kind lacked the capacity to show such grace.

Looking down the raging stream, I contemplated falling in, letting it's currents take me wherever it pleased, but I couldn't take the coward's way out.

"Finish it, Viggo," the girl ordered.

"With pleasure—"

Abruptly, his sentence was cutoff.

With wide eyes, I tore my gaze from the waters and looked at the significantly smaller group of forsaken. Bodies now laid, crumpled on the ground with arrows and spears sticking out of different sections of their torsos. But, my sights honed in on the man called "Viggo", who had a very familiar spear piercing through his heart.

His eyes were dull, stilled on me, but the arrogant smile he wore previously was wiped clean from his face.

"Avery, go!"

Heath suddenly appeared behind Viggo, ripping his spear from the cage of his lifeless body. "Go!" he shouted once more before turning his attention back to the fight.

A large part of me wanted nothing more than to meet him where he was and fight alongside my ally. But a siren-like screech caught my attention.

Following its call, I saw her. Pulled by the current twenty meters downstream, Sparrow's unconscious body clung to a jagged rock. The only things keeping her from being washed away completely were the talons of her shadoe.

With one last glance toward Heath, who was in hand-to-hand combat with two men at once, my oath to complete the mission assigned to me by General Yates kept me from joining him—that, and the cries of Oak.

Taking off in the shadoebonded's direction while the forsaken were distracted, thanks to Heath and his men, I focused in on the petite woman barely staying above the rapids. The moment I got to her, I saw how pale she was.

Without a word, I nodded my head to Oak as a sign of respect, and gripped Sparrow by her coat. I could feel it going brittle under my touch in just the few seconds of exposure it had to the chilling bite of the air now that she was completely out of the water. Hooking one of my arms under her legs, I cradled her against my chest and sprinted to cover before we were spotted, leaving the owl behind.

Show me where you are.

It took longer than usual, but eventually Beau finished connecting our tether and pulled me to him moments after I reached out, allowing me to see where he had taken refuge once his attacker was impaled. There was no way I would have found his hideout if not for our bond. He had managed to find a small narrow cave, that looked to be only twelve feet deep, but it was unbelievably hidden by a thick group of evergreens and shrubbery.

I'm on my way.

Absolving the tether, I picked up the pace and thought ahead of how to cover my tracks enough to keep us from being found once we settled into the cave. Sparrow wasn't even conscious, so keeping us safe was solely my responsibility, and as sure as this winter was never-ending,  I wasn't going to fail us now—not after Heath's sacrifice.

I could only hope he was okay.

Sensing Beau's presence growing stronger, I let out a heavy breath of relief when I spotted the greenery that he had shown me through our bond. As quickly as I could, I pushed past the many branches until finally emerging into the natural stone room.

"You've found a good spot," I commented, taking in the small space.

With a weak lift of his head, I could have sworn I saw that bear smile.

Are you hurt?

When he shook his head "no", I sent him out to cover our tracks, reminding him to be careful on his way back. As soon as he was gone, I gently placed Sparrow onto the cave floor and then stood guard at the entrance, keeping an ear out for any voices.

I only looked back when I heard shuffling from behind me.

"God, it's freezing out here," Sparrow muttered through chattering teeth.

I could see her struggle just to raise her hands to her mouth, her coat stiff from a layer of frosty snow and her body shaking, much to her frustration.

Looking at her shivering frame, I felt pity for her. She was suffering against the elements while I was comfortably warm thanks to the heat I drew from my shadoe. When she began to mumble unintelligible things, I realized that she was falling in and out of consciousness.

There was only one thing I could think to do to help her, but she would not like it—of that, I was certain.

Checking one last time that no one was approaching, I knelt down beside her and pushed her hood out of her face. Her eyes were closed, so I brought my bare hand to her cheek to see if she was awake.

"What are you doing?" she tried to snap, moving away from my touch, but the fragileness of her voice stripped her of any threat she was attempting to pose.

"I'm helping you," I stated simply, beginning to remove my shirt. Now that her eyes were open, they widened in alarm.

"Like hell you are! Put your clothes back on!"

Shaking my head, I sighed, "First of all, lower your voice. We don't the forsaken finding us."

With a dissatisfied frown, she glared at me through her ice-coated lashes, but seemed to agree with the reason in my statement.

"Secondly, you'll freeze to death if you don't let me warm you up," at that point, she rolled her eyes, but I continued explaining. "I draw heat from Beau. It's what allows me to survive in Icadia without all the extra layers you wear, and it's what's going to save your life."

With that said, I reached for the button on my snow pants and pulled them down right as she turned her face in the other direction, blocking me from her view.

"Relax," I said, sitting back against the cave wall. "All the necessary parts are still covered."

"As well they should be," she remarked sharply.

"Yeah, well, you should get rid of those wet clothes before hypothermia sets in," I suggested.

"How unfortunate for me," she grumbled sarcastically, but her words started to waver at the end.

"Sparrow?" I called, leaning forward to see her face.

"Hmm?" she responded as her pupils rolled to the back of her head and her eyelids began to flutter closed.

"Alright, enough stalling," I asserted, undoing the buttons on her coat before tugging it off her arms. "I swear to act with honor, but I also swore to keep you alive, so don't kill me when you wake up, okay?"

She couldn't even respond before her whole body went limp and I knew she had blacked out once again.

"Dammit, Sparrow," I cursed under my breath as I worked on removing the brittle clothing that desperately clung to her icy skin. "You just had to fall into that river."

When all she was left in were her black undershorts and a grey tank top, I stretched out onto my back and pulled her freezing body onto mine, trying to cocoon her in the warmth I was never lacking. The moment our skin touched, it felt like I had been bitten, her flesh like needles pricking me, but then the sharpness faded the longer I held her.

She didn't move or stir, so I wasn't sure how well the contact was working, but she certainly felt less cold. Using my hands, I rubbed them up and down her arms to try and quicken the process.

Her complexion seemed to liven after that, the deathly pale color slowly dissipating as her natural one returned. I took that as a good sign and felt like I could breathe again.

That moment didn't last long, however, when an unstable owl burst through the trees and tumbled to the floor right in front of me. Her feathers were wild, sticking up in every direction as she flew to her lynk's side. It took only a second before a look of pure confusion fell on her face at the sight of myself and her unconscious lynk practically naked together—followed by a homicidal glare, directed at me.

A loud screech left her beak and she opened her wings, making herself appear larger as she aimed a dangerously sharp talon at my face, causing me to jerk away, trying to put distance between us. But, all of that stopped the moment two little arms wrapped around my torso, molding themselves against the muscles underneath as they pulled their owner's body impossibly closer to mine. A sigh left her lips as she settled into place, allowing me to feel every thing—from the curves of her body, to the rise and fall of every breath she took.

"Uh..."

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the movement. Sparrow was asleep. She wasn't aware of her actions. There was no way, under the frozen sun, that she would be nuzzling her face into my chest if she was in her right mind.

From the look on Oak's face, she found the whole thing just as jarring as I did, yet neither of us stopped it. After almost drowning, Sparrow needed this rest, and I could tell that her shadoe did, too.

"You can stay with us for the moment," I whispered to the snowy barn owl. "But, after she wakes up, you have to go, for the sake of both of you surviving."

With that condition spoken into the chilly air, Oak's head fell in sorrow, but she nodded in agreement. Closing the space between her and Sparrow, I watched as the owl rested her face against the sleeping woman's with such affection. It was something I hadn't seen so openly from any other bonded pair.

It raised many questions in my mind, but it also gave me confidence that the special connection between this lynk and shadoe was the very thing that would save us all.

They would win us the war. It was their destiny.

And mine was to keep them alive long enough to do so.

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Author's Note:

My oh my, it has been a while since my last update. I'm so sorry about that. I had some trouble getting this chapter done for many reasons, the main one being writer's block. I knew the different things I wanted to happen, I just didn't know how to write them ¯\_('-' )_/¯. Hopefully, you still found this update worthy of your support 🤓😅.

So, what are your thoughts on the forsaken and their "gifts"?

What do you think they did to fall out of God's favor?

And what did you think of the little #Arrow scene in the cold cave Under The Frozen Sun? 😉

Survival can cause my characters to end up in interesting situations, don't you think? 😏

Alright, that's all the questions I have for now! Thanks for reading!

-Mac