As soon as Scott had handed me the crystal, I felt a surge of heat and power.

I didn't really know what to do with the crystal. All I know is the voice in my head told me to get the crystal. I had no plan whatsoever per usual.

"Please help Xornoth." I whispered. I heard someone right behind me and I spun around. I completely forgot I was holding the crystal and tried to blast the person, but instead of red magic, it passed through the crystal and turned into fire.

Joey got a face full of flames, but he ducked so unfortunately, it didn't burn him. "SICK!" I shouted. "THANKS, XORNOTH!" I turned in a circle, blasting fire in every direction.

You're welcome.

I should have realized then that the voice that answered was different than the one that had been talking to me. But I'm stupid, so I didn't.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Fwhip shouted as he ducked underneath my flames.

"HELL IS RIGHT!" I shouted back with a wild grin. "TO HELL WITH ALL OF YOU!" I let my actions drown out my thoughts and I went with the flow without thinking about. I started blasting fire at anyone who came close. I cackled as I practically burned the scales off of Lizzie's arm and sliced Katherine's thigh open.

Jimmy, Fwhip, Gem, Lizzie, Katherine, Joey, and Joel, all surrounded me. "Drop the crystal." Gem said.

"Ah no." I said. "I won't."

"We'll kill you." Fwhip growled.

"Ok."

"You want us to kill you?" Jimmy asked.

"Oh, I don't care. You won't be able to, but you can try." I smirked. As I expected, Fwhip pulled the trigger on his crossbow and the rest lunged with their weapons. It was as if everything had gone in slow motion. I tossed the crystal into the air and dropped to the ground, spinning on my hands like I was breakdancing. All of them were blasted backwards as red energy exploded out of me. I jumped to my feet as the red magic melted back into my skin and I caught the crystal. "That was fun."

"No, it wasn't." Joel groaned.

I saw from the corner of my eye, Scott going 1:2 with Sausage and Pixl. It looked like Scott was panicked because the ground froze solid every step he took back. He didn't have his sword on him either.

I had gotten distracted. Lizzie had run up to me and shoved me into a wall, her trident at my throat. "Try your fancy moves now." She smirked.

My eyes widened as I saw Fwhip, and Joey and everyone else start to advance on Scott as well. Scott's eyes were wide, and I could tell he had no idea what to do.

"DON'T HOLD BACK SCOTT!" I shouted before I slid down to the ground and kicked Lizzie in the shins before she could run me through.

Scott's expression hardened. He took a few more steps back. Fwhip launched an arrow, but it was encased in ice the second it left the crossbow. Sausage swung his sword at him, but Scott grabbed the hilt and elbowed Sausage in the stomach.

Pixl stabbed at him with the pointed end of his trident, which Scott had previously snapped in half. It grazed Scott's shoulder, but Scott blasted Pixl with ice, freezing one of his wrists to the mountainside.

The rest of the rulers charged Scott and he gave me a look that said one thing. Duck. I crouched to the ground and pressed my face and chest into the mountainside, wrapping my wings around my body and closing my eyes tight.

I heard Scott shout and a sudden burst of cold bit at my back and wings like frostbite with a sound like a hurricane. Stronger than anything I had felt from him. I heard snow swirling and ice crackling before I took a chance to look back.

Scott was standing in the same spot, his chest heaving. Waves of ice covered the ground in circles, like a ripple coming from where he was standing. Snow hung in the air, as if frozen in time. All the rulers were blasted backwards and laying on the ground almost a hundred feet away. But Scott's appearance was the most shocking.

The tips of his nose and ears were blue along with his fingers. His hair looked white from frost and icicles hung from his antlers. Blood was still splattered across the entire right side of his face, matting his hair, and making his right ear nearly impossible to see. His skin was so pale, it was practically white, so that it made the angles on his face seem sharper and the circles under his eyes from lack of sleep darker.

His eyes glowed icy blue and were filled with cold fury. "Get out." He said in a dangerously low voice.

The rulers scrambled to their feet. "RETREAT!" Fwhip shouted. And they ran for it. As soon as they had made it out of sight, Scott collapsed to his knees.

"SCOTT!" I called to him before I started to run towards him. I almost slipped on ice and fell on my face, but we don't talk about that. I kneeled down beside him. He was gasping for air and clutching the right side of his torso.

Ignore him. He's not important.

The voice said to me, but for the first time, I completely ignored it. "Are you ok?" I asked and grabbed his wrist, but I immediately regretted it. His skin was so cold it burned my hand at the touch, but I gritted my teeth and held on. I moved so I was right in front of him, and I grabbed his other hand. "Scott are you ok?"

"Y-yeah." He stuttered. "Just- just tired."

"We got to get you back to the palace." I said. I grabbed one of his arms and put it around my shoulders so I could support him. His arm seared my back, but I ignored it. "Come on." I grunted as I stood up, half carrying Scott. He staggered and almost fell back over but I grabbed him. "What was that?"

"I don't know." He said quietly. "I just let everything out."

I half led, half carried Scott to the bridge, where elves were dumping human and fairy bodies over the edge and into the valley as the sun was setting. We had been fighting all day.

Everyone parted to get out of the way of us. They had all seen what Scott had done. The frost he had released had even made it across the valley.

We had started up the path to the palace when a few elves ran up to us. I recognized one as the healer who had helped me yesterday. Zadie was her name?

"King Scott, we need to get you to the hospital!" she said in a panicked voice.

"I'm fine." He muttered.

"Your clearly not fine!"

"I'll take care of it." I snapped. Zadie reached out to grab Scott's wrist. "NO!" As soon as Zadie had touched him, steam rose from her fingertips and her hand snapped back, her fingertips red.

"What was that!?" she cried.

"Exactly. I'll deal with it. Come on Scott." I pulled him away and he started to follow me. Zadie and the others just stared after us. Scott seemed to be breathing better, still heavy, but better.

I shoved my shoulder against the palace door and helped Scott inside. I was going to bring him to his bedroom, but I didn't think he'd make it up the staircase, so I brought him to the living room and sat him on the couch.

Scott practically collapsed backwards. "Just stay there, I'll be right back." I said and jogged out of the room. I ran upstairs and grabbed the medical supplies from Scott's bedroom. I carried the plastic box filled with bandages, disinfectant sprays, and whatnot into the living room before grabbing a bowl and wet cloth from the kitchen. He was covered in blood, and I needed to get it off him.

The voice in my head was practically begging me to leave Scott alone but Scott had helped me too many times to just stop and let him do it himself.

I sat back down on the couch next to Scott. He looked absolutely exhausted. He could barely keep his eyes open. "Erin your arms." He said in a barely audible groggy whisper.

I looked down and saw that my hands and forearms were covered in angry red ice burns. "It's fine." I lied. I squeezed the damp towel over the bowl before pressing it to the right side of Scott's face. Most of the blood had dried but I worked it off slowly.

The more blood I removed the more a burn right over his temple stood out. It had seared some of his hair by his ear and had actually burned his ear partially. "Scott, what hit you?" I asked.

"Fwhip threw a bomb...I didn't really see." He mumbled with his eyes closed.

"A bomb!?" I asked with wide eyes. "In the head!?"

"Yeah...it was only a small explosion though."

"That still should have killed you!" I cried. "Can you even hear out of your right ear?"

"Kind of. It must have been low-grade."

"That's not how bombs work Scott." I said and continued to remove blood, uncovering more of the burn. "Oh, Scott your lucky these are only first-degree burns...how I have no idea..."

"Huh?" Scott mumbled again.

"It's- never mind. Just rest, alright?"

"Alright."

I had finally finished cleaning the blood off his face. The burn stretched from just barely brushing his eye to his ear and then from his jaw to his eyebrow level. His ear and hair near it were singed black but besides that, the burn was red.

I would have put an icepack on it, but his general coldness seemed to be doing a good job of cooling the burn down.

"How does it feel?" I asked him.

"Sore."

"What's sore?"

"Everything."

"How about the burn?"

"It hurts."

"Well duh. Does it hurt bad?"

"No."

I was starting to get concerned. But I wasn't about to let Scott see that I cared what happened to him. "Ok." I started to clean off the cuts he had on the rest of his body, like the one Pixl had induced with his trident.

I had him take off his shirt so I could get to them, and I saw a huge bruise covering chest where the dragon had slammed him to the ground. I felt his ribcage to make sure he hadn't broken any ribs, which he hadn't thank god.

Suddenly he spoke up. "Stop touching me, you're hurting yourself."

I looked down at my hands against his skin and realized it was steaming slightly where we touched, but I had gone numb to the pain. "Scott I'm fine. It's getting better, you're not as cold."

Scott opened his eyes a little. They had stopped glowing, but I could see how tired he was. "Go to sleep Scott, it's alright." I said.

"They'll be back." He croaked; his voice hoarse. "They won't leave, not until they have Rivendale."

"I know. But we won't let them take it." I told him. "We'll protect Rivendale or die trying. Although personally I'd rather not die."

The corners of Scott's mouth twitched into a smile for a moment.

"Go to sleep." I told him again.

"The tables have turned, haven't they?" he joked as I wrapped a bandage around his upper arm.

I rolled my eyes. "Just shut up and rest."

I wasn't surprised when 5 minutes later he was fast asleep. I got up from the couch and walked back into the kitchen before pulling the Xornoth crystal off my neck. I held it to the pipes underneath the sink. The heat radiating off of it was enough to counteract Scott's frost and after 15 minutes I had running water coming from the faucet.

I ran my hands and forearms underneath it for a while to soothe the ice burns before wrapping them a little messily in bandages.

I slipped the crystal back over my neck. It started to pulse again, like a heartbeat in tune with my own. It made me feel a little uncomfortable if I'm being honest.

I walked back into the living room. Scott was still fast asleep. I pressed one of my knuckles against his skin to check his temperature. He was cold, but just his normal cold now. I sat down next to him and spread a blanket over the two of us. Of course, he didn't need it.

"Goodnight Scott." I said and flicked my wrist, turning the lights out in the room.