“Taz!” Judith digs her fingers into my arm, trying to pull me back. Terrifying rage courses through my veins, making me feel like I am burning to the point I am frigid, drowning in anger and fear as ice crawls over my skin. 

BraileyBraileyBrailey 

I’m coming I’m coming, just hold on 

Please 

Please hold on. 

“Let go!” I roar at my sister, desperately trying to pull away, but her grip stays firm, face resolute. 

“We can’t help her if you go barging in all ice-faced and acting like a heroic nitwit. We need to think carefully about this.” She raises an eyebrow at me. “Okay, brother?” 

My burst of outrage dissipates, though a simmering anger still burns beneath my skin. “Fine. But we’re fast about it, or I start freezing everything in sight.” 

Judith rolls her eyes. “Yes, fine, I got it.” 

I let her lead the way, feeling as though I will burst out of my skin at any moment. I focus on my sister’s swinging ponytail, willing myself to calm down. 

I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him I’ll kill him I’ll kill him for hurting her. 

Another scream of agony tears through the halls, making me stop in my tracks, muscles recoiling as terror and desperation roils in my stomach. Judith keeps going, so I will my lead-heavy feet to keep moving. 

Judith leads us both to the entrance of a large metal dome, which I am assuming is the arena. The floor is made up of white sand, dyed scarlet with blood in various places. I can see Brailey tied up against a wooden post in the centre. Even from here, I can tell it’s that stupid magic-sucking metal stuff binding her. She is slumped forward, the metallic fibers in the rope glinting as it strains, keeping her up. 

Her black leathers are torn, stained and wet with her own blood. Chunks of her dark chestnut brown hair had been ripped out, strewn across the grains of sand at her feet. 

More blood is smeared brown-red from her nose across her face–even from where I stand, I can tell it is broken–and black and purple bruises are blooming over her skin. The glow of the fire in her veins is dull, no longer bright and full of life. 

I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to see her like this. My stubborn, hotheaded, spitfire of a girl, looking defeated and half-dead. I have never seen her so... 

broken. 

Anger and cold and hot and fear and desperation and anger anger anger barrels through me and all I can see is red. Ice bursts from that emotion, covering me head to toe, turning my breaths into frost. I can’t think anymore. I can’t breathe. Can’t breathe can’t breathe can’t breathe. 

Brailey. 

I barely hear Judith yelling at me to hold it together, before I’m sprinting into the arena, eyes scanning the area for his stupid face. 

There. 

Cold blue eyes meet mine, a smirk complimenting them. 

“There you are, Taz. I was beginning to think you weren’t coming to save her.” 

I bristle at his taunt. 

He is standing between two enormous carvees, hands folded behind his back. My eyes stray to Brailey. Her own are still shut. An ache pierces my chest, a burning sensation where my heart rests. I can’t tell if she’s breathing. I start towards her, but a carvee tail shoots out, tripping me. “Ah, ah, ah. You can’t have her yet. You have something for me.” 

I seethe, sending blast after blast of ice at him, walking forwards. Matthias rolls his eyes, using his own ability, an impenetrable shield of metal forming in front of him. “Temper, temper,” he mutters. “Have you not learned to control that anger of yours?” 

I glare at him, my mind a frigid whirlwind of ice and rage. 

“Hello, brother.”