IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK MY QUEEN

ARIANNE POV

I gripped my sword tighter, knowing damn well that if I was going to go down, I was going to go down fighting. I didn't care if I had to use every last bit of my strength to do so.

There were too many of them, easily three or four times my number, and I could hear their boots crunching in the snow, marching closer, silent as death. They didn't bleed, they didn't scream, and they didn't stop. But neither would I.

Not until I couldn't lift my sword anymore.

The cave was behind me, just a few yards away. I had come so far, cut through so many of them, but the path had narrowed and now they had me cornered. If I could just hold them off long enough to slip inside, I could block the entrance and regroup. But they weren't going to let me go that easily.