Chapter 7 – Ice, Blood, and Bonds
POV: Yuki
The air stank of iron and smoke.
Yuki crouched beside Kai's unconscious body, her hands trembling over the gash in his side. Blood still seeped through the wrap she'd made from torn cloth and desperation. His face was pale. Lips dry. But his chest—thank the frost—still rose and fell.
"Don't die," she whispered, pressing her forehead to his shoulder. "You're mine now. You can't just leave."
The cave beyond howled with echoes—movement, snarls, the click of weapons.
Nyla was gone.
Shyara… somewhere behind them, face pale with fear.
That left Yuki alone.
Alone to defend the man she barely understood—but had somehow already given her heart to.
A low growl pierced the silence.
Something was coming.
She rose, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Her small frame trembled—not from fear, but from something colder. Older.
Resolve.
"I'm not strong enough," she murmured, lifting her hand toward the dark. "But I don't care."
Frost bloomed at her feet, crawling in jagged tendrils across the stone. Ice crystals danced around her like falling stars, her aura flaring to life.
Her skill triggered without command—Icy Resolve—and with it, she stepped between Kai and the shadows.
The first goblin lunged—a filthy thing with jagged teeth and bloodshot eyes.
Yuki met it with a blade of frozen mana, slicing its head clean before it could scream.
Another followed. Then two more.
She didn't retreat.
She danced.
Each step backward was met with a rise of frozen spikes. Her attacks were messy, furious, unrefined—born of instinct and rage and something worse.
Each time a blade scraped her shoulder or thigh, she screamed. Not in pain—in fury.
This should've been Nyla.
That damn wolf ran.
She left him.
The thought fed her magic like kindling to flame. Mist swirled. Blood splashed. Her emotions froze the world around her.
Still they came.
Until—
A whimper.
A goblin whelp—barely the size of a toddler—stumbled out from behind a rock.
Yuki's breath hitched. Her blade wavered.
She'd killed so many already without hesitation. But this…
The child blinked up at her, eyes hollow. Then it cried.
She raised her hand, uncertain.
And that's when Nyla appeared.
POV: Kai
Pain throbbed through Kai's skull in slow, sickening waves.
Half-conscious. Floating between dream and waking.
He heard battle. Frost. Steel.
Then—
A growl. A scream.
A familiar scent.
Nyla.
POV: Nyla
She had come back too late.
Blood painted the walls of the goblin den.
In the center, Yuki stood—wounded, glowing with frost, radiant in her fury. A warrior bride defending her claim.
Nyla's vision blurred red.
That should've been her.
She should've been the one protecting him.
Not this delicate little icicle with a death glare and frostbite for blood.
Her gaze drifted—landing on the goblin child. And on Shyara, who stood between Yuki and the whelp, arms outstretched, casting a weak barrier.
"You protected that thing?" Nyla growled, voice low and dangerous.
Shyara turned, breathing hard. "It was a child."
"A monster," Nyla spat. "Just like me."
Then she lunged.
Yuki screamed, but Nyla didn't hear it.
Claws bared. Eyes blazing.
She went for Shyara's throat—
And slammed into a body.
Kai.
He'd thrown himself between them. Bleeding, barely standing.
Her claws tore into his side—again.
Time stopped.
Blood dripped down her paw.
"Kai…" she whispered. "I didn't—"
He collapsed into her arms.
Everything was chaos.
Yuki fell beside him, tears streaking her frost-burned face.
Shyara crumpled moments later, the barrier draining the last of her strength.
And Nyla—
Nyla stood frozen.
Blood on her claws.
Shame in her heart.
She hadn't meant to hurt him. She just… wanted to protect him. From everything. From everyone. From them.
But now—
Everything was broken.
As the last goblin's breath wheezed out in the far end of the cave, silence returned.
For the first time since they'd arrived in this brutal world…
Kai's party had survived—but not as victors.
They had made it through.
But not without scars.