I was too stunned to move, so he grabbed my hand and pulled me from the healing rooms. Eliot shoved past nurses, ducking us against the wall as a dozen Evergreen Host soldiers raced by.

“If they hadn’t taken our frostbitten Patrol staffs, we could scuttle off a good measure faster,” Eliot muttered as he tugged me with him.

“We’re running away?”

“We can’t stay here—”

A low, eerie creak filled the hall and Eliot stopped. It sounded like a sinking ship, collapsing beneath too much water pressure. Eliot’s gaze slid down the hall to where a pair of Evergreen Host soldiers had stopped too.

“What was—”

I shrieked as a monstrous, human-sized snowball punched through a window, spraying glass and snow. Eliot grabbed my waist and pinned me against the wall as another snowball hurtled, slamming his shoulder and nearly taking him with it. I grappled for Eliot’s hands, holding tight as it ripped past. The soldiers at the end of the hall leapt out of the way as the snowball exploded against the wall.

“Where are the others?” I asked, searching the hallways.

“They were posing as frosbitten guardsmen, Trite!” Eliot snapped.

“What does that mean?” I asked as he pulled me toward the smashed windows.

“They were forced to go fight!”

It sank like a boulder in my gut.

“Eliot—” He lifted me and tossed me out the window. My exposed flesh hit cold snow as shouts and clanging metal filled my ears. A shadow appeared over me, and I flung my head up. I screamed at the crimson cape flapping in the wind, but Eliot’s boots landed before me and the butterknife flew from his hand, striking the Ruby Legionnaire in the eyes.

Eliot kicked him in the ribs and hauled me to my feet, pulling me toward the woods. I looked back at the castle entrance where the Queen of the Pines swung a silver sword, her bells rattling and her soldiers a nest of green robes around her. Two Ruby Legionnaires dropped to the snow at her feet, and she turned on another.

“Wait!” I screamed at the sight of Kaley holding a meat fork toward an advancing Legionnaire. She cried something, and Zane leapt onto the Legionnaire’s back, dragging him down into the snow. Past them, Lucas swung cutlery.

I bolted for them. “Helen!” Eliot shouted after me. I didn’t hear him follow.

The snow was littered with crimson capes, abandoned bows and arrows, and empty wooden armour where Rime bodies had turned into snow. I counted ten Ruby Legionnaires still fighting against the hundreds of Evergreen Host soldiers creeping through the woods.

Kaley saw me—she reached for my hand. “Helen’s here,” she called to where Zane panted over the unmoving Legionnaire in the snow. He lifted his head to squint at the light, revealing a bloody cut staining his lip.