“It eats the world from the inside out,” I spoke without thinking, without even putting the words together in my head. Almost like a different force flowed through me at this moment. This was my world, my worlds, that I was supposed to protect and balance, that I was supposed to keep steady, and it was being made to shake apart by this giant serpent.

The odd mine-but-not-mine feeling in my head, in my gut, returned, filling me with something akin to a mother’s rage at the destruction of their child—or at least being childless myself, what I thought it felt like. The nine realms were my children, and they were going to fall apart.

“I told you,” Lydian snarled. “I told you all. It’s all your fault. You and my nephew’s. You two were always meant to destroy the world.”

The vision faded away until I was back on the field, facing Lydian. His pacing had quickened now until he’d worn a groove into the grass, and his hands grasped each other, wringing and scratching his own skin.

“Soren and I have nothing to do with this,” I said sharply.

“No?” He looked up from his pacing. “Do you know the laws of winter, girl?”

Girl. He said it with disgust. That is all I ever was to him. A human girl. Easily used. Easily discarded. I am powerful now. Even if I don’t know how to use my full abilities, I won’t let him get to me. Not when I still needed information. When I woke up from whatever state I was in, I could take my anger out in any way I wanted, but for now I was forced to deal. “Of course I do.”

The laws of winter. The laws that governed the entire Permafrost. Sixteen in all, though some had been forgotten in time. But as the stag, I knew them all.

The Erlking’s word was law.

The Erlking must be the strongest goblin.

Oaths may not be broken if sworn upon land, sea, and sky, unless both the oathgiver and the oathkeeper agree to it.

The stag is the life force of the Permafrost.

Gifts may only be used for the purpose they were given unless that purpose is no longer suitable. This was the law that made it impossible for Soren to change my status as a thrall until I began adapting more to the Permafrost, since I was originally his uncle’s “gift.”

All favors must be repaid.

Those who consume the nectar of the Permafrost are bound to its lands.

If two or more persons get into a fight, the winner is granted the loser’s power and possessions, and gains immunity for any illegal action during the fight under the spirit of winter.

Iron is banned in the Permafrost on the pain of death, unless used by the victor of the fight.