Frostbite (#4 Destroyers Series)

by Holly Hook

  She resisted the urge to hug Callie. She was mostly back to normal, at least on the outside. "But I could hurt you."

  "Which is why I'm staying in here," Kenna interrupted. Enough light was in her voice to convince Sophia that she wasn't directing any anger right at her, at least. Either that, or Kenna was just very good as masking her emotions. Sophia did feel kind of bad that Kenna had to guard her twenty-four-seven until she found a way to get home.

  "You didn't get a chance to call your grandmother again?" Callie asked.

  "I tried again when I got back. They haven't got the power back up again," she said, staring at Callie's pink-bordered cell phone lying on the bed next to her. "It's almost like Andrina knocked out the power to keep me from calling her."

  Callie twisted the blanket of her cot around, forming a tight braid. "I'm sure she doesn't know your grandmother. She doesn't even know your name. How could she?"

  "I don't know." Somehow, Sophia didn't feel any better. "Do you think Janelle will want to keep me here for a lot longer?"

  "That, I can't answer." Kenna slipped off one of her shoes, kicking it under the bunk. "I doubt she'll want to hurt you or anything. But we do need to find a way to keep your other personality under control when I'm not around. I'm sure you don't want me tethered to you all the time like the Secret Service."

  "No, I don't. And I'm sure you wouldn't like that, either. And she's not my other personality. Just saying."

  Kenna smiled. It went miles towards melting the tension in the room. "Leslie said her name was Hyrokkin?"

  "Don't say--" Sophia cringed. She waited for the winter demon to come to the surface at the sound of her name.

  A very small chill rushed through her, more of a whimper, really, but it vanished a second later. She relaxed. Her theory might be right. Hyrokkin was afraid of Kenna, and wouldn't dare show her face in front of her. "Hey. I think this is working. She couldn't do anything with you here."

  Kenna straightened up, finished stuffing her clothes under her bunk. "I had to test it before I get too comfortable staying in here. From what Janelle told me, she likes to show up when someone says her name."

  "That only happened once." She glanced at Callie, who stopped strangling the blanket. She thought of Janelle slumping over her table and of Paul falling to the floor, going from tan to blue. The others in the library. Leslie flying through the air and crashing. That swampy, green guilt feeling poured through her again. "None of us knew."

  Did her grandmother know? The question was growing hungrier, gnawing at her insides more and more all day.

  And did her missing mother know?

  That was an answer she'd probably never have.

  * * * * *

  "Sophia…I will free you if you only let her free me."

  She spun around to take in the barren landscape, trying to keep her face down against the frigid wind that seemed to blow into her face from all sides. White covered the air around her, blowing around rocks and trees that looked like gray blobs even from feet away.

  She stood in an endless blizzard sea that extended above her, around her, and under her feet. It whistled in her ears. Sucked the breath right out of her mouth.

  "Huh?" she managed, wrapping her arms around herself. It was the first time she had felt cold like this before. It was biting. Painful. Not just there, but threatening to take her away. It had never bothered her during all of Hyrokkin's attacks over the years. Not physically, anyway.

  "Sophia. I am over here."

  She turned and for the first time, realized that she and the winter demon were not one and the same now. Here, wherever here was, they were two separate beings. She could freeze to death out here.

  The white wind calmed for a second, letting flakes stop in midair. It was long enough for Sophia to make out a gigantic figure of a woman in leather boots and what appeared to be a gray tunic. Her face remained hidden by the thickness of the storm, but Sophia guessed that she might be twelve feet tall, if not more.

  This was what she shared her body with.

  Something more monstrous than she had imagined.

  Something she couldn't possibly fight back against, or control.

  All the anger she was ready to throw at Hyrokkin retreated deep inside of her like a mouse retreating into a hole. She'd imagined a crouched, nasty old woman stuck somewhere in the back of her head, waiting for years to get out. Not a giant demon capable of covering everything around her in a storm for the ages.

  "I've waited a long time to escape my prison. Or prisons, I should say," she said. Her voice cut down through the whistling wind as if it were a knife slicing right through it. But the storm picked back up, nearly knocking Sophia off her feet.

  She staggered, feet sinking into what felt like miles of white powder. It stung at her calves, soaking in through her jeans and filling her shoes. Biting back a cry, she faced the monster in front of her again. All she could do now was hide her fear as best she could. If she didn't, the demon would only become more of a bully, growing louder and louder inside her all the time.

  "Prison?" she forced herself to ask.

  The demon took a step to the side, and turned as if she were facing the sky. "The gods feared me," she said into the storm. "The cowards. Instead of facing me themselves, they locked me away." She turned back. "Inside one of your ancestors, Sophia."

  Sophia's head spun, as if the wind itself were pushing it in circles. She took another step back, sinking deeper. It took all of her strength to avoid going down on her butt. The bitter air soaked down to her bones as another wind gust sucked the air out of her lungs, like an evil spirit reaching down her throat for her soul. At last, it died down a little. She looked around for a place to run to, but the skinny trees about fifty feet away didn't promise any protection. Neither did the boulders nearby. Or were they boulders? They didn't seem like the right shape.

  If Hyrokkin wanted to slaughter her now, she could do it. Provided the cold didn't get her first.

  "It has been hundreds and hundreds of years," she explained above. "Mortal body after mortal body. The first took her own life and I thought I was free, but your family's blood is what binds me. You are the last of your line, Sophia. If you die before you have children of your own, I will become dormant for eternity."

  Sophia crouched down, trying to stay out of the wind as best she could. If Hyrokkin was speaking the truth, then she would survive today. She tried to think of something nasty to say to her, but the cold was numbing even her thoughts.

  "You can't imagine what it is like for my kind to feel mortal pain or to be torn from our true state of being. Only the storm goddess, Andrina, can help me." The demon stepped closer, extending a hand. It was about the size of a dinner plate, marked with deep creases from age. "I hate this…arrangement…even more than you do, Sophia. Andrina will not destroy your body if we go to her. You are not a Tempest or an Outbreaker. She will only release me, leaving you intact. I will be free to punish the world for wronging me, but I promise that I will not punish you. You will live in comfort for the rest of your days, and have the family that you want."

  Sophia turned away from the outstretched hand.

  The air warmed around her and the wind stopped as if an invisible bubble had formed around her body. She closed her eyes, wanting nothing more than to let herself sink into the enticing heat and let life return to her body.

  "You'll finally fit, Sophia. Isn't that what you want?"

  Sophia opened her eyes. The blizzard was gone.

  She stood in her living room. Her grandmother sat on the couch with a bag of Cheetos at her side and the television going in the background. Callie sat next to her, flipping through channels. Somewhere a punk song was playing.

  She closed her eyes again, blocking it out as much as she hated to.

  This was the Big Lie of the Year. Nothing more.

  About living in comfort, at least.

  The rest, Sophia believed. The storm. The apocalyptic winter taking place all around
her, showing no signs of letting up.

  The frigid storm wrapped around her again, as if it had given up trying to lie to her.

  Sophia opened her eyes. Maybe it was because the storm hadn't had time to obscure her vision completely yet that she saw it.

  The half-buried boulders around her weren't boulders after all.

  They were campers, buried in drifts so high they came almost up to the top of the windows. The storm blew harder around her, promising to make it grow higher and higher until everything was buried forever, like relics from another time.

  Sophia was standing in the middle of the campsite, sometime in the future.

  Hyrokkin wasn't just dangling the prospect of freedom in front of her.

  She was also promising a new Ice Age.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leslie wanted to scream, but she couldn't.

  She wanted to throw her clock across the room, but she couldn't do that, either.

  Neither could she shake Janelle awake and spill everything to her about what had happened back at the hospital. Her best friend lay there, snoring with exhaustion as the first morning light came over the horizon, turning the sky gray. It would be another sunny day. Well, she hoped. It was a weekend, and she knew that Michigan weekends in the spring usually involved rain. That went double if the whole school week had been beautiful.

  Paul was still lying at the hospital. She hoped. His phone in the hospital room was broken now, thanks to Andrina. The thought had kept her up literally all night, waiting for Janelle's phone to ring with the news that Paul had gone missing.

  But it hadn't. Leslie wasn't sure if that made her feel better or worse. She had no way to go back to him right now without telling the others the truth. Every time she had opened her mouth to Janelle last night to ask, her throat had locked up again. The only option was waiting until visiting hours started to return.

  All she knew was that she needed to figure out a way to tell Janelle about Andrina without actually telling Janelle. There had to be a loophole. If she didn't find one, the storm goddess could arrive here in the middle of the campsite tomorrow, and everyone except Kenna and Sophia would fall victim to her somehow. Well, Kenna. Andrina was definitely looking for Hyrokkin. The two of them would make a great team, raging at the world and destroying everything around them. Andrina could control the summer months and Hyrokkin could have the winter ones.

  Janelle turned over in bed, as if sensing her thoughts.

  Leslie might be forced to betray her. That fear was growing more by the hour. It was a thought that made her sick. Physically sick, like she might throw up.

  Leslie scrambled out of her cot, dressed, and threw on her shoes to head to the bathrooms. Before she left, she dug through her duffel bag--quiet enough to keep Janelle from waking up on the other side of the camper--and slid out her notebook and a few pens. Her Literature 11 notebook, actually: the one from Mr. Jones's class that she used as a folder more than anything. It was her last connection to her other life, and hopefully, it would save this one and everyone else's.

  Had Andrina forbidden her from writing about their conversation? She didn't know, but it was worth a shot. It probably fell under the "telling" umbrella, but there had to be a way somewhere. Maybe, if she wrote it as a journal entry to herself, and found a way to leave it out by mistake, it could work.

  Leslie had to try something.

  The door creaked closed behind her, making Janelle mutter. She had to get away from everyone else the best she could. Her plan would have the best chance of working then.

  The campsite was almost gray in the early morning light. Only one light was on inside the one that Thomas Curt and his sister were staying in. Janelle was supposed to ask them to go, but she'd been distracted yesterday. Leslie rushed past the camper, wishing the two of them would leave. She didn't care if Thomas Curt had to live in his car. Partly thanks to him, Paul had nearly killed a stadium full of people. And definitely thanks to him, Paul's dad and uncle had to commit a felony to distract the Mobley police. She and Paul wouldn't have escaped Mobley any other way.

  The bathrooms were empty this time of morning except for a light flickering inside. Leslie ducked in, found a stall, and sat with notebook in hand. She listened to make sure no one was coming in, trapping her in here.

  Silence. She began to write, ignoring the ache of her sore rib.

  Dear Journal.

  That part she could jot down, at least.

  And then, the rest started to come out as Leslie scratched her pencil against the lines of the paper, forming words. Sentences. Then, paragraphs. The whole account with Andrina at the hospital came out, laid bare right in front of her.

  But would she be able to hand it to anyone? Or leave the bathroom without flushing it down the toilet first?

  That she didn't know. But it beat trying nothing. It couldn't wait, because Janelle was sure to put her back to work researching Hyrokkin this morning, without Sophia present at the library, of course.

  Leslie wrote away, going back to that scene yesterday, pausing over every word Andrina had said to make sure she'd left nothing out.

  At last she finished several minutes later. And for the first time in my life, I really can't talk, she wrote. Weird, huh?

  She wasn't sure why she'd added the bit of humor to something so serious. Leslie slapped the notebook shut and stood. So far, her arms weren't making motions to tear out the pages and throw them in the toilet. There might be a way to outsmart Andrina after all. She'd overlooked things before.

  She paused, heart leaping to her chest.

  Footsteps crunched on gravel, growing louder every second.

  Someone was coming.

  * * * * *

  "Sophia! Sophia! You're freezing cold!"

  The words cut through the blizzard as invisible arms shook her.

  "Wake up!"

  Callie. But she was nowhere around. Even Hyrokkin, the giant winter demon, had vanished.

  The blizzard around her melted away into darkness, retreating into the black haze it must have come from.

  Of course. She was asleep. The apocalyptic ice age wasn't real.

  Yet.

  Sophia opened her eyes, clawing at her blankets to escape them, just in case Hyrokkin managed to suck her back into that horrible place where all of her friends were dead and everything she knew was buried.

  Callie blew a blond-and-pink strand out of her face and sighed in relief. "You were scaring me." There were tears rimming her eyes. She'd lost enough in the past couple of days. Callie didn't need to lose anything else. "I thought you were freezing to death! I heard you groaning in your sleep and came over to check on you." She turned her head as she put her hand on Sophia's forehead. "Wake up, Kenna. Get over here."

  Sophia struggled to sit up. She didn't feel cold anymore, but the wince on Callie's face told her that it was probably just an illusion.

  She hugged the blanket closer to herself, suddenly wanting her grandmother more than she ever had. But she wasn't here. She was way over in North Carolina, a mile from the beach, and a universe away from the place Sophia had just escaped.

  Hyrokkin had never spoken to her like this before, not even in her nightmares.

  But there was no reason for the monster to hide anymore.

  Quite the opposite, and that reason was Andrina.

  She and Hyrokkin would be the key to starting the apocalypse. A monster like Andrina would have no problem with it, if what Janelle and her friends said about her was true.

  "Um, Sophia? Are you in a parallel dimension or something? You're staring at that microwave like it's about to jump over here and eat your head."

  She snapped back to reality and faced Callie. Her friend managed a smile, but it couldn't conceal the worry growing inside her, or the grief, or the fatigue. The need to just go outside and scream.

  "Yes," she lied. What was she supposed to say? Sophia slid out of bed, taking a long time to put on her socks. It was normal, the farthest thing fr
om what she was. Even Callie and the other Tempests were normal and harmless compared to her. So were the Outbreakers. No hurricane or tornado was capable of ending all of civilization.

  Only gods and goddesses were…or those harboring them.

  Sophia slid on her shoes, ignoring something that Callie said. She barely noticed Kenna staying on her heels as she pushed open the door to the camper and started for the bathrooms. Her stomach threatened to go over the line from queasy to Going to Throw Up at any second.

  But the thing she needed to escape the most was always there, following her closer than her own breath trailing in her wake.

  The footfalls behind her grew fainter. Someone tripped.

  Sophia realized too late she had put too much distance between her and Kenna.

  The wintry fingers spread through her body and down into her legs, propelling her forward even as she gasped for air and silently begged them to stop.

  But she couldn't. Not now. Enough of the demon had returned to make sure she didn't quit running, turn around, and return to her friends like she should.

  * * * * *

  Leslie froze in the stall doorway, listening to the footsteps tap closer.

  No. They were running closer. That ruled out almost all of the older vacationers here in the campgrounds. There were two sets of footsteps, actually, and heavy breathing. It had to be someone she knew.

  At the thought, Leslie's legs acted on their own, still obeying Andrina's orders. She slid back into the stall and closed the door. Someone rushed past, half-gasping and half-sobbing. Whoever it was ran past the stalls and into the shower area. She thought the girl might run farther, towards the pool, but she didn't. The footsteps stopped.

  A second later, the hissing sound of water hitting linoleum echoed into the bathroom. Then more, and more. It sounded as if an entire swim team was rinsing off for a big competition. Leslie didn't get why someone would need to turn all of the showers on.

  "Sophia? Don't go far," Kenna said, rushing past the stall. Her footsteps stopped as she reached the mouth of the shower room. The volcano goddess didn't go in.