“I’ve only come for the mortal,” Frost said.
The two guards rose up from the back of the crowd. “You again?” the smaller one said, smoke puffing from his mouth with every word. “I told you you’re not welcome here!”
“Give me the mortal, and I’ll never return again.”
“Well,” the taller one spoke up, “if you’re not going to leave us alone, there’s only one thing left to do. Men—”
The wicked grins spreading over every face made Frost shiver. As they lifted their arms, the ground began to quake. Searing heat slammed against his body a moment before the burning liquid hit. Then he was washed out of the tunnel by the scorching sludge.
The fresh air outside restored enough of his strength that he was able to stop himself from falling and hang above the ground pitifully.
Fear struck him as he considered Lilly still trapped down there and the damage the lava would do if it found its way to her. “No,” he cried a moment before the fiery men hit him full force again.
Then he was pinned against the hot ground. It felt like every part of his body was strapped down as he struggled against the downpour.
Thinking of Lilly trapped underground, he blew a great blast of icy air, freezing the lava and sending smoke billowing through the air. The cold surrounding him offered strength for the few moments before dozens of fire spirits cast flames over his arctic defense and melted the lava all over him. The immediate change from cold to hot left him miserably numb.
He finally saw light as the liquid rolled away from his face. “Agree to leave, or spend forever right where you are,” the man hovering at the head of their foul army said.
“Give—me—the—mortal,” Frost panted.
The guard only shook his head. With a wave of his arm, Frost was fully enclosed in the magma once more.
As the minutes passed by, Frost’s heart filled with the ever-growing anxiety that Lilly was dead. His only hope was that Flora had gotten to her in time. That hope was frail though, and it wasn’t long before his body began to tremble with fear. So when the molten rock parted from his face once more and he found Flint kneeling over him, he was extremely relieved.
“Where is Lilly?” he asked.
“Give me what I want, and I will deliver her to you.” Flint held out a hand for Frost to shake as more lava peeled itself away, exposing Frost’s arm.
Frost glanced up and saw that only a few men still lingered, talking amongst themselves. He hated them. He hated everything about them. And he would never become one of them.
But he would do anything to have Lilly back. He’d given up on Flora. Too much time had passed since they parted ways to expect her to have been successful.
Even though he didn’t trust Flint, he lifted his hand. Frost felt he had no choice. He would transfer everything to Flint and become a man of fire. Then he would deliver the job to a mortal and live out his days with Lilly. It wasn’t the way he’d hoped it would happen, but he would spend forever regretting it if he didn’t do everything possible to secure her safety.
Reaching for Flint’s hand was the most difficult thing he’d ever done. It was giving up who he was and wondering if Lilly would still love him as someone else. It was torture. Frost shut his eyes when his fingers nearly reached Flint’s, unable to watch the hideous transformation spread over his body.
Chapter Nine
A great whooshing sound was immediately followed by a loud crack. Frost dared to open his eyes. Flint had vanished from sight, but Frost was deep enough in lava that he couldn’t see anything to his sides. The five men overhead all looked to the right a moment before they were bludgeoned by baseball-sized balls of ice and sent flying back.
A man with icicles for hair landed on the surface above Frost. “I’ll have you out of there in no time,” he said, placing a hand on the magma so that it froze solid.
The rush of strength Frost received from the cold allowed him to shatter it to pieces and fly up to see the winter spirits all flying toward them. “Thank you, Tundra,” he said.
“Flora told us what was happening. This time of year nearly all of our kind is spread out around the world, but we brought who we could.”
“Flora? Did she mention a mortal?” Frost’s voice was full of desperation.
“No. She flew past our winter lands, shouting about you needing assistance in fire territory, and kept going.”
This did nothing to quiet Frost’s concerns. She must have been washed out of the tunnels as well and gone for help, Frost concluded, certain Lilly was still being held captive.
In the onslaught of ice against the firemen, Frost saw that there were far more fighting on his side, but that didn’t last long. Blazing men began pouring out of the ground. First from the hole, he’d been thrown out of. Then the earth was rumbling as men tore fresh openings in the black stone, spilling lava and flames everywhere.
“Thank you with all my heart,” Frost said as he shook Tundra’s hand, thinking of what he’d saved him from doing. “But I must go find someone.”
Icy men and women sent a blizzard down from the sky to weaken the fiery ones as Frost flew toward the main entrance. He dove for it, crashing into two burly men and being thrown back by the ones underneath. The fire pouring from the majority of spirits washed over Frost several times as he fell. He managed to catch himself when he passed through the stream of heavy snow Tundra blew against a fire spirit, just as a hand grabbed Frost’s collar.
“You could end this,” Flint growled into his face.
“Let go of me.” Frost shoved him away and flew back toward the cave’s entrance.
Barely a third of the way there, Flint grabbed his arm and spun him around, taking hold of his shirt and breathing fire out all over him as he pushed him full speed toward the ground. After everything Frost had been through, his strength simply couldn’t match Flint’s. Stone cracked, and rock shot in every direction as Frost’s body slammed into the earth.
“Give me winter!” Flint hollered.
“Give me Lilly!”
Immediately, vines began wrapping themselves around Flint’s arms and yanked him off Frost. Frost looked up and saw a lady of spring shooting vines from her hands as they wrapped around Flint’s body. Ladies arrayed in the beautiful colors of spring came from the west in great flocks, shooting unbreakable vines and massive purple thorns at the enemies of cold. Frost searched the faces for Flora’s but couldn’t find her.
The hole he needed to get to was finally empty. He flew as hard as he could for it, dodging outpours of fire, lava and burning stones. He was getting closer. He was almost there.
Then something slammed into him, spinning him in violent circles as it tossed him through the air. Frost rolled through the great wind, far away from the immortal battle. He slammed into a tree in the nearby forest, ripping through it and finally stopping when he hit a second one.
In the distance, he could see the wind spirits joining the fight. They’d always been fire’s greatest ally. They were enormously dangerous to bring in because their fierce winds would carry the intense hot and cold gusts for miles around.
Frost didn’t care at the moment though. He only cared about getting to Lilly.
He and several others who’d been caught in the mighty whirlwind rose from the junipers and pines and flew back toward combat.
Indestructible bodies slamming into the ground repeatedly had ripped it all apart. The sky was darkening with the great discord of nature. Frost felt partially responsible, but was so full of worry that he had no room for guilt.
As he approached two wind spirits from behind, both sending miniature twisters in the direction of a spring spirit, he threw up his arms, showering them with sleet and stinging cold that would freeze it to them. The cyclones dissolved as the unexpected weight and stiffness of their bodies sent them plummeting to the ground.
The earth trembled and cracked as the sky became even darker. The fighting needed to stop. It was getting out of hand. But Frost refuse
d to do anything until he had Lilly safely by his side.
He flew toward the tunnel’s main entrance in one final attempt to retrieve Lilly. Halfway to the hole, he glanced to the east when he saw something bright moving toward the mass of brutality. Summer spirits, all blazing bright yellow and orange, were coming to join the chaos. They would fight on fire’s side, Frost knew. He needed to hurry.
Almost to his target, someone shouted, “Immobolize!” alarmingly loud. Mother Nature was coming.
Frost felt his body become stiff. He hung absolutely still in the deafeningly silent air. He could see below him that everyone had become immobile, and all fighting had ceased.
“All this destruction over the ownership of a single mortal?” Mother Nature’s voice carried to every ear. “You are all above this. However, since each one of you is foolish enough to war over it, we will resolve this right now. Flint! Frost! I need a word with the two of you.”
The spirits struggled for a moment to regain their balance when she released them, too afraid to resume the fighting. Frost flew toward the voice with his head down. Everything that had happened had taken its toll on him. He still didn’t know if Lilly was alive or dead, and now he had to face Mother Nature. It was all too much, and he didn’t want anyone to see him cry.
“Jack!” someone cried.
He looked up when he heard Lilly’s voice.
Chapter Ten
Mother Nature was holding Lilly by the elbow, willing her to hover high above the ground at her side. A spring spirit was flying away from her other side, perhaps the one Flora had left the precious mortal with to call on help for Frost.
His eyes lit up as he shot toward Lilly, letting joyful flurries fall behind him. “You’re alive!” Frost said, taking her in his arms. Mother Nature let go of her, leaving Frost in charge of keeping her afloat.
“So are you.” Lilly looked just as relieved.
Frost laughed at her suggestion that he could’ve been killed. “I really need to explain everything to you.”
“You will both tell me exactly what happened here,” Mother Nature said. “Flint, you first.”
Frost held Lilly protectively against him as he turned to watch Flint approaching. The fire spirit’s eyebrows bent down angrily, his hands all ablaze. Frost fought the urge to set Lilly on the ground and strangle him.
“Daniel?” a soft voice asked from behind Flint.
A look of confusion passed over his face for a moment. Then he turned around cautiously, staring at the winter spirit with glistening tears in her eyes. “Lynn...” His eyes were empty, and then became wide. “The fire.” He reached out for her unexpectedly and began crying into her dark frost-covered hair. “I’m, I’m so sorry,” he choked out. “I tried to save you, but—the building caved in.”
“I know,” the pale lady murmured, her hands putting off steam as they went back and forth over his back.
Mother Nature watched them uncertainly. She could see the memories they brought back to each other. The fire that had started in the paint factory where they were both employed. Neither made it out alive, but both left immortal.
On that day, a fire and winter spirit who’d fallen in love had made the decision to give up immortality. Fire and freezing cold can’t physically be together. It was the only way. So they gave their powers to Daniel and Lynn, who became Flint and Isolda.
Now Mother Nature feared she would soon lose them, too. She hated every time it happened because she loved each of her aids like her own children.
All of a sudden, Isolda gasped and flew back. Her arms and neck where Flint had laid his head were pink. Smoke came off her skin. “That hurt.”
“But that’s impossible,” Flint said.
“No, it isn’t,” Mother Nature said. “Opposing forces can never be together. Your power weakens. Your body cannot take it. Within days, it would kill you both.”
Flint and Isolda exchanged pained looks. Flint turned to Mother Nature. “That isn’t fair.”
“I know,” she said. “But that is how things are. I cannot change it.”
Flint looked down and took a deep breath. “I took the mortal from Frost to force him to give me the powers of winter. I wanted to be as far away from fire as possible. I just didn’t understand why.” Flint looked back at Isolda. “It was because I died trying to save the love of my life from burning to death. She was my whole world, and fire took her from me. That’s what led to all this fighting.”
“You did this because you wanted winter?” Isolda asked, moving closer to him. He nodded sadly. Isolda looked at her hand as she held it out, the bluish-white light of her skin dimming. “Take it from me then. I only want you to be happy.”
Flint stared at it in surprise, not saying a word for a long time. Then he shook his head. “I would never be happy without you.”
She smiled as a tear rolled over each cheek. “Neither would I.” Moving to his side, they both turned to face Mother Nature.
“I’m sorry,” Flint said.
Mother Nature could see that the love they shared was perfect and nodded her approval. She wanted them to be happy, after all.
“Would you make Lilly a winter spirit, Isolda?” Frost asked unexpectedly, seeing that they intended to choose mortality.
“Yes, if she were dying.”
“Wh... what about my dad?” Lilly asked, shivering.
“You’re freezing again,” Frost said. “Can we talk about this on the ground?”
“Of course,” Mother Nature answered.
They all descended to a rather warm spot where Lilly would be safe from the lava settling all over the place. Frost let go of her but made sure he stayed within arm’s length. His fear for her safety had not all gone away yet.
“We should go,” Flint said to Isolda. “I want to give fire away to a mortal today, right now, and pick up our lives together again.”
“Wait.” Frost was desperate. “If Lilly wanted it, isn’t there some way Isolda could give her the power of cold?” he asked Mother Nature.
“She would have to be dying. It is the law of nature.”
Frost only thought for a moment before turning to Lilly. “I could freeze you to death.” It was so terrible it hurt to say aloud, but it was the only way he could think of to make it quick and painless.
“What!” Lilly looked horrified.
“I know it sounds awful. But I could make you cold enough you would freeze almost instantly. It would only hurt for a split second, and then you would never have to die. You would never feel pain or hunger. We could be together, forever and ever.”
Lilly had a difficult time processing this at first because her mind and heart raced with the terror of dying, even if it could make her immortal, but at the same time, it sounded like a dream come true. Being able to surround herself with snow and ice every single day. Possessing the ability to create and manipulate it. Being with Jack. It was what she’d wanted her entire life. It would be sad to leave Rebecca behind, but Lilly knew she could visit her during winter, the way Jack always came to see her. The only thing she could never leave behind was her father. Losing her mom had nearly destroyed him. He wouldn’t survive another blow like that. “I’d love that, Jack, but I can’t leave my dad alone.”
Frost’s heart broke. “Please.”
“I could give him the power of fire,” Flint said anxiously. “We could go right now, and Frost could freeze you both.”
That’s perfect, Lilly thought, still frightened a bit by the end of his statement. She had to wonder if her father would be as eager to leave his life behind as she was.
“Frost,” Mother Nature said. “There is something you should share with the mortal. It will surely solve everyone’s problems.”
Frost knew she meant Flora. If Lilly realized she could reunite her parents, she wouldn’t hesitate, but he was still afraid of what her reaction would be.
He turned to the countless nature spirits standing on the ground now, waiting silently for what Mother Nature w
ould say. Flora was on the outskirts, watching them nervously. Frost waved her over, so she flew to them quickly.
“I hope you can forgive me for not telling you,” Frost said to Lilly. “It is against our laws for me to speak of it. But it’s different with her knowing now, and the mortal veil of your senses being take away...This is your mother.”
Lilly’s forehead creased. She stared at Flora strangely, realizing why she looked familiar. It was the woman she’d never met, but seen the face of every day in the picture by her front door. The one she’d missed and needed numerous times throughout her life. “You’re my mother?” she asked.
“Mm-hm.” Flora’s eyes were brimming with tears. She held her arms out, wanting badly to fill them with her daughter. Lilly ran into them, both women crying now. The empty space she’d felt every time she needed a mother’s advice, presence and love began to fill in. For the first time in over eighteen years, she had her very own mom.
“Can you ever forgive me?” Frost asked, fearing Lilly would hate him forever.
Lilly lifted her head to look at him. “You’ve given me back my mom. What’s there to forgive?” Frost smiled with relief, feeling the unending joy she radiated.
“Can my parents be together if my dad becomes a fire spirit?” Lilly asked Mother Nature, letting go of her mom.
“They will have duties they must each attend to, but there are no bounds that would keep them apart.”
Lilly looked back to Flora. “All right. Let’s go get Dad.”
Mother Nature was left to quiet the angry hearts of the great crowd as the other five headed for Minnesota, Lilly flying in the safety and warmth of her mother’s loving grasp.
Chapter Eleven
Zachery Donovan sat beside the same restaurant window his daughter did right before she disappeared. He’d arrived in Alaska the night before and hadn’t eaten or slept at all. Rebecca met with him that morning, unable to do much more than cry and apologize. Zachery assured her repeatedly that he didn’t blame her. But nothing he said helped, and watching her cry only made him feel worse. He was glad when she returned to the arctic center. Now, hours later, he sat staring out the window, praying he’d see Lilly pass by.
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