by Evi Asher
Angelica was not convinced. Something felt…wrong.
She looked back over her shoulder to see if Disco was still following them, and he was, no matter what she had tried—yelling, pretending to throw stuff at him, even screaming at the dog—he’d stayed with them. He was a ways back, but he kept pace with the snow mobile far easier than Angelica thought was possible. Why the dog had decided to follow her, she didn’t know.
A sputtering of the engine yanked Angelica from her thoughts. The snowmobile jerked and shuddered with a cough. Kate cursed and twisted the throttle. The machine spluttered again, and the engine cut out with one last cough.
“Damn it.” Kate hit the handlebar with a gloved hand as Angelica dismounted.
“Dead?”
“Yes. Shit.” Kate hissed.
“Is it still far?”
“Far…what?” Kate looked distracted as she fiddled with something on the snow machine.
“To the mine and the town.”
“Oh…Oh, yes, a bit of a walk.”
Angelica felt a frown crease her brow. Something was not right. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but her instincts were screaming at her.
Disco caught up to them and rubbed himself along Angelica’s leg with a chuff of greeting. She reached down and scratched his ears with her gloved hands.
Angelica lifted her chin at the snow mobile. “Will it run again?”
“Yeah, if it gets gas.” Kate aimed a kick at the machine, then grabbed her foot and cursed some more.
“You do know that inanimate objects don’t feel pain, but you do, right?”
“Har har, you crack me up,” Kate said in a monotone. “Here.” She tossed a backpack that nearly knocked Angelica off her feet. “Time to start walking.”
Angelica sighed, but put her arms through the straps of the pack and settled it onto her back. She followed Kate as the other woman started walking in the direction they had been going, and Disco stayed close to her.
“How long will it take to get to the mining town?” Angelica was eager to get rid of Michael. The more she thought about what Laz had said, the more sense it made. Every time Michael appeared, he sucked the heat out of her body, and that wasn’t a good thing. He couldn’t appear if she was too cold and that was a good thing because she didn’t want him around now.
“Shut up and walk,” Kate spat.
Cold shivers raced up Angelica’s spine. Why had Kate’s tone sounded so familiar? It wasn’t the voice, but rather the way the words were said. Angelica knew that tone. She had to place it. So she kept her mouth closed and started thinking.
They were hiking uphill and Kate was moving fast. Angelica didn’t have time to test each of her steps, so she tried to stay in Kate’s tracks. The last thing she wanted was to be swallowed shoulder-deep in snow.
“So, I know you don’t come from the village.” Angelica had heard Jericho say as much. “Where do you come from?”
Kate laughed, and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Somewhere you know well.”
“Oh,?” Angelica was curious so she sped up a bit to get closer to Kate. “I don’t know many places in the earth realm.”
Kate didn’t answer. She picked up the pace, and Angelica found herself lagging behind again.
Angelica thought she’d try something different. “Are you and Jericho serious?”
Kate stopped and turned to Angelica. “Do you always talk so much? I don’t remember you talking so much.”
Angelica felt a frown crease her face. “You don’t know me.”
There was that laugh again as Kate turned and started walking faster.
“What is going on?” Angelica got distracted when her foot slipped on a patch of ice. She grabbed for something to stop her fall and Disco appeared under her hand, preventing her from landing on her behind. “Thanks, boy.” She regained her balance and scratched the big dog behind the ear. He gave her a doggy grin and stayed closer as they moved on.
There was more ice on the ground now, and the wind picked up, blowing the snow off it, making the footing treacherous.
“I asked you a question, Kate.” Angelica knew she should be concentrating on where to put her feet. They were on the glacier now, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong.
“My name isn’t Kate.”
“What?” Angelica stopped when the other woman did.
Kate turned toward her and didn’t say anything.
Angelica took a few steps forward to stand near the other woman. “What is your name, if it isn’t Kate?”
Kate chose that moment to thrust her hands out, hitting Angelica square on the upper chest. She stumbled back, tried to put her foot down to steady herself, but her foot met, and went through a snow layer and further down. Angelica found herself falling into a crevasse. A scream escaped her throat and she grabbed at the snow to stop her descent. Her fingers slid through the wet mush and she crashed down. The walls of the ice crevasse closed in on her as she fell, scraping her through the layers of clothes she had on. Her breath exploded from her chest in a whoosh of air as she became stuck between the ice walls.
Fighting for air, she gasped like a lung-cancer patient without oxygen. Her gloved palms flattened on the ice above her. She was wedged in tight, her legs dangling, her chest crushed between two massive slabs of ice, her arms above her head.
She tried to lower her arms, and managed to find the space to bend her elbows and bring her palms to chest level next to her. She still held her gloves against the ice wall and she could feel the cold creeping through the thick lining.
She got some air into her oxygen-starved lungs and screamed again.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Angelica tilted her head back to look up at the overcast sky as Kate’s head appeared at the opening. It looked miles away, but she judged she was about fifteen feet down into the crevasse.
Kate smirked down at Angelica. “Aren’t you dead, yet?”
Oh…kay, so Kate was apparently trying to kill her.
“Um.” Angelica took stock of her body. She was sore and the ice was permeating cold through her clothing, but she didn’t think anything was broken. Her breath misted on the air in front of her and she could see the ice beginning to melt from the warmth, just a bead, or two. She didn’t think she was in any danger of warming the ice enough to melt and fall further into the crevasse. “I’m still alive.” Then she muttered, “For now.” Angelica raised her voice “I don’t think I’m going to die right this minute. Do you mind telling me why you are trying to kill me?”
“You still haven’t figured it out?” Kate began to laugh, and her form seemed to shimmer in the cold air. She looked like a mirage. When her body stopped wavering, Angelica gasped in shock. Instead of the lithe blonde and beautiful Kate, it was Malta, her hair darkened until it was almost black. Her eyes transformed from the liquid brown of Kate’s to the storm blue of Malta’s.
Angelica was so shocked to see Malta that the first words she spoke were, “How the hell did you do that?”
Malta gloated down at Angelica. “My father had magic that I inherited from him.”
“What?” Angelica felt stupid, but she’d never heard of a shifter using magic.
“My father’s father was a sorcerer. I got the right genes. I’ve been practicing since I was a child. In secret, of course.” Malta buffed and inspected her nails. “I couldn’t have the other phoenix knowing I had abilities that they didn’t.”
Another drawn-out okay echoed in Angelica’s mind, as well as more questions.
Why had Malta followed her to the earth plain, and why was the phoenix trying to kill her? What was going on, and why the disguise? None of it made sense.
“Well, it looks like I’m stuck here for a while, so why don’t you tell me your reasons?”
“For why I came through after you?”
“Yeah, and the other stuff.” Angelica stifled the urge to spit out the word duh.
“I can sum it up in one wo
rd. Colt.”
Malta’s smug look made Angelica clench her teeth. She felt anger start to burn in her veins and it wasn’t a good thing, because her body temperature spiked, and she felt the ice around her start to melt. She looked up at Disco. “Go, boy, fetch help!”
The dog turned and ran off in the direction they had come from.
Malta laughed again, that horrible evil sounding laugh.
“He won’t save you. You’ll be dead long before Colt gets here, and I’ll be weeping and wailing about how my dear friend slipped into a crevasse and there was nothing I could do to save her.”
“Let me bet. You think Colt will take you into his arms and console you, telling you that these things happen.”
“Something like that.” Malta smirked.
“Delusional,” Angelica muttered as she tried to shift a little. There was a piece of ice digging into her kidney and it hurt.
“I could be stuck here for a while. You could be wasting your time, and they might get here in time to get me out.”
“No, Angelica, they won’t.” Malta leaned down, carefully balanced herself, and put her hand to the side of the wall. Flames burst from her finger.
“Wait!” Angelica screamed.
Malta doused the flames for a moment. “What? Can’t you see I’m busy killing you?”
“At least tell me why you are so obsessed with Colt.”
Malta smiled and leaned back to sit on her haunches, her flames extinguished and her palms flat on her knees. She peered off into the distance with a look of longing etched on her features. “He is…I lack the words to describe him—perfect seems so inadequate.”
“You are in love with him.” It was a statement, and Angelica spat out the words as a stab of jealousy tore through her gut.
Malta tilted her head back and laughed. “I have no time for love, but what I get when I’m naked with Colt is as close as I want it. I plan on enslaving him, keeping him under my spell, so I can have him when it pleases me.”
Angelica felt bile rise in her throat and swallowed convulsively. Her voice was a whisper when it came out. “You can’t do that to Colt.”
“What did you say?”
Angelica cleared her throat and tried again. “I said…you can’t do that to Colt.”
She felt her face suffused with the heat of her anger. It burned through her, and in that moment, she didn’t care that she was melting the ice around her.
“Oh, but I can, and I will.” Malta leaned forward and placed her palms on the ice. Angelica watched as they blazed again, the blue and red flames licking and soaking into the ice. Water started to drip on her, and it wasn’t cold. It said a lot for the heat of the flame that Malta was producing that the water that fell on Angelica’s upturned face was warm.
“Don’t do this, Malta.” Angelica tried to interject some pleading into her tone, but even to hear own ears, she failed.
“Shut up, Angelica.”
That was when Angelica realized she knew the tone. Her subconscious had associated that way of saying it with Malta. Why hadn’t she figured it out sooner? She was furious with herself. Furious for being caught in a trap and trusting someone when she should have known better.
The piece of ice digging into Angelica’s kidney melted away, and she didn’t know if she should be grateful for the release of pressure or terrified of what it meant.
“You are making a mistake, Malta.”
The other phoenix made a rude sound. “The only mistake I made was that I didn’t kill you sooner.”
Angelica’s weight lurched as she slipped a few inches. She couldn’t help the squeal of fright that burst from her lips.
“It won’t be long now.”
Angelica looked down. Down. Down.
She couldn’t see the bottom or the crevasse, and her heart was pounding a staccato rhythm against her ribs.
No.
If she was going to die today, she was going to do it with dignity. She lifted her chin, refusing to look down into the dark blue depths of the ice chasm.
She held her breath as she slid a little further, but didn’t scream.
Her greatest regrets as she stared up at the woman who was going to kill her was that she hadn’t told Colt she loved him—nor had she been able to warn him of what lay in store with Malta.
It took all of Angelica’s courage, and as she felt herself slip again, she asked, “Can you do me one favor?”
“I’m busy right now, Angelica, but what do you want?” Malta lifted her hands for a moment…a moment of ice not melting.
Angelica felt a surge of hope. Maybe she could keep Malta distracted long enough. If she could keep the other phoenix busy, maybe Colt and the rest would have time to find them. He’d always come after her before—surely he would again.
“Well,?” Malta leaned down, putting her hands to the ice again, and Angelica felt all hope vanish. This female was determined to kill her, and she wasn’t going to wait for the convenience of Colt’s attempted rescue. Angelica realized she was toast.
“Please tell Colt I said goodbye.”
Malta looked down and met her eyes. There was something softer in there for a second, but then they became hard as stone in her features. “No.”
“Fair enough.” Angelica wouldn’t ask again. She felt the ice give and she dropped at least another foot. There was no more time for thoughts or wishes. It was going to be over soon. Angelica braced herself as a channel of water soaked her clothes.
She felt the ice give and gravity take hold. She didn’t even have a chance to scream as she started to plummet, and the last thing she heard was the echo of Malta’s laughter.
Chapter Three
Archer revved the snowmobile’s engine and tried to get more speed out of it, but the drifts were deep and he was pushing it. If he pushed much harder, he would overturn the thing and be forced to ride behind someone else, slowing them up even more.
A shrill whistle came from behind and he glanced back over his shoulder to see Athera waving to get his attention. He slowed down and stopped so the rest could catch up. Nanook bound past him and changed direction going north.
“What, we are wasting daylight here.” He grumbled as they stopped next to him.
“We need to change direction,” Laz said, his voice muffled by his ski mask.
It hadn’t taken much for the necromancer to hone in on Geli’s direction. Apparently, she had a ghost attached to her, which was news to Colt, and not very welcome news at that. Now that Laz could feel the spirit, he couldn’t un-feel it, so they were following Angelica that way.
“Follow your dog,” Athera said
Colt glanced to see Nanook standing in the snow, looking back at them as if asking when they were going to get a move on.
“How does he know… Never mind. Let’s get going.” He revved the engine again, but before he could release the throttle to give it gas, another dog appeared out of the trees. “What the f—”
Disco stopped to sniff at Nanook, then took off at a speed right toward Colt.
He started barking insistently and trying to knock Colt off the snow machine, and he nearly succeeded, too.
“Whoa, boy, where have you been?” He grabbed the dog in a bear hug to settle him down.
Disco wormed his way out of Colt’s arms and dropped down onto all fours, then turned his haunches toward his master, barking, almost howling over his shoulder.
“I think he wants us to follow him,” Archer said.
“That’s a big ass Duh.” Scarlet rolled her eyes and gave her snow machine gas to pull forward and follow the dog.
Colt was not going to wait there and let the others get ahead. He needed his mate back, and he had a bad feeling building in the pit of his stomach.
He got the machine going and sped after Scarlet while Archer yelled at her to slow down. He over-took her and let Disco lead the way to Angelica.
The bad feeling got scarier as they traveled and he realized where they were going—up onto the
glacier.
Trees thinned out, then vanished, and the snow became icy. Colt felt terror building inside him.
Athera called out as she spotted the snowmobile first, standing unattended to one side. Disco kept running, and it amazed Colt because he’d never seen the dog run so fast, not even when he was most excited, pulling the sled. Nanook stayed close on Disco’s heals.
Then, Colt saw Kate. He stopped by the other snowmobile and left it there, running toward her. As he got closer, he could see her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.
He reached her and stopped, not even thinking of the others, but aware of them reaching him and Kate. “Where is Angelica?” he asked, his voice thick. He looked down and saw the fissure in the ice and he was terrified, but he had an idea what had happened.
Kate sobbed harder, hiccupping as she did. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Where is Geli”
Kate straightened an arm and pointed down into the crevasse. She looked down it as a fresh tear rolled down her cheek.
Colt felt his chest tighten up and the urge to sit down in the snow was almost undeniable.
Athera pushed him out the way. “How did it happen?”
Colt could hear the anger in her voice—Athera had the same feeling as he did, he was sure. There was something wrong here.
Kate said nothing as she continued to sob.
The sound of skin connecting with skin made Colt look away from the crevasse in time to see Kate’s head snap to the left as Athera slapped the other woman through the face. “Suck it up and tell me what happened.”
“Ath, calm down.” Scarlet stepped forward and grabbed Athera’s hand when it looked like she was going to slap Kate again.
Colt watched the scene unfold in an almost detached way. He saw Archer and Laz walk to the edge of the crevasse, being careful where they put their feet and looking down into it.
He saw Kate sniff and look at him as if she was expecting something, but she still hadn’t said anything. He felt like his insides being torn up as if something was clawing his guts to pieces—something dull and damaging.
He called to his bear, the other part of his soul, but the creature was silent, hiding in the back of his mind, unwilling or unable to step forward and help him deal with what was happening to him.