A Fistful of Frost

by Rebecca Chastain

  “Can you stand?” Niko’s urgent baritone rumbled in my ears.

  No.

  “I can’t lift her.”

  Don’t cry, Jamie.

  “Here.” Niko slid an arm under my knees, another along my back, and I soared through the air, settling against his warm torso. Lux lucis realigned in my chest like a compass needle, pointing to Jamie. “Can you run?”

  I can fly.

  The horizon bounced—the stands, the black cloud, Jamie’s worried eyes. The pooka clutched my hand in his, our fingers both so cold I couldn’t feel his grip.

  The moment we passed beyond the atrum cloud, energy gushed into my chest, rushing down my body, stripping away the atrum and my buffer of shock. Gasping, I squeezed Jamie’s hand, twisting in Niko’s arms to see the pooka better.

  “Careful,” I croaked. “Don’t give me too much.”

  Jamie sobbed and nodded. Niko didn’t stop until an entire baseball field separated us from the rain of atrum. The moment he set me on my feet, I reached for Jamie, and we clung to each other, wobbling on weak legs.

  “I thought you died—again,” Jamie said.

  “Me too.”

  “You saved me.”

  I hugged Jamie’s shivering, naked form to me. “You saved me.”

  “You both saved each other,” Niko said. “Neither of you should be alive.”

  I leaned back to smile at Jamie. His jaw chattered, but he grinned through it.

  “No more.” I tapped his chest where lux lucis continued to feed from him to me. “You need to conserve your energy.”

  “You sure?”

  I closed my eyes and assessed my body. My knees trembled and my eyelids didn’t want to open back up, but it was exhaustion, nothing more. “Yes. Thank you.”

  Jamie tapered the line of lux lucis connecting us to a thread before cutting it off. My knees buckled, and I would have fallen if Niko hadn’t caught me with an arm around my waist.

  “I’m going to change. It’s too cold to be human.”

  In a seamless morph of flesh to fur, Jamie bent and assumed his Great Dane form. His soul bubbled and settled inside his new shape, his atrum glossy black, his lux lucis pale and drained. Even weakened, the good energy didn’t succumb to the stronger evil energy. In fact, it almost looked as if more white sloshed inside him than black.

  Jamie circled once and flopped against my feet in the snow-churned grass. Niko helped me sit next to him, and I draped an arm over the pooka’s back. He sighed and closed his eyes. Niko unzipped his coat and laid it over Jamie, earning another happy sigh from the pooka.

  Sheets of atrum rained onto the stadium, track, and football field, the downfall so thick it obscured everything beyond the outer edge. The sharp wind didn’t affect the evil cloud; it remained anchored above the tyv’s final location, as if not even death could negate the formidable creature’s power. Her dispersed atrum didn’t lose its potency, either, settling into a dense, dangerous black layer across the school grounds. A smattering of drones flitted through the tyv’s remains before scattering toward the horizon, their flight paths uncoordinated and random. Only a handful of newborn tyv stuck around, diving after Summer and Pamela to die against their soul breakers.

  The icy chill of the snow seeped anew through my wet pants and long johns, and my chest rattled with a weak shiver. Jamie and I needed to get warm and dry before we caught colds, but for the moment, resting beside my pooka seemed more important, my hand on his side, taking comfort in the rise and fall of his breaths and the steady thump of his heartbeat.

  “After all that, you’re smiling?” Niko asked, incredulous.

  I shrugged. “I’m alive.”

  Niko shook his head and took a step away from me, then paused, his shoulders stiff. Abruptly, he spun back, knelt, and gripped my upper arms. Holding me firm, he leaned close enough for his breath to fan across my face, his expression serious.

  I expected a lecture. Instead, he kissed me.

  I gasped at the shocking heat of his lips against mine, so hot they almost burned. Niko slid his tongue between my open lips, and with it a tendril of his lux lucis. A riot of electric sparks shimmied beneath my skin, igniting a path of molten fire from my mouth downward, thawing my frozen body. I moaned against Niko’s lips and his hands tightened with bruising strength around my arms. His tongue teased over mine again, then again, jolting pleasure through my sensitized nerves. Far too soon, he broke the kiss, nipping my bottom lip in parting. I opened my eyes, blinking at the passion reflected in his.

  “Whoa.” The word slipped from me on an exhale.

  The corners of Niko’s eyes crinkled with his barely-there smile, and he released me. I sagged, catching myself against Jamie.

  “I’m glad you’re alive, too,” Niko said.

  He jogged away to assist Pamela and Summer before I caught my breath. Just as well. I probably would have said something stupid.

  Jamie lifted his head from his paw, his whirling eyes meeting mine with a question.

  “I’m just as confused as you,” I said.

  Whether because of the pathetic state of our souls or fear of the pooka, the drones didn’t bother us. For once, I got to be a bystander, too tired to do more than pet Jamie’s side while the others dashed back and forth across the baseball fields, killing tyver.

  “It appears you two need more help than they do,” a male voice said from right beside me.

  Jamie and I jumped, and I fumbled for my soul breaker before I recognized Gavin Holt, the local medical enforcer. His footsteps in the snow proved he hadn’t materialized out of thin air, but I hadn’t heard or seen him approach. I must have been more out of it than I realized if he’d been able to sneak up on me in the middle of an empty baseball field.

  Dropping to his knees beside us, Gavin wrapped Jamie and me in thick wool blankets, then checked my pupils and pulse, poking and prodding with the detachment only a physician can exhibit. Barely older than me, with thick brown hair, kind eyes, a lean body, and a blazing soul, Gavin looked every part an enforcer, medical or not. He’d come prepared with his black doctor’s bag and a thick wooden staff, and experience had taught me he was as deadly with the staff as he was skilled as a medic.

  “How did you know we needed you?” I asked.

  “I’ve been on call since the tyver showed up. Brad sent me the moment he felt everything go—how did he phrase it?—‘graham crackers in gum balls’? Is it true the tyv was as large as a tank?”

  “More like a double-decker bus.” I ran my hand down Jamie’s side, reassuring myself once more that he was safe.

  “No wonder it took four of you to kill it.”

  I shook my head. “Just Jamie.”

  “Really?” Gavin asked, impressed.

  Jamie poked me with an icy nose and woofed.

  “Okay, I helped. Ow!” I batted Gavin’s hand away from my thigh where I’d cut myself on my soul breaker the night before. I didn’t need to look to know the wounds had reopened.

  “You’re injured,” he said, gesturing to the bloodstain on my pants. “Let me see.”

  “No. It happened yesterday and I’m fine. I’m not pulling my pants down in the snow so you can say the same thing.”

  We had a similar argument when Gavin prodded my tender ribs.

  “It doesn’t hurt unless you jab it with your pointy finger,” I groused. “Leave it alone and it’ll be fine.”

  “You do realize I’m the doctor here, right?” Gavin asked, but he shifted his attention to a cut on my forehead. I grumbled and hissed as he swabbed disinfectant over the wound and bandaged it, and again when he tended road rash on my palms. I didn’t remember getting either of the injuries, and I resented having fresh pain inflicted now after everything I’d suffered tonight. Yet somehow I found myself promising to drop by his office tomorrow for a full examination and whatever torture that entailed.

  When Gavin finally helped me to my feet, a litany of pains clamored for attention. I yearned for my soft bed. Fail
ing that, I wished Niko would offer to carry me to my car. Since he and Pamela had turned their attention to cleaning the taint of atrum from the stands and football field, I gave up on my selfish fantasy. As I hobbled across the infinite snow-covered baseball fields supported by Gavin, with Jamie stumbling against my hip, Niko and Pamela used powerful sweeps of lux lucis to eat through the settled atrum, recharging frequently on nearby shrubbery and trees. Oakmont High’s landscaping would need a complete overhaul in the spring, but a few dead fields, shrubs, and trees were worth the sacrifice to prevent the massive blanket of evil energy from tainting students when they returned to school.

  Summer plodded across the field, angling to meet us at the chain-link fence, weariness sloping her shoulders. Despite the clear skies, she clutched her soul breaker in a white-knuckled fist. Shell-shocked, I decided, recognizing her dazed look by the feel of it on my own face. Her soul guttered more faintly than mine, and when Gavin offered her liquid lux lucis, she took a sip. I waved aside the flask when she offered it to me.

  “Are you sure you don’t want some?” Gavin asked.

  I shook my head. A tiny shred of the lux lucis inside me was mine; the rest was pure pooka energy, and I wasn’t sure how liquid lux lucis would interact with it.

  “Then I insist you eat,” he said.

  “You have food?”

  “What kind of ME would I be if I didn’t?”

  Even Jamie, trudging nose down at my side, managed to perk up enough to wag his tail.

  The short chain-link fence separating us from our cars might as well have been the Great Wall for how insurmountable it appeared in my weary state, and I almost wept with relief when Gavin climbed the fence and returned with bolt cutters. Snapping the chain holding the gate closed, he rolled aside the barrier, and we limped out to the sidewalk.

  While Gavin examined Summer, I took Jamie to my Civic, popped the trunk, and laid out my spare clothes. I had his doggy vest, but after he’d spent the last half hour lying in the snow, it wouldn’t be enough to warm him back up. Fortunately, his human form was similarly proportioned to mine, right down to our identical height, and my pants, shirt, and sweater fit him. After he changed and dressed, we huddled in the same blanket on the back bumper of Gavin’s van, shivering together.

  Summer slumped beside me while Gavin rummaged inside the vehicle. With enough clearance inside to stand, an array of cubbies and bins filled with supplies, and rear side-by-side double doors, the van served as a fancy incognito ambulance. My gaze glanced off the stretcher attached to one wall, and I wiggled my toes, grateful beyond words to be walking away from another battle. When Gavin handed us each our own thermos of hot chicken noodle soup, I decided the van was magical.

  Summer finally sheathed her soul breaker, though she kept one hand on it while she sipped the steaming soup. Neither of us relaxed until Pamela and Niko strode through the gap in the trees. The memory of Niko’s kiss tingled across my lips. Even exhausted, he walked with a predatory grace, vigilantly scanning the surroundings for the next attack. Pamela had her own version of that cultivated wariness honed from years as an elite enforcer. For some reason, I didn’t find it sexy on her.

  Niko glanced at me and our gazes collided. A shiver that had nothing to do with the snow slid through my body, petering out almost before it’d begun. Later. I’d figure out what his kiss had meant later. In Primordium, I couldn’t read the subtle change in Niko’s expression, but the loosening of tension from his shoulders and hands told me he’d been worried.

  Silently, I handed him back his coat. He shrugged it on, then climbed into the van with Pamela to confer with Gavin. From the snippets I caught, Jamie and I were the subject of their whispered conversation, but I couldn’t muster the energy to eavesdrop. With exaggerated care, I drained the last drops of soup from my thermos, then leaned back to savor the warmth spreading from my stomach through my body.

  “You know you’re insane, right?” Summer asked. She stared at the sky, eyes unfocused.

  “I am?”

  “Oh yeah.” She bumped my shoulder with hers. “All the best enforcers are.”

  I smiled at my toes.

  Summer took a drink from her thermos, then twisted to look me in the eye. “I misjudged you. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry I kept giving you reasons to misjudge me.”

  She huffed a short laugh, shook her head, and went back to drinking her soup. I contemplated my toes some more, enjoying the companionable silence.

  Maybe all hope of a friendship between us wasn’t lost, after all.

  Brad’s tiny Fiat rocked up against the curb behind the van, and Pamela, Niko, and Gavin climbed out to greet him. My boss ignored them, rushing straight to me. He stopped close enough for his long coat to brush against my bent knees as he scanned my body, then Jamie’s, checking our souls. Softly, he grasped my chin and leaned forward until he filled my vision and my eyes crossed trying to keep him in focus.

  For a panicked second, I thought he was going to kiss me, but he only stared, his eyes bulging with an emotion I couldn’t read.

  “Mr. Pitt? Brad?” I squeaked when he didn’t say anything.

  He squinted, then nodded and stepped back. “How is she?” he asked, directing his question to Gavin.

  “Roughed up but remarkably resilient.”

  I would have said battered but alive, but Gavin’s assessment sounded nicer.

  “She and Jamie took out the tyv by themselves,” Summer said. “They make a good team.”

  I shot her a surprised look. She returned it with a fatigued smile.

  “What’s happening with the rest of the region?” Pamela asked.

  Brad rubbed his hands together, a satisfied grin replacing his concern. “We’re in the clear. Jamie was right: No more tyver have hatched since the main tyv died.”

  A collective sigh of relief resounded from our small circle.

  “So it’s over?” I asked.

  “Just about. The assisting enforcers are reporting a significant drop in the number of drones hatching since you killed the tyv. It’s going to take longer to destroy all the eggs, but the prajurit queens assure me that by the end of the week, our region will be free from threat of spawning drones.”

  “If I never see another tyv as long as I live, I will be a happy woman,” Summer said. “Can I go home?”

  “Yes. Thank you again for your assistance. I’ll speak with your warden regarding bonus compensation,” Brad said.

  Summer nodded wearily, handed her blanket to Gavin, and departed.

  “You should head home, too, Madison,” Brad said. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Jamie, I appreciate what you did here tonight. I consider you an invaluable asset to our region and to Madison. When you get a chance, I hope you’ll share any information you have about sjel tyver that can help us in the future. But after you both get some rest.”

  An unspoken accusation radiated from Pamela’s disapproving body language when Brad didn’t mention that tonight’s catastrophe could have been avoided if Jamie hadn’t gone rogue to being with. If Brad had, I would have insisted on taking the blame. If I hadn’t alienated Jamie, making him feel like an unloved disappointment, he wouldn’t have acted out. The monstrous tyv and all the evil she’d wrought on our region lay squarely on my shoulders.

  Jamie and I shoved to our feet, and I unwrapped the blanket from around us, shivering as the freezing air sapped away the nominal heat we’d generated. I handed the blanket to Gavin, whirling back toward Jamie when he made a soft, pained sound. Electric-white energy caged my pooka, the sizzling bars of lux lucis extending from a multifaceted crystal prism in Pamela’s hand. Jamie’s arm brushed the prison and a spark of lux lucis surged into him. He jumped as if shocked. A whimper squeezed out of his throat as a jagged patch of lux lucis jolted up his arm, vibrating through the rest of his soul’s dual energies. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

  I reached for Jamie, pulling up short before I touched the cage, not sure how it�
�d affect the pooka if I disturbed the wicked white lines.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded of Pamela.

  “You’re in no shape to take charge of the pooka right now,” she said. “You’re too weak, and even if you weren’t, your motives are questionable. You stand here before us because you are infused with the pooka’s own soul. We cannot predict how this will affect you, let alone how much control you’ll be able to exert over the pooka.”

  Maybe it was due to my brush with death; maybe it was because I’d battled a house-size tyv and facing down the inspector no longer scared me; maybe it was because weariness saturated every cell in my body—or maybe it was because Jamie’s soul swirled inside me, helping me see from a different perspective—but in that moment, I saw the truth behind Pamela’s actions: She was scared, impaired by her limited knowledge, and trying to do what she thought was best. In all her years working for the CIA, she’d met only one other pooka, and she’d made the mistake of assuming they were all the same. She believed the methods used with that pooka could be applied to all pookas. I’d fallen prey to the same faulty logic, and it had torn Jamie and me apart. Fortunately, I’d learned my lesson: Jamie was one of a kind, and he deserved to be treated as such.

  Then I got another look at Jamie trembling inside the inspector’s trap, and my anger roared to the surface. However, losing control wouldn’t sway the inspector. Gritting my teeth, I modulated my voice when I said, “Pamela, you can’t hold him, and you can’t control him.”

  “Don’t fight me on this, Madison. It’s for your own good. For everyone’s good.”

  Everyone’s but Jamie’s. “You don’t understand. You can’t dictate his actions, and neither can I because I don’t have any control over Jamie. I never did.”

  Pamela tensed, her hand tightening on the prism. “I know, but I’m glad you’re admitting it. It’ll make this easier. You’re a good enforcer, but you’re not up to handling a pooka this powerful.”

  “You still don’t get it.” My fingers itched to snatch the prism from her, but I hesitated, wary of the unfamiliar weapon’s powers. Frustration laced my voice as I continued. “Jamie is a pooka. He chose me, not the other way around. He instigated the bond—twice actually—”