by A. S. Oren
Dante steps forward and takes a necklace off. I didn’t even know he had. With a simple toss of his hand, the necklace flies through the air, and lands somewhere in the middle of the pool. “Triton, change the temperature of the water, make it as cold as the icy lake they had us swim in last time.”
They’re going to make the water freezing? I take a breath in and hold it, now I’m scared. How will I live through this? Doesn’t the body go into shock at extreme temperatures?
Triton steps up to the edge of the pool. He places his fisted right hand against the flat palm of his left and takes in a deep breath. It reminds me of the pose Mirren did the first day I came here and put the scars on his face.
He looks down at the water and lets the long breath out. My eyes widen as I watch it happen, frost like air tumbles out of his mouth in a crystalized haze. It rolls down on to the water and spreads out. Foot, after foot, I watch it travel, turning the top layer into a thin, fragile piece of ice.
“Our objective is to get my necklace out in the quickest time possible. Triton, you’ll be the fastest one out of all of us, you go first.”
Triton sighs and rolls his eyes. “This isn’t even a challenge.”
Still at the edge of the pool, he crouches down and places his hand in the water, the water ripples and tiny fractures move across the ice, but for the most part it remains intact. Within seconds, he pulls his hand out of the water; it isn't even red from the iced temperatures, he holds the necklace. He looks and smiles at me before giving me a wink. I blink, not sure of how to react, he tosses the necklace back into the pool, creating a hole in the ice.
“I'll go next,” Dante says. He pulls off his shirt, revealing his muscles underneath. A blush creeps up my neck. I don't think I have ever been around a guy, my own age, with his shirt off. Dante steps up to the edge, and I notice the small mark on his shoulder. No bigger than a silver dollar, branded into his skin, but I can't make out the details. He takes several deep breaths in and out, before diving into the water.
After a few seconds, the water goes still. Is he okay? I fidget with my hands. Will he be able to survive the cold temperatures? In under a minute, he’s breaking through the surface, near the edge. He climbs out. His breathing not even labored. What are these boys? X-Men?
Next to go, Amr. Like Dante, he has one of the brands on his shoulder, and he’s in and out of the water before I have a chance to grit my teeth with worry. No sign of stress from him at all. A walk in the park for all of them, I swear.
Horace doesn't even get in the pool. Like Triton, he goes to the edge and puts out his hand. The clouds over the sky light go dark. A vortex begins to form within the water, but instead of pulling things in, it pushes them out. Soon, the necklace swirls around the surface. His other hand reaches out, the necklace lifts from the water and flies into his hand.
“Show off,” mutters Triton. Once Horace tosses the necklace back in. He grins at him. Triton repeats the process of freezing over the top layer.
I swallow hard. Now, it's my turn. I've never been so scared to do something in my life. Why can't I be fearless like them?
At this point, I don't know how to calm myself, but I need to figure it out. Dante puts a hand on my shoulder. “You'll be fine, Fire, we won't let you die. I promise. Just focus on the task, and nothing else. That's the only way to get through it.”
I frown at his words, but it's good to know I won't die tonight. I nod and move away from him. Pulling my shirt over my head, my black sports bra hides my breasts. I don't want the bagginess of my shirt to slow me down.
I try not to think about how much skin I'm exposing right now it will only be for a few seconds. When I get out, I’ll put my shirt back on. I step up to the edge of the pool. If this were a pier, I would jumping to my death. Taking several slow, deep breaths, I expand my lungs and deflate them. Hoping, the small action will somehow help me be victorious. With nothing left to do, I take the plunge, diving head first into the icy depths.
The sharpness of the temperature hits me head on, and I have to cover my mouth to keep myself from gasping and taking in water. The dense darkness hides any hope of finding the necklace with just eyesight. I close my eyes, trying to focus on the job and not the pain the water causes me. A throb enters my eyes. I open them, and like when we were in the forest earlier in the day, the necklace glints with a green hue at the bottom, I smirk.
With my objective in sight, the pain of the water numbing me to the bone disappears. I push with my legs and pull with my arms to make myself go down. Somewhere, from deep inside me, power moves through my veins, giving me the energy to move even faster. Is this what happened to the guys when they went under?
My fingers grasp around the necklace’s chain and I pull it close, before righting myself and pushing off the floor with my feet. I propel upward and kick as hard as I can. I break through the ice and take a gasp for fresh air. I open my eyes and close them just as quick; I put a hand over them. A rush of blood moves through my ears, like a headache, but its gone as soon as it appeared. With hesitation, I remove my hand and glance around. I no longer feel as if I’m staring into the sun.
I move to the edge and pull myself out. A rush of cool air hits my skin. I’m not even feel chilled and my breath even. What the Hell? I stand. I wipe the water from my eyes with the back of my hand and toss the necklace to Dante. He catches it with ease.
Even with a dark sports bra on, I still feel more exposed than what I’m comfortable with. I cover my breasts with one arm and reach down to pick up my black t-shirt with the other. I pull it over my head and right away feel human again.
I ring the excess water out of my hair and look back at the pool. Pride warms my chest; I can’t believe I did that. Shouldn’t I have died, or almost died? Why don’t I feel cold right now? Hypothermia should have set in minutes ago.
This day just keeps getting longer and more confusing by the second. It started out with making the Grinch angry at me, and then the guys take me off to a Doctor Who inspired cabin, only to rush back here and find out I’ll have to fight for my right to live tomorrow.
“You did it, your first time,” Dante says, sounding surprised.
“Wasn’t that the point of the exercise, to complete it?” I ask, turning back to the group. I let go of my hair. They all stare at me with bug eyes.
“Yes, but none of us did it the first time,” Triton says.
“Weren’t you all in a survivalist challenge the first time?” I ask. If they didn’t make it, how are they standing before me, alive?
“That wasn’t our first time doing something like this, by then, we were trained on how to do it,” Horace says.
“Right, because that answers my question!” I snap. They all recoil, not used to being on the receiving end of my temper.
I sigh and cover my face with my hands. I didn’t mean to lose grasp on my temper with them. “I’m sorry. My nerves are just a bit fried. A lot has happened today and even more will happen tomorrow, and all I want to do is eat something and go to sleep for the next thousand years.”
COLD
“Avvi, Avvi! Get up.”
What? Who is waking me up? No one is allowed in my room. Wait, why is it so cold? The marble is never this bad. My eyes open in a millisecond. It doesn’t feel like the marble, because I’m no longer in my room.
I sit up and glance down at my body, my arms instantly go over my chest. I look around, white everywhere, and Spearwood nowhere in sight. My teeth chatter as my brain catches up with the environment. I look around to see Horace kneeling beside me and Bullock and Mirren standing over me. Well, this is somewhere beyond embarrassing. Please, let the Earth open now and swallow me whole. I’d rather be in a room full of Weeping Angels, than have to deal with the two boys above me—while naked as the day I was born—I put my arms around me even tighter.
“It’s good to know how you dress for bed, Princess.” Mirren smirks at me.
“Want me to make both sides of your face match?�
� I growl.
His smirk turns to a snarl, but he doesn’t make a move.
I wish I would have transformed in the school uniform. I just hate the cloth against my skin when it burnsfrom the inside out.
“Dante said this might happen, here.” Horace pulls off his shirt, revealing another one underneath. He does the same thing with his sleeper pants. “I snuck these out, just in case.”
Once again, I get the feeling they know more about me than I do. How could Dante know I would need clothes? I take the shirt and put it on faster than I thought possible, happy to find that it reaches the middle of my thighs.
“Well, aren’t you Prince Charming? Perfect for a princess,” Mirren says as I retrieve the pants and put them on. Horace glares at him.
“What happens now?” I ask. I cross my arms over my chest and keep my eyes on the ground. Even though I’m dressed, I more exposed than ever. Not even Ed has seen me naked in over a decade. Now, three teenage boys have, isn’t that a little backwards? I haven’t even received my first kiss yet.
“We wait for the message to tell us what the objective is. Then we complete it and find our way back to Spearwood,” Horace says. He stands close to my personal space. “What sort of message?”
Bullock stares up at the sky and points. “That kind.”
I look up, something gold floats down to us. It falls into my hands. Like the scrolls I’ve seen on martial arts movies and anime, this one made of gold. Why is everything so rich and elegant with this place? As if it needs to be made with gold, to appease their tastes. I break the wax seal—of an S and A intertwined—and unroll it.
The writing is an elegant cursive scrawl. I read it aloud for the others. “Travel East until you reach a cave. Your objective will become clear there. May the Sun god shine for your souls.”
Sun god? Didn’t Bullock mention something like that at one point? The scroll shakes in my hands until it turns to gold dust and covers the snow. I look up, I want to ask about the Sun god, but I know this isn’t the place for that.
“Any of you know which way East is?” Bullock asks.
Horace reaches into the pocket of his sleeper pants and frowns. “They took my P.A. this time.”
Bullock and Mirren check themselves also. I already know Enid sits on my nightstand.
“Bastards,” mumbles Bullock. I’m a little shocked to hear him curse. He always comes off as too proper for his own good.
“You don’t need a P.A. We’re still in the Northern hemisphere, right? Look at the sun.” I point to the sun. It’s still rising. It has to be around five in the morning. “The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. We follow the sun.”
All three of them look at me like I’ve grown another head. “I may not know a lot about this place, magic, or the Families, but I’m not an idiot.” I walk off toward the sun. It’s only now that I remember I’m also barefoot. The cold doesn’t bother me, not like it would have before yesterday.
Being in the depths of that icy cold water has changed me and I don’t know why. It only brings more questions. Am I human, or some kind of monster? Like the rest of them.
Like Spearwood, filled to the brim with bloodshed and greed, and no one bats an eye at the fact that they aren’t things to be proud of. It’s like one big chess game. Only the students are the pawns, the first to be sacrificed, and if we manage to allude capture, we can be promoted to a better role on the board. It’s sick.
I glance over my shoulder, they haven’t moved. Probably have issues following a girl. My ire grows, I don’t like what’s happening here, and I just want to get back to my room, to call Edgar. “We can either work as a group and get out of this alive, or work on our own. Logically speaking, working together will help in the favor of staying alive. I’m going to go to that cave, which is in this direction. Now, you can all come with me, or you can be pigheaded and stay here to find your fate. What’ll it be?”
Horace steps forward. Bullock follows and Mirren takes a second before dragging his feet through the snow. I let out a sigh. I’m glad they chose to come with me, I was acting brave, but I don’t want to do this on my own.
“Okay, let’s keep walking then. If this is as savage as Dante made it sound, be ready for anything, or anyone,” I say. A warmth courses through my veins. I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve turned into a leader and something in me likes it, a lot, almost too much.
“I’ll follow your lead,” Horace says.
Another surge of warmth, addictive. What is going on? Neither Bullock nor Mirren follow his example, but I know they’re in it for the long haul.
THE VOICE
We’ve walked for a while now. Over many snowy hills, some filled with jagged rocks, some without. My eyes dart around. I don’t know what I’m expecting. It’s not like ninjas coming from black smoke will suddenly appear. Well, I guess here anything is possible, but I doubt that scenario. Nothing has happened. When they said survivalist challenge, this wasn’t what I was anticipating. Following the sun might get physically tiring after a while, but it’s just a cold walk in the park.
Not too far off in the distance something about the plain looks off. I frown. As we get closer, I think it is. I put out my hand to stop the others. a cliff’s edge separating us from moving forward.
“It’s too wide even for a running jump,” the words tumble out of my mouth before I know what I’m saying. How did I even know that?
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. Blood rushes around in my head and someone’s plays the conga drums within my skull.
Horace puts his hand on my shoulder; I nearly jump out of my skin. I look at him. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Honestly, I’ve felt better.” I turn to the other two. “There’s two ways of getting across. One is backtracking and going around, which will take hours or fly. Can any of you shift into your full dragon forms?”
“Are you kidding? We won’t be taught that until we start college,” Bullock says.
Mirren fidgets. I turn my eyes on him. “What?” I ask. He glares at me and crosses his arms. I mimic him. “If you have something that can help us, then say it, or we’ll die out here eventually.”
“Well, aren’t you a savage princess. Who died and made you leader?”
I step aside and hold my arm out toward the cliff. “No one, have an idea? Be my guest.”
He gives me a long stare before taking off his shirt. I try not to stare, but it’s hard not to. Are all the boys here built in some way or form like Adonis? How is that possible? Why can’t I be an Aphrodite? I shake my head. That’s not like me. I don’t hold beauty up in that high of a regard.
“Like what you see, Princess?” Another one of his smirks.
“Maybe if I were blind. Are you taking your shirt off for a reason, or just to pull a Jersey Shore move?”
He gives me a sneer; I’m surprised he knows what I’m talking about. Perhaps they all aren’t under a rock after all. Kneeling down, he closes his eyes. I watch his back. He has a brand on his shoulder, like Dante and Amr’s. Horace makes a noise I can’t quite make out. I glance over at him, only to find him staring at the brand too. What does it mean? I watch as the skin of his back ripples and a pair of leather wings come to the surface. A painful reminder grips at my heart, not once does his skin break to let them through. They just come like it’s nothing but a trick on the eyes.
“I can’t fully transform, but I can fly us across.” Mirren stands, the red of his wings glows in the sunlight. He stretches them out. They have to be as wide as two of his arms lengths. He cracks his neck before flapping the wings and rises up into the air.
“What do you say, Princess? Fancy a lift?” Sarcasm drips off him, it grates on my last nerve.
“Horace first, don’t try anything nasty.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Come here, Charming.”
Horace gives me a look like I’m crazy for trusting Mirren. I don’t trust him, but he’s our only option for getting across fast.
I give a jerk with my head and he goes, more warmth surges in my chest, but the pain in my head grows stronger. Blips of neon colors move through my vision.
Mirren picks Horace up by the shirt and in two flaps of his wings is over the gap. He drops Horace, making him have to catch himself on his hands and knees.
“Next?”
“Bullock,” I say.
Bullock’s stands stoic. Mirren goes over him and picks him up. He stops above the gap and hovers. My heart picks up speed.
“You’re worth more trouble than good, four eyes,” he says. “I could drop you here and we both know no one would care. Survival of the fittest, as they say.”
He pretends to nearly drop him. Bullock growls. “Mirren, you so much as let him fall an inch and I will snip your wings, permanently.” My voice echoes off the mountain. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It sounds different from my normal voice. “Now, put him down on the other side and come get me.” Mirren goes stiff, but he does as I say.
As he comes to get me, thunder cracks making a chill run down my spine. I turn just in time, a cloud of white crashes down from one of the smaller cliff tops above us. There’s no way I can move out of the way to dodge it.
I gasp as Mirren picks me up. He flies us over the gap and lands on the other side. All three huddle around me as the snow covers us. Mirren’s body shields me, my face and hands pressed against his warm chest. An eternity passes before the snow finally stops.
Mirren moves his wings, slowly but surely breaking the snow up. It falls off us and the others stand. Mirren pulls me to my feet. We have to stop these compromising positions from happening, their getting to frequent for my liking. I can’t even look at him.
“Don’t ever do that to me again!” he growls.