Fat tears fall from her eyes, as Branch and Keena walk past her without any assistance. They glare down at her with untrusting eyes, continuing towards the exit.
“The winners of this year’s first and final Program is the Hydra team, with Branch Disk having reached the beacon first.” Karn’s loud voice doesn’t seem as joyous as it should be, considering his team won the only Program for the year.
The death of innocent contestants rests heavily on his shoulders.
Glacier sobs quietly as she tries to use her chair to pull her away from the blood, from the slumped body, from the evidence of death. Her hands slip on the slick material, the blood on her hands lubricating the smooth surface. A pathetic feeling settles in her mind as she tries again, but falls back. The rest of the contestants leave the arena languidly, exhausted from the mentally tolling Program.
None look back to her. None come to her aid.
Except for one.
“Bunch of selfish pricks…” Brink scoops her up under her arms, easily lifting her to her feet.
The blood quickly runs down her trousers, sending chilling shivers of disgust down her spine.
“You good?” His deep timber voice rings through her ears as her body finally numbs. Her head feels heavy and her eyes burn with torturous images of the death surrounding her.
Glacier shakes her head dazedly from side to side. Despite the blood on his hands, and the hatred she feels for him, her body shouts for comfort. She needs someone to hold her.
She huddles into Brink’s side, her fingers grasping at his uniform shirt like it is her life raft to safety.
Ignoring the noise of the audience, and the four stiff bodies hanging from sterile chairs, Brink walks Glacier out of the arena.
~
Glacier’s fork shifts the food around her plate as she gazes blankly into her water glass. Her mind is reeling from the death toll after leaving the Program.
Pae Hutton, Aleena Staren, Alidia Temp and Brogan Hemmer. Four deaths during what had been a twenty-nine minute Program.
Keena drowned the boy with the red Mohawk, Brogan, during the final race to the beacon, just as Dolby had incinerated the shrewd looking earth elemental. Glacier had heard whispers of how Aleena’s body looked the most disgusting.
“Her eye sockets were completely hollow. Her face was pretty much covered with her melted brain.”
Glacier had to run to the bathroom when she heard Gamble discussing Aleena in such a foul and taunting manner. She had emptied her dinner into the closest toilet.
Her throat was instantly parched from the heaving, and in her mouth lingered the vulgar taste of bile. With a quick swish of water from the sink, Glacier rinsed her mouth before scuttling back into the ballroom for what will be the final night.
The audience seems incredibly lively, notwithstanding the death of four more contestants.
Despite Glacier’s early intentions of disappearing off into the background, Wendelin and Geri had refused her request of something simple and under exaggerated. Instead, they dolled her in a dark blue gown with sparkles adorning the entire bodice. Her white curls are pinned atop her head with an intricate structure, her makeup is intensely eye-catching. Her appearance made her feel celebratory despite the horrendous pit in her stomach.
Everyone who has the chance to speak with Glacier congratulates her on the win for Hydren, wishing her luck in the Deliverance. But the numbness that has settled in her mind sanctions only a small nod and a short thank you before she continues on her way through the crowd. Her thoughts continue to swirl with the blood that has been spilt.
Aleena. Pae. Brogan. Alidia. Care. Alue. It wasn’t their time. They still had full, long lives to live… It isn’t fair…
Why didn’t I die? I should have been the one who died. I was meant to—
“Glace?” Fielder’s voice draws Glacier away from her dark thoughts, saving her from self-deprecation. For the moment.
When she glances up to find him watching her with concerned eyes, she smiles grimly. Her face scrunches into an uncomfortable grimace that has her cringing from his worried eyes.
“Come with me…” Fielder glances around at the surrounding sea of people before reaching for her hand and pulling her in the direction of the main doors.
Her heart heaves with surprise from the heat of his skin on hers. Everyone seems to notice their intimate grasp, their probing eyes watching every step the two of them take.
Once they are outside the crowded ballroom, Fielder takes her into his warm embrace, pulling her tightly against his chest in a comforting hug.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up. I thought you had been right behind me, but you… You were so far back, and Porter—” Glacier shakes her head against his chest, her eyes dribbling with tears as her heart slowly cracks at his caring tone. He holds her tighter to his chest, taking a deep breath as his lips gently press against the top of her head.
In his arms, Glacier can easily forget anything. Where they are. Who surrounds them. Where they come from. Why they are here. Who has been lost.
Being in his heated arms, she knows she is safe from the evilness of the world.
She is transported back in time to her eleven-year-old self. She can remember the white snow, and the sound of the piano making its mark in the silence. The soft patters of little Mink’s paws on the rotted wood.
“Sometimes,” Glacier starts, her voice raspy and dry, “it feels like there has been no time lost between us… It’s easy to forget that we aren’t the same kids anymore…”
Glacier closes her eyes, securing her arms around his torso like a vice, holding on like he is the remainder of her sanity.
Please don’t let me go…
“We are mostly the same. We’re just older and wiser. What we have seen, what we have done, to survive this gruesome competition has scarred us. But I don’t want it to ruin who we are…” Fielder’s words are wishful, filled with a strange regret. “I don’t want to go home and leave you behind. I don’t want you to try pick up and piece together the remnants of what you have left inside when this is all over…”
Glacier pulls her head back from his chest to look up at him. Fielder leans down to rest his forehead against hers, his deep breath blowing against her lips like a warm fog.
Astoundingly, the sensation settles her heart to a less frantic rhythm.
“I had never felt such overwhelming regret in my entire life, until the last phase of the Program today…”
Fielder’s soft words seed a blank confusion in her mind. Glacier’s eyes watch his closed lids as they flicker, his lips parting as he draws breath.
“What do you regret?”
Fielder takes a moment to roll his tongue across his lips. His scrunches his eyes closed tighter, his forehead creasing with the act.
“I don’t know why you volunteered to be in this tournament. I don’t know if your favourite colour is still yellow… I don’t know if you still love to wrestle in the snow… I don’t know if your nose still wrinkles when you’re frustrated. There have been so many questions racing through my mind, from the moment I saw you at the introductions…” He pauses through his speech when his voice slowly becomes softer.
The realization that Fielder remembered such unimportant things stuns her into silence. He pulls her tighter to him, her cold body calming his spiking heat.
“I just… I got really scared today… I’ve never been so scared in my life…” He releases a daunting breath as he clears his chest, his nerves itching on the surface of his skin.
Glacier’s heart beats a mile a minute as she absorbs his words. She is captivated in the closeness the two of them share.
The little things about their relationship that she thought she had lost to time slowly start to float back like lonely memories, reminding her of a time when she was neither loathed nor ridiculed. Her heart squeezes tightly, her eyes burning with itchy tears. Her nails dig
past his formal shirt and into the muscle of his back, as she clenches her teeth tightly.
“Glace, I thought you died…”
A strong-built sob escapes her lips at his words, as she remembers the airless feeling in her lungs, the painful grasp around her throat. She knows she should have died in the Program. Had Branch reached the beacon any later, she wouldn’t be here.
The incredibly daunting fact is that she was closer to death than she has ever been, and that terrified her.
Fielder’s hand wraps around the back of her neck, his nose brushing sensually against hers.
The air surrounding them changes suddenly.
Gone is the remorseful atmosphere. It is quickly replaced with something stronger. Something connecting.
Glacier’s chest constricts with the odd sensation that flutters through her entire being. Her blood pumps hotter, and her cheeks flush a brilliant pink as the blood surfaces with excitement. She watches him with questioning eyes.
What is he doing?
His breathing is louder now. He waits a moment, second-guessing his decision.
Before he can re-think how detrimental it could be to his sanity, he leans forward. His lips press gently against hers, igniting something heated and real. Glacier’s eyes drift closed, as an overwhelming heat succumbs her. A hot wire coils around her skin, goose bumps erupting across her flesh.
The kiss is brief. His hot skin burns hotter as his heart pumps the blood past his ears wildly. Glacier’s head swarms. The only sound in the quiet air is their offbeat breathing.
Glacier pulls her lip between her teeth as her heart beats erratically with delight. Gone is the worry, sadness, and the dread she has been carrying in her heart. At this moment, all she feels is the deepest affection. Her heart threatens to burst from her chest as her eyes slowly float open.
Fielder continues to take long breaths, his forehead still creased with deep frown lines.
“Fielder…” Glacier’s voice is whispery and thick, as she watches him carefully. He continues to hold her tight, his hands burning hot against her icy skin. Fielder relaxes as the coolness of her flesh soothes the never-ending burn of his own.
“I just… like holding you…” he mutters. “Your skin calms me. I have missed how it feels to touch you, for so long…”
His words resonate with Glacier.
The heat of his skin on hers reminds her that she is alive. She shakes her head in his hold as she stutters to speak. “We can’t…”
Her heart burns with the distance she knows she needs between the two of them.
He’s too close…
Fielder’s hands tighten around her, his skin reaching scorching degrees. Glacier wiggles in his hold, uncomfortable from the sudden increase in his body temperature.
“Why? Because we live in different regions?” His teeth are gritted, his body taut. “We can just meet on the outside, like we did when we were kids!” His determination is fierce.
Fielder pulls back and holds her upper arms in his large hands. He holds her close to his chest, a mere breath away. Glacier looks down at his hands, knowing that if she looks into his eyes she’ll cave.
“It’s not that easy. We don’t know each other anymore.” She pulls free from his hold, her skin still ignited with the echoing burn across her body.
Taking a few measured steps back, Glacier distances herself. Fielder stands rooted to the floor, his eyes angry.
“I know that. I just want things to go back to how it used to be. Back to when you found me in that old house. When we were kids, and being together was easy. Back when you wanted to be with me…”
Glacier shakes her head, “It wouldn’t ever be that way again Fielder. Too much has changed for me.”
Wrapping her arms around her torso, she tries to think of anything other than the conversation she is having.
I am not ready for this.
“You don’t know that, Glace. Please, just promise me that you will meet with me when we get back…” His eyes are desperate as he takes a slow step towards her.
“Please…” His voice is soft. Pleading. The ache in her chest morphs into a breathlessness suffocating her lungs, as she thinks about returning home.
“Fielder… I probably won’t be returning home…” Glacier speaks slowly, watching the fire elemental closely.
Confused by her words, a sudden anxiety claims Fielder’s being. “I don’t understand… Where are you going?”
Taking a deep breath, her head pounds with the misery of her fate.
How did I only realize this now?
“Fielder… I’m competing in the Deliverance… against Brink…”
He still doesn’t seem to understand her reasoning, so she continues.
“Brink has killed every contestant he has faced…”
Tears bloom in her eyes at the memory of Aleena’s melted body. The unseen image of what she had looked like outside of the program has her cringing.
Fielder seems to finally understand what she is referring to. His jaw clenches tightly, his eyes blaze a magnificent fired orange. His aura heats up rapidly as unwanted images of her lying under Porter’s chokehold return to the front of his mind. The memory burned into his brain like a scar, the feeling of hopelessness remaining forever present.
Reaching his hand out fast, he grabs the back of her neck, pulling her to meet his lips in a fierce kiss. This one is rougher, but not overwhelming. Glacier can sense from the power he holds, from the heat, that he is scared. Scared that this is the first and last time he will be with her like this.
Despite his urgent force and his flaring skin, Glacier notices how gentle, and soft, and warm his lips feel against hers. The satin-like feeling rubs against hers in a hypnotic manner, throwing her into a daze of content. Being held so close, so preciously against him, makes her feel cherished. Like she truly matters to someone.
Pulling back, keeping their noses close enough to brush against each other, Fielder breathes deeply. Glacier’s lungs are in the same airless condition. A strangely familiar feeling blooms in her chest from their close proximity, the same feeling she felt when he came to her during her battle with Isaac. Never before has someone been as close to her as Fielder is now.
“I can’t do that again…” His voice is grave, drawing her back to the present. She hums her confusion as she tries to remember what they had been talking about.
“I can’t watch you like that again. Dying. I don’t know what I’d do, but I know it would go against every rule here.”
Withdrawing from her entirely, Fielder moves closer to the doors leading into the ballroom.
Glacier watches him leave with confusion, “Fielder…?”
He gives her a grim yet hopeful smile, nodding his head in her direction.
“I’ll do something, Glace. I’ll save you. Then you will have to promise me.”
He ducks back into the ballroom without much farewell. Glacier watches the door for a moment, before releasing a deep sigh and heading towards the steps.
Not much to do on my last night alive.
TWENTY-THREE
BAD NEWS
The door collapses open, revealing Glacier’s dark bedroom. With heavy shoulders and a pounding head, Glacier’s only thoughts are of showering and sleep.
Making her way into her room, the lights turn on with her sound clap, banishing the dark shadows.
Three faces are revealed in the light, all familiar.
Glacier’s body trembles, her heart thudding loudly as she remembers the last time these three men had been in her room.
Thomes stands from the bed with poorly masked frustration. The two other men flanking either side of him wear stone-cold expressions. They all stand imposing, wearing dark variations of blue and black. The two guards have their large arms crossed across their chest, their large hovering guns floating close to the blue-glowing disk on their hips. Their stance intimidates her, their eyes unflinching.
<
br /> Hearing the door close behind her, the panicked feeling of entrapment settles in her chest. Frozen in her shoes, she watches them with terrified eyes.
Thomes approaches her with short, slow steps, his eyes dangerous.
“Miss Wardgrave… Where do I even start…?” Thomes voice speaks volumes, even though he speaks barely above a whisper. Her spine chills with shivers of fear as she anticipates what will come.
Aleena…
She speaks quickly, trying to ease the situation, “I didn’t know where she was! I couldn’t do anything to save her—”
Thomes strides forward fast, raising his hand before striking her cheek. Glacier flies to the floor, her face blooming with a sharp sting. She clenches her jaw to refrain from crying out.
Don’t give him what he wants.
“The Chancellor’s daughter is dead. What do you think that means for you? For me?” Thomes crouches down to hiss in her ear.
He grabs the back of Glacier’s neck with a painful pinch, dragging her to her feet. Still, she makes no sound of pain.
Her mind thrums with images of their deal, of their persuasion. She shakes her head in denial as she recalls what her reflection has hissed to her in the Program.
‘And when you finally leave this place, Castor will be dead.’
Glacier knew that it was a possibility. She just hoped hard enough that her deal with the Chancellor would keep him safe.
Petrifying tears brim in her odd colour eyes, “Please don’t…”
Thomes’ evil smile reveals his shinning teeth, “Your little Critter friend is dead.”
Glacier’s stomach plummets to the floor like a rock in a river. Thomes’ words resound through her head like a spiteful melody. Her throat swells and her head pounds with misery.
Castor is dead… No… Not him.
Memories of the little boy flood back like a cruel replay. When he would sleep over at her house on cold nights. And when he would squeeze her tightly whenever he hugged her. And the day he found a lady beetle perched on a daisy, and tried to feed it with the last of his food. He is-was such a sweet boy.
He didn’t deserve any of this…
The Frozen Beginning (Elemental Diamond Book 1) Page 27