by Heidi Acosta
“You are not a coward.”
“I was, and maybe my father was right, I should have died helping them.”
I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around his waist. I want to make his pain mine, to take any hurt away from him. He steps away from me without a word and starts to walk, leaving me again with nothing more than my thoughts of uncertainty to creep back into my mind.
My head fills with doubts and questions until I want to scream. The cave narrows, pressing in around us, Jaxson has to bend down to keep from knocking his head as we pass through. I drag my hand across the ceiling, and when I pull it away, frost lingers on the tips of my fingers. A small stream trickles past our feet from melting ice.
“It’s as if we traveled back to the Ice Age,” I say.
“Close enough,” he says as we step through the narrow passage and the cave opens up to a new world.
Jaxson stops so suddenly that I slam into the back of him. He looks down at me through heavy lashes and my stomach flutters.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say trying to ignore the butterflies that fill my stomach. I glance past him at the vast amounts of white, frozen tundra stretching as far as I can see. Snow and ice cover the world, sparkling like crystals against the white sky. My heart sinks. I’m no longer scared, confused, or hopeful. Instead, I feel as frozen as the land.
“I’m never going to get home.” I want to fall to the ground and cry.
“Eden.” He says my name like a gentle touch, but it brings me no comfort.
“I know. I know …. You’ll get me home.” Even though I say it, any hope I had is gone.
“We have to get to the base of those mountains. That is the way home.” Jaxson points to blue, white-capped mountains in the distance.
“We will never make it. We will freeze to death.” I only have on a skirt and Jaxson’s sweatshirt, which offers little protection against the elements. And Jaxson is wearing even less than I am.
Jaxson pulls me close to him and puts the hood up over my head. “We have no choice. It is the only way home. Trust me.”
He holds out his hand for me to take. I swallow hard and slip my hand into his. We are going to die, this I’m certain of it.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I no longer feel the cold. My limbs have gone numb as I recite the symptoms of frostbite in my mind. Behind us, the security of the cave looms, taunting me with the protection from the weather. I think about turning back, but to what? I keep going, my head lowered to the wind. No matter which way I look, it feels like death sits around every corner, waiting for us. Oblivious to it, Jaxson pushes us forward with ice frozen to the tips of his hair.
“I think we sh-sh-should go back,” I call over the wind to him. My body is shaking uncontrollably, and my teeth clatter together so hard, I might have chipped them.
“We can’t,” he calls over his shoulder. He doesn’t seem to be as affected by the elements as I’m.
“It’s so cold,” I whisper, but it is lost on the wind.
“Just a little farther,” he urges me.
I try to make my legs walk, but they are too heavy to lift. I can’t go on. My thoughts feel jumbled, and nothing makes sense. Everything swirls together in my mind. Jaxson takes my elbows to steady me, but I can’t feel his touch. There should be electricity coursing through me. I lean against him for warmth and support.
“Why do you look at me like that?” I ask, my tongue swollen.
“Like what?” A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.
“Like I’m the last girl you want to see one moment, and then the next like I’m the last girl you will ever kiss. Almost as if I might mean something more to you, but you’re not quite sure.” I try to grab onto his arms, but my fingers will not close.
He embraces me. “You are ridiculous you know that, right? You’re the only girl I ever want to kiss.” He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth the metal studs clank against them.
I watch, mesmerized.
“You mean more to me than you can imagine.” He leans down, gently kissing me on the mouth.
Warmth shoots through me, running through my limbs and defrosting the ice that has formed inside of me. Steam rises around us, my arms—which were stiff—can move again. I sling them around his neck and tug him closer. A tingling feeling dances through me. I reach for his hair, but his hands meet mine and pull me back down. He stops kissing me, and I feel lightheaded and tingly all over, no longer cold. Jaxson’s eyes are glowing,
“What did you just do to me?” I want him to do it again, and again, and again.
“I just warmed you up a bit. You should be good for a while.”
I want to dive into the snow so that he’ll kiss me again like that.
“Do you think you can walk now?” he asks.
If he wanted me to, I could probably fly, but I just nod my head yes.
Jaxson is right. I stay warm and tingly, but not like when he was kissing me. I can still feel the cold grabbing at me, but it doesn’t affect me the way it did. Jaxson keeps a hand pressed firmly to my lower back, guiding me, and helping me climb what must be layers upon layers of snow and more is coming down.
“Does it always snow here?” I ask
“Most of the time.”
“What about spring and summer?”
He turns, gripping me around my waist. His hand slides up to meet bare skin and more surges of warmth shoot through me. I wonder if it’s just adrenaline from his touch or more elfin magic like the kiss. I hold onto the top of his hand with my own as he lowers me to the ground from a steep snow bank. He lets his hands linger on my waist and my stomach flutters to life.
“It is always the same here. We leave Eyce for the change of seasons, the other lands of Faeylon do not change either. Therefore, if you want summer you have to find it.”
“It must have been amazing growing up here.” He let’s go of my waist, and I’m sorry I said anything.
“When I was younger, I was happy.”
I don’t push, but I’m itching to know more.
“It’s very beautiful.”
And now that I’m not freezing, it is. It’s like something off a postcard. Drifts of snow in various shades of blue on either side of us. The skeleton trees are not the dreaded dead looking trees that I thought they were. Instead, they are alive with ice that hangs like glass off the delicate fingertip branches.
“What does your home look like?” I ask, picturing a giant igloo.
“It’s—” He doesn’t get to finish because he’s cut off by a low, spine-chilling growl.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I press against Jaxson as he readies an arrow in his bow. The snow falls heavy around us, making it difficult to see, but the feeling of eyes on us grows with each second. Ice prickles down my spine. We are being watched.
Something in the distance catches my attention. At first, I think it’s just two stones siting in the snow, but there is something odd about them. Then they flicker, disappearing behind the cover of white and reappearing like they are blinking. Blinking … They are eyes, not stones.
“Jaxson.” I tug on his shirt. Why the hell is everything camouflaged in this world?
But Jaxson already sees it, and he pulls the arrow back the sting tight, pointing it at a lion. Lions are big. I have seen them on the Discovery channel, and once at the zoo on a school trip. But the one standing in front of us stands is the largest magnificent lion I have ever seen. It is as tall as a horse and twice as big. Its fur and mane are as white as the snow that falls from the sky. Every part of him blends into our surroundings, except those piercing humanlike, teal blue eyes. Behind its bent ears, two twisted white horns curve outward like an antelope’s, and its barbed tail flicks behind it with menace.
If it wasn’t for the eyes, we would have stepped right into his waiting claws. My heart pounds wildly in my chest. There is no way we are making it out of this alive. Jaxson’s arrow is pointed at it, the tip
glistens with a threatening sheen. The lion bares his teeth, letting out a roar that shakes the ground. Spreading out a pair of white velvet wings behind him it leaps, and Jaxson pushes me to the ground.
The snow cushions my fall, but as soon as I fall, I push myself up and searching for Jaxson. The beast is on top of him, and his bow sets a few feet in front of me. I watch in horror as the beast brings his mouth down to Jaxson’s face, devouring him. My scream echoes around me.
When the beast lifts its massive head, I am thankful to see Jaxson is unharmed. His perfect face is still intact, but very wet, and he is alive. Thank goodness. The lion lays down on top of him, and begins to chuff, licking him with his huge tongue. While the thing is busy savoring Jaxson, I scoot over and pick up the arrow. I’m sure I will end up a lot worse than Jaxson is at the moment, but I have to help him.
I’ve never held an arrow before. It’s heavier than I thought and ice cold. The touch of it in my hand sends a chill through my body. Careful not to get the lion’s attention, I lift it over my head, shuffle closer with my eyes closed, and slam it down. My arm shudders, jarring my insides. My eyes fly open to meet Jaxson’s radiant blue eyes. His hand is wrapped around my wrist, holding me back. The lion wings open and close as a low rumbling growl vibrates the earth. “Has anyone ever told you, Ace, that you’re dangerous when you have a weapon in your hand?”
I let the arrow slip from my fingers. This was a trick. My legs give out from under me, but Jaxson catches me before I can hit the ground. I can’t do this anymore. This is just too much for me to handle! I break down in sobs.
“This is a game. I’m a game,” I say, remembering between sobs.
He pulls me tighter, supporting all of my weight. “You were never a game to me.” He brushes my hair from my face and leans down, kissing me as if I’m the only girl he’s ever wanted to kiss.
“This isn’t a joke?” I say through tears and his kisses.
“This is most definitely not a joke.” His mouth moves over mine.
I kiss him back just as desperately because he is the only boy that I ever want to kiss. Tears still run down my face, and they mix with the taste of him. Nothing matters anymore—not the past, not what might happen, nothing but him and me right now. All too soon he pulls away, leaving me dizzy and breathless. He leans his head against mine, his long lashes brushing the top of his cheekbones.
“Let me introduce you to someone.” He smiles then kisses me one more time on my forehead. “This is Richard,” he says still holding onto me. He motions to the lion that is busy licking its paw. What a cat thing to do.
“Richard?” I sniffle.
He shrugs, his hair falling back into his eye. “Yeah, my mom had a thing for human history.”
He smiles as he says it, and I want nothing more at this moment than to keep that smile on his face. He is handsome, but when he smiles there is so much more to him.
“Come pet him.”
I pull back. “Jaxson, that’s a lion.”
He snorts. “Actually, he is a Manticore.”
“Oh sure, why didn’t you say so in the first place? A Manticore won’t eat my face off, he’ll just swallow me whole.”
“I love your dramatic side.” He laughs and kisses me on top of the head before guiding me over to the giant, flying lion that is watching me the way an annoyed cat would.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Of course, it is.”
He places my hand on top of Richard’s head, right between the horns. He is not chomping on my hand, which is a good sign. I touch him warily, and a rattling erupts in his throat as he pushes his face into my hand.
“See, he likes you.” Jaxson rubs him between the ears.
“I like him, too.” And I do now that I know he’s not going to eat me or Jaxson, but that doesn’t stop me from shaking like a leaf. I’m freaking out on the inside. As if petting a lion along isn’t intimidating enough, this one just also happens to have horns and wings and is the size of a horse.
“Jaxson, he has wings. Lions don’t have wings.” Richard bumps his wet nose into my hand, knocking me back slightly.
“Yeah, well little good they do. He can’t even fly. They’re more for decoration. He is kind of like a giant peacock.”
That’s probably a good thing. The thought of flying giant lions is quite frankly terrifying. I reach for his wings, and they feel like velvet under my hand—soft and thin.
“He really is amazing,” I say rubbing my fingers on the underside of his wings as Richard closes his eyes, enjoying the attention.
“Well, I’m glad you think so because he is going to take you to Caillte where the door home is.”
I stop petting Richard and spin on Jaxson. “What?” I must not have heard him right. “You mean us. He is taking us home.” I correct him.
“He can only carry one, but I will be right behind you.”
He pulls me to him once more. I press my face into his shirt, breathing in the light smell of pine, mixed with the delicate smell of rain. Winter, he smells like winter.
“I can’t leave without you.” I grip onto his shoulder. “I can’t leave you. If he can’t take the both of us, then we will walk.” I didn’t survive this long and go through everything I did just to be torn apart from him.
“Ace, you have to go. It will take days to get to Caillte if we walk. On my own, I can go much faster. I will be right behind you. I promise.”
“But what if something happens to you?”
He lets at a chuckle. “You’re worried about me? I’m from this world. I survived it for eleven years.” He kisses the top of my head.
Tears spill over my eyelids, and I don’t fight them. There is a nagging feeling growing in the pit of my stomach that if we separate, this will be the last I see him. He leans his chin on top of my head, pressing a hand on my lower back, and our bodies melt together. I can feel our time quickly dwindling. I’d never realized I wanted someone so bad until this very moment and there was the possibility of not having him anymore.
“You have to go. If you stay, they will kill you,” he says.
I feel like I have been stabbed in the heart. “Who? Who will kill me?” I ask.
“My father’s seekers. They are here.”
“What about you? What happens if they catch you?”
He kisses me on the top of my head and pulls away. His eyes glow bright, eyes I want to get lost in.
“I will be fine. Ace. Promise me that, whatever happens, you will get to the door and leave. You can’t try to come back to this place, do you understand me?”
My throat swells, making it almost impossible to breathe as tears pour down my face, and he gently wipes them away, turning them ice on the tips of his fingers.
“Promise me, Eden. I couldn’t live if anything happened to you. It would kill me.”
I nod my head, which feels too heavy on my shoulders as I make a promise I don’t think I can keep. “I promise.”
The moment I say the word the sound of howling surrounds us, but I don’t see anything. I grip Jaxson tighter He stiffens, his hands pressing protectively on my back, his face set with a hard look, and his eyes dangerously illuminated.
“Richard,” he demands of the beast.
Obediently, the lion stands, shaking the snow from his great white mane. The howling seems to make him restless, and he lets out a roar that has my heart pounding as he paws at the ground. Jaxson leans his face close to his and says something in the language he spoke to the lizard creature in, then turns to me.
“You have to go now,” he says in a hurried voice.
“Jaxson, come with me, please,” I beg again, causing him to falter. I can see the indecision written on his face.
“Please,” I choke out around my tears.
“Ace, I’ll be right behind you, I promise.”
He lifts me up, and I wrap my arms around his neck crying. “How come this feels like it’s permanent, like this is goodbye?” I hiccup.
He lifts my chin up. “It’s not goodbye. I will be right behind you. When you get to Caillte, find the door. Do not wait for me! Go.”
He pulls my face to his, letting his lips hover for only a moment before closing the distance, and his mouth is on mine. I’m floating, and everything disappears around me. There is no longer the threat of danger with him kissing me like this. Tiny ice particles fill my lungs and then melt. The sensation of hot and cold courses through me. I press my hand against his chest, feeling the steady beat as if it was my own heart pulsating my blood. I feel his magic, warm and bright, prickling inside my body and filling every part of me.
He breaks away, leaving me desperate for more, and sets me down on top of Richard. The lion once again lets out a deafening roar.
“I will be right behind you,” he says again.
“Jaxson.” I try to grab for his hand, wanting to hold on to him. I want to stay with him. If he has to fight, I want to fight by his side.
He reaches up to his neck and yanks the necklace off, tying it back around mine. I shiver when the stone settles between my breasts, and the familiar pulse of it returns. “Jaxson.” I can’t do this.
“When you get to Caillte, do not wait for me. Do you understand? You must leave at once.”
I shake my head because I cannot leave him in this place, a place that is as equally beautiful as it’s dangerous. “Jaxson,” I choke out his name one last time.
He leans in, whispering something to Richard, and we dart forward, leaving me looking back at Jaxson.
Chapter Forty
Wolf-like creatures leap out at us as soon as we take off as if they were waiting for this very moment. The wolves have boar like tusks that protrude from their mouths. Their eyes are pure white, matching their white fur that is stained copper with dried blood.
I scream as one gets close, thrashing it tusks, but Richard is faster and moves out of the way just in time. I stare down at the snapping wolf as we break through the pack. I tighten my grip on his mane and lean in close to him. A wolf to the right of us lets out its blood-curdling howl and leaps, but the creature falls from the air with an arrow sticking from its head. Black ooze seeps out onto the white snow. I turn to see the pack of wolves closing in on Jaxson.