Chapter Eighteen
CHAPTER
Eighteen
Winter broke two days later. In the forest, each tree was encrusted with ice crystals and when a ray of sunlight cut through the clouds, it set them all a-glitter.
On a day like this, it seemed impossible that anything bad could ever happen.
But according to the novels Thea read, this was precisely when something bad would definitely happen, especially since she was making a beeline straight for a cursed lake.
Yesterday morning she’d risen like the undead after drinking half the tavern with Zofka, but she couldn’t wait an entire week for Jasper to procure another fingernail.
Her hope flurried like a tentative snowfall; if all went to plan, she should be leaving this forest with the last ingredient secured to finally make Malek’s key.
If it did not – no, she couldn’t consider that now.
She needed to be confident. The ball was drawing closer.
She tried to ignore the part where she’d need to successfully steal a fingernail from a lake spirit, but Jasper’s voice echoed through her thoughts: The only way to retrieve one of their nails is if it becomes embedded in your flesh.
Stubbornly, she walked deeper into the forest. Towards the Crossroads, where the trees hummed and white eyes watched her path. Magic buzzed in the air, this close to where the seams frayed and other worlds rubbed against this one, turning everything wild and wonderful.
Careful with each step, her nerves hammering a warning, Thea forged on, searching the forest for any sight of water.
She’d sent ravens to Zofka and Talibah, letting them know where she was going and asking them to send help if she was more than a few hours.
Just in case. Following the path of the Crossroads, she wandered into unexplored territory, further and further until her feet hurt and she thought about giving up.
But she couldn’t. So, on she marched, until at last she caught the scent of water.
Crossing her fingers, Thea cut a path through thinning trees.
Through the wintry, sparse foliage, she glimpsed a lake.
It didn’t look cursed. She stepped over thorned undergrowth to examine it closer, drawn by something she couldn’t voice, something her thoughts refused to shape.
Oh. Oh no, it was definitely cursed. Its surface was dappled with light as if sunshine danced across the water, though the sun was now absent, lost to clouds that hung low as fog.
Her nerves swelled. How did one go about locating a lake spirit?
Wind skated over the surface of the lake, but the water did not move. She bent to pick up a pebble and tossed it into the lake. No ripples formed. Somewhere deep down, a thin, high laugh echoed up.
By the edge of the lake was a cluster of big smooth rocks, and Thea knelt on one to peer more closely at the water.
It seemed as if it ought to be clear, but she couldn’t see the bottom.
A lily pad drifted by. Thea peeled it back from the water, checking beneath it.
Something slinked around Thea’s fingers like algae, slippery and wet.
She lurched back. Had that been a lake spirit’s hair? ‘Hello,’ she said out loud, feeling more than a little stupid. ‘I’m sorry to bother you, but if you are a lake spirit, I desperately need one of your fingernails for an important potion I’m brewing. It would help someone very dear to me and—’
That laugh echoed up again.
A tiny moan of fright escaped Thea.
Hoof-beats pounded the ground. They reverberated through Thea’s bones as she leapt up, the hood of her cloak falling down.
‘Thea!’
Her name was a roar of desperation in Jasper’s mouth. Rounding the trees, he came galloping into sight, his hands tight on a black horse’s reins. He was not dressed for the changing seasons, clad in only a shirt, breeches and riding boots. Her heart-spell flickered.
Jasper leaped from his horse, striding towards her, his chest heaving. ‘Thea.’ Confusion muddied his relief. He halted before her, his gaze stripping her bare. ‘Are you well?’
‘Perfectly, why?’ Thea blinked in confusion. ‘Are you?’
Jasper frowned. ‘I received a raven from Zofka. She was in the apothecary instead of you. She was distraught. She informed me that you’d gone to the forest to gather ingredients hours ago and had not returned.’
Well. That was . . . untrue.
‘I—’ Thea cleared her throat. ‘My apologies, I lost track of time. I had no wish to concern anyone.’ Oh, Zofka was not going to hear the end of this.
Had she been genuinely worried, or . . .
Thea sighed internally, flashing back to Zofka’s reaction when Thea had confessed she’d kissed Jasper.
What a devious matchmaker. She gave Jasper a remorseful smile.
‘And running the apothecary? Had that also slipped your mind?’ Jasper’s voice was harsher now, his concern fading fast. ‘Regardless of how many customers we might or might not be receiving these days, you are still expected to be there, to keep everything running smoothly.’
‘It is not part of my duty to create goods for the apothecary?’
Jasper glowered. ‘You know well I have repeatedly warned you to stay away from this part of the forest, and I have offered to provide any ingredient you should need. What’s really happening here, Thea?
Last time we spoke on the subject, I left under the impression that you understood why you should not come here.
I brought you the last lake spirit fingernail in my possession.
’ His voice trailed off as he took in where she stood.
On a rock in the shallows of a cursed lake.
‘No, Thea,’ he said severely. ‘Please tell me you did not come here to retrieve a fingernail by yourself.’
Thea glanced at the mist wending through the lake-edge. ‘That fingernail you gave me was rotten.’
‘And I said I would procure you another,’ Jasper spoke through gritted jaw.
‘I needed it urgently,’ Thea told him.
‘Must you always have a reason for everything?’ Jasper growled.
‘You are the sole person who seems to take issue with everything I do,’ Thea shot back.
Jasper gestured at the cursed lake. ‘Because you refuse to heed my warnings; it’s as if you wish to deliberately court danger.’
Thea’s heart-spell thrashed with anger. ‘No, you didn’t warn me, you ordered me. And I do not take orders from you.’
‘Clearly.’ Jasper raked his hair, glowering at her.
The last time they’d fought like this, it had ended with her wrapping her thighs around him.
Thea startled; where had that come from?
Did she want him to kiss her again? No, of course not.
Her stare flitted down to his mouth for a second.
The forest was grey under the ceiling of cloud and thick layer of frost, the trees shivering phantoms. Their hum low-pitched enough for Thea to hear Jasper’s quick intake of breath.
‘Thea,’ he scratched out, his whisper rough. Deep. Sinking into that ravine of unexplored emotion that ran between them.
His horse whinnied.
Thea jumped, instinctively stepping back. The heel of her boot slipped on the stone, uprooting her. Flinging her arms out to catch at something, she yelped in alarm.
Jasper grabbed her hand, but it was too late, they were already falling.
They plummeted into the lake, tangled together.
Thea gasped as she hit the freezing water. Jasper yanked her straight back up, his hands swallowing her waist as he stabilised them both in the water, muttering darkly.
Clawed fingers wrapped around one of Thea’s ankles.
‘Jasper!’ she managed to shriek before she was dragged straight down, through the water and into algae-slick mud, which suddenly parted, revealing that the lake shallows were in fact, not shallow at all.
Lake water roared past Thea’s face, clogging her ears, nose and throat as she kicked out, trying to free herself.
But the hand was unyielding, clawed fingers banded around her ankle like iron.
The water turned inky as whatever had claimed Thea pulled her into the lake’s hidden depths.
Shivering with shock, a second fear hit Thea like a ship sailing into an iceberg: it was deathly cold.
Colder than the dark expanse between stars.
And it was growing colder the further down she went.
Her borrowed powers refused to answer her call, too smothered in fear.
Now and then, eyes glittered as she passed.
Occasionally there was a flash of bared teeth.
Her heart-spell almost gave out with fright.
Until a flare of light cut through the murk, sending the creatures darting away.
Jasper. He arrowed straight down as if he’d been propelled, fierce determination carved into his face.
Thea reached for him, her fingers scrabbling against his as only their fingertips touched, then he was there, grasping her wrist, then elbow, then waist as he slowed her descent.
Her chest heaving as she struggled not to inhale, Thea held onto Jasper’s shoulders, his arm wrapped around her waist. Reeds snarled at her feet; they were approaching the true bottom of the lake, at last.
With his free hand, Jasper stretched out, snagging the tapestry of fate.
The water undulated. A dark gleam rose as threads appeared all around them.
Whatever was clinging onto Thea’s ankle hissed.
Its nails sank deeper into her skin. Thea opened her mouth in a silent scream.
Water rushed in, choking her. She clung harder to Jasper, trying to kick the creature off in a panic.
Jasper cast his fury at it, yanking that tapestry of fate until threads snapped, their ends floating past Thea’s face as the creature who’d seized her simply . . . vanished.
Then it was she and Jasper alone. Stars spattered in her vision as her thoughts began to fade. Jasper’s arms tightened around her waist.
She blinked and they were cresting the surface.