Chapter Three
A Traipse Through the Magical Junkyard
Okay, maybe this was the afterlife, or her spirit was stuck in limbo, or this was all a very detailed dream because the man standing before her couldn’t possibly be real.
Except he was. Deep down, she knew that much.
She took another long look at Damon and felt her breath hitch in her throat. He looked different, alright. And it wasn’t just the stubble on his chin, or his shorter brown hair, or that chiseled chin. He’d filled out nicely since the last time she’d seen him, standing at least a foot taller than her so that her face was level with his barrel chest.
Broad shoulders widened his frame, nearly filling her vision. Julia was willing to bet those muscles were larger than her head. A few scars lined his abs, traveling down into his trousers. He looked less like the high school football jock she’d had a silly crush on and more like a hardened survivor. His eyes were as green as ever, but even they had changed. Gazing into them felt like staring at a veteran. She couldn’t guess what Damon had been through over the past 16 years; she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, yet curiosity burned within her like wildfire. It was hard not to want answers, especially when the questions continued to prod her mind.
“You were… gone,” she said, choking back the lump that had lodged itself in her throat. “I thought… I thought you were...”
“So did I, Red, for a while,” he replied. “When I got back to the surface, you were gone. Everything was gone. I figured I must be—”
“Dead,” she said, completing his sentence. “It’s hard not to think that this is some kind of heaven when there’s so much snow around.” At least she wasn’t the only one who’d mistaken this place for an afterlife. “So where exactly is this place? I don’t think it’s anywhere in the States.”
Damon shook his head, those eyes locked on hers. “Frost Mountain isn’t anywhere on earth.”
It took Julia a moment to process what he’d just said. She lifted an eyebrow at him like he’d lost his marbles. “Are you saying we’re in space, or on some other planet, or—”
“No, not another planet, a separate dimension.”
She blinked. He wasn’t making any sense. Nothing he’d just said answered the questions swirling through her mind, like what in deuces was going on, how were they both still alive, and why he’d been a dragon about to attack her just moments ago?
“What are you talking about?” she asked him.
He simply stared at her for a moment, like she was a piece of meat he was trying to guess the weight of. Then, after sweeping their surroundings with his gaze, he took her hand in his, sending tingles up her arm.
“I’ll explain as we go,” he told her, a look of unease filling his eyes. “We need to move.”
That was definitely enlightening . “Where to?”
“To Caprichor.”
***
They didn’t continue down the mountain but instead headed west in the direction of more trees. Damon led the way, occasionally glancing over his shoulder. At first, Julia figured he was probably making sure she was still behind him, but the uncomfortable expression on his face told her it was something else.
“You still haven’t answered my questions about this place,” she reminded him. “This… dimension. Frosty Mountain, you called it?”
“ Frost Mountain,” he corrected. His features relaxed, and Julia could tell he was grateful for the distraction from whatever it was that was bothering him. “And yes, it is a separate dimension. Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. You, of all people, should know I’m telling the truth. We’ve already had the impossible happen to us. We’re supposed to be impossible.”
She knew he was referring to the fact that they were both supernaturals. The fact that he was a dragon shifter still baffled her. How had she missed that he was like her? Maybe that was why he’d been drawn to her. Then again, he hadn’t known about her, either.
“The first thing you need to know about Frost Mountain is that it’s magic,” he started, stepping over a fallen tree and pausing to help her over it as well.
“Figures. I’ve been traveling for almost two months, and there’s not much around here that makes sense.”
“The second thing you need to know is that you can’t leave.”
Her movements faltered. She’d already figured that part out, but it was still chilling to hear. “What are you talking about?”
Damon adjusted the strap of the bag he was carrying. “Frost Mountain isn’t just a dimension. It’s more like a cage than anything else, only there aren’t any bars you can see. That’s the trick. All there is to this dimension is the mountain itself. The mountain goes on infinitely—at least, that’s what I’ve heard.”
She considered the implication of what he’d just said. “Wait… there’s no end to this mountain? There’s nothing at the bottom?”
“There is no bottom, Red,” he corrected. “If you continued traveling downhill, you’d have done so for the rest of your life. This mountain is a cage with infinite space. We’re all on a hamster wheel, trying to stay alive and keep our minds intact.”
He spoke as casually if he were a high school senior giving a tour to a freshman, but it was his tone that troubled her. His words either made no sense at all or were too horrifying to believe. She bit her lip unconsciously. How long would she have to spend here before she got used to this place?
Sixteen years should do the trick , she told herself.
“Any idea why a place like this even exists?” she asked.
“I was getting to that.” His shoulders sagged a little, his eyes narrowing. “This place is magic. Who do you think is responsible for it?”
The answer was so obvious that Julia couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it earlier. “Witches.”
“Ding, ding, ding.”
“Bloody hell.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you could pass for a female movie lead with that accent? You know, the sexy kind.”
In spite of the weather, Julia felt heat rush to her cheeks and wondered if he could see her blushing. Clearing her throat, she asked, “Why would they do something like this?”
“Boredom?” He chuckled. “People say there was a war on earth a long time ago.”
“How long ago are we talking?”
“A few hundred years, give or take.”
“That’s a long time.”
“That’s what I said.” He swept his gaze about as they walked past the trees, snow crunching beneath their shoes. “It was a war between shifters and witches. And you can guess who played dirty and who bit the dust—er, snow.”
“Blimey.”
“Uh-huh. The witches created this dimension to imprison the shifters who survived. This place is crawling with descendants of those shifters. But they’re not the only ones here.”
“Yeah, you mean you and me.”
He cocked his head and flashed her a tiny grin that twisted her insides in a knot. “Yeah, Red. Along with millions, if not billions, of other people from the earth.”
“Wait, what ?” She froze in her tracks.
He motioned to her to keep walking. “I told you that this place is designed to keep people from leaving. The thing is, it doesn’t keep anyone from getting in. There are portals all over earth. I’m willing to bet that half the people who go missing wind up here. Same with cars, ships…”
“Or planes.” Her pulse throbbed in her ears as the memory of Flight 18 falling from the sky flashed through her mind.
Damon gave a grave nod, and Julia had a feeling he already suspected how she’d arrived here. The plane crash had been because of some portal in the sky. And Damon… the same must have happened to him when they fell into that lake all those years ago.
His expression seemed to brighten a little. “Look, Red, there’s nothing we can do about this place. It’s out of anyone’s control. You and I are stuck here now. Sure, it’s designed to imprison and sometimes kill you, but there are perks.”
She lifted a snowy brow. “Such as?”
“Well, first, the people coming in from our world aren’t just adding to the population. They bring their culture and ideas along with them. You know, for a while after I got here, I used to explain football to…” His smile wavered. “Well, to my friends.”
He cleared his throat. “Items end up in this dimension, too. Food supplies, clothing, scrap metal… it’s a magical junkyard. Between that and the people showing up, there are parts of Frost Mountain more civilized than others. It’s like having multiple time periods in the same space. Why do you think you’ve got a Nike jacket on instead of animal skin?”
Julia looked at the clothes he’d given her and decided he had a point. “And second?”
He winked over his shoulder at her. “Well, you are stuck here with me.”
If her face got any hotter, it could start a campfire. Julia couldn’t tell if he was flirting or simply being himself. It was one of the things that had confused and excited her back then.
She glanced at his broad back as they walked and felt the knot tighten in her belly. Did he have any idea how big a crush she’d had on him all those years ago? Did he know how badly she’d hoped he would ask her to the dance when he offered to walk her home? Maybe the incident on the ice had saved her from embarrassment. It hadn’t saved her from disappointment or quelled her feelings for him. She hadn’t felt this way in so long; she’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a crush on a guy like Damon McLaurent, high school football quarterback and, now, a survivor on a mountain farther from home than anyone could imagine.
She wondered if he’d ever felt the same way toward her but discarded the thought as it appeared. Now wasn’t the time. There was too much to think about. She was stuck here on a mountain that was determined to turn her into a pillar of ice.
It was hard to believe all of this was really happening and not just a bad dream.
“What is this Capricorn place you’re taking me to anyway?” She’d been meaning to ask since they commenced their journey, but her curiosity about the mountain had taken precedence. “You haven’t told me anything about it.”
“It’s Caprichor ,” he said. “It’s a village. We’ll get there in a week or two. Hopefully, we’ll be safe.”
“Safe from what?”
Damon didn’t reply, but his back stiffened. Julia picked up the pace with a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold, walking at his side.
Clearly, something was making Damon uneasy, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what it was—just yet.