Chapter Fifteen
Workplace Conflict
The first thing he noticed when his eyes flickered open was that he was in a cave. He lay flat with his back on cold, rocky ground, staring at a dark ceiling that was way too high for the cave he’d been camping in. That was the second thing he noticed. This wasn’t the same cave.
He sat up, wincing as the back of his head throbbed. With each throb, a memory returned: Julia staring at him in horror and revulsion, Julia taking off into the night, half a dozen men ambushing him as he tried to go after her…
He blinked, looking around. This new cave was dimly lit and huge, large enough to dwarf even the biggest dragons. But it wasn’t the size of the cave that sent a tremor down Damon’s spine. It was the sight before him. Barely 30 feet away in the darkness was a pit. And not just any pit. The pit, the one so dark and deep it seemed even to defy the light.
Oh, no.
A whimper to his right jerked him to full alertness. Next to him, sitting up against the cave wall and shivering through her clothes, was…
“Julia,” he breathed, pulling himself into a sitting position. He reached for her, his concern overshadowing his pain. “Are you okay?”
The look of terror on her face was all the answer he needed. A bolt of horror raced through him. Things had gone from bad to worse. The Collectors had caught them. Grim Jim had them now. He looked to his left, where a series of openings led to other caves he couldn’t see, caves where Grim Jim kept his treasures.
Where was the Ice Melter? He stared at his hands. He wasn’t chained, nor was Julia. He knew neither of them dared try to escape without fully understanding the stakes, but what about—?
“You’re awake,” said a familiar voice. “I was worried the others hit you too hard.”
Damon jerked his head up just as Jan Hoover stepped into view, a thin smile on his face. Behind him, Damon spotted a few other Collectors.
His stomach sank. “Jan, what have you done?”
“I figured it out,” his old friend replied. “When you told me about your traveling companion, I suspected you were lying. You’ve always traveled alone. So I decided to find out the truth for myself.”
Something clicked inside Damon’s head. “That attack, back in the woods. It was… you.”
“Guilty as charged. I gathered as many other Collectors as I could on short notice. To be honest, I hoped I was wrong. But then she,” he said, jabbing his finger at Julia, "chose that moment to shift. It turned out you’d been traveling with the snow leopard this whole time. You’d already found Grim Jim’s prize, but you weren’t going to take her to him, were you?”
Next to him, he heard Julia gasp.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” Damon said.
“I did what I knew to be right.” Jan lifted his chin, his shoulders tensing. “You should have done as you were told instead of believing you could defy the Ice Melter and somehow get away with it. And now, I’m sure you know what fate awaits you.”
He glanced toward the pit, and Damon swallowed. “I couldn’t let him have her.”
“And now he has both of you. I can’t believe you, Damon. After so many years, you were willing to abandon the Collectors? After all Grim Jim did for you? After all I did? You wouldn’t be sitting here if I’d let you drown in that river. You certainly wouldn’t have tried to defy the Ice Melter.”
Damon started to get to his feet. “Jan—”
The sound of footsteps echoing through the cave interrupted him. There was a collective gasp, and all the Collectors, including Jan, dropped onto one knee. Damon stared ahead, watching a tall man saunter into view.
“That,” Grim Jim said, his voice booming throughout the cave, “is enough.”
***
Damon had stared death in the face many times before. And some of those times, that face also belonged to the Ice Melter.
Grim Jim looked amused, which was in stark contrast to his name. The immortal Ice Melter was slightly taller than Damon, with a more muscular build and an overgrown beard. His dark eyes seemed to be receding into the back of his skull.
“You’re… you’re him,” Julia said, staring wide-eyed at him. “You’re Grim Jim.”
“I am him,” came the reply.
“Your beard could use a trim.”
He chuckled, which was the second most terrifying sound Damon had ever heard. The Ice Melter drew nearer, making Damon’s pulse pound violently in his ears.
“You know,” said the Ice Melter, “when the war ended centuries ago, and the witches imprisoned us here, that was all I believed Frost Mountain to be: a prison, a cage for wild animals.” His grin widened. “And for the first hundred years or so, I continued to believe it was. But as I learned to adapt properly to this place, as I learned to thrive, I realized something.”
He stopped 10 feet away from Damon and folded his arms across his bare chest.
“Frost Mountain is no prison,” he continued. “Not for me, at least. This place is a paradise, teeming with infinite possibilities. What more could I ask for? Those witches who cursed me and put me here had no idea what they were doing.”
Damon held his breath. The Ice Melter’s eyes were focused on him. Even the other Collectors looked trepidatious. At this close range, he could lash out at anyone, and no one wanted a surprise tour of the pit today.
“Whatever I want, I ultimately get,” Grim Jim said. “But you, Damon, tried to take my prize from me.”
His gaze flicked toward Julia, who gasped and seemed to shrink away from him.
“Ah,” he muttered. “The snow leopard shifter. I have waited weeks, and now I finally have you.”
He stepped closer, reaching out to caress her chin, and Damon heard Julia whimper again. She looked even more terrified than ever. Seeing her like this made Damon’s heart feel like it was trapped in an icy grip. She shouldn’t be here. She didn’t deserve any of this, not at all.
And it was his fault. He should have come clean to her earlier. If he hadn’t kept his secret for so long, they wouldn’t be here now. Perhaps they would already be in Caprichor. Instead, they were trapped in a place he wouldn’t wish for his worst enemy. Damon was minutes, if not seconds, away from death. And Julia? Hers was an even worse fate, trapped in this cave to suffer as one of the Ice Melter’s treasures until her last breath. He’d seen the way Grim Jim treated his other living treasures. The thought of Julia going through that made his chest ache.
“You defied me, Damon,” Grim Jim said, turning back to him, the smile slowly fading from his face. “I’m not happy about that at all. You should have known better. You used to know better.”
“I did what I had to do,” Damon said as defiantly as he could, with death staring him in the face. “I refused to bring her to you.”
“Why, because after nearly two decades, you’re suddenly horrified at the things we stand for?” The Ice Melter chuckled, his eyes full of hate. “Or perhaps, by some chance, you have strong feelings for this woman?”
Damon’s breath faltered for a second, but the triumphant look on the Ice Melter’s face told him it was long enough.
“Of course…” Grim Jim’s eyes darkened. “I should have known.”
He jerked his head toward the other Collectors. “Take her to the treasure chamber.”
Two men instantly stepped forward and took Julia by the arms. She shrieked and protested, but they held her fast, leading her toward one of the darker passages.
“No!” Damon cried.
“As for you, Damon, your punishment will be swift. You should not have defied me.”
With another tiny jerk of his head, Jan and another Collector grabbed hold of Damon and began dragging him toward the pit. Damon heard the familiar hiss rising from the dark, gaping hole as though it was beckoning to him, happy that he had returned. The pit was hungry, and Damon was its next meal.
Red-hot anger flared inside Damon’s chest. He couldn’t go out like this. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Julia end up a prisoner here.
“I’m not going in there,” he snarled.
“If only it were up to you,” Grim Jim replied. “You seem to have forgotten who is in charge here.”
“Jeremiah Ebon, the Ice Melter.” Just uttering the words sent a chill down Damon’s spine, but he spat them out with as much disgust as he could muster under the circumstances.
“Yes.” Grim Jim’s tone was frosty. “I’m almost sorry to see you go… almost.”
As Damon was dragged closer to his doom, he fought like the devil.
“No!” he screamed.
With a sudden burst of energy, he broke free of Jan and the other Collector, knocking them aside before either had the opportunity to react. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Collectors who were holding Julia turn to look. Grim Jim’s eyes widened in surprise as Damon charged toward him, and he braced himself, preparing to take Damon down with a single blow.
But Damon had other ideas. He shifted as he lunged, ripping out of his clothes and frame in an instant, and a fully grown dragon collided with the Ice Melter, slamming him to the ground. The sound echoed through the cave. The blow should have killed Grim Jim in an instant, but when Damon lifted his foot, the Ice Melter lay there, completely unhurt, a sinister smile on his lips.
Damn curse.
“My turn,” Grim Jim said, a deadly flicker in his eyes. And then he began to grow. Damon watched with horror as a scaly pattern appeared on the Ice Melter’s flesh, which blackened by the second. Horns sprouted from his forehead, and wings emerged from his back. The Collectors nearby backed away, crying out in terror. It took Damon nearly all of his willpower to stand his ground.
Jeremiah Ebon’s body expanded at a rapid rate. Spikes jutted from his face, and a set of silver plates covered his obsidian chest like armor plates. His face elongated into a long snout, and smoke spurted from his nostrils. His eyes flickered red.
The black dragon stepped forward, towering over Damon, who found himself momentarily backing up toward the pit.
Suddenly, throwing himself into it didn’t seem like such a terrible idea.
He snarled and, with a beat of wings, hurled himself at Grim Jim. But this wasn’t just any dragon. Damon was up against an older, smarter, more powerful force of evil. At best, this was a Hail Mary. But Damon wasn’t about to back out now, not with Julia’s fate hanging in the balance.
Red and black scales clashed, and claws flashed in the dim cave. Damon let out a roar of agony as the Ice Melter slashed him across the chest. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it stopped him long enough to give Grim Jim a chance to blast him in the face with a column of flame. Damone hit the ground, his mind in chaos, his body engulfed in heat and pain.
“Damon!”
It was Julia. He couldn’t see her, but the sound of her voice was gutting enough to make him forget his pain.
With another roar, he parted his jaws, firing at Grim Jim as the black dragon prepared to strike again. The Ice Melter’s shriek of pain sent a violent shudder throughout the cave, causing several stalactites to rain down on them.
Damon tried for another attack and was surprised to feel claws at his throat. Before he could wrestle himself free, he was slammed onto the ground.
A soft hiss snapped him back to alertness, and he realized just where he was. He was pinned beneath Grim Jim, just at the edge of the pit. He could feel the gaping darkness beckoning to him. Overhead, the black dragon’s jaws parted wide, and Damon saw the brightening glow in the back of its throat.
This was the end.
Not if I can help it , Damon thought.
With a roar, he heaved with all his might, sinking his claws into whatever bit of flesh he could find. Grim Jim shrieked again, causing more stalactites to rain down. As the larger dragon struggled to regain his composure and balance, Damon pushed again. The Ice Melter gave a surprised grunt as he toppled over Damon, tumbling over the edge of the pit into the darkness.
A deafening roar arose from the pit, fading by the second. And then it was over.
Damon shifted back, panting and clutching his chest. He scrambled away from the pit, half-expecting a dark monstrosity to emerge from it and attack him again. But nothing happened. He continued to stare at the pit, unsure whether to burst into laughter or tears. The impossible had happened. The pit had claimed the lives of anyone who dared to defy Grim Jim. But before this, it had never occurred to Damon that it would do the same to the murderer. The idea had crept into his mind at the last minute, a desperate attempt at best. And it had worked.
Then again, Grim Jim was immortal. This pit wouldn’t destroy him, but Damon knew that Grim Jim would continue to plummet through the darkness from which no shifter—alive or dead—no dragon —had ever escaped, and no one ever would, not even Grim Jim.
As far as anyone knew, Jeremiah Ebon, the Ice Melter, was gone for good.
Relief flooded through him like a rush of adrenaline. He got to his feet finally and looked around. To his surprise, the cave was almost empty. The Collectors were nowhere to be seen. Damon surmised they must have taken off during the battle with Grim Jim. Standing alone by the cave wall, staring back at him, was a lone figure.
“Julia.” He rushed over to meet her, throwing his arms around her body in a tight hug.
She hugged him back, filling him with a rush of warmth.
“I thought he was going to kill you,” she muttered, her voice choked with emotion. When she looked up at him, he saw that her face was streaked with tears.
“Julia…” His voice caught in his throat for a moment. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I never should have kept this a secret from you. I—”
She shook her head. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
She shrugged. “Well, you’re right. It was pretty messed up, all of it. But I’m sure what you did as a Collector was because you didn’t have a choice, not with that monster as your boss. Honestly, I don’t even blame the other guys, either.”
“Still…”
“There’s no need to apologize anymore, Damon. I think I’ve found out everything I needed to know, everything I wasn’t sure about.”
He frowned. “Such as…?”
“I know now that you care about me,” she said, and she smiled, making his heart flutter. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me. I… I trust you, Damon, and… and…”
The word trust set off a three-alarm fire in his gut, but he simply smiled. “And?”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him gently on the lips.
“And I love you.”
His breathing stopped. “I love you, too, Julia.”
They stood gazing at each other for the next few seconds. Then Julia said, “Let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps. I’d like to put as much distance between myself and this cave as possible. And then we can… talk . Really talk.”