Chapter 23
Warmth.
It licked at my bones, offering blessed relief after days of feeling the brutal chill down to my marrow.
A familiar scent of pine filled my nose, but with the haze my brain was slowly coming out of, I couldn’t quite place what it was.
My eyelids felt fused together, and it was an enormous effort to pry them open the tiniest sliver.
It was dark, though a faint orange glowed on the ceiling, casting shadows on the wall.
There was a weight around my stomach and back, over my legs, like something was wrapped around me.
Something that felt deliciously warm. Soft breaths tickled against my ear.
And that was when I remembered everything. Leaving the castle, traveling with Rhydian, the destruction of our tent, horrendous cold, and then…everything went dark.
I hurled myself out of Rhydian’s arms with a gasp, narrowly avoiding flinging myself into the fire.
Rhydian blinked blearily up at me, confusion twisting his brow until reality hit him.
A muscle twitched in his jaw as he pressed his lips into a thin line and sat up, resting his arms on his knees.
Despite the low fire behind me, the chill of the air suctioned to my skin, drawing the heat that Rhydian had offered right out of me.
For a split, desperate second I considered crawling back into his arms, but I quickly forced that thought from my mind.
I grabbed the giant coat he’d been using as a blanket and shoved my arms inside.
“You’re awake. How do you feel?” he asked.
“What were you doing?” I asked instead of answering him. How did I feel? I had no idea. I should’ve been grateful for the reprieve from the cold, but I found myself on the verge of hysterics instead.
He shook his head in disbelief. “I was keeping you alive.”
“You were snuggling me.” My face grew hot as the words left my mouth.
“Snuggling?” he repeated, an amused glimmer replacing the defensiveness that had been in his eyes.
“Yes.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I assure you, Maren, if I were snuggling you, it would have been much different.”
It felt like my face had jumped into the fire behind me at the implication in his words.
“You were freezing and unconscious, and I couldn’t get you warm,” he continued. “Body heat was the only thing I could think of after the fire didn’t work.” When I remained silent, he added, “You would have died if I hadn’t held you. You’re my cursebreaker, remember? I need you alive for now.”
I felt the words for now like a slap to the face. Rhydian truly did intend for me to die in the end. He didn’t want me here. I must have imagined the tenderness I felt in the way he held me. Years of loneliness and being stuck in this strange place must have had my mind playing tricks on me.
“Why didn’t you just use your magic again?” I asked, wondering why he didn’t simply warm me like he had in the tent.
He opened his palms as though he were summoning his magic, but nothing happened.
“It’s still gone?” Fear danced in the back of mind at the thought of Rhydian being without it. What did that mean for us now? Could he still keep me safe without the use of his magic?
A shrug was his only answer, though his features darkened as though fury lurked just beneath the surface.
My breath pooled in the air when I exhaled, a shiver running through me as I glanced outside, searching for the volcano I was supposed to climb. “Where are we?”
“A cave,” Rhydian deadpanned.
I scowled. “Do you ever get tired of being insufferable?”
“Not with you.”
“Oh goody.”
Rhydian’s lips twitched, curling into the barest of smiles, and I refused to acknowledge the weird little flip my stomach did at the sight of it.
He chuckled. “I found this cave when I was searching for shelter to get you warm. We’re not far from Mount Kharos now.” He pulled the bag he’d manage to save from the tent fire out and started rummaging through it. “You should eat something before we leave. You need your strength for what’s ahead.”
After a moment of digging in his bag, Rhydian pulled out two small fabric-wrapped bundles. Unwrapping them, he handed me first a small hunk of bread and then a block of cheese. At the sight of the food, my stomach rumbled loudly but I was too hungry to be embarrassed at this point.
We each ate in silence, and I scarfed down the bread and cheese so quickly that I barely tasted it at all.
When the food was gone, Rhydian handed me a canteen of water, and I took a hearty drink, shivering as the ice-cold water slid down my throat.
Tightening my too-large boots the best I could, I curled deeper into the giant coat, wishing I had another one to pile on top.
Though I doubted I’d be able to move at all, let alone climb a mountain then.
Once he had put out the fire, Rhydian asked, “Ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
That amused twinkle was back in his eyes. Yes, an actual twinkle. “Not really.”
I sighed, holding back a groan at my aching body as I pushed to my feet. “Then let’s get going. If I’m going to die, I’d rather get it over with.”
Something about my words must have been funny because Rhydian burst out laughing, a full, deep sound that did traitorous things to my insides. I made him laugh again. It felt like I was betraying myself even admitting how much I liked it.
“That’s the spirit, Maren.”
My cheeks warmed at his sarcasm.
Once we finished our meager meals, Rhydian packed up and led us to the cave entrance. He lifted a hand in the direction of a massive volcano at the end of the valley, much closer than it had been before.
“Mount Kharos is there. We should reach the base by moon set.”
The two moons hung in the sky, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t understand what he had explained to me the night before. I didn’t see distinguishable markings, and I couldn’t tell if one was brighter now than it had been.
I was beginning to think Rhydian was nuts.
Maybe perpetual night and darkness did that to your mind.
Sensing my skepticism, Rhydian smirked and said, “It’s several hours past moon rise. Close to midday.” He nodded toward the moons. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Does anyone get used to constant night?”
“It’s an acquired taste to some. Others thrive in the dark.”
“And which are you?”
He held his hands out at his sides. “I am the night, Maren.”
No need to be dramatic, I thought to myself, barely restraining from rolling my eyes.
“Well then, Night, let’s get moving. I’ve got a volcano to climb.”
***
The hours that passed were even more torturous and grueling than the first part of the journey before I passed out.
We barely spoke more than a few words the entire time, our renewed determination to make it to the volcano driving each of our footfalls.
By the time we reached the base of Mount Kharos, I was back to a shivering, shaking mess.
I understood that this was Rhydian’s home, and he was used to this cold, but I couldn’t figure out how anyone would not be affected by such frigid temperatures.
This was beyond snot-freezing-in-your-nose cold.
This was like being submerged in an icy lake with no way of getting out—for hours on end.
My breath clouded the air as I came to a stop, panting, trying in vain to catch my breath when it felt like it was impossible to breathe at all.
The mountain was so tall, the very tip was shrouded in misty clouds.
Thankfully, it didn’t appear to be too terribly steep, which answered my question of whether I’d be hiking or rock climbing.
Gratitude flooded me that it was not the latter.
Bending down, I tugged the laces on my boots as tightly as possible once again, sending up a silent prayer that their too-large size wouldn’t hinder this trek up the volcano. Though adrenaline was flooding my body, exhaustion lurked in the shadows of my mind, waiting to pounce and drag me down.
“Ready?” Rhydian asked, staring up at Mount Kharos, lips pressed into a grim expression.
“As I’ll ever be.” Pulling my coat tighter, we started to climb.
Surprisingly there was no lava here, no Scorching Rivers in sight, which seemed odd considering this was a volcano.
Instead, everything surrounding us was dried and hardened lines of lava, the occasional strange-looking plant growing out from the midst of them.
They looked similar to cacti, but they were dark blue in color, and were in the shape of an odd snowman.
I couldn’t tell in the dark if it had needles like a normal cactus, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if it was something worse—like ice crystals that caused instant frostbite if touched.
That sounded like something that would exist in a magical land that wanted to kill me.
An involuntary shudder wracked through my body at the thought. My fingers and toes felt like they were on the verge of falling off, but still I pushed forward, beginning to climb the steep incline of the volcano.
Though Rhydian’s stamina was far better than mine, I didn’t miss the way his quiet breaths were just a little too forceful, like he was trying to hide that he was out of breath too.
I needed to distract myself. If I kept thinking about the cold and how miserable this journey was, I’d never make it to the top. I was certain my muscles would freeze up and I would die on the side of this mountain.
“Why aren’t there any stars?” I asked Rhydian, hoping a conversation would keep my mind busy. I still couldn’t get over how weird it was, seeing two moons in the sky but no stars.
“Avalea does not exist in the type of world that yours does. I believe you call it a galaxy?” When I nodded in confirmation, he continued, “We do not exist in a galaxy with planets and stars, though I suppose you could say Avalea is situated between galaxies. The moons stay with us constantly, but the stars come and go based on the movement of the worlds around us.”
“That is…very confusing.”
He chuckled, and the pleasant sound warmed me.