Chapter 22 The Land of Fire and Ice
The Land of Fire and Ice
Ember spent the rest of the weekend at home resting, and by Saturday night, she was feeling completely back to normal.
After supper, she curled up with a book in front of the crackling fire and had every intention of doing nothing but reading until she had to go back to school on Monday.
Theo peeked his head in the room, a small smile painted across his face.
“What are you up to?” Ember signed, cocking her brow.
“Come with me,” he signed back and disappeared back through the door.
Ember laughed as she set her book down, following Theo through the maze of hallways to the back door in the kitchen.
The sun was just beginning to set, and the sky was a beautiful mixture of pinks and blues.
She followed Theo through the giant field, past the stables, and through a small, wooded section at the back of the property.
He nimbly hopped over a creek and then disappeared on the other side of the tree line.
Ember took off after him, and when she exited the trees, the sight took her breath away.
She stepped out of the tree line completely and up to the edge of a cliff that plummeted almost a thousand feet directly into the ocean.
She sucked in a breath as she looked below her.
Jagged rocks cut through the icy water as waves crashed against the side of the cliff.
The sun was setting quickly against the horizon, bathing the sky in magenta and peach.
Theo squeezed Ember’s hand, nodding toward a small treehouse sitting on the outskirts of the forest. They climbed to the top, hanging their legs off the edge as they watched the sun set over the water.
“This is my favorite place,” Theo signed. “I come here to think.”
Ember smiled with a nod. “What do you think about out here?”
“Dad,” he signed, flexing his fingers a bit at his side. “Can you tell me about him?”
Ember took a shuddering breath as she bit her lip. Did her mum never mention him? The way he had their father’s eyes or how their smile was almost identical? Did she not tell him stories? Replay all their best memories as a family?
Ember looked Theo over and thought about the way her dad used to munch on apples as he told her stories or the way he hoisted her onto his shoulders when they went stargazing.
She had memories of boat rides and days at the beach, of learning to ride her bike through their neighborhood, and family dinners around a warm table filled with love.
Theo didn’t have any of that. To him, an apple was just an apple and not a portal back to another time. He didn’t have the memories to anchor him when the waves became too much.
And that realization made her heart shatter.
“He was funny,” she signed, trying to come up with the right words to accurately describe the man who had given her life and given her life purpose, “and he was kind. He loved the stars and fully believed if you connected them in the right way, you could see directly into the heavens, into some magical land beyond ours.”
They talked for the next hour about their dad, and Ember relived every memory she could think of, reaching into the very back of her mind and grabbing onto things she was sure she had forgotten.
After the sun had almost fully set, they made their way back to the house, curling up on the couch in front of the crackling fire.
Ember reached into her bag that she had haphazardly tossed on the floor and pulled out her dad’s journal, rubbing her fingers along the spine and breathing in the smell of weathered paper and old magic.
Theo’s face lit up when he saw the inscription on the inside and nodded eagerly, a silent plea to continue where they had left off in the woods.
He needed to know everything about who he was, the part that had been missing his entire life, and Ember was all too familiar with that specific brand of aching.
He sat up eagerly as Ember translated the pages, hanging on her every word as they started from the beginning.
Soon, his eyes were growing heavy, and before Ember realized what had happened, he was leaning on her shoulder fast asleep.
She closed the journal gently, slipping a spare piece of paper in as a bookmark, and tucked it under her arm.
She tucked him into the couch, still not sure her shoulder was healed enough to try to carry him to his room, even with a weightless charm.
She made her way up to her room, kicking off her shoes and throwing on her pajamas.
She collapsed in bed, content to stay there for the rest of the weekend.
She tucked the journal away in the drawer of her nightstand and settled in to go to sleep.
Her eyes began to flutter closed when all of a sudden she felt a tug at her sternum, the invisible string that connected her to the boys thrumming ever so slightly.
She bolted upright, then heard a faint knocking on the window that led to her balcony.
She swung her legs over the edge of her bed, picking up the book on her bedside table, and sneaking over to the window, peeled the curtain back to peer outside.
She rolled her eyes as she swung the door open, one hand on her hip and the other still gripping the book.
“Going to defend yourself with a copy of Magical Moments in Vala History?” Killian asked with a grin, as he leaned on the door frame. He looked more casual than Ember had ever seen him, wearing jeans and winter coat, gloves on both hands.
“My dagger is in my other pajamas,” she replied, as she rolled her eyes, tossing her book on her bed. “What on earth are you doing?”
“I have a surprise for you,” he whispered, eyes gleaming with a mischief that drew Ember to him like a magnet, sucking her in like quicksand.
“What sort of a surprise?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
“Now, it wouldn’t very well be a surprise if I told you, would it?” he replied, cocking a brow. “Put on something warm and meet me outside.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he closed the balcony doors and shimmied back down to the yard, leaving Ember in near darkness once again.
She quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt, zipping up her jacket and grabbing gloves and a hat.
She slipped her phone in her pocket and quietly made her way out her bedroom door and down the steps, deciding that trying to climb down the balcony to the ground didn’t seem like a wonderful idea.
Killian was lounging on a patio chair when she walked out the back door and quickly leapt up when he saw her step out.
He nodded toward the tree line, and Ember followed him across the yard.
They quietly trudged through the small section of woods and to the edge of the cliff, and it took every ounce of courage Ember had to not back away from it.
“I’ve been planning this for weeks,” Killian finally said, a small smile playing at the edge of his mouth.
The moon lit his profile, chiseling his features against the harshness of the night sky, and Ember could’ve sworn he never looked more god-like than he did in that moment. His eyes sparkled as he grinned, pulling a gold pendant on a chain out of his shirt.
“Isn’t she a beauty,” he said, swinging it back and forth.
“What exactly is it?” Ember asked, scrunching her nose.
“A Geoport,” Killian whispered. “It allows for international travel, sort of like an Echopoint, except further. You typically have to fill out a ton of paperwork and wait like a month or two to be cleared for travel. It’s all very annoying, really.”
“And I take it you didn’t do any of that?” she replied, trying to hide her smile as she crossed her arms.
Killian shrugged. “Nicked it from my da’.” He grinned. “Sometimes being the son of a dark artifacts dealer comes in handy.” He held out his hand, his alabaster skin almost glowing under the light of the moon.
Ember flexed her fingers at her sides, biting the inside of her cheek.
“Do you trust me?” he almost whispered, reaching his hand out further, barely brushing the edge of her pinky with his fingers.
“With my life,” she whispered, as she slipped her hand into his.
His fingers wrapped around her small hand, and her breath hitched in her chest. His other hand held the pendant, and he mumbled an incantation into it, gripping her hand just a little tighter.
Without any warning, he took a leap off the cliff, yanking her along with him, and she felt herself being sucked through the air as she let out a yelp.
Stars glittered around them as they spun faster than she ever imagined possible.
The first thing she noticed when her feet hit the ground was that it wasn’t completely solid. It crunched under her shoes as she sank into it.
Snow.
Wind whipped her braid, the cold sinking through her jacket and into her bones as she shivered. It was still pitch black, the darkness covering the snow like a shimmering veil.
“Welcome to the land of fire and ice.” Killian smiled, still holding her hand. “More specifically, Grundarfjoreur.”
Ember sucked in a breath as she spun around.
White snow blanketed every surface, and a large mountain jutted out of the ground in the distance, almost like it had risen directly out of the inky water surrounding it.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, almost like if she spoke too loudly, it would awaken whatever ancient beings slept beneath the glaciers.
“The mountain is called Kirkjufell,” Killian continued, taking her hand as they walked past a small waterfall to their left, down a set of stairs, and through drifts of snow.
“Grundarfjoreur is the fishing village over there,” he pointed to a small village hugging the coast, mountains towering behind it.