11. Maddy
Chapter 11
Maddy
W hat my sexually frustrated body doesn't need is a workout, but by the time I've caught up with Thyrvi, my heart's pounding so fast I think it's going to explode from my chest.
Running laps for weeks now is the only reason I've been able to catch her at all, but I haven't felt this out of breath and this exhausted since Valdis first made me run.
Thyrvi has managed to go far beyond the Battleyard, veering north, and the sound of crashing water got louder and louder as I chased her along narrowing branches and denser foliage, until I finally found her in a pool at the bottom of a crashing waterfall. Just like the Silver Springs, it makes my mind spin that a rocky pool with a cliff rising from the tree itself can exist here, but there's no question that it does.
"Thyrvi!" I shout. She swipes a paw through the water, sending drops flying everywhere, and as she brings it back down again, ice starts to spread from her huge body.
I'm leaning over, my hands on my knees and sucking down air, but I feel the change in temperature around us.
"I made it cold," she says. She's freezing the whole pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
"I'm not sure you're supposed to freeze that," I say.
"You care far too much about rules," she tells me, then starts bounding around on the ice, skidding along the frozen surface.
Is she… playing? The longer I watch her and the more my breathing evens out, the more I agree with her. Who cares if she's not supposed to do this? She looks like she's having a great time.
"Did you catch your fox?" I ask her.
She pauses in the middle of a huge skid across the ice, pivoting, and swings her head toward me.
"Fox," she says. "That's right, there was a fox." And then, before I can stop her, she's bounding off again into the foliage to one side of the waterfall.
"Nope," I say, shaking my head. I'm not going after her again. I'm exhausted, and she's ridiculous. Instead, I move to the edge of the now completely frozen pool and reach out and touch my hand to the ice. It's solid as a rock, and it's deliciously cold. I take a step out onto it, tentatively at first, and it takes my weight. With a sigh of satisfaction, I ease my body down onto the freezing surface. Before I've even thought about it, I'm laid flat out on my back, arms outstretched to the side and my head against the ice. It feels fantastic.
I need to learn how to do this myself. The thought of just being able to lie on some ice every time I get hot and overwhelmed seems too good to be true.
I lie there a little longer, letting the ice cool my interaction with Kain. The reality of what I just did settles. Part of me knows I should feel silly, humiliated, na?ve, and young. But the rest of me knows that if I were put in the same position again, I would do the exact same thing.
The whole notion that I have to keep control of myself around him is fine when he's not standing in front of me. Not so much when I'm actually in his presence.
Which means the only option I have is to avoid him.
I guess I'm fortunate that he is strong enough to see the danger, to have cut it off before something stupid or dangerous happened. I sigh, running my fingers over the freezing ice beneath me.
I am glad he stopped it, that he said no and walked away.
Thinking the words doesn't make them true, though, no matter how hard I want them to be.
I hear Thyrvi before I see her, big, heavy footsteps pounding the ground, and I'm excited that she's not vanished just because there's no threat, or because she left my vicinity.
I don't move until I see her looming over me, and then I let out a long groan.
"That's disgusting," I tell her.
A fox hangs from her mouth, bright blood smearing her white fur.
"You don't want any?" She sounds genuinely shocked.
"No, thank you," I say, dragging myself up to a sitting position. "And maybe don't eat that right here?"
She gives me a long look with her big black eyes, then huffs down onto the ice and rips into the dead animal. I can't watch, especially as the blood spatters the ice, so I drag myself to my feet. I walk over to the frozen waterfall, peering behind it, something much easier to do now that it's solid ice. The rock of the cliff behind sparkles with moisture and reflects the glinting blue frost.
Featherblade is so beautiful. I wonder how many other secrets it has. I didn't know there was a waterfall here any more than I knew there was a spring to the west.
One day, if I get wings, I can visit the other courts and see their beauty, too. I might actually smell the rich soil of the Earth Court, or see the glistening spires of the Gold Court, or watch the twinkling, star-filled sky blanketing the Shadow Court.
I feel a swoop in my stomach and open my mouth to call for Thyrvi, but I don't have time. My head hits the frozen waterfall as everything goes black.