Chapter 19
Nineteen
Zamir
I didn't go back that night. Instead, I walked the dogs with Nolan, helped him feed his horde, tried not to get murdered by my chicken stalkers, and spent the night in Nolan's bed. We had sex again, and then fell asleep in a pile of sweaty, sated limbs.
"I don't want to go," I said with a pout as I hung off Nolan. I was leaving my bag here because Nolan said I should have some of my things at his place, and I'd decided not to take Dots back either. He looked happy cuddling with Pebble, and I wasn't sure how long I'd stay there.
"Zamir..."
"I know, I know. I don't want my friends to get hurt because of me. I'm going. I'll see you this evening?"
"I'll be the one behind the bar," he joked, and I smiled. Leaning up, I kissed him, soft and slow, then pulled back with a sigh.
"Call me if you need anything," Nolan said, and I nodded.
The walk to the Sanctuary was short, but the moment I stepped inside, I knew something was off. I couldn't say why I felt that, because the hallway wasn't any different. Neither was the one lined with all the doors.
But the moment I opened the door to the Forest, a gale of icy wind smacked into me, and I stumbled back as my eyes went wide.
"What the fuck?"
"Zamir!"
"Keoni?" I called back as I pushed inside, the door slamming shut the moment I let go. I shaded my eyes with my hand, and peered through the falling snow, searching the white landscape for my friend. "Where are you?"
"Near my place!"
I pushed through the snow that reached my knees, and shook my head as I glanced around. I couldn't see any color except white. The sky was a perfect blue, though, and looked even stranger.
"Where are the others?" I called out, my voice getting lost in the wind.
"I don't know! I think Draven is stuck in his house. Everyone else went out for their chores before the snow came!"
Why was the snow here? Was this another glitch? Were the other areas affected?
I reached Keoni at last, and swore when I spotted him. The wheels of his cart were buried in the snow, pinning him in place. The back of his cart was laden with snow too, and Keoni reached back to dust the snow off his back, something he must've been doing since he got stuck.
"Shit, Keoni." I pushed the snow off his cart, but I had no idea how I'd get him back to his place when my feet kept sinking into the snow that kept on falling. I needed to melt some of this snow... I needed fire.
I pulled my phone out and hit call as Keoni watched me, his brows furrowed and his body trembling slightly. Supes didn't get cold easily, but this wasn't normal weather.
"Zamir? Is everything okay?"
"Nope. Can you come to the Sanctuary? Right now?"
"Of course. I'll be there in five," he said, telling me he planned to run.
While we waited, Keoni demanded I explain what happened yesterday, and I did.
I told him about Nolan and Zephyr's past connection, about the misunderstanding, everything.
The more I spoke, the more Keoni frowned, and my phone buzzed as I finished up, so I left him there as I raced back out through the snow to let Nolan in.
I led him to the Forest, and his eyes widened as he took it all in.
As we walked through the snow, it melted as it came in contact with Nolan, his dragon fire keeping his skin warm.
It was only then that I realized I didn't feel cold either, and while it could be because I hadn't been here long, I wondered if it was because of Nolan's life force.
"Hey, Keoni," Nolan said and Keoni smiled, his teeth gritted as he tried to hold himself still.
"Hey, Nolan. Can you get me out of this?"
Nolan nodded, then glanced at me. "Stay close to him." He walked a few feet away, then shook his arms out. The air around him flickered, and he shifted.
My breath caught in my throat. This wasn't the first time I was seeing him in his true form, but the snow made his red scales sparkle, and it melted as soon as it touched his scales, then trailed down his body in glowing droplets.
Nolan snorted, and wisps of smoke escaped his nostrils, disappearing into the wind.
I moved closer to Keoni, and Nolan gazed at me for a moment before lowering his head and spitting out a bright orange stream of fire.
The blaze melted the snow around us instantly, but merely skittered over our skin like a warm breeze.
"Wow," Keoni breathed, and I hummed, unable to look away.
Nolan swung his big head toward the path he'd cleared, and I blinked. Right.
I made sure Keoni's cart was completely free, then helped him move forward. Nolan moved back, slowly clearing the way to the exit as Keoni followed, and I left them to it as I hurried to Draven's workshop.
I threw the door open with a shout of his name, then stopped short. He sat by his forge, warming his hands, and raised a brow at me as I came in.
"Close the door, will ya?"
"We need to get out of here."
He waved me off. "I'll be fine."
"We don't know that. We don't know what will happen next."
Draven grumbled under his breath, and I narrowed my eyes. "I'll pick you up," I threatened, and his gaze flashed to mine.
"You won't."
We stared at each other, not backing down, and he sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
I opened the door, and he followed me out. I glanced back, and he blinked. The snow was up to his chest, and he was wading through the mush like he was swimming.
"Maybe I can—"
"I got it." He cut me off, and I sighed, and kept pace with him as we reached the path Nolan had cleared. A few inches of snow had already covered the ground again, but Draven could walk on it, and we hurried to the door.
Outside, Nolan was back in his human form, and Keoni was ruffling his hair.
"Dude, your fire is great for my hair," he said, and Nolan snorted.
I smiled, glad to see them getting along, then shook my head.
"We need to check on the others."
"Let's split up," Nolan suggested, and I nodded.
Turning to Draven and Keoni, I asked, "Can you see if Zephyr is in his office? And anyone else? Silas, especially." As a troll, Silas would be able to push through the snow with ease if it was there in the other areas too.
They nodded and took off, and after sharing a glance with Nolan, I headed toward Darkness while he went to the Lakes area.
Nolan
The sun was bright. Too bright, even for me.
Shading my eyes, I scanned the area. I hadn't been here yesterday, but the label on the door had told me it was the water area, and yet the river looked like half its water had evaporated.
"Anybody here?"
Someone came running, and I realized he was a human. He had a scar over one brow, and looked like he could handle himself in a fight.
His brows furrowed when he saw me, but then cleared. "Nolan, right?"
I nodded. "There's something wrong with the Sanctuary, and I see it's affected this place too."
The man nodded, his frown deepening. "The sun is too hot. I can't get them out."
"I'll help."
Together, we carried the residents of the area out into the hallway one by one, including the man's—Bellamy, he'd introduced himself as we each carried a person out—mate, a kelpie named Alaric.
Before we moved to the next area, I took them to the Forest and melted some ice so they could cover their dry skin and get some of their strength back. Most of them could spend a few hours without water, but not when the sun shone down on them and dried every drop in their body within minutes.
"The Dining Room is normal. Jacinta and some of the others are already there, so they'll help if you need more water," Bellamy said, then turned to me. "Next area?"
One by one, we visited the other areas. The desert with pouring rain, the mountains with wind that made it hard for even me to stay standing.
Zamir gathered the others, and by the time everyone was in The Dining Room, they looked wrecked.
The ones who were the least affected—the humans, and those that had been here already—helped the others, offering them water, food, helping them get dry and warm, or cold and wet, depending on their species.
The door opened, and Zephyr came in, followed by Draven, Keoni, and another human I recognized as Zephyr's assistant.
"Is everyone okay?" Zephyr asked, his voice pained, and people nodded.
"They're okay," Zamir murmured, and Zephyr blinked, appearing surprised to see him here. His eyes scanned the room, stopping when they fell on me. I nodded, and he glanced away, his right hand curling into a fist.
I glanced at Zamir, and his lips were turned down in a frown, his eyes on Zephyr. I knew how much Zephyr meant to him, and I hated that I was the reason for the strain between them.
Zephyr nodded, his eyes falling to the ground. He took a deep breath, then glanced up at everyone.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for this, and all the other things that have gone wrong. I promise I'll fix them, but I—I understand if you've lost faith in me, if you'd like to... leave."
Silence filled the room for a long moment, and then someone snorted.
All eyes turned to a cecealia, who crossed their human arms across their chest, their purple tentacles flexing in annoyance as they gazed at Zephyr with narrow blue eyes, their platinum-blond hair giving their face a sharp, ethereal quality. "You won't get rid of us that easily."
"What Jacinta said," someone else chimed in, and warmth filled me at the love these people clearly held for Zephyr. I'd failed to save him, but he'd saved all these people. He'd done so much good, and while I'd played no role in it, I still felt proud of him.
Zephyr swallowed hard, his blue eyes pained and full of tears. He cleared his throat, then nodded to himself.
"I'll fix this. Please stay here until then."
"Let Nolan help," Keoni said, and Zephyr turned to look at him, his brows furrowed.
"I can do it," he said, clearly wanting nothing to do with me.
"I'll assist," Draven—who was older than most of the people here, including Zephyr—said, but Zephyr shook his head.
I frowned. I understood why he didn't want my help, but...
Zephyr took a step toward the exit, but Keoni stepped in his path, his eyes full of some emotion I couldn't read.
"That's enough."
"Excuse me?" Zephyr asked, a hint of incredulity in his voice.
Keoni's hands balled into fists as he glared at Zephyr, all of his earlier cheer gone. By the looks of the people around us, that didn't happen often.
"For months. For months you've been dealing with this shit on your own, refusing help from anyone who offers.
You aren't sleeping, you aren't eating, and you haven't had a proper conversation with any of us in weeks.
You're killing yourself trying to carry all this weight when you don't have to!
" he shouted, his voice ringing in the hush that had fallen over the room.
Zephyr's lips moved, but he was too stunned to speak, and Keoni didn't give him a chance to gather his thoughts as he kept talking.
"I don't know if it's fear or anger or plain old narcissism that's keeping you from accepting help, but I'm done.
I can't watch you do this to yourself anymore, and I can't let you do this to me," he said, slamming his fist into Zephyr's chest. "I won't leave because I love this place and I love my friends.
But until you're ready to accept that you're not the only one with powers here, until you get it through your thick skull that we all want to help, I don't want to talk to you.
I don't want to see you. I don't want to hear from you," he declared, emphasizing each statement with a smack of his fist on Zephyr's chest. "And I certainly don't—" He leaned up and whispered something in Zephyr's ear that even I couldn't hear.
Zephyr's eyes went wide, but Keoni turned away and stalked out of the room without a backward glance, the clatter of his cart the only sound in the silent room.
Zephyr gazed after him, his fingers curling and uncurling at his sides. He stood there for a minute, then stalked out of the room without a word, and I realized he'd been waiting for Keoni to get far enough away.
The silence broke as soon as the door shut after him, and Zamir hurried up to me, his eyes wide. "Did you hear what Keoni said?"
I shook my head, and he blew out a breath.
"Fuck. I knew Keoni was worried about the headmaster—we all were—but I didn't realize how strongly he felt about this." He shook his head, then leaned against me with a sigh. "What a day."
I wrapped an arm around him, pulling him into my side as I glanced around at all the people who loved my mate, who loved Zephyr. They seemed like a great bunch, and I hoped that one day Zephyr would allow me to live here so I could befriend them all.