Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
EMORY
M averick and I stared at each other, the sound of my heavy breaths filling my ears.
The guards rapped on the door, and I jumped, breaking our staring contest.
Maverick nodded at me, an understanding passing between us. “I keep my office warm,” he said. “If it gets too drafty in here, feel free to open a window. If you’ll excuse me.” He pushed back his chair and exited the room, closing the door behind him with a click while I gaped.
The bone collector, and he knew I was the white rabbit. It was why he’d brought me back here. To confirm my identity. After all these years of us not knowing anything about each other, after how I’d left our last meeting... he must hate me. Except he wasn’t looking at me like he hated me.
I didn’t know how to feel about that. About him.
“Well that went about as well as the time I tried to climb a tree while drunk,” Driscoll said.
Both Leoni and I stared at him.
He cleared his throat. “I fell from a branch and broke my ankle. ”
I jumped from my seat, glancing at Maverick's outline through the stained-glass pane of his door as he spoke with the guards.
“Feel free to open a window.”
That was what he’d said. He was helping me.
Without wasting any time, I ran to the window and looked down. Far, far down at the snowy expanse below. I gripped the bottom of the glass, rattling it, using all my muscle to shove it upward.
“Listen, I know you’re from the frost court and love the cold, yada, yada, but I’m freezing my balls off here, so if we could keep the window closed, I’d appreciate it,” Driscoll said.
I spun to face him, back flattening against the sill. “We’re escaping,” I said. “We have to go. Now.”
He rolled his eyes. “We already tried that. Remember a very similar situation where we escaped out a window and then got caught?”
Leoni crossed her arms, studying me. “What’s going on?”
My gaze shifted to Maverick, still speaking with the guards just outside this office. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think he’s the bone collector.”
Driscoll whipped toward the door. “The hot nerd? The hot nerd is the bone collector?”
“Will you stop calling him that? Just because you barely know how to read doesn’t mean he’s a nerd because he likes books.” Leoni stood, staring at the door. “The bone collector. Maverick Von Lucas? The most celebrated scholar in Arathia? Why would he be the bone collector?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t have any answers, but I’m almost certain it’s him, and he’s giving us a chance to escape.” I emphasized the last two words.
Driscoll frowned. “You think he’s out there talking to the guards on purpose?”
“Yes,” I said, exasperated. “So will one of you get over here and help me open this window so we can get out of here and then figure out what in the bloody frost he’s doing with Spirit Sky’s bolt?”
Driscoll looked at Leoni. “We’re probably going to die, aren’t we?”
“Probably.” She huffed and stomped toward me. “Let’s get going.”
I sputtered as she and Driscoll shoved past me and worked to push open the window, which was frosted shut. “We’re not going to die. Why would you say something like that?”
Driscoll grunted. “Because we’ve almost died approximately five thousand times in the last few months. You kind of get desensitized to it after that.”
He looked at his fingers and yelped.
“What?” My pulse spiked. “What’s wrong?”
“Relax.” Leoni’s face turned red as she pushed and pushed at the window. “He broke a nail.”
Driscoll held up his pointer finger and scowled. “I just got a manicure.”
I elbowed him aside right as the frost around the edges of the pane cracked, and Leoni and I shoved the window open. A shuddering wind blew in, rattling the parchment on the desk. It whipped up and flew around the room in swirls. Maverick stiffened outside the door, the conversation between him and the guards going quiet.
“We have to hurry!” We would not get another chance. I spread out my fingers, ready to use my frost magic to get us down below. A warning bell rang in the distance, and the clearing below emptied as everyone scurried to their classes. “Perfect timing,” I said, looking behind me again.
“Oh no.” Driscoll stepped up. “I’m already cold enough. No way I’m depending on your frosty powers.”
I rolled my eyes as the door handle turned, the panic in me rising to a peak. “Then what’s the alternative?”
He sighed and muttered, “I’m just supposed to be the sidekick, but here I am, once again saving everyone else’s asses.”
“Well, save our asses faster, please!” Leoni crossed her arms.
Maverick stepped in front of the guards, speaking in low, urgent tones, and I wondered what in the bloody frost he was saying.
Driscoll held out his hand, a vine slithering out the window. It looped around a statue that stood on a ledge outside Maverick's office window. The statue held a book in one hand, the other raised into a fist, the vine curling around it and tying into a thick knot.
The door burst open, and the guards shouted from behind us .
“Hope you both have been working on your upper body strength,” Driscoll yelled as he clambered through the window and onto the vine.
“Not really,” I shouted back.
Ice shards flew at us as Leoni and I grasped onto the vine, and suddenly we were swinging through the air. I looked back to see Maverick's face in the window, the guards behind him, all of them so shocked they didn’t move.
Maverick held out his hand, a ball of fire appearing, his gaze trained on me. Of course he’d have to use his magic. He needed this to be convincing so it didn’t look like he had any hand in our escape.
“He’s going to burn our vine!” Driscoll yelled as my stomach heaved, the vine swinging us wildly back and forth.
“Where are we going?” Leoni asked from above, her hands white as she gripped the vine tight. “What is the plan?”
“Do I have to do everything?” Driscoll yelled.
We swung toward the rooftop below Maverick's office. His fireball flew past us, barely missing us.
“Really doesn’t seem like he wants us to escape,” Driscoll shouted.
“We’re going to have to jump.” I unfurled my fist and summoned my magic. Ice crackled into a ramp from the rooftop, unraveling toward the ground. “And your balls are about to get a whole lot colder.”
When the vine hung over the roof, I dropped from it, landing onto the icy ramp I’d created and sliding down. Faces peered from all the windows of the academy, students watching in fascination as professors barked for them to return to their seats. Driscoll screamed as he dropped onto the ramp behind me, and Leoni followed with a thud.
“Spirits below, ice is hard!” Driscoll yelled from behind me. “I think that broke my ass!”
I slid, the ice slick, the cold of it seeping into my skin, which absorbed the chill and gave me renewed energy. I landed with an oomph on the snow-packed ground, Driscoll and Leoni toppling over me. We lay in a heap, all of us breathing heavily when the doors of the academy burst open, the guards and Maverick yelling as they raced toward us.
The guards shot out daggers of ice that flew in our direction.
“I’m really questioning all of my life choices right now,” Driscoll muttered .
We struggled to our feet and ran through the courtyard. I ducked as an ice shard flew over my head, crashing into a tree.
Leoni raised her hand, and water unfurled into a tall wall between us and our pursuers, similar to the one she’d made in the street earlier. The shards and fire that flew our way dissipated in the water.
We raced off the campus grounds and into the street, now clear of the thick snow, glistening, damp cobblestone underneath. Leoni’s wall fell with a crash behind us, the water washing over the snow.
Driscoll groaned. “They’re going to catch up eventually.” He bent over, breathing heavily.
Not if I could help it. I stretched out my hand, ice forming in a shimmering sheen along the street, reaching out toward the guards and Maverick. The bone collector shot another fireball our way right as he stepped toward us, his feet slipping from underneath him. The guards crashed into him and they all tumbled in a heap, trying again and again to stand but losing their footing on the slick surface.
“This way,” I said as we ducked into an alley and raced through it, the sounds of our pursuers fading into the background. “I know where we can go.”
“Lead the way,” Driscoll said, voice resigned, all of us breathing heavy and clutching our sides.
It wouldn’t be too far. I only hoped we could stay out of sight long enough to get there.