Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
EMORY
I jolted awake in the middle of the night, a snarling sound infiltrating my dreams until it got so loud it woke me. My chest heaved, and I rubbed my eyes, trying to see in the dark expanse. The fire still crackled, and Leoni and Driscoll huddled together, both of them asleep.
A low growl floated through the air, and two red eyes peeked out of the inky black surrounding us. That didn’t bode well. I scrambled to my feet, summoning my frost magic into a long, icy sword.
“Leoni, Driscoll?” I said quietly. “You might want to wake up.”
“No thanks,” Driscoll mumbled before turning over.
“Wake up,” I whisper-yelled, sidling over and kicking him in the back.
He shot straight up. “Ow. What is wrong with you...” He trailed off as I pointed a shaking finger in the direction of the red eyes.
He swallowed thickly and nudged Leoni, who slowly sat up, her hair tumbling down past her shoulders, out of its usual bun. “I told you to stop waking me in the middle of the night to tell me about your dreams,” she said, voice full of sleep. “I don’t care who you had sex with. Unless it’s real sex, stop telling me about it.”
Driscoll pulled her to a stand, both of them now next to me. Leoni stiffened when she noticed the growling.
“What kind of creatures did you say live in these mountains?” Driscoll’s throat bobbed. “Did you mention any nice ones that have red eyes and definitely don’t eat elementals like us?”
“No.” I swallowed. “No, I didn’t.”
A massive paw appeared from the dark, a beast emerging, its body covered in white fur, its snout as long as my arm. It bared razor-sharp teeth at us that were as long as my pointer finger.
“That is not any kind of wolf I’ve ever seen before,” Driscoll said.
Me neither.
Leoni summoned a swirling ball of water in her hand. “What do your history books say about that?”
I stared as the giant wolf took a thundering step toward us. “They’ve never mentioned anything like this. That is not a creature of this world.”
“Then what world is it from?” Driscoll asked. “Because it sure as spirits seems like it’s here in ours.”
The beast took another step, its large paw stomping out our fire, the only light now coming from the faint orange embers still glowing.
Driscoll whimpered again, louder this time. “It just snuffed out our fire with a single step.” He audibly gulped. “This is fine. This is fine. This is fine—Oh, it’s taking another step toward us!”
“Now is not the time to panic,” Leoni said.
“Really?” Driscoll whispered. “Because I think this is exactly the type of situation where one should panic.”
I was more inclined to agree with Driscoll. I’d never heard of a creature so large, save for a dragon, and I hadn’t seen any of those in my lifetime being from the frost court.
I thrust out my hand, a ball of jagged, spiked ice flying toward the wolf. The white of the ice lit the dark, the wolf rearing its head back and chomping it like it was a carrot. That magic would’ve knocked an elemental unconscious. But it was a snack for the wolf.
Driscoll cracked his neck from side to side, then summoned two vines that sprouted from the ground and shot toward the beast. They wrapped around its legs, but the wolf simply stepped forward and the vines snapped like twigs.
Driscoll raised his hands. “I’m out.”
Leoni stepped forward, dragging her hands up through the air, a thick wall of water rising. “This should provide a barrier between us?” she said, but it was more like a question.
We all stood there, none of us moving, breaths frosting the air. The wolf crashed through the wall of water, making all of us jump back as it prowled forward, long, sharp canines bared.
“I think it’s time to run,” Leoni said, stumbling toward the edge of the ledge.
“You don’t think that thing can catch us?” Driscoll asked. “Because I’m betting it runs faster than we do.”
“On the count of three,” Leoni said as she shoved on her boots, and Driscoll did the same, the wolf bending its legs, getting ready to pounce.
“Three,” I cut in.
We sprinted around the edge of the plateau, running toward the narrow passageway that would lead deeper into the Glacier Mountains. I turned and kicked up a flurry of snow into the wolf’s eyes, temporarily stunting it. But that wouldn’t keep us safe for long. Driscoll was right. That thing would have no problem catching us. I thought of how we’d escaped Maverick's office, the ice I’d spread across the ground.
I stopped abruptly as the wolf regained its senses and pounded toward us, its roar bouncing off the icy walls of the mountain. No time to hesitate. I wiggled my fingers, slick ice rippling across the ground. The wolf instantly slipped, trying to get up and slipping again. I turned and raced after Driscoll and Leoni.
White sheets of solid ice rose up on either side of us, and it was too dark to see far ahead, to know what awaited us when the passageway ended. I shot out my hand as we ran, more patches of ice forming on the ground. Leoni flung her hand out as well, water splattering to the ground and growing hard and shimmery upon contact.
Our boots pounded on the fresh snow. Driscoll slipped, but Leoni and I grabbed his arms and hauled him upward. The ice would only delay the wolf so long before it caught back up. I only hoped we found somewhere to hide by the time it did .
“How long does this thing go on for?” Driscoll yelled between heavy breaths.
I wished I had an answer to that question.
The passageway began to narrow in, slowing us as Leoni and I continued to use our magic to foil the wolf. Soon I had to turn sideways to slip through the rock, its cold, sharp edges cutting into my clothes, catching on the threads of my white fur cloak.
“If this gets any narrower,” Leoni said as she sucked in her stomach while inching forward, “we’re going to get stuck. That doesn’t happen, right?”
I swallowed.
“Why don’t you ask that guy?” Driscoll pointed forward, a heap of bones on the ground, crushed between the walls.
“We don’t know that that’s what happened to him,” I said, the lump in my throat growing.
A howl split the air, and we all stiffened, then shuffled forward faster.
“I think we made the wolf angry.” Driscoll winced as the rock scraped across his face.
“I’m pretty sure that’s just its general countenance.” I grunted, squeezing myself through two sharp points on either side of me. A growl sounded from close by. Too close. It was already catching up.
“Emory, was that you?” Driscoll asked.
“Yes, because I regularly like to growl.”
Suddenly, the wolf’s head jutted between the rock, teeth gnashing at us. Driscoll screamed while Leoni and I shot water and ice toward the creature to no avail. Its sharp canines broke through our magic, catching onto the end of my shirt. The wolf struggled to get its massive body in between the mountain walls, and we inched forward as fast as we could while the hungry beast snapped and growled at us. Leoni disappeared ahead.
“I’m out,” she yelled. “I’m out, I’m out!”
Driscoll squeezed through the bend of rock next, and I came falling out behind him. I wasted no time, turning and shooting my magic at the mountain walls. They rumbled and shook, rock beginning to fall as the wolf tried to shove itself through. It glared at us with red eyes, rearing back, ready to lunge when a large boulder of ice came crashing down on its head. More chunks of ice tumbled down the walls, landing right on the stunned wolf.
The creature collapsed, then disappeared underneath the rubble, rock continuing to fall and pile up until no part of the wolf could be seen.
We stood there, all of us staring in shock, unable to move.
“Well, that’s not something I’m keen to experience ever again.” Driscoll shuddered.
“Really?” I turned to him. “Because I thought that was a blast.”
He made a face at me. “Your sarcasm is incredibly unwelcome right now.”
Leoni rolled her eyes as the rocks rumbled and vibrated on top of the wolf. “Let’s get out of here before that thing escapes,” she said. “We’re awake, so we might as well find these ice caves where you think Maverick went.”
Driscoll massaged his arms. “Do you even know where they are?”
I thought about the fire elementals’ famous march to the ice caves, how it had been chronicled in journal entries I’d read. “I have an idea.” My heart still hammered from that harrowing experience, yet somehow I was already moving on to our next challenge. Spirits below, when this was all over, I’d sleep for a week straight.
Despite it all, hope bloomed in me.
We might just find the bone collector yet.