Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
MAVERICK
M oonlight splintered into the ice cave, and I sat up, swearing at the sight of the waning moon set in the purple-hazed sky. It was almost morning, and I’d slept far later than I’d meant to.
That avalanche I’d caused would slow the white rabbit, but it wouldn’t stop her. If I’d learned anything about her over the years, it was that she was stubborn. Hardheaded. She was a survivor. And now she was something she’d never been before: a pain in my ass.
All I’d wanted since our last meeting was to see her again, to know how she was doing. Now that exact wish had come true, and I wanted more than ever to go back. I didn’t want to know that she’d been married the entire time we’d played our games. I didn’t want to know she was a murderer.
Mostly, I didn’t want her to find me.
This couldn’t be one of our games. I needed that bolt, and where I was going was one place she could not follow. It was far too risky. I might’ve been angry with her, angry at what I’d found out about her, but that didn’t mean I wanted to put her in danger .
She would come to the ice caves. She’d know this was one of the only safe havens in the Glacier Mountains. I had to be gone before she arrived.
I scratched my head. The only problem was that I didn’t exactly know how to get where I was going. I had an idea, had an inkling it had to do with this network of caves, but it wasn’t a certainty.
I heard the white rabbit’s voice in my head. “Nothing is ever certain. Not when it comes to history.”
She’d said that to me once, and it had stuck with me ever since.
Enough of the white rabbit. Of Emory Growley. I needed to banish her from my thoughts once and for all.
I reached for my satchel and opened it, the lightning bolt sitting inside, and next to the lightning bolt was a folded note. I swallowed, reaching for it and opening it up.
I’m not crazy. I think my reality is just different than yours, and I have to go find it.
Love,
A
That was it. That was all I had from Annalee. She’d left it on her desk in her dorm room, not addressed to Father or Mother, but to me. A single sentence, and I’d known what I had to do, where I had to go to fix all of this. After all, it was my fault she left.
Now I had to find her. It was no secret where she’d run away to, not when she’d obsessed over the place for years. But how to follow her? That was the challenge. I’d need the bolt to protect myself and get us back out. This was unprecedented territory. A place no elemental had gone before.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. Many had gone before, but they’d never returned.
I took a deep breath and stood, stretching out my sore limbs. I glanced around the ice cave where I’d settled. These caves were dug by frost elementals under the order of Spirit Frost. He’d been growing paranoid and had ordered his subjects to build these caves and tunnels in the mountain, a way to hide should they need it.
Most thought he’d gone mad in those final years before he and the other spirits disappeared. I wasn’t so sure. If he’d been that paranoid that he’d built tunnels into a mountain, there had to be a reason. But without any proof, I’d never be able to propose a theory so bold. Especially not when all the other professors were so set in their ways, so convinced that if they proved a theory it was set in stone. Unchanging. It drove me mad, but I didn’t want to risk my job, so for the most part, I kept my mouth shut.
I snatched my satchel, slinging it around my chest as an icy wind whistled through the cave.
I had to leave. Now. I shrugged on my coat, then grabbed my cloak from my satchel and swung it on, raising the hood and walking deeper into the cave, ready to explore and find my way to Annalee.
“Stop!” a voice yelled, one I’d recognize anywhere.
An icy wall crackled up in front of me, blocking my path forward. I shot fire out, melting the ice, but it wasn’t fast enough.
“Give it up,” Emory said from behind me.
I turned slowly. There she stood with those two familiar companions.
“Give what up?” I said with an innocent shrug.
This felt familiar, like we were falling back into our roles: white rabbit and bone collector. No Emory or Maverick. No wife or professor.
She scowled, her thick white-blond eyebrows drawing together, and I imagined how many times over the years she’d made that same face from underneath her hood. “You know what I’m talking about: you stole Spirit Sky’s bolt, and we want it back.”
I shot her a smile. “Finders keepers and all that. You know the rules.”
She stepped forward, the hood of her white fur cloak falling back, revealing white-blond hair that matched her eyebrows, wavy and short and grazing her shoulders. Her icy-blue eyes bore into me. “The rules don’t apply to this particular situation.”
“What rules?” the tall man asked, scratching his head, his gaze volleying between us.
“But you know, I do agree, actually.” Emory tapped her chin. “I think finders keepers is an excellent idea.”
Before I could guess what in the bloody fire that meant, she was jumping forward, snow flurries erupting from her palms and whirling around me in a storm, clouding my vision, scraping against my skin.
The weight lightened in my satchel, and I stuck out my hands as fire flared in my palms. The storm died down, and I wiped the flakes from my eyes and cheeks as she and her friends were already running away—with my bolt.
Fuck no. I wouldn’t let the white rabbit get away with this. Not when it was my only way to saveAnnalee.
“This isn’t a game, little rabbit!” I called after her. “I’m not competing against you. Not this time. I need that bolt.”
“Well, so do I,” she called over her shoulder. “And you damn well know why.”
Because she’d told me. Confided in me. And I’d betrayed that trust.
I gritted my teeth and bolted after them, thrusting out my hands and shooting balls of fire through the cave. One caught on the tall, lanky man’s green cloak.
But the shorter woman with the bun opened her hand and water appeared over the fire, putting it out.
“You just ruined a very nice cloak,” the man shouted over his shoulder.
“Did I?” I yelled back. “Give me the bolt and I’ll replace it.”
“No deal,” Emory said, bolt sizzling in her hand. “And if you come closer, I’ll smite you right off the ground.”
I snorted. “I’d like to see you try, little rabbit.”
She scoffed as they continued running for the opening of the cave. If they escaped into the mountains, they could go in any direction, and I could lose them for good. I didn’t have that kind of time. I’d already wasted so much precious time preparing for this damn journey. Too much time.
Emory and her companions skidded to an abrupt stop, and I didn’t even have time to think about why. My gaze stayed trained on that bolt. It was within reach. I could grab it, create some kind of distraction, and slip away. They wouldn’t be able to follow where I was going. Wouldn’t be able to track me once I got there. I’d be well and truly gone.
I reached for it, slipping it from Emory’s grasp, but she didn’t even seem to notice, her feet frozen to the ground .
A low growl sounded from the entrance to the cave, and I looked up to see a wolf standing there, legs bent in a crouch, teeth bared, saliva dripping in fat splotches to the ground.
The white wolf. It turned out I didn’t even have to find the creature for the queen. It had found me.
Emory whipped around, eyes wild. “Use the bolt. Now!”
I clutched it tighter to my chest. “I’m not going to use this weapon without knowing its full power. I need time to study it, to better understand it. What if I use it and it kills us all?”
The plan was to eventually use it, but she didn’t need to know that.
A fury blazed in her eyes as she stepped closer. “Fine. It looks like the wolf is hungry. Do you want to volunteer to be its meal?” She paused. “Better yet, you don’t even need to volunteer. I’ll let the wolf know he can have you.”
The tall, lanky man tugged at his coiled black hair. “In case you two didn’t notice, there is a wolf ready to devour us all, so maybe you can save this argument for later.”
I rolled my eyes and crouched down, pressing my hand to the ground. A line of fire sizzled straight toward the wolf. It yelped as the fire singed its paw, then it snapped its jaws and let out a roar that shook the cave. The beast was huge. Bigger than any wolf I’d ever seen.
Emory put a finger to her chin. “Oh, excellent. Now you’ve angered it even more.”
I tipped my head at her. “I don’t see you using your magic.”
She didn’t break my gaze as she flicked her wrist, and shards of ice flew through the air at lightning speed. They drove straight toward the beast’s eyes, then hit it, and simply... broke away.
“That can’t be possible. It’s immune to our magic?” I asked.
“Looks like it, bone collector,” she replied. “Any other bright ideas? Or are you going to taunt it more? Just to make it extra ragey.”
The beast took a step toward us that made the ground tremble. Its thick pink tongue lolled from its mouth, peeking out from between massive canines.
“We don’t have time for this,” the short woman said, racing toward Emory and grabbing her arm. “The best we can do is get away and try to delay it like we did last time.”
“Oh good.” The tall man rubbed his hands together. “More running.”
As if it could understand us, the beast crouched further down, bracing its legs like it was ready to pounce. It hadn’t attacked us. It could have by now. But I wasn’t all that sure it wanted to hurt us. Which made no sense at all.
Emory and her companions pushed past me as I stared in awe at this thing. Gungar was right. We couldn’t kill it. We needed to better understand it, to know where it came from. To understand how it could be immune to our magic.
“Looks like you’re offering yourself up as a snack after all,” Emory called, jolting me from my thoughts. “Thanks, bone collector. That’s so kind of you.”
I shot out a wall of fire as I began to run, but when I looked behind me, the wolf crashed through the fire like it was nothing. It whined a bit, maybe got a few burns, but something like that would’ve incinerated a normal animal. What in the fiery spirits was this thing?
Patches of ice formed on the ground, making the beast slip, slowing it only momentarily, and I realized Emory was using her magic.
I turned and raced as my satchel thumped against my chest, cloak fluttering behind me. The wolf was falling farther behind, thanks to Emory’s magic. I’d never actually seen her use it. That had been one of our rules during our competition: no magic.
If this thing caught me, it would be over, and then I’d never make things right with Annalee. I clenched my teeth and pumped my arms so that I moved faster, catching up to Emory as she continued to shoot ice behind her.
“My magic is getting weaker,” she said. “I’ve used too much of it on this thing.”
The short woman shook her head. “It’s too warm in the cave to use my water magic. It won’t turn to ice, and I’m pretty sure the wolf would just drink it up.”
“Well, we’ve seen what that thing does to my plants,” the tall man yelled. “And it’s not good.”
“Will all of you shut up and keep running?” I said, urging them forward.
“Just use the bolt,” Emory said.
“It’s too risky.” My hands tightened around it. “I know you like to live on the edge, but surely even you can understand why that’s a bad idea.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” she snapped.
“I know you better than you think, little rabbit,” I said as I continued to run.
The three of them skidded to a stop abruptly, taking me by surprise. I tried to stop myself but couldn’t, careening forward, unable to halt my momentum. Suddenly my feet met air, and I was tumbling into a large hole in the wall. I grasped onto the edge with one hand, keeping the bolt tucked tight under my arm with the other, trying desperately to get my footing.
Emory’s face appeared over the edge of the hole. “Give me the bolt,” she said, her hair curtaining her face.
“Help me up, and I will.”
She knelt. “So you can pull me into that hole with you?” She shook her head, then glanced at the taller man.
“Driscoll, use your magic. Grow a vine or something and snatch the bolt from him.”
This Driscoll frowned. “I mean, shouldn’t we, like, help him a little bit? We’re just going to take the bolt and let him fall? That’s cold.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Oh, come on. She’s a frost elemental. That’s cold?” He looked around at everyone’s unsmiling faces. “Tough crowd.”
The shorter woman turned to him. “Will you stop with the jokes? We’re most likely about to die. That wolf is going to catch us, and we need to get that bolt.”
My hand slipped on the edge of the hole, my muscles burning with the effort to not let go of either the bolt or the rock.
“What is your problem, Leoni?” Driscoll planted his hands on his hips. “All you’ve done lately is snap at me and gripe about pretty much everything I do.”
Emory stretched out her arm, reaching into the hole for the bolt, but I held it tighter.
“Careful, little rabbit,” I said. “I will drop it.”
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, her fingertips almost grazing the weapon.
“I’ve called you that for six years, and you just now have a problem with it?”
Her glare sharpened. “Yes, I do.”
“I’m just tired of you not taking anything seriously,” the woman, Leoni, said. “You started this whole journey so you could be a hero. Now you don’t want to be a hero. So you said you’d be a sidekick and help me. But all you’ve done is complain. And you were ready to cut and run earlier. If it hadn’t been for the avalanche, you were going to turn around and go home.”
“Of course I was!” Driscoll shouted, throwing out his arms. “This is terrible. Every single thing about it is terrible.”
Emory’s hand brushed against the bolt, and she grunted. I jerked, my hand slipping farther, legs kicking toward the rock, trying to find a groove. If I fell down this hole, I had a distinct possibility it would be my end.
“That’s my point. You don’t take anything seriously.” Leoni flung out her hand. “Not even people. You don’t form any attachments. You just flit from thing to thing. I’m just another one of those things.”
The wolf burst out around the bend of the cave, growling and rushing straight toward the trio. Driscoll screamed as the woman jumped in front of him, summoning a sword of water that she slashed at the beast.
Emory stayed where she lay half her body now inside the hole, hand reaching again for the bolt. She swiped a hand at it, and I clutched it tighter.
“You know, now is not the time to be stubborn,” she said as Leoni continued to fight the wolf and keep it at bay.
“Hurry up and grab the bolt,” Leoni yelled.
“Have you not learned your lesson about that over the years?” Emory asked.
“I think it’s the perfect time to be stubborn,” I argued, ignoring her reference to the time I’d refused to give up on a game neither of us could win, ending up injured and almost dead—if it hadn’t been for the white rabbit.
Behind Emory, whose arm was still outstretched, the wolf was backing the woman and Driscoll toward the hole.
“Let it go,” Emory yelled, not paying attention to anything but me.
“No,” I said back to her.
I wasn’t sure how this could end well for any of us, but I couldn’t let that bolt go. It was partly why it took me so long to leave on this mission. Because I knew I’d need a weapon with insurmountable power to survive all of this, to beat the odds no one else had.
The wolf licked its chops, red eyes gleaming as it prowled toward us, knowing it had caught its prey. With a cry, the short woman surged forward, right as Emory grunted, her fingers curling around the bolt. She yanked it from my grip.
“You know, I’m really hurt by what you just said about me,” Driscoll said to the woman as she slashed at the beast, letting her water sword splash to the ground as she drew the sword of steel strapped to her side. She and the beast circled each other, its backend now facing us.
“A little busy right now,” Leoni grunted out. She jabbed at the beast and pushed it back.
And right into Driscoll.
He, in turn, stumbled into Emory, losing his footing and crashing down over her. The bolt slipped from Emory’s grasp, and I watched with horror as it flew up into the air and over our heads right into the hole.
“No,” we both said at the same time.
The short woman jabbed the wolf again, and it jumped backward, toppling into Driscoll and Emory, the final force needed to push them both right over into the hole. Right into me.
I lost my grip, all of us tumbling straight into the darkness.