Fire and Ice (30 page)

“Have you a preference?” he asked, his liquid eyes following mine.

“Yes, I do.” I took a deep breath and met his gaze head on. “Forcing me to leave without Adrius would be like feeding me poison and expecting him to die.

“Meaning?” he said without blinking.

“Meaning… I'd choose fire.”

Zanthiel was quiet, and he narrowed his gaze. “And yet you trust a winter fey to aid you in rescuing the elf prince.” He frowned. “Why?”

That was a good question. Why indeed? Part of me felt foolish not to be afraid of him, but in a strange and twisted way, I'd known him for years.

“I have to trust you…” came my feeble reply. And for the most part, it was true. Here in
the wilds of the Nevermore with Adrius trapped in Octãhvia's lair, he was my only hope.

His gazed still locked on mine, he stepped forward, took my blade and sheathed it, then turned away.

“You trust too easily. It will be your downfall one day.” With that he mounted his horse. “We need to leave now if we're going to reach the borders of Noctria before dawn.”

I exhaled a sigh of relief, and let him pull me up behind him onto to the wraithlike stallion, which snorted a fiery huff before launching into the night. “Don't let go,” he shouted, and I wrapped my arms around him, feeling the cool tautness of muscle through his cloak.

Convincing Zanthiel to help me rescue Adrius was only the beginning. I wasn't fully prepared for what I'd invited in doing so. You know the expression
cold hands, cold heart
… it goes double for a Faerie from the Winter Court. They were not governed by mortal rules of right or wrong. They didn't hold to codes of honor, morality, or fair play.

“Now is as good a time as any for a pity mission,” he said over his shoulder, as we reached the all too familiar gates of Noctria in record time. I'm not sure how he and his Faerie horse got us there so quickly, but I didn't bother to ask.

“Octãhvia should be occupied with preparation for her war. Her
dungeons will not be as heavily guarded.
You
there,” he called, leaping down from the steed so quickly I nearly lost my balance. “Tell me where to find the Ice Queen.”

When the creature saw Zanthiel's midnight wing span shadowing the ground it hissed and turned to run. Zanthiel lanced a dagger at it, striking its leg and pinning it to the ground.

He drew his sword and stalked toward the bleeding creature. I cringed at the rasping metal and swathing cold blue mist that filled the air, then panicked when Zanthiel brandished it in front of him.

Scrambling to the ground, I was just in time to grab his arm, and stop him from doing whatever he was planning… the thin blade poised in mid air.

"Before you end his life, shouldn't we at least hear what he has to say? Maybe now he's more willing to talk," I said, my hand slowly lowering his.

He gave me a strange look, a hint of exasperation in his silvery eyes, but strode toward the beast cowering on the ground. The creature would have fled if it could have, that much was obvious.

Zanthiel towered over it, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “Have you anything to say?” he asked, arching one eyebrow.

It shook its woolly head, whimpering and trembling in the corner.

“Fine,” the shadow fey said calmly.

Before I could blink, Zanthiel plunged his sword into the creature's heart and withdrew it with equal ferocity.

I gasped, my hands flying up to cover my mouth to keep from screaming.

Wiping his blade, he sheathed it and sauntered toward me.

I stood there unable to speak through my horror, outrage, and nausea — just staring at him in stony silence.

He peered into my face with a sharp smile, his cold hand reaching for my arm. “Are you ready?”

I smacked his hand away and pushed past him. “I hate you so much right now,” I said through clenched teeth.

Zanthiel furrowed his brow, but followed me without further comment.

We mounted a spiraling staircase of ice, which felt a little like walking on air. I tried not to look down until we reached the landing of the third level. I stopped to catch my breath, but Zanthiel's keen senses didn't have an off switch. He was like a cat, hearing sounds far too quiet for my ears to detect.

“Someone's coming,” he whispered. “Get behind me.”

A second later, another of Octãhvia's ghoulish watchmen rounded
the corner and was met with the tip of an icy sword.

“Tell us where we can find the Elf Prince,” he demanded.

I peered around Zanthiel's frame at the creature, which froze. Upon closer inspection, it was apparent he was unarmed, holding only a stack of folded towels. He must have been a servant, and he looked a lot like the house brownies I'd seen in Mythlandria… scary as anything to look at, but completely harmless.

With eyes as wide as dinner plates, fixed on the glowing blue blade, he stuttered his reply. “H-he's up that way, t-t-to the attic, in the dungeons.”

I frowned. “The dungeons are on the top level?” I whispered.

“Witches are weird like that.” Zanthiel reached out, grabbed the creature, and tossed it through an ice-paned window. My jaw dropped. The howling ended in a bone-crushing smash as the brownie smashed into the ice three stories below.

“
What
are you
doing
?” I half whispered, dashing to the window. Far below the creature staggered to its feet then limped away into the snowy banks. I whirled around and glared. “You could have killed him!”

Zanthiel gave me a look, the kind that said
what's wrong with you?

"I rarely fling creatures out of windows for the good of their health. Of course, I was trying to kill him."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me up the narrow stairway.

“How do you know your way around here so well?” I whispered.

Zanthiel cast a glance in my direction but didn't answer.

Several dark corridors later, we found the chamber of souls. The stench of death hung in the frigid air and I held my breath, trying not to throw up. A door of ten-inch thick ice was slightly ajar, and inside was Adrius, held in a small cell with bars formed of glowing blue ice.

“Adrius!” I gasped and ran toward the cage, but Zanthiel pulled me back.

“It's spelled with dark magic. You should stay back,” Zanthiel said, moving forward.

“But if it's spelled, how will you get him out?”

He sniffed the air and then smirked. “This enchantment works only on elf blood. Clearly she wasn't expecting the Prince to be rescued by a fey,” he retorted, ignoring the shocked and enraged glare Adrius was shooting at him.

Zanthiel placed his hand on the cage and with a pull, it shattered, leaving Adrius free. I ran to him, and he folded me into his arms.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, stroking my hair. I pulled back to see his question was directed at Zanthiel.

“She insisted,” he replied, eyeing us with a look I couldn't place.

“So you let her risk her life. Are you insane?”

“No, Adrius, don't… it was my fault. I forced him to help me,” I said, throwing Zanthiel an apologetic glance.

He turned away.

“I had to get you out of here. I couldn't keep going. Not knowing she was torturing you.” I looked him over. Aside from a bluish pallor from the cold, he seemed fine. “What did she do to you?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he murmured, pulling me back into his arms. His voice softened. “I'm just so glad you're alright.”

“Well, as touching as this is,” Zanthiel bristled, “perhaps we should consider exiting purgatory before we all become permanent guests.”

“He's right,” I said taking Adrius's hand.

Zanthiel led us back through the stairways and tunnels we took to find Adrius.

Adrius's hand wrapped tightly around mine as we wove the labyrinth of halls until we found what we thought was our way out.

I stopped, pulling Adrius back. “Something's wrong,” I said, an uneasy feeling settling in my stomach. “This is too easy.”

“No one is here, Lorelei,” Adrius reassured me. “Her armies left at dawn.”

But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.

We were almost out of the castle, when Octã
hvia materialized, the way liquid solidifies into ice, she flowed into the room crystallizing into form a few feet from us. There was a flash of white light and a door slammed shut. And we were suddenly inside an ornately-decorated sitting room, furnished with an ice-carved sofa, chaise lounge, tables, and chairs. Her white knuckled fingers were wrapped around the hilt of a staff. It was carved from blue ice and crowned with a snowy-white skull. A long flowing white cape trimmed with red fur floated around her. Beneath the shadows her face held traces of beauty. With her prominent cheek bones jutting against translucent ivory skin, she looked harmless enough. But it was her eyes that gave away her true nature. Like staring into the soul of the Lucifer himself — black as coal, exuding pure evil. Her savage sphinx-like gaze measured each of us with a slightly bemused expression, before she glided to the sofa across the room.

Zanthiel snarled. Adrius pulled me behind him.

The ice creaked as though heaving a great sigh as she reclined. She spoke slowly, and as always, it was her voice which caught me off guard. The melodious honey tones starkly out of alignment with the malevolence of her presence.

“What an unexpected pleasure,” she chimed. “Please, come in and make yourselves comfortable.”

Nobody budged. But I felt Adrius tensing next to me.

Octãhvia languished on the sofa fashioned from ice, leaning back against a heap of pale blue, silk throw pillows. Another house brownie shuffled in from an adjacent room and p
laced a cigarette in a long-stemmed cigarette holder between her blood stained lips then scurried away. She snapped her fingers and the end ignited, glowing with blue embers and wisps of white smoke.

“To what do I owe this delightful return visit?” Her breath formed swirling vapors in the frigid air.

The cold didn't seem to bother Zanthiel much. Being a Winter Prince from the Unseelie, he was
of
it. Octãhvia wielded it, wore it like a second skin, and used it as a weapon, but the winter fey carried the cold
within them.

“You didn't think I'd just leave him here to die did you?” I stepped out from behind Adrius. My hands lightly touched the Inner Eye hanging around my neck. I had no idea how much protection that stone would provide, but it must have yielded enough that she didn't try to freeze me where I stood this time.

She sat back and regarded me with cold ruthless disdain, tapping her ruby nails rhythmically against the ice. I tucked my chin into my fur collar, jamming my frozen hands into my pockets, as the temperature plunged and light flurries drifted to the ground. Then she smiled.

“Lorelei, darling, it's so good of you to have returned. After our last encounter, well, I assumed you'd be halfway to Faery by now. And yet, here you are.” Her eyes glistened, darting to Zanthiel. “And with the Shadow Prince in tow,” she said, arching one perfectly tweezed brow. “You do have a thing for royal boy toys. I admire your discernment.”

She examined her nails, as she directed her comment to Zanthiel. “I guess the Unseelie Court fey have evolved to much higher planes if the Queen of Air and Darkness herself is sending her beloved heir to rescue an Elven Prince. I didn't think I'd live to see the day. Perhaps peace between witches and fey isn't so impossible.”

I watched the muscle in Adrius's jaw flex, but he didn't say a word. She chuckled, and I had to rub my hands together to regain the circulation.

“In fact, if I recall, the last time the two of you played together, you were attempting to slice one another to ribbons.” She paused and looked up, her cool gaze falling on me with a dusting of frost. “Over a girl, if memory serves.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. The cold air hit my lungs and I sputtered and coughed. Adrius and Zanthiel — had fought over the same girl? When was this? And who was the girl? I glanced at Zanthiel, but he just glared at the witch with a mercurial grin.

“Good times,” he muttered beneath his breath.

“Almost as much fun as it will be when we slaughter
you
, if you try to stop us,” Adrius added as his hand gripped the hilt of his sword, his eyes gleaming in fierce determination.

Octãhvia laughed, filling the room with tinkling music.

“How delightful to know that chivalry is indeed alive and well…” She clapped her hands, moving toward a door of ice which glided open. “It may please you to know, darlings, that I have no intention of trying to stop you… though I think it rather rude of you to repeatedly drop by unannounced.

I frowned, what kind of a trick was she playing this time? Letting us go… just like that? No strings attached.
Yeah, right.
We'd have to be pretty gullible to buy into that one.

“I would like to talk with, Lorelei.” She held her hand out toward the open door. “Leave us for a moment, won't you, boys? We need to have a little chat, girl to girl.”

Adrius and Zanthiel exchanged a look, but I was the one who nodded my consent.

“You'll all be free to go once we're finished, darlings. I'm much too busy to entertain any more unexpected guests.”

Adrius drew his sword and swirling flames circled his blade, reflecting orange light off every surface in the room. “Not a chance,” he said, shaking his head. He stepped toward the witch, but a hand reached out to stop him. Adrius glared at Zanthiel's hand resting on his shoulder, before shoving it away.

“As much as I'd like to see you vaporized… or frozen into a garden statue,” he growled in a low voice, “…you have to think about the girl.”