Of Enemies and Endings (48 page)

He leapt up. His vivid orange wings spread out, so bright under the heart's blaze that he looked like he was trailing fire. Seeing a warrior coming for him, Ripper stopped in his tracks. His jaw split in a wolfish grin.

“Wait!” Lena told the others. “Let Chase draw them off first.”

Chase swooped down at the Big Bad Wolf. Panic replaced my hope.

Ripper's jaw snapped hard. I heard the teeth even from twenty-five feet away, but Chase
was
a good flier. He dipped lower, missing the fangs by a few inches, and delivered a long slash along Ripper's underside, slitting him from throat to tail.

I knew from experience that a wound like that wouldn't kill a pillar, no matter how much blood he lost, but it would definitely hurt. It would make even the Big Bad Wolf sloppy.

Ripper whirled around, spraying blood, but he didn't seem to notice. He pounded after Chase, who was soaring straight for Likon, the second-closest pillar.

“Okay. They're far enough away.” Lena stepped behind me, planted her hands on my shoulders, and guided me forward. “Come on, Rory.”

I went, but still I didn't take my eyes off Chase.

He'd drawn even with Likon, but Ripper had caught up to him as well. Two at once.

Then Chase doubled back, so swiftly he was just an orange streak across the sky. He dove at Ripper's face again. The wolf stood his ground, expecting another feint, but this time, Chase landed a slice across Ripper's good eye.

A howl of pain split the air around us. Chase had blinded the Big Bad Wolf.

He flew over to Ripper again, so close that the rusty black fur rippled. Then he pricked the wolf's ear.

Ripper pounced on the spot where Chase had been last, claws and teeth tearing with everything he had. He couldn't see Chase fly away. He couldn't see Likon coming to help him. The Big Bad Wolf landed on the blue giant's throat, killing him as swiftly as the white wolf had killed our Aladdin.

This was why Chase had taught himself Itari. He'd been planning to take out the pillars himself.

Likon didn't get up. Ripper didn't even stop to sniff his comrade and see what he'd done. Chase jabbed Ripper's flank, and the wolf tore after him without realizing that Chase was leading him straight to the next closest giant, Jimmy Searcaster.

It was almost enough to make me stop worrying about Chase.
Almost
.

“Stop, everyone! Rory, down!” Lena shouted, leaping in front of me. I ducked, hunching over to protect the heart. I felt a hint of the heat the others had complained about. I watched the heart sear a hole right through my jacket collar.

Then the spell Lena had sensed struck with the force of a twoton boulder, but
something
deflected it. Ice cracked into a ten-foot-wide crater ahead of us.

The sorceress-giant limped forward on her basilisk cane.

Up front, George glanced back at his sister. “Did she
miss
?”

“Searcaster doesn't miss.” Lena spread both of her golden hands, and the hair stood up on my arms. “I cast the same protection spell as in your shields. Just with more power.”

“And more focus. You're learning quickly, baby sorceress.” Searcaster raised her cane again. I felt something drag across my skin, like the sea sucking itself back, seconds before a huge wave hit. Another blast was coming.

“Genevieve, no!” Solange emerged from behind the giantess. Her dress glittered with crystal and ice. It even had a lacy train patterned with delicate snowflakes. She looked the part of a conquering queen, not like someone expecting a fight. She must not have thought we'd get this far. “Think of what she's carrying!”

She meant the heart. I had never heard the Snow Queen sound afraid.

So, what I carried kept us safe from General Searcaster's magic. I stepped forward. I could be another kind of shield.

The sorceress-giant lifted an eyebrow. “Don't worry, Your Majesty. I'll capture her.”

If she did, I couldn't get the heart to Solange. I was
so close
.

“You won't
touch
Rory,” Lena said. “Your fight is with me.”

Searcaster smiled. Her yellow teeth looked terrifyingly pointy. “Come on, then, baby sorceress. What have you brought for me to play with today?”

Lena's chin jutted out.

I should have seen this coming. Chase had picked the pillars, but Searcaster had made this duel
personal
.

“As your big brother, I heartily disapprove,” George said.

Lena stepped ahead of him, putting herself between us and Searcaster. “I'll make sure to tell Gran when we get back.”

“Wait!” I called after her. Her golden hands were empty. She'd lost her spear in the fight with the Wolfsbane witches. “You don't even have a weapon.”

“Rory,” Lena said, in the slow, calm voice she only used when she didn't want me to freak out, “I
am
the weapon.
Up, ice!
” A frozen slab as big as a door rose up from beside her. It glistened in the light leaking from the heart, already beginning to melt.
“Beat!”
The ice launched itself at Searcaster's face.

The sorceress-giant ducked before it crashed into her nose.

It was official. Chase wasn't the only one of my friends who scared me sometimes.

“Be safe,” Kyle said.

Lena didn't turn away from Searcaster. She reached a hand into her unzipped carryall. “Get Rory to the Snow Queen.”

I didn't want to leave her. I wanted to stay and watch her back. But we both had a job to do.

The Itari fighters took off, fanning out ahead of me and the kids in our grade. This close to the Snow Queen, the heart shook so hard it nearly slipped out of my grasp. The sorceress-giant took a step toward us, but Lena launched five more chunks of ice. General Searcaster smashed them all—three with her basilisk cane and two with magic, but they distracted her long enough for us to get past her. We chased after Solange.

Out of nowhere, at least two hundred ice statues rose up ahead of us. Trolls in hockey masks, translucent and glistening.

“What the—” George's sprint faltered.

I was the only one who had fought Solange's magical reinforcements before. “They're strong, but they're
brittle
. They'll bash each other to pieces if you give them the opportunity,” I told him.

“If you say so.” George pulled ahead, whirling and ducking through the first line. The rest of the Itari fighters followed his lead, swords raised high, hollering a war cry. The two forces clashed, and within seconds, a dozen trolls were in pieces.

The Itari fighters were going to win. The trolls were only slowing them down. Not for long, but long enough for the Snow Queen to get away. Along the shore, she
ran
, her skirt bunched up in her hands. Right in front of all her armies and her allies.

She could have a portal waiting. I couldn't let her reach it.

I darted around George, ducked under the arms of three ice trolls, and sprinted after her.

“You're supposed to wait for us!” George called after me.

My feet dug grooves into the slush the heart was creating. A few times I nearly slipped, but I was gaining on the Snow Queen. Solange hadn't had a lot of reasons to run in the past few years. I was in way better shape. Only twenty feet behind. No, fifteen.

Solange glanced back. She raised her hands, ready to blast me with a spell.

he ice beneath her cracked and broke away from the shore. Her own private island.

A defensive spell, then. That made more sense, considering it was
her
heart I was holding. Attacking me would be suicide.

I didn't stop. I couldn't jump as far as Chase, but I could still jump pretty far for someone without wings.

She noticed. The ice under her shot up. Not just her private island—a private
iceberg
, and I knew she wouldn't stop feeding it with magic until it had grown as tall as the tower where she'd trapped Chase and her little sister.

I leapt.

I cleared the distance, but the ice had grown too fast. I landed on my elbows instead of my feet, hard enough to bruise, but I barely felt the pain. By the time I threw a knee up over the ledge, the new iceberg was already slick with melting water. Still, it grew.

“How are you feeling, Rory?” The Snow Queen's gaze was pinned on the heart in my hands. I wondered if she'd ever taken it out of its symbol-covered box, especially considering she got a light show every time she got close. We traveled upward fast. The ice troll–Itari fighter battle shrank to the size of dolls, of mice, of
ants
. “This isn't making you nervous?”

I just looked at her. A little sick to my stomach, definitely. But not nervous. I'd been chasing
her
. I knew which one of us was more scared.

We were very high now. Light unfurled across the sky. Golds and reds threaded through a delicate silver green. The bay water mirrored the colors. The land was dark, the armies just shadowy silhouettes. General Searcaster slammed a spell down with her basilisk cane, then another. Jimmy Searcaster had fallen, and Ripper bounded over his fellow pillar, jaws snapping at a figure I couldn't see.

I shouldn't have taken my eyes off Solange. Something whistled through the air toward me.

The ice darts flew, aimed at my head, no danger at all to the heart I held at my chest. I didn't have enough time to dodge, but it didn't matter.

Inches from my face, they vanished in a puff of steam.

The heart was
very
hot. It hadn't just melted a puddle around us—it was practically a pool. The water had reached our shins.

I took a step toward her.

The Snow Queen thrust her hands into the water. It froze, and ice stretched toward me but never reached my legs. The water on my side of the pool stayed liquid no matter how hard Solange strained.

All she managed to do was create a breeze, her cold swirling around my heat. Rapunzel's glass vial banged against my hip, whipping along its silver chain. Solange spotted it.

“Is that all you have left to help you?” she snarled. “Where are your combs and your ring? Where is your magic sword? You've given up
everything
that made you a threat.”

Liar. I had
her heart
. I didn't need those other things.

I took another step. The heart was getting harder to hold. Its shuddering sent ripples through the water.

“Your friends will lose! They'll lose unless you help them!” Solange sounded desperate. I risked another glance at the battle below. Ori'an swooped down and plucked Ripper off Jimmy, trying to save one pillar from the other. He carried the Big Bad Wolf upward, trying to reason with him, but Ripper must have nipped him or something. Ori'an dropped him. It was too dark for me to see him land, but I heard the cracking boom when he hit.

Mistake. I couldn't believe I fell for that again. Something silver flashed out of the corner of my vision, much too close to my eye.

I whirled back to the Snow Queen.

Her skin had dulled to the color of slush, and her hands bristled with snowflake-shaped throwing stars, probably all poisoned. Heat weakened her magic. So she'd brought out some weapons way harder to melt than ice darts.

I took another step. The heart shook so violently that it almost lurched out of my hands. Steam rose from the water, blocking the view of the battlefield. All I could see now was her.

She launched another barbed snowflake. I splashed to the side, barely fast enough. The throwing star whizzed past my cheek, shearing off a lock of hair growing at my temple. I felt it brush my ear and fly away.

Too close. Solange had adjusted her aim to compensate for the wind. She was good. Throwing stars had probably been her weapon before she'd become the Snow Queen. No wonder they'd become her trademark.

Fine. My dodging skills weren't half-bad either.

Another step, and another throwing star. I ducked to avoid it.