by Brenda Drake
We ended up at a door. A plaque above it had an inscription on it. “I wonder what that says.” I tried to keep the subject on anything but us.
He stopped beside me. “It’s Greek. The translation is Sanatorium of the Soul or others have called it House of Books.”
“Wait. What?” I took a step forward, glancing up at the plaque.
My head was so foggy I was vaguely aware of a charge snapping at my body. What I’d just felt registered when an intense cold overtook my skin. I spun around to push Bastien away, but he grabbed my hands. A puzzled look crossed his face.
“Let go!” I pulled my hands back but he wouldn’t release them.
It was like shards of ice stabbing across my body. An intense suction gripped me, pulling me back. I stretched out my fingers, trying to break free from Bastien’s grasp.
“Gia, what’s happening?” Worry twisted his face and he tightened his grasp on me.
“It’s a trapdoor. You have to let me go.”
“No. Hold on to me. I won’t let you fall.” He tugged me forward but the suction was stronger than he was. “Nick!” he yelled, desperation lacing his voice.
“Please. Let go.” My fingers slipped.
He was losing his hold.
Anger replaced the defeat in his eyes and he stepped forward, letting the trap suck him in along with me.
Chapter Twenty-three
My cheek burned. Frigid air lashed at my exposed skin. I lay facedown on something hard. The surface felt slick, extremely cold, and wet under my fingertips. I shivered violently. It was as if I was in a walk-in freezer.
“Gia, get up.” Bastien sounded far off somewhere. “Come on, we haven’t time.” He shook my shoulder.
I lifted my head, barely opening my eyes. The whiteness blinded me, and pain stabbed my right eye and shot through my head. I shut my eyes tight against the brightness.
“Wh-what happened?” My teeth clattered so hard together the vibration rattled down my spine. The flakes falling from the sky were like shards of glass stinging my skin.
“You tripped a trap.” He grabbed my arm and guided me to my feet. I could feel the coldness of his hand through my sleeved arm. The breath panting from his lips hovered in an icy cloud in front of his face. “We have to find shelter or we’ll freeze to death.” He buttoned up his leather jacket.
I swayed on my feet, glancing up at a blue glow just above our heads. “What’s that light?” Icy rocks turned under my feet as I tried to keep my balance.
His eyes went to where mine were looking. “It’s where we fell through. It must be the trapdoor.”
The land was flat. A frosty wind blew waves in the snow. He buttoned up my trench coat and then tied the belt tight around my waist.
“Shelter? There’s nothing out there.”
“Over there.” He pointed across the field. I caught glimpses of a tree line between a break in the fury of ice obscuring it. “We have to keep moving. We must find shelter before it gets dark.”
I nodded and staggered after him. Each step sank deep into the snow, slowing me. Ahead, Bastien struggled to get his foot out of the packed snow. My fingers were in so much pain. I tucked my bare hands in the pit of my arms to shield them from the freezing wind. The woods came into view the closer we got. Every joint in my body ached with each movement, the cold locking them, making it hard to push forward. I fell, sinking to my knees in the snow.
Bastien turned. “Get up. I know it’s painful, but we can’t stop, Gia. We’ll die if we do. It’s not that far.”
I struggled to my feet, slipping and falling backward onto the snow. This was it. This was how I would die, in a barren wasteland, frozen into the ground. Daggers of pain shocked my breath. I gasped for air.
Bastien leaned over me, reaching out his hand. “You can’t stop. It’s not all that bad if you keep moving.”
“Not bad? We’re going to die,” I panted, and took his hand.
He yanked me up. “You’re a warrior. It’s all a state of mind.”
“Can’t you use your magic or something?” I called after him.
“We’ll try something when we get to safety.”
“What do you mean? We’re freezing to death. Do it now.”
He didn’t stop. “What we know about the Somniums is that creatures inhabit them, and they’re usually not welcoming. We need shelter.”
I glanced around, reaching for the hilt of my sword. The frigid metal bit my skin. My steps finally landed on solid ground. We stopped when we were safely within the trees. The branches were thick and the trunks crowded together, blocking the biting wind.
Bastien’s head moved back and forth as we made our way deeper into the woods. He stopped when he came to two boulders, each nearly twelve feet tall and butted up against each other.
“This will work.” He grabbed some broken branches from underneath the trees and piled them in front of the crevice. He commanded fire, and a flaming ball formed in his hand. He dropped the ball and the wood burst into flames. “Let’s warm ourselves before we make our shelter.”
I huddled over the fire, thawing my hands. “Why didn’t you let me go? You should have. Now you’re stuck here with me.”
He rubbed his hands together. “I would never let you face this alone.”
My heart heated up like a furnace at his words. His sacrifice surprised me. Most people would’ve let me go, saved themselves, because fear is that strong. It makes you want to live at any cost. A normal person would only give it all up for a loved one.
I swallowed hard. Could he—?
The snap of a twig brought my attention back to him. “We’re going to be all right,” he said.
“I hope you’re right.” The frozen air scraped the back of my throat, and I swallowed again. “How do we get out of here?”
He squatted and stretched his hands over the flame, his eyes holding mine. “If they can find which one we’re in, the Fey can retrieve us, but…” He stared down at the flames.
“But what?”
“It’s nearly impossible to find an untagged trap. The doors flicker. They open and close. Not counting the fact that there are hundreds of them.”
My stomach shifted uneasily. “You’re basically telling me we can never get out?”
“I’ve never heard of anyone returning from one.”
I lowered my head, the fire heating my cheeks. “There has to be a way…”
Bastien shuffled over to me, still in a squat position, and wrapped an arm around me. “Hey,” he said gently. “We have each other. All we have to do is survive. They’ll look for us, and we must hold on to hope. Besides, we have that date to look forward to.”
I smiled, appreciating his attempt to make our situation seem less bleak. “Okay.”
“All right, then.” He squeezed my shoulder. “We have to gather branches and foliage from the trees.”
Bastien straightened and started breaking off lower branches that the snow hadn’t blanketed. The trees looked to be evergreens, but instead of pine needles, their foliage was soft.
“What kind of tree is this?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it before. Its leaves are unusually thick.”
I shivered and rushed around yanking off branches. When we finished, we had a pile up to our knees.
“Now what?” I rushed back to the fire and warmed my hands.
Bastien stripped a branch and gathered up the loose leaves. “Raise your arms.”
I gave him a curious brow.
“I’m going to stuff your jacket with these for insulation. Then you can do mine.” He shoved some down the back of my trench coat. An unusual floral scent filled my nose.
“I hope this stuff isn’t poisonous.”
“I’ll risk a little skin irritation to avoid death. Turn.”
I did, and he slid some into the front of my jacket. His cold hands glided across my shirt and the rise of my chest. I sucked in a startled breath, my pulse kicking up.
“Oh, sorry.�
� He smirked. “Maybe you’d best do your own front?”
“Yeah, best.” I took the leftover leaves from him and slipped them inside my trench coat. “How’d you know how to do this?”
“I’ve taken survival courses. It’s mandatory at the Academy.”
“What’s next?” My lower lip trembled. I wanted to hurry and get back to the fire. He handed me the leaves and turned his back to me. I stuffed his jacket with leaves. My fingers rose and fell across the muscles under his tight shirt as I withdrew my hand from his jacket.
Bastien shuddered. “Ah, your hands are icy.”
“Pay back.”
“Okay, grab some branches.”
I snatched up several branches. He laid his bunch on the ground between the two rocks. Then took mine and leaned them against sides of the rock. It was our own little nest.
“May I have your sheath?”
“Why?”
He frowned at me. “I won’t harm it. We need a container.”
I unbuckled my belt, drew my sword out of the sheath, and handed it to him.
“Get in the crevice. It should be warm there.”
I placed my sword on top of the branches by the entrance of our makeshift shelter and crawled inside. The fire was already heating it. Bastien packed snow into my sheath, then dipped the bottom of it into the fire.
“What are you doing?”
He looked over the flames at me. “We need to keep hydrated.”
The firelight flickered over his beautiful face. His cheeks and nose were bright red. The way he held the metal casing so gently in his hands reminded me of his kindness. I felt safe with him. If I had to be stranded with someone, he definitely was a sexy distraction.
“You know Nick will discover us missing,” I said. “There will be a full-on search for the trapdoor. We’ll be rescued in a few hours.”
“I truly hope so.” His fake smile said he didn’t think so. “Here. Sip this. Hold it at the top or you’ll burn your hands.” He handed me the sheath and crept in beside me. “Be cautious, it’s hot.” He waved his hand over the fire. It spread across the wood lining the entry of our shelter. “If there are creatures in this godforsaken place, they won’t get past that.”
I took a sip from the sheath. The heated water rushed down my esophagus and warmed my chest.
“I wish we had time to hunt for something to eat, but we’ll have to wait until the sun is high tomorrow.”
I leaned back and retrieved the energy bars I kept in the pocket of my trench coat for whenever I used my battle globe and passed them to him.
“Excellent. We’ll share one tonight and save the other two for tomorrow.” He unwrapped one. “I hope there’s a mountain or some caves around here. We can’t survive here without provisions.”
“We won’t be here long,” I said. “You’ll see. They’ll find us before morning.”
“I hope so. But we must prepare ourselves in case they don’t find us.”
He dragged a branch over us, and I did the same until the soft foliage buried us. The only sounds were Bastien’s soft breathing and the crackling from the fire. There were no bug chirps or animal noises, just the murmur of the wind. I startled when Bastien spooned up against me and draped his arm around my waist. He tightened his hold to keep me from getting up.
“Relax. We have to get close to stay warm.” His whispering tickled my ear.
I stilled. My body tensed. There was no way I could relax with him wrapped around me like that. Besides, this place made me uneasy. I could lie to him about them finding us, but deep down I knew the truth. I’d read a chapter on it in the book The Invisible Places by Gian Bianchi, Professor of Wizardry, aka my great-grandfather. It was nearly impossible to locate a trapdoor. They flickered open and shut so fast and infrequently, someone would have to be in the exact spot as the door and wait for it. A wizard must instantly tag the trap or it would most likely never be found again.
I couldn’t stop shaking, my eyes wildly searching the gaps between the branches. There was only a small flicker of light coming from the fire. I’d faced dangers before, but not knowing what was out there in the dark frightened me. I wanted to cry but held it in. I refused to be weak in front of Bastien. Plus, I was sure my tears would freeze on my face.
Stuck in this frozen wasteland, we most likely would never leave, but I would spend every moment here searching for a way out. Find a way back to Pop, Nana, and my friends. To Arik. Even though he’d dumped me for Snow White, I still cared deeply for him and couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again.
Bastien’s breath beat softly against my hair. Through the branches, I watched the shadows under the trees grow darker with the setting sun. His warmth enveloped me, and my body slacked against Bastien’s strong form.
“What if the fire goes out?” I whispered.
“It won’t. There’s magic in the flame. The wood is only an anchor.”
“But how?”
“There’s no explanation to magic. You just have to believe and trust—”
“Trust it. Right.” I sighed.
I detected a chuckle in his expelled breath.
A distant howl shattered the silent wasteland, and my fingers crawled to the hilt of my sword. “Did you hear that?”
“Maybe we won’t starve to death, after all,” he said. “We’ll hunt it tomorrow.” He adjusted behind me, and I stiffened.
The howls went on through the night. I vaguely remembered dozing off a few times, but mostly I watched the blaze of the fire, my hand gripping my sword and my senses heightened on every movement Bastien made behind me. His deep, rhythmic breathing was soothing.
I played everything I read about the Somniums in my head. When the wizards had hidden their havens several centuries ago, the split caused hundreds of gaps between the Mystik and human worlds, creating the Somniums. There was a sort of magic sealing them from the two worlds.
“Bastien?”
He groaned. “You’re not sleeping.”
“How can you sleep in a place like this?”
“I’ve been prepared for situations like this my entire life.” He removed his arm from me and stretched it over his head. I instantly felt cold where his arm had been. “The human world is protected from knowing such evils as the Mystik world lives with them daily.”
“The book I read about the Somniums was kind of old, but I recall there was a man who escaped the trap. Right?”
His arm found my waist again, and my stomach jumped to attention.
“There was a man who escaped quite some time ago. He said he jumped the trap, but he died of injuries he sustained from an attack by one of the creatures before his experience could be documented.”
“But then, there is a way out.”
“Possibly.” He leaned over me, his mouth so close to my cheek. My skin there pulsed under his nearness. “Get some sleep. Once we tackle our survival issues, we’ll search for an escape.”
I closed my eyes and tried to quiet the noise in my head. The corners of my mind slowly darkened, like the shadows under the trees until everything went entirely black.
When I awoke later, it was to birdsong and heat. Extremely hot heat. The area around my waist under Bastien’s arm was now sweaty. I pushed the branches off me and sat up. The fire still gobbled at the wood, not even marring it. The snow had melted, and the woods were alive with birds and small scurrying creatures. The winter wasteland had vanished and been replaced with full-on spring.
“What the hell?”
Bastien came out of the branch pile and yawned. “This is odd.”
“You think?” I gave him a duh look. “Talk about extreme conditions. Can you take down the wall of fire?”
“Oh, right.” He waved his hand, and the flame disappeared.
I crawled over the branches and stepped across the still-warm sticks. Bastien followed me, twigs crunching under his weight. We stood there, mouths wide. The vibrant green, the colorful flowers, and the cute, furry animals running fro
m tree to tree, all seemed surreal.
“It’s as if we found Eden,” Bastien said.
“Then what was yesterday? Hell?”
A light chuckle sounded under his breath. “Possibly.”
I took off for a tree with birds swarming it and picked one of the oval-shaped purple fruit weighing down its branches. It was bigger than a grape and smaller than a plum. The skin popped when I bit into it, releasing a sweet juice tasting like honeyed cherries.
Bastien rushed over and knocked the fruit from my hand.
“Hey, why’d you do that?”
He frowned down at me. “You’re a city girl, aren’t you?”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“One doesn’t eat the vegetation when one doesn’t know if it isn’t poisonous.”
“Please.” I rested my fists on my hips. “We city girls aren’t stupid. I checked. The birds are eating it, and they aren’t dying.”
He inspected the birds. They bounced from branch to branch, pecking at the fruit. “They could have immunities to it.” He looked sternly at me. “Let’s make a ruling.”
I stretched taller and stuck my chin out. “Ruling? You may be a high-wizard-in-waiting in Couve, but you aren’t here, and you don’t rule me.”
“I didn’t say I in that statement, I said let’s, which is a contraction for let us. As in, let us make a ruling.”
“Really.” I sauntered over to the next tree. “I know what a contraction is, but it was your tone that told me that there wasn’t any us in it.” I stretched my arm high, reaching for another fruit. “And besides, I haven’t died yet.” I plucked it from the tree. A mass of birds squawked in harmony, taking off for the sky. Several oval balls rained down on me, popping against my head and shoulders, squirting juice over my hair and skin.
Bastien let out a whooping laugh, his face lit with amusement. I picked up a fruit in each hand and threw one at him. It hit his leg. That was horrible. My battle globe had always found its target, but a piece of fruit, total failure.
Sinead had said the globe was connected to my mind and that all I had to do was to think of where I wanted it to go, and it would go there. Right now, I wished the fruit were on mind-control. I pulled my arm back, gingerly cradling the fruit in my palm, and hurled it. The fruit bomb exploded against his chest, and the juice sprayed his neck and chin.
