by Linsey Hall
The flight attendant got us drinks as we waited for takeoff. In no time, we were in the air and speeding toward far eastern Russia. Once we were settled and had eaten a dinner of sandwiches and chips, I leaned over and tapped Zoya on the shoulder. She sat on the other side of the aisle just ahead of me.
“So, what can we expect from this adventure?” I asked.
Everyone turned to listen.
Zoya leaned into the wide aisle and turned around to look at us. “It’ll take a day or two to reach Oriamor. I have a place we can bunk overnight, and a friend will meet us there, but it’s going to be rustic.”
“We’re used to that,” Nix said.
“What kind of traps and challenges can we expect?” Roarke asked.
“There are many,” Zoya said. “And they are ever changing. It’s been a couple hundred years since I left. We use the elements to help protect our city, and the land and the animals. We’ll just have to be ready for anything.”
“But you’ll know the kinds of things to look for?” I asked.
“Yeah. I helped design the booby traps to catch trespassers. Things might have changed. They’ll be in different locations, that sort of thing. But the premise for avoiding them will remain the same.”
“You’re our best shot no matter what,” I said. “Thank you for coming.”
Zoya grinned wryly. “I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
She shrugged, then shifted back to sit in her seat. “I’m going to get some sleep. It’s going to be pretty intense when we get there.”
“Good idea,” Cass said. “I’ll hit the hay too.”
She and Aidan stood, then went to the back of the plane where there was a small bedroom. Nix headed to one of the long couches, and Zoya followed her, taking the other. Pond Flower wouldn’t budge, so they had to climb over her massive body.
I turned to Roarke as the lights in the plane dimmed to darkness.
“You think we can do this?” I asked.
“I do.” He reached for my hand and squeezed.
“Me too.” And I really did—though I liked hearing him say it. “But I’m worried about my friends. This was my fault, and now we’re risking our lives. I hate putting them in danger.”
“I haven’t known you long, but it seems that you’re always risking your lives.”
I grinned. “Fair enough.”
“And your friends want to have your back.”
“Well, that’s true.” I reclined my seat, pushing the worry to the back of my mind. We’d faced a lot of dangerous things. This was just one more.
But somehow, it felt so much bigger.
Either way, we’d face it. We had to.
Roarke reclined his seat too. The things went back really far, creating a comfortable sleeping space. I curled onto my side and put my head on Roarke’s shoulder. The low roar of the plane’s engines lulled me to sleep as I imagined what was to come. The visions followed me into my dreams—monsters and mayhem and fire and ice. I didn’t know what to expect from Kamchatka, but it couldn’t be as bad as my imagination.
Could it?
The rumbling of the landing gear woke me. I snapped my mouth shut and jerked upright, surreptitiously wiping my cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at Roarke.
No wet spot on his shoulder. Whew.
He sat up more slowly, not having freaked himself out upon waking.
“That was a comfortable night,” he said.
“Anywhere with you, babe.” I was only kinda joking. And when he smiled, I realized that I actually wasn’t joking at all.
The lights turned on in the cabin, and Aidan and Cass came out of the bedroom, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Nix sat up from her couch, her hair like a rooster’s. Zoya was already up and staring out the window like a kid at Christmas. She’d left this place willingly, but it seemed that hadn’t kept her from missing it.
“What are our odds of getting a cup of coffee?” I asked.
“High,” Aidan said. “As soon as we touch down, we’ll get to-go cups.”
A moment later, the plane touched down and rumbled along the runway. I found the bathroom and brushed my teeth quickly, then gave up the coveted space to the rest of the gang.
By the time I made my way back into the main cabin, the door was opening and the flight attendant was handing out coffees in to-go cups along with big muffins. My stomach grumbled as I took one.
“Thank you.”
He smiled and nodded, then passed on to help the others. I was the first to climb down the stairs, Pond Flower at my side, and the icy air shocked the breath from my lungs. The airport was a low, cement building that looked like it had been built during the Cold War. To complete the picture, massive old military vehicles sat waiting for us. They were wide and low and painted a dull dark gray.
“Holdovers from the cold war,” Zoya said from behind me. “Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is a half-human, half-supernatural town. Though the humans know nothing about the magic, of course. But this place was only accessible to military personnel during the Cold War. No civilians allowed.”
“Why?” I stepped down, my eyes still on the vehicles.
“Close enough to eavesdrop on America during the Cold War. Or so they say.”
I shuddered, glad that the specter of nuclear war no longer loomed. Though supernaturals were strong, we weren’t stronger than nukes and human fear.
Roarke’s demon staff climbed out of the two vehicles. Zoya didn’t have any contacts in the human city, but Roarke did. He’d arranged transportation to get us inland to the interior where Oriamor was located. From there, Zoya would take over.
A tall demon who looked like a Russian bad guy from an action film approached. He was broad shouldered and blond, with tiny horns peeking out of his hair.
He greeted Roarke with a nod. “Boss.”
“Aleks.” Roarke shook his hand. “Thank you for meeting us here.”
“Always.” He gestured to the demon behind him. They could have been identical twins. “We are always glad for the opportunity to prove our gratitude for being allowed to live on Earth.”
The others nodded.
“We will drive you,” Aleks said. “Just tell us the way.”
Roarke gestured to Zoya. “Follow her instructions.”
We climbed up into the old vehicles. They were massively wide, with hardy old interiors that smelled of cigar smoke. Zoya rode up front to direct the driver. In the back, there were two wide benches that faced each other. Pond Flower and I sat next to Roarke, with the other three across from us.
“I feel like I’ve gone back in time,” Cass whispered.
“There are a lot of these vehicles still on the road,” Roarke said. “Though this part of Russia is now more mining and ship repair than a military outpost.”
“I think I prefer mining and ship repair.” My gaze was glued to the scenery outside. Tall, white-capped mountains loomed behind the city of low cement buildings. The construction was a bit dreary, but we passed by a colorful farmers’ market and a lot of smiling people, so it wasn’t all bad. Cyrillic writing covered all the signs, completely indecipherable to me.
Zoya led the driver out of town, through some scattered suburbs of dark wooden houses, and onto a quiet road. Small silver birches dotted the land around us.
“There aren’t many roads,” Zoya explained. “We’ll go as far as we can, but then we’ll need to take the snowmobiles that Roarke has arranged for us.”
Nix perked up. “Snowmobiles?”
“Yes,” Zoya said. “My people live deep inside the peninsula, within the volcanoes.” She pointed to the tall mountains around us. They were volcanoes?
“The whole inland area of Kamchatka is lightly populated,” she said. “About a hundred years ago, we convinced the humans to reserve this area as a national park to protect the wildlife. But our real reasoning is that Oriamor’s natural defenses are so dangerous that people shouldn’t be allowed to wa
nder free. To discourage that, and because the terrain is so volatile, there aren’t roads, and helicopters are a terrible idea. They’d shoot us out of the sky in no time.”
“Snowmobiles it is!” Nix said. “I like them, anyway.”
I didn’t want to know what kind of magic could shoot a helicopter out of the sky, and I didn’t want to find out.
After about an hour and a half of bouncing along on the increasingly poor road, we pulled up to a small building at the edge of the woods. It was low and wooden, crouching on the edge of an open expanse of snowy tundra.
We piled out of the vehicle, grabbing our backpacks and slinging them over our backs as a big, dark-haired man came out of the building. He smiled and greeted Roarke with a friendly handshake.
“Took you long enough to visit us out here,” he said in a thick Russian accent.
Roarke grinned. “I should come back for the fishing, Igor.”
Igor barked a laugh. “As if you’d ever take a vacation.”
Roarke on vacation? I supposed the idea did seem a bit ridiculous. Though I kind of wanted to try it. But somewhere warmer. Here, it couldn’t be more than twenty degrees, and the icy wind cut through my jacket. I’d upgraded to a sporty, all-weather style, but even it couldn’t keep out the harsh Russian wind.
It didn’t take long for Igor to get us suited up in heavier, windproof jackets. He handed over helmets with plexiglass face shields.
“You’ll want them when you’re going fast.” He patted one of the white snowmobiles at his side. “These are the fastest ones in the area. Be careful.”
I nodded and shoved the helmet onto my head, then turned to Cass. “Safety first.”
“Yep.” She pulled her helmet over her red hair and grinned at me.
I glanced at Pond Flower, who still hadn’t left my side. “Do you want to ride or run?”
She gave the snowmobile a doubtful look—I swore she could understand me—then trotted a few feet away.
“Run, it is.”
The sun was creeping toward the middle of the sky as we each climbed onto our own snowmobile. Days were short here, so we’d have to go fast to cover as much ground as possible. Zoya refused to travel in the dark, and I couldn’t blame her.
“Bring them back safely!” Igor shouted.
Unlikely. But we could pay him for the vehicles if we didn’t manage to return them.
“Ready?” Roarke asked.
“Like a cat’s ready for tuna,” I said.
“We can go.” Zoya pointed ahead toward the open tundra. “Stay behind me at all times. We shouldn’t encounter any difficulty today. We just need to make it to the safe house about five hours away. Then we sleep and start again when it is light.”
She revved her engine. The thing roared, a beast of steal and oil. Snow sprayed as she peeled away. We followed, a single line of five snowmobiles and one hellhound who looked as if she were having the time of her life in the snow. Nix followed Zoya, with me behind, then Roarke, followed by Aidan and Cass. Pond Flower pulled up the rear, but my frequent glances back showed she had no trouble keeping up the pace.
The wind was bitter cold as we traveled, but it was bearable in the thick jacket and helmet that Igor had given me. Snow began to pelt against the plexiglass face shield.
Magic shivered over my skin as we raced across the snow, prickly and light. Did anyone else feel that? But it felt like it was coming from below me—from the snow itself. Was it my ice power?
Something was wrong. I could feel it. My magic was sending up the alarm that there was something beneath the snow. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did.
I was about to shout out a warning when the world exploded in front of me. Snow burst into the air as steam and water shot up from below. The scent of sulfur burned my nose. The geyser went off right below Nix’s snowmobile, throwing her and the vehicle high into the air. She flew up hundreds of feet, propelled by the water.
Shit!
My mind scrambled with how to fix this, but I had no magic that would work that high up. Could I use my telekinesis to manipulate Nix’s body? She was limp against the machine—unconscious. She couldn’t even conjure something to save herself.
Fear chilled my skin to ice.
“Nix!” I cried.
By now, she was falling, having lost her grip on the snowmobile. She was over two hundred feet in the air. The fall would kill her.
Behind me, Roarke’s magic surged, the scent of sandalwood even stronger. He lunged into the air, his form dark against the stark white snow and pale sky. His powerful wings carried him toward Nix.
My heart lodged in my throat. Roarke grabbed Nix out of the air, shooting away from the geyser and the falling snowmobile.
I sagged with relief, but winced when the snowmobile finally hit the ground. It crunched, metal bending and contorting.
That could have been Nix.
Instead, she was safely in Roarke’s arms as he flew her back to us. Up close, I could see her limp form and reddened skin. The steam had burned her.
Roarke landed with a thud in front of me. I hurried over.
“She’s breathing,” he said, concern creasing his brow. “Burns don’t look like more than first or second degree.”
Aidan strode up, Cass at his side. Pond Flower followed. Worry shined in all their eyes, even Pond Flower’s.
“Can you heal her?” I asked, heart pounding. Nix looked so weak and small, her clothes wet from the steam and her skin a shiny pink.
“I think so.” Aidan laid his hands on Nix, one on her shoulder and one on her thigh. The evergreen scent of his magic welled as he fed his healing power into her.
Tension thrummed in the air as we waited, desperate for him to heal her.
In the distance, I could see Zoya walking a circle around our small group, reaching down to touch the snow. Confusion etched her face.
I turned back to Nix, holding my breath. Her skin slowly began to turn a more normal shade, and her eyes fluttered open.
“Holy shit,” she murmured. “That was wild.”
“The geyser hit right under your snowmobile,” Roarke said. “The metal protected you from the worst of the water. But the steam got you.”
She winced. “Yeah. I can feel that.”
“It’ll be gone in a moment.” Aidan finished doing his thing, feeding his healing energy into her. He finished it off by holding his hands about six inches from her clothes and conjuring a flame that dried her clothes.
When she was healed and dry, Roarke set her down. She swayed only briefly before righting herself.
Oh, thank fates. Relief weakened my muscles. Cass sagged against Aidan for support.
“Thanks, guys.” She glanced over at her broken snowmobile. “Can I hitch a ride with one of you?”
“Me,” I said, giddy that she was okay.
“Thanks.”
Zoya approached, concern creasing her brow. “This isn’t good. In the years since I’ve left, they’ve increased the perimeter of protective spells. We shouldn’t have encountered any until tomorrow.”
“You think this was part of the magical barrier and not just natural?” I asked.
“Geysers are normal in this part of Russia. But there shouldn’t be any right here. We triggered something.”
“So they could be anywhere?” Roarke studied the landscape around us.
“Exactly.” Zoya frowned. “And we have no way to sense them.”
“Maybe we do.” I bent and picked up a handful of snow, studying it. “I have ice magic. Part of that gift is sensing heat or other changes through the ice. I felt a tickle of magic right before the geyser got Nix. I was about to shout a warning, then boom.”
“So you could lead us,” Zoya said. “And feel out for any trouble.”
“I can try.”
“I don’t like it,” Roarke said.
“There’s no other choice.” Zoya pointed in the direction we’d been traveling. “We have to go that way. Flying isn’t an option, and t
he border of protections will form a circle around all of Oriamor. We must pass through danger no matter what.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I can do it.”
I hoped. I knew Roarke didn’t want me risking my life, but he was going to have to get used to the fact that it was my job. And I liked my job.
We climbed back on our snowmobiles. Nix got on behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I cranked the key in the ignition and took off, slowly at first so I could get a feel for the terrain. I stretched my magic out toward the snow, feeling for any change in the ground beneath me.
It took a moment, but I finally got ahold of it, seeing the ground beneath me like a strange heat map in my mind. There were areas of extra warmth that I avoided—geysers just waiting to blow if we went over them.
Once I had a feeling for where the geysers were, I revved the engine and took off, my heart singing. This might be dangerous, but it was like an icy version of riding Scooter and I loved it.
We cut across the snow, zigging and zagging around threats that only I could sense. In the distance, a geyser shot off, a magnificent spear of water that went straight into the sky. More geysers began to go off, as if they were angry that we were avoiding their traps. Steam filled the air and snow melted all around us, but we managed to stay ahead of the danger by seconds.
When we finally escaped the geyser field, my heart was pounding. We rode for over an hour before something began to feel weird again. Something in the snow felt off, but I couldn’t place it. I pulled my snowmobile to a stop.
Zoya rode up next to me and shoved up the plexiglass face plate. “There’s something ahead. I feel it.”
“Me too. Any idea what?” I asked.
“Just looks like tundra to me,” Nix said.
It was all I could see, too, with a scattering of silver birch trees and snowy volcanos in the distance. At least those were dormant. Lava was the last thing I wanted to deal with right now.
“Nix, can you conjure a rock?” Zoya asked.
“Uh, sure.” The light floral scent of Nix’s magic swelled on the air, then she handed a rock the size of a baseball to Zoya.
