by Marie Hall
But before he had a chance to go to them, Ying and Karis had bowed their heads looking as though they were in prayer and Rayale brought the panpipe to her mouth. With a powerful blast of song, a huge chunk of rock broke away from the mountainside and dropped precisely upon the entrance just as the first dwarf broke through. Crushing him beneath its ten-ton weight, killing him instantly.
Angry, muffled cries could be heard from within.
The women turned and this time it was Rayale who spoke up. “Cannibal dwarves, eh, wolf?” She snickered and wiped at her sweat-stained brow. Her rich chocolate brown eyes glimmered with laughter. “Can’t say we didn’t keep to our end of the deal.”
Lilith was still leaning heavily on him for support and he frowned because he didn’t like the ashen look on her face.
“Aye. I will keep the bargain. You’ll get your souls back, I vow it.”
Ying stuck her hand out. “Then let us part as friends.”
Karis snorted.
Rayale nodded, and before anyone could shake on it she grabbed Giles around the neck and planted a fierce kiss on his lips. “I like you, demon boy. You ever get tired of the wolf, you know where to find me.”
Stunned by her audacity, Giles could only give a nervous chuckle in response. Which seemed to infuriate Lilith. Pushing the piper back with a jab to her shoulder, she glared at the sultry woman through narrowed eyes.
“Don’t make me regret my charity, Piper. Make a move on my man again and I will sever your carotid.”
Laughing, Rayale popped Lilith on the rear. “Oh come on, wolf, grow a sense of humor. Since you’ve given me a fair bit of sport today, I’ll even go one step further and say you really should take the wolfsbane off from around your neck if you don’t want to become a walking zombie soon.”
“Huh?” She glanced down. “Oh gods, is that what this is?” With a shriek she snapped it off of her neck.
Filled with relief, realizing suddenly why Lilith had been so weakened, he hugged her tightly and kicked at the pouch by his foot, sending it sailing over the cliff’s edge.
“Hey, look, we blocked off one entrance, but those pesky bastards have tons more. So let’s just say our goodbyes and be off—they own this entire chain of ranges, so if I were you guys, I’d get the hell out of Dodge as soon as can be.”
“Karis is right,” Ying stepped forward. “Lilith, I believe this belongs to you.” Hanging from her finger was her mother’s silver chain with the fairy wish still trapped inside the glass pendant.
“Thank you.” Lilith smiled broadly, taking it and replacing it back on her neck. “You all really went above and beyond. I know what we asked for tonight was not easy.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Ying’s look was serious. “Which should prove to you how much we want our souls back. Do right by us, Lilith Wolf. We showed you trust today, and now it’s your turn to return the favor.”
And this time when she held her hand out Lilith took it, wrapping her hand around Ying’s forearm just as the dragon did the same to her.
“We should go,” Giles warned, not sure if it was nerves that was causing him to hear whispered murmurings riding the wind.
“Yes, as should I.”
Rayale and Karis were already gone, slipped back into the shadow that always protected them so well.
“How will you find me again?” Lilith asked as the pink-haired dragon woman turned to go.
Grin sliding across her rosebud lips, Ying said, “I know the song of your voice now; call to me and it shall ride the wind.”
Then with a wink and wave, the xiather jumped over the edge of the cliff.
Lilith peeked over the edge. “Do you think she’ll be okay?” she asked.
He gazed deep into the endless fall of navy-blue sky beside them. “I’m sure she will be, love. But we need to go now.”
Looking at him, she nodded. “The only chance we have of getting out of here safely is traveling as your shadow.”
She was right, but he knew she dreaded the idea.
“I will shift us the moment we are out of their range.”
“I know you will, knight.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a quick kiss to the side of his lips. “I trust you.”
It was several hours before they were out of range of the dwarves’ homestead. By the time Giles found a spot he felt confident would be safe enough for the two of them, Lilith was practically comatose.
Her skin was unnaturally pale and she was cold as ice to the touch. She would be okay as long as he could get a flame going to heat her up.
They’d traveled through the morning and now it was late afternoon. A fire combined with the strength of the sun should hopefully snap her out of it soon.
But when he laid her down and went in search of wood, he could find none. Not only that, but the farther they’d traveled toward this corner of Kingdom, the more bitterly cold the day became.
Fyre Mountain had been a place of fire and brimstone once upon a time, but there’d been a shift in topography through the years that he’d not become aware of. The maps in Rumpel’s study had shown the mountain as having been more of a low-level range, not exceedingly high so far as mountains were concerned. Actually more of a crater-style volcano in that at its apex it caved inward, but whether through magic or tectonic shifting, there was no longer a crater but a sharp, dizzying peak that pushed through the highest clouds in the sky.
The arctic-blue mountain was peaked in thick layers of snow. Frost curled from his lips with every breath he took.
As a creature born of fire, anything cold was anathema to him. It wasn’t simply that he didn’t enjoy the cold, but that his body could barely tolerate it. He’d be forced to use his heat reserves, which could rapidly deplete his strength if he wasn’t careful.
But this was it. The end of their journey. If he could just push through this, discover where the chalice was kept, retrieve it, and return it to Rumpel, then all would be well.
This would be unpleasant, but he’d gone through worse in his life. And hopefully retrieving the chalice would be easy compared to what they’d already been through.
Growling at the iced-over landscape, he knew searching for any dry tinder would be pointless. Everything was rimmed in rime.
Not wanting to stay away from Lilith for too long, he jogged back to where he’d laid her down in the clearing of arctic spring fed grass. As cold as it was, already he could see the delicate bloom of vitality begin to stain her cheeks now that they no longer traveled at the speed of thought.
He gently cradled her body into his lap.
“Little wolf,” he murmured against her lolling head, “I’m going to warm your body with my own. You’ll be okay. I swear it.”
Calling forth his fire, he muted it to just the point that his body would heat up by several degrees but to where there would be no flame. As much as he wanted her to come awake immediately, he needed to remain conscious not to use all his reserves at once.
Giles fed his flame from the natural heat that seeped up from the ground and radiated from the sun. Out here there was so little heat to tap into.
Smoothing a hand down her hair, he whispered nonsense in her ear as he slowly thawed her.
It was several minutes later before she blinked her eyes open and looked at him. “Knight?” Her thin brows gathered into a tight vee. “Did I pass out?”
Her small fingers clutched at the fabric of his sweater. Even using glamour to clothe himself was tapping into his reserves, but the thin shirts he’d been wearing through most of their journey would never keep him as warm as he needed to remain.
Every bit of magic Giles possessed came from his manipulation of heat; without it he could deplete his system to dangerously low levels, leaving Lilith to fend for herself.
“I’m sorry.” He brushed a finger across her cheek. “Their dwarf mountain range was extensive, and I didn’t want to stop until I was sure we were well outside of it.”
“I understand.” She rubbe
d her forehead with the back of her hand as her gaze took in the landscape. “Are you sure we’re at Fyre Mountain? This can’t be right.”
Reaching out toward a holly bush beside them, she snapped a red berry off that was shrouded in ice and stared at it with a little frown twisting her lips.
Giles shrugged, sharing in her confusion. “I’m not sure, but this is most certainly where the chalice is held.”
“No.” She finally dropped the berry. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you. But it all looks wrong. Where is the crater, the bubbling lava?”
Twisting his lips, he leaned back on one of his hands. Lilith stayed glued to his side, resting her weight against him.
There were still so many words that needed to be said between them. They’d not had a moment to really talk since the night at the shack. But that truth was tempered by the knowledge that Erualis’s time was even now ticking away. That every second was precious if they hoped to save the boy.
“I don’t like it, either,” he mumbled, staring at the looming mountainside, knowing in his heart that something was very wrong with this scenario.
He felt her gaze like a brand, and when he looked back down at her there was not only sadness, but something else he could not quite put his finger on.
“Can you handle the cold, Giles?” she asked, gripping his hand and threading her fingers through them. Clutching on to him with a death grip as though she feared to let him go.
It was on the tip of his tongue to sugarcoat the truth and make her believe that his situation wasn’t as dire as it was, but already he felt his energy slightly depleted.
Like a candle put out in a cold, raging wind it could remain lit for a while, but eventually a strong gust would come by and quench its fire.
Each gentle breeze that brushed against him felt like the icy curl of death’s finger caressing his soul.
“Not very well,” he finally admitted.
“Then you can’t go in.”
“No.” He shook his head and gave her a weak grin. “I absolutely will go in. You cannot go in alone. Who knows what dangers lay in store for us there?”
“Giles.” She sat up and jerked his wrist. “Listen to me for once.”
He frowned but bit his tongue at the sight of her earnest gaze.
“I’m a wolf, I run naturally warm. I barely even feel this cold. The sun is still up and I can see the shivers racing through you. If you cannot tolerate this, and we’re not yet inside of the mountain—”
Stealing her next words with a kiss, he smiled against her lips. “We will do this as we’ve done everything else. Together.”
Her gaze was dreamy when she looked back at him. “Gods, I wish I’d waited to use the dragon call until now. Sent the ladies in there to fetch it and you wouldn’t need to put yourself through this.”
Fingering the pendant around her neck, he tugged at it gently. “Maybe we could use the wish now?”
She wrapped her fingers around his. “But then we’re in the position of still being stuck here. Looking at you, I cannot imagine you could last longer than a day, if that. We should use the wish to get us back to Rumpel’s castle once we’ve acquired the chalice. I cannot ghost with you again.”
“No, I suppose you are right.” He gave her a chaste kiss to her forehead, wishing he could do so much more.
The understanding that this was a stolen moment they took now, that Lilith was right… Giles was unsure he could last more than a day out here, and it hit him like a blow to the gut. This was the end of their journey, no matter what it took to get the chalice he would have to do it. And once he had it he’d have no choice but to return to his prince. Lilith would be taken from his side forever.
His duty and place would be tending to the castle, a place Lilith could not follow because she was no supplicant, or even his mate. She’d be forced to roam as a nomad all her days, moving from one place to another to keep away from the grasp of those who’d use her for ill.
He would have taken her as his if she’d asked it, but she hadn’t and he couldn’t force it. Maybe the thought of never having children was enough to squelch whatever desire she’d felt for him at one time.
“Why did you make that vow, Lilith?” he asked as he framed her face and brought their foreheads together, his heart shattering at the knowledge that she could never be his.
“Because I had not met you.” Her words were soft and sounded broken and he couldn’t stand to hear it, not coming from her.
He kissed her again, but this one was final. This one was goodbye. The moment the chalice was in their hand everything would go back to the way it was.
Her eyes were sad as she said, “Let us finish this.”
They stood at the entrance that led straight into Fyre Mountain, staring at the powder-blue icicles that ripped jaggedly from the roof and floor of the cave.
The way the sunlight bounced off the face of the ice caused it to appear almost glass-like, tossing their reflection back at them from a million different angles.
Lilith could barely believe the sight of the woman staring back at her. She hardly recognized herself. Her cheeks no longer looked so full, or her hips so broad. Though she still had her curves, they were more womanly and toned.
Even the blues of her eyes seemed more mature. She touched her cheek, smearing the dust upon it.
“You look lovely,” he said.
Smiling, she looked at her dark demone warrior and gripped his hand. It was hard to tell just by looking at Giles how badly the cold was affecting him because his skin tone was still the deepest depth of darkest shadow, but she felt it in the jerking spasms of his twitching muscles.
His teeth clacked together almost angrily, and she brushed her knuckles against his smooth cheek.
“Don’t touch the walls, Giles, hang on to me. I’ll keep you warm.”
“Lilith, I—”
“No.” She placed a hand over his lips. “Don’t. Let’s not say words that would only cause us more pain in the end. What is done is done, and it cannot be undone. So let us smile and be glad for the time spent together. And let us hope by the great wolf that there are no ice dwarves in this place.”
She tried to add some sort of levity to their situation, but inside her heart was shattered. She loved him. Absolutely and completely. And though she knew he’d take her as his if she asked, she could never do it to him. To force him to never have children, it would be a decision he might one day come to regret and resent her for. There were many things she could deal with in life, but having Giles ever hate her wasn’t one of them.
They began the slow walk down the slippery smoothness of the ice. More than once she and Giles had stumbled, causing him to reach out his hand to steady himself against the ice wall.
He’d hiss and she could literally see the steam rising off his palm from the touch. His steps were sluggish and he was stumbling more than normal.
“Giles, can’t you shift?”
“No.” He coughed, gasping and breathing heavy. They’d barely walked half a mile at this point.
But the air was definitely thinner, even though they were going down and not up. And though any cave system she’d ever explored in her life was always at a constant temperature, that was just not so with this one. Each step seemed to feel colder and colder.
Even she—that ran warmer than a normal human—was suffering from muscle spasms. Each breath was punishing, filling her lungs with frost and making it feel as though something were chiseling away at her insides with an icepick.
It would be better for her to shift, but then she’d not be able to hang on to Giles, and as poorly as she was doing, he was definitely doing worse.
The normal reds of his eyes were now barely a light pink tint.
“Shifting requires too much energy at this point and it would not protect me from this level of cold. We must press on,” he managed to whisper.
“I wish I could just take you back to the glen, Giles.” She rubbed his arms vigorously, a
ttempting to warm him up as best she could. “You can see there is nothing in this cave with us. In fact, it’s dead. I hear no footsteps or breaths other than ours.”
He didn’t say anything and she wished he would. It was sweet how thoughtful he was of her safety, but not at the expense of his own.
But in so many ways Giles reminded her of her father. The big bad wolf had done much in his search to find her mother and his reason had always been simple: love.
And though Giles hadn’t spoken the words to her, she knew that what they shared was that and were it she struggling as he was, she would fight tooth and nail to remain by his side, too.
“Okay,” she finally relented, “I won’t make you. But I am going to shift. I’m too clumsy with only two feet. Grip firmly on to my pelt. You shouldn’t slip anymore once I shift.”
Nodding, he finally released her hand and she called her light. Unlike Giles her heat was not tied to the elements, and when her amber warmth curled around her for a brief moment she saw him smile as it stroked his skin.
The ice tunnel hissed as wherever her light touched it melted, dripping cold little puddles at their feet.
But all too soon the brightness died out and he was once again shivering violently. Covered in thick fur now, she felt instantly better and sidled up to him so that he could grab hold of her pelt.
His blunt fingers dug into her fur and once again they walked.
The trail seemed never ending, twisting and turning back in on itself over and over again. Sometimes the tunnel would grow so narrow that even with her belly-crawling through it to give Giles enough space he still scraped along the sides.
The steam rising off his skin was growing less and less and he’d stopped shivering, which she knew to be a very bad sign. Going hypothermic was bad enough for anyone, but for someone who derived his vitality from heat she knew it would be catastrophic.
They encountered no enemies along the way. Nothing to have to battle, but that would have been preferable to the unrelenting and brutal cold and just when she thought that maybe they were drawing closer because they’d step through into a massive antechamber, her heart would plummet to her stomach when she realized the trail continued on.
