Israel let out a cry of triumph.
“What is it?”
“Look at the snowflakes.” He pointed at a section at the base of the mountain. Some of the flakes appeared to be hovering, suspended in the air by something they couldn’t see.
Alyx gasped. “There’s something there.”
He walked over to where the snowflakes seemed to be rising off the ground. He reached out with his foot and tapped at the suspended flakes. His boot hit against something solid. “There is a path here.”
He lifted his head. Now that he knew what he was looking for he could see the invisible bridges made barely visible by the snowflakes that had landed on them, going back and forth up the mountain just like in the globe.
“I’d like to wait ’til we can see the bridges better,” he said. “But we don’t know how long it’s going to take for us to get up to the top. We should start our climb now.”
“We’re really going up that?” Alyx’s voice had become thin like water. “A bunch of skinny bridges with no handrailings?”
Israel could see the fear she held so closely to her chest. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. “I won’t let you fall. I swear it.”
Her eyes softened. An acceptance seemed to come over her. She nodded. “We don’t really have a choice, do we?”
“I’ll go first,” he offered. He took the first tentative step, the snowflakes crunching under his boots. The bridge of nothing held underneath him. He took his second and third steps. He turned to look back. “Be careful. And stay close.”
She nodded even as the strain tightened the skin around her eyes. She slipped the globe back into her canvas bag and followed him slowly onto the rising path.
The path was barely a foot wide. He had to place one foot in front of the other as he went, snowflakes falling over the edge as his boots crushed them aside. He tried not to look over as he walked steadily up the bridge. There was nothing to stop either of them from falling.
As they rose higher and higher he couldn’t help the tension growing in his chest, creating a pressure that jammed his heart right up into his throat. He wasn’t even the one who was scared of heights. “You okay, Alyx?”
“Yeah,” she called back. In her voice he detected a slight shake.
They kept going, the wind whipping snowflakes into his face as they climbed. Soon they were high enough that it would kill them if either of them fell.
“I don’t like this, Israel.”
“I know,” he called back. “Neither do I. But we have to keep going.” He paused and lifted his head up towards the mountain, craning his neck up to the sky. Dear God, it was such a long way up. Was the path going to be this treacherous all the way up? They weren’t going to make it.
“We’re not going to make it,” he heard Alyx call from behind him.
Israel shook himself and swallowed down his growing unease. He wouldn’t let his fear control him. He had to stay brave for her. She was counting on him. His chest seemed to warm with purpose even against the frigid air around them. “We can do it, Alyx. We’re almost there,” he lied. “Hang on to me.”
He felt her clutch the back of his jacket. They began their slow trudge again.
As they rose up higher and higher the snow fell in thicker clumps. Israel zipped up his jacket, turned his collar up against the wind, shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned down, fixing his eyes on the invisible path. He could barely see it now through the snow. If the wind got any stronger they would be blown off. If the snow grew any thicker he wouldn’t be able to see his hand in front of his face, let alone this slim, dangerous path. But the tiny hand at his back and the woman attached to it kept him going without hesitation. They had no choice but to make it.
His jacket loosened as her hand slipped from it and he heard cursing behind him.
“You okay?” He halted and turned his head. Alyx was standing with her arms out as if she had almost fallen.
“It’s getting slippery,” she said. “All this snow.”
“We have to keep going. Come on. Grab on to me again.”
She chewed her lip and glanced down. Her eyes widened and Israel saw her body seize. “Oh my God, we’re so high.”
“Alyx, don’t look down.”
“It’s so far down,” she said again, this time her voice a whisper.
“Take my hand.” He reached out his hand.
She didn’t move.
“Alyxandria,” he said harshly.
Her head snapped up.
“That’s it, angel. Look at me.” He shuffled closer and lifted his hand higher, wriggling his fingers to get her attention. “Come on. Take my hand. We’re walking up together.” If you go, I go.
She shook her head. “If I fall, I’ll bring you down with me.”
“Alyx, take my goddamn hand.”
“Okay.” She swallowed, then lifted up her arm. It waved as the wind chose that very moment to whip up. She couldn’t quite reach him from where she was. She slid her foot forward and—
He saw in her eyes the moment her boot slipped out from under her. He grabbed at her hand but his fingers merely brushed the tips of hers. She screamed, her voice echoing off the mountain cliffs, as she fell over the edge into the abyss of swirling white mist and snow.
Chapter Seventeen
Israel didn’t even think. He dove forward like a swan after her, arms first, then head, then body, as if he was tied to her with an invisible string.
If you die, I die.
The icy wind slapped his face and the air grabbed at his clothes like fingers as he fell after her.
Air.
He had Air magic.
No, he didn’t have Air magic. He was Air.
He felt the bloodink swirling into his body, like a fresh spring breeze rushing through his veins. He dove faster after Alyx to catch up with her.
She was still screaming as he grabbed her midair. Her voice seemed to lodge in her throat and her eyes locked on his, shock flashing across her face before anger took over. “Are you crazy? What are you doing?”
Israel rolled his eyes. “I’m saving your ungrateful ass.”
He waved out his magic like a sheet. The air caught in it, billowing up like wind in sails and causing them to jerk to a stop in the air. Alyx let out another yell. Her arms grabbed around him and her legs locked around his waist.
They floated in the air, his magic creating a warm bubble around them that kept out the wind and snow.
“What the…?” She looked around and then pulled back to stare at him.
He grinned. “Relax. I got this.”
She blinked rapidly at him. “You’re doing this?”
He shrugged, trying not to appear too smug with himself. And probably failing. “I put the ‘bad’ in Team Badass.”
She began to laugh. “Air magic. Of course. You remembered how to use it.”
“And all I needed was for it to count.”
She inhaled sharply. He was suddenly aware of how they were positioned, her torso pressed right up against his, her limbs wrapped around him. A searing heat went right through him as something stirred low in his belly. His eyes dropped to her lips. He could kiss her right now. He could more than kiss.
He suddenly had this feeling, a strange feeling like they’d been here before, like this, suspended in air, and he had looked at her just like he was looking at her now and had felt just the way he was feeling.
“Open your eyes,” she said.
He did. “Oh my God.” His arms crushed around her tighter in a reflex.
Alyx held them both there, just so, as light as air, suspended between the Earth and the heavens. They seemed folded between the twinkling city below and the matching stars above. But he was looking at her when he said, “It’s beautiful.”
Her eyes lifted to his, the moonlight adding a touch of silver to her irises. Her smile deepened. “It’s kinda something, huh?”
She eclipsed the starlight. “You’re kinda something.”
Like
he had done then, Israel’s gaze fell to her mouth and he leaned in, drawn to her. The wind outside their bubble took that moment to drop to silence.
Alyx turned her head, his lips brushing against her cheek. “We should get going.”
His heart dropped into the abyss. He felt them dip in the air for a second before he righted them both. Why did she keep pulling away? Didn’t she feel this thing between them? This rightness? This feeling like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together to make something…better? Why was she fighting it?
But this wasn’t the time to talk about it. They were running out of time. Winter was here. And the end would soon come.
He aimed his sights up to the top of the mountain, Alyx’s image in the sky barely visible anymore through the clouds. “Hang on.”
“You know how to direct this thing?”
“Just like riding a bike, right?”
He let the Air swirl underneath him, creating a kind of fountain of air that pushed them up. He aimed for the top of the mountain.
She gripped tighter onto him, her legs still around him. He drew her in closer and dropped his face into her neck. She smelled so good: like white flowers and summer days.
As they rose higher the air became noticeably thinner. The craggy mountain face looked almost purple in this shady light.
“I was so scared before, up there,” she said quietly, so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her over the rush of wind. “But I’m not scared anymore. Not with you.”
His heart filled up with so much warmth, it felt like a tiny sun about to burst.
Alyx’s heart was still pounding even as Israel lowered them down on the flat section at the top of the mountain. When he pulled away, she let him.
It was stark up here, no trees grew, or even grasses, there was just rock. Over his shoulder was the side of the mountain, the covered gray roof of the Maze of Whispers and beyond that, the skyline of Saint Joseph. They had come all that way. She couldn’t have done it without him.
She chanced a glance at Israel. He had his face turned away from her, like he was avoiding her eyes. She swallowed down the taste of bitterness on her tongue. She deserved that. She had felt his mouth brushing against her cheek for the whole ride up. All she had to do was turn her head. She had wanted to turn her head. But she didn’t. A wash of fear had clamped down on her and she couldn’t move her head even as desperately as she wanted to.
But she couldn’t let this journey be over without her trying to say…something. She cleared her throat. “We’re here, finally, all because of you. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get in there.” Israel pointed over her shoulder.
She spun. There was a large door set into the rock, so huge that it almost took up this side of the mountain. She hadn’t noticed it at first because it was the same gray color as the rock. She frowned for a second before she recognized the two matching angels with outstretched wings engraved into it. “That’s the door of Saint Paul’s Cathedral,” she exclaimed. Where this had all started.
She walked to the center of the door, Israel close behind her. Looking closely, she could see a thin hairline crack delineating where the two doors should swing open.
Israel pushed at one of the doors with both hands. “It’s not moving.”
“Together.”
Alyx placed her hands beside his on the cool steel. They were much smaller than his, thinner and daintier. Her porcelain skin to his caramel. But they looked so good beside each other, supporting each other, working together.
“You ready?” he asked, breaking through her thoughts.
She nodded.
“And…go.”
Alyx shoved forward with all her might, her heels sliding out in the snow behind her. She pushed and he pushed, the air filling with their grunts of effort.
But the door still wouldn’t budge.
She let out a cry of frustration and dropped her hands. “It’s locked.”
“How do we open it?”
“A password maybe?”
Israel waved his hands in front of the door. “Open…sesame.”
Alyx snorted. “Open sesame?”
He gave the door a thoughtful look. “Abracadabra?”
Still nothing.
She raised her eyebrow. “Did you really think that would work?”
Israel gave her an unaffected shrug. “Didn’t hurt to try it. But now I’m out of magical words.”
“Maybe it’s not a magical word. Maybe there’s some other way of getting this thing to open.” She peered at the door, running her fingers across the cool surface. She spotted a small hole near the center of the door, something that didn’t exist in the real doors of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. “Look. This looks like it could be a keyhole.”
Israel cursed. “But we don’t have a damn key.”
They didn’t have a key. This realization sank into her bones, making her feel cold from the inside. The Elder hadn’t told them that they needed a key to get through this last door. Why hadn’t he told them?
“We can’t have come all this way just to fail now.” She stared at the door that was just standing there, mocking her with its silence. A crushing feeling threatened to crumple her ribcage like waste paper. It was no use. She had failed. She should have just not tried at all. She would have saved herself this hopeless pain now.
Something inside her spoke in a voice that sounded exactly like her own. It’s always hardest just before the end. Don’t give up.
Alyx felt her body fill up with resolve. She wasn’t giving up. She had come all this way. There had to be a way out through these doors. There had to be.
What had the Elder said? “Find the Mapmaker. He has the map. The map is the key to getting out of here.”
She frowned, turning the words over and over inside her head. “Maybe he meant it literally,” she muttered.
“Meant what literally?” Israel asked.
She could scarcely dare to hope as she pulled out the snow globe from her canvas bag. “The Elder said that the map is the key to getting out of here. What if he meant that it literally was a key?” She shook the snow globe. The snowflakes shook about the globe and the insides swirled as buildings rose up out of the base. It was part of the city of Saint Joseph again.
But there was no key or even anything resembling a key inside it. Hope shrugged off her shoulders and puddled in the thick snow at her feet. “It didn’t work.”
Israel took the globe from her and peered at it, frowning. “I wonder why the globe is showing us the cathedral instead of the mountain that we’re on.”
“I don’t know.”
“Does that look like Saint Paul’s Cathedral to you?” He pointed to the building in the center of the globe, the unmistakable spire soaring up like a spear almost to the underside of the glass.
“It does. I guess because the doors in the mountain are from the cathedral.”
Israel shook his head. “I think it’s more than that. I think it’s showing us this for a reason.”
“What reason?”
He stared up at the cathedral door and back to the globe.
She faced the door head on. Israel was right, she could sense it. There must be some sort of link, some sort of reason why they were seeing the cathedral doors here and the cathedral building in the globe.
“It can’t be that simple,” she heard Israel mutter. He was frowning at the keyhole.
“What isn’t that simple?”
Israel didn’t answer but he bent over and stared closely at the lock. He straightened, a grin showed on his face. “It is.”
“What?” she asked again, her body strumming with anticipation.
Israel took a step away from her. “Watch out for your eyes.” Before she could ask why, he swung the globe and struck the side of the door. She shielded her face as the glass exploded with a smash.
“What are you doing?”
Israel didn’t answer. He held up the globe, now glassless, its tiny flec
ks of magical snow falling over the edges. The miniature cathedral towered over the other smaller buildings in the circular base. “Look at the keyhole.” He turned to the lock. “This spire is the key.”
She stared at the circular keyhole with a long spire-like void. He was right. “Oh my God.”
“Just call me Israel.” He shot her a grin before he slid the tip of the spire into the hole. It slid in with a soft click. He paused. “This is it,” he said, his voice soft and filled with reverence.
“It is,” she said thickly. She knew what this meant. Once they stepped through this door they wouldn’t be a team anymore. They would go back to their normal lives, two strangers with two different lives. Her heart filled with a crushing pain and she almost let out a sob. If that’s what she had to go back to, she didn’t want to go back.
Israel dropped his hand from the globe-key. Apparently he didn’t want to go back either.
They stood there for a few seconds, each waiting for the other to say…something.
Finally Israel turned to face her. “Alyx.”
“Yeah,” she breathed.
He swallowed. “Despite this crazy situation, I really enjoyed doing this…with you.”
Her heart grew wings and flapped wildly around her ribcage. “Oh.” Come on, Alyx, you can do better than that. “Me too. I’m really glad you were here…with me.”
She finally lifted her eyes up to meet Israel’s warm and steady gaze. He licked his lips. He looked like he had something more to say. She had so much she wanted to say but no words to say them. After all, what is the language of the soul?
“Before I unlock this door,” he said, “I just wanted to say…”
“To say?”
“That is…I wanted to…”
“Yes?”
He let out a soft sigh. Then grabbed behind her head and covered her lips with his.
There was a moment of stillness, a moment of complete peace. Like the pause between heartbeats. The silence between breaths. Then something began to grow, like the lighting of the sky just before the first rays of the sun broke through across the horizon. He pulled away and inside Alyx, the feeling slipped back down behind the surface.
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