I picked up the last branch except for the one Giselle still gripped. Would she tell him? He was already unhappy with me for my deal with Cassandra—but this time his disgust would be warranted. He couldn’t think any more harshly of me than I already thought of myself.
Slowly we returned to the abandoned packs. Giselle walked in silence, and I couldn’t blame her. At least she wasn’t expressing her disgust aloud.
When we reached the packs, I once again dropped the sticks. I knew I should prepare the fire, but my mind still circled around the encounter with the leopard, a slight shake making my hands rebel against the commands I attempted to give them.
Again Giselle acted without speaking, carefully placing the sticks ready for a fire. When she had finished, she looked up at me expectantly. I stared back at her stupidly for a moment before giving a sudden start and thrusting a spurt of fire at her arrangement.
I had overcompensated, though, and the flames rushed through the sticks, not holding long enough to ignite them. I took a deep breath and tried again, maintaining a more controlled stream this time. When I was sure the sticks had caught, I let my hands drop and sat down.
I knew I couldn’t put off my apology to Giselle any longer. But when she threw herself into the snow beside me, her expression made me stop short. Her eyes glowed, her face alive with excitement.
And when she looked up and met my gaze, a grin broke across her face.
“That was amazing!” She smiled into our little fire and then back up at me. “Celine—we fought a snow leopard!”
I smiled back, although the expression felt painful on my face. “We? I’m pretty sure it was all you.”
She sat up straighter, seeming to take my words as a compliment to her rather than an indictment of me.
“It was pretty amazing,” she murmured again. “Although I think all that fire threw it off. I’ve never actually seen one up close like that before.” She chortled suddenly. “Just wait until Oliver hears!”
I winced, looking down quickly so she wouldn’t notice. It seemed foolish to apologize now when she clearly hadn’t noticed anything odd. It might even be insulting, since it would imply I hadn’t thought her able to handle the situation without me.
Slowly I regained some calm, although the shame still stung whenever my mind wandered back to the attack. To keep ourselves busy, we prepared some hot tea, and when Oliver and Sterling finally returned, they looked grateful for it.
My eyes searched Oliver for any signs of injury, but I could see nothing. He looked tired and sad, but I could also read their success in his eyes.
“He was lurking waiting for prey just where we thought he would be,” he said quietly. “Above the next part of our path.”
“The way is now clear,” said Sterling, and neither of them offered any further details.
Giselle nodded, clearly attempting to look nonchalant. “I don’t think we should be having any trouble from the other one, either.”
Oliver frowned at her and then quickly looked to me, his eyes asking for clarification.
I swallowed and forced myself to talk normally. “It seems the mother was also out hunting today. She managed to find us, but we gave her enough of a scare that I don’t think she’ll be coming back any time soon. She took off downhill.”
“What?!” Oliver stood, looked around a little foolishly, and then sat back down.
“You two scared it off?” Sterling’s voice held something—although I couldn’t tell if it was skepticism or begrudging respect.
Oliver’s eyes immediately flew to my hands, and I knew what he was thinking. I shook my head slightly, rushing into an explanation.
“We’d been gathering sticks for the fire, and Giselle wielded one like an expert spearman. The leopard nearly skewered herself on it, and she quickly lost interest after that.”
“Two leopards.” Oliver shook his head. “What are the chances?”
“What are the chances of any of this?” I gestured wide to indicate the mountain, the snow, and our mismatched little party.
He grimaced, his face acknowledging the truth of my words. But with Sterling present, none of us felt like dissecting the situation any further. Instead we quickly packed up and began the next section. Sterling had assured us that a snug little cave could be found halfway along the rocky section, and at least we would be getting a short break from the snow shoes.
Oliver smiled almost warmly at me as we set off, and it took all of my self-control to smile back. He clearly thought there was more to the story—and he was right. It just wasn’t what he was thinking. I hadn’t saved Giselle, she had saved me. Twice.
And I had just stood there. Useless without my powers.
Chapter 18
The memory of how it had felt to stand helpless before the leopard haunted me. But the mountains also grew steeper and more treacherous, and I had little time to think of other things than keeping my feet and following the path the others broke for me.
Giselle had obviously not filled Oliver in on the true situation with the leopard because he continued to view me more warmly than he had since the deal with Cassandra. And Giselle herself seemed to have forgiven me for not supporting her attendance on the trip. Apparently she viewed us as comrades-in-arms after the run in with the leopard.
But their approval could not rebuild my shaken confidence. I was utterly determined not to prove myself the weak link again. And so I concentrated with utmost focus on my hiking, my technique improving enough that I no longer always trailed far behind the rest.
Undoubtedly we had all noticed the snow growing deeper and the temperature dropping, but no one spoke of it. I could see them all reacting to the cold in various subtle ways, though, and could only be silently grateful for the heat that kept me perpetually warm from the inside out.
I still worried, however, and that third night it took me longer to fall asleep than usual. The steady breaths sounding from around the fire made me think I was the only one lying awake—until Oliver’s whisper sounded from the darkness.
“Do you think they’re still holding off? Lord Treestone and the Elamese. They know we’ll need some time, right?”
I started and bit my lip. It had been constantly at the back of my mind—a pressure that never eased as I tried to move faster up the mountain—but I had no desire to talk to Oliver about the potential coup.
My silence didn’t deter him, however.
“Would you really stand against me? If it came to a coup?”
I sighed. “Not against you, never against you. At least, that’s not how I think of it.”
“What other way is there to think of it?” He sounded bitter.
So the leopard hadn’t been enough to win me forgiveness, after all.
“With things as they currently stand,” I said, “without our interference, there shouldn’t be any bloodshed. A bloodless coup. And possibly only a temporary one. If it comes to one at all.”
“And my parents?”
I grimaced, although he couldn’t see me in the dark. I didn’t want to admit out loud that I didn’t know what the coup had planned for them. But surely Lord Treestone and the Elamese didn’t mean to execute them? Not until they had actual evidence of what was going on, at least.
The silence lengthened while I hoped a little desperately I was right. I had gone over and over it in my mind, and I still didn’t see what else I could have done. We were all trying to save Eldon in our own way.
“They didn’t say exactly how long they would wait, but I’ve been thinking about that. I think they were protected from the enchantment before because they were so far south. But my own people have been slowly freezing up, just like your people. It’s hard to say how long it will take, but if they wait long enough, they may lose the motivation for a coup.”
Oliver’s indrawn breath sounded loud in the darkness, and then he gave a quiet bark of humorless laughter.
“I have no idea what to think of that. Should I be hoping that more of my peop
le succumb to this curse in order to save my family? Soon we might not have a kingdom left to rule at all.”
I shrugged and then remembered I needed to speak aloud. “I don’t know.”
Silence fell again, before Oliver’s sudden whisper made me startle for a second time.
“No bloodshed. That’s why you agreed, isn’t it? To protect me. You think I’m going to get myself killed if I oppose them.”
“Of course. What other reason could I have?”
He sighed, the sound heavy in the darkness. “How did we end up here?”
I tried to think of an answer and then decided it must be a rhetorical question.
“I’m so sorry, Oliver. About everything.”
He shifted slightly, the sound barely audible above the sleeping breaths of the other two.
“You’re not the one planning a coup, Celine. And you didn’t create this curse. You’re just trying to keep us all alive. I might not like it, but I can understand it.”
Did that mean he’d forgiven me? He didn’t say any more, and after another stretch of silence, his breaths joined those of the others. I would just have to wait and hope so.
As we headed out the next morning, even I could feel the temperature dropping. I tried to remember if it had warmed at least slightly after the previous sunrises. It didn’t help my confidence that Sterling kept glancing at the sky in concern.
“What’s wrong?” I finally demanded, looking from Sterling to Oliver and then finally Giselle. “Am I missing something?”
“This weather…” The unease was clear in Oliver’s voice.
“It’s not looking good,” Sterling agreed. “Maybe we should find somewhere to hole up for a day or two.”
I was already shaking my head as Oliver spoke.
“And risk getting snowed in? We don’t have enough wood for that. We wouldn’t be able to keep a fire burning.”
He seemed to be carefully not looking in my direction, and I wasn’t sure whether he was driven by the desire to keep my abilities secret or just the determination not to be held up when we were already so close. I was fairly certain I could keep us all warm if it came to it, but I wholeheartedly agreed with either motivation. I had no desire to spend any more time than necessary stuck uselessly on this mountain.
“Aye,” Sterling rubbed his chin. “You have the right of it there.” He sighed. “I suppose we’ll press on then and try to outrun it. I just wasn’t expecting anything this bad. Things are deteriorating faster than I realized.”
“Outrun what?” I asked.
“The coming storm.” He frowned. “Let’s just hope it’s not a blizzard.”
“We just have to get close enough to your village, though, right?” Giselle watched him with sharp eyes. “We must be getting close now, and once we’re in the circle of the enchanted object, we should be safe from something like a blizzard.”
Sterling nodded, his gaze still on the sky. “Aye, that’s right, Your Highness. We might be able to reach the village today even. Depending.”
I met Giselle’s eyes, and she shrugged slightly. Oliver continued to show a determined face—pressing forward without consideration of failure—but Giselle and I were both significantly more skeptical of our so-far helpful guide. Except there was nothing we could do at this point if he was lying to us.
I could only hope he had no more desire to be caught out in a blizzard than we did.
The sky had soon become a solid wall of gray, hiding the sun from view. I itched to light up my hands—just so I could clearly see the path ahead of me—but I carefully refrained, keeping a tight hold on my inner fire.
But as the temperature plummeted, I found myself fueling that inner warmth more and more just to stay warm. It had become an exercise in self-control as I pushed the heat down my arms to warm my fingers, holding it just short of bursting out into the open.
The effort held so much of my attention, that I had stopped watching the weather. So it took me by surprise when the first snowflakes fell. They were soon joined by others, however, and ignoring the heavy flurry became impossible.
Now that I had returned my attention to the others, I could see that they looked almost deathly cold. The tiny sections of exposed skin on their faces shone red, and Giselle’s body periodically shook with deep shivers. Oliver kept throwing her concerned looks, but in truth he didn’t look much warmer himself.
When we stopped for a brief rest, I approached Giselle, slipping off my glove once her body blocked me from Sterling’s sight. Biting my lip in concentration, I slipped my fingers up her closest sleeve until I reached her skin just above her wrist.
“Oh,” she gasped, her eyes flying to mine. She lowered her voice. “You’re so warm!”
“And you’re freezing,” I whispered back, equally quiet.
Oliver positioned himself between us and Sterling, glancing my way, his eyes holding equal parts concern and hope. After my efforts all morning, I was confident I could do this. But I understood his concern. And shared it. I would have to walk a very fine line.
Slowly—painfully slowly—I pushed heat up through my arms and out my palm. I felt a gentle warmth radiate out against Giselle’s skin as a soft puff of hot air pushed its way up her sleeve, briefly ballooning out her jacket before it found its way out the other openings.
“Ohhh…” She closed her eyes for a brief moment, a grateful smile on her face. “It’s so warm!”
I grinned triumphantly across at Oliver who smiled gratefully back.
“Your control is getting better,” Giselle whispered, and I shrugged.
“I’ve had a lot of practice this trip. I’m fairly certain I would have frozen to death already without…” I gestured toward my middle wordlessly.
“I wish my godmother had given me—” Giselle cut off her words at my warning look. For all we were talking quietly, the less said the better.
I waited a minute before carefully sending another rush of hot air up her sleeve. Then another minute and another burst of heat. Slipping my hand out, I moved to stand casually next to Oliver. Sterling continued to show no interest in us, his eyes focused on the ominous sky, the flurries of snow, and the path ahead of us. I didn’t like his frown.
Holding out my hand, I hovered just above Oliver’s sleeve, my eyes asking him a silent question. I hadn’t hesitated with Giselle, but this felt different, despite my only offering to touch his arm.
He bit his lip, and then a shiver shook him, and he nodded slightly, extending his own hand toward me. Not looking up into his face, I slowly slid my bare fingers up between his glove and sleeve. As soon as my fingertips brushed against exposed skin, the controlled fire inside me roared, and I took a deep breath, pausing while I roughly pushed it down, reasserting my control. I would have to be even more careful this time.
I glanced up into Oliver’s eyes, expecting to see confusion at my pause, but his eyes held something else entirely. The coldness that had lingered between us since my agreement with Cassandra had indeed fallen away. Lost perhaps somewhere in the darkness of the night before.
I looked away quickly, already struggling to control the raging inside. Forcing myself to concentrate, I pushed my hand up until my full fingers rested against his forearm.
Slowly, inch by inch, I released some of the heat within me, letting it creep up my arm and then out. I loosened my internal hold even more, and a rush of warm air—stronger than the one I had used on Giselle—rushed up his sleeve.
He sighed, his eyes briefly closing as I felt his body relax. I hadn’t realized how tense he had been. I watched his now relaxed face with concern. For just the moment, he had let himself go, and it emphasized how tightly he had been in control before. Just how cold was it, really? I had no way to know how much my ability masked the effects of the weather. If we continued to press on, would we make it to the village?
Just as I thought it, the flurry of snow became more of a solid wall, as if the clouds had suddenly opened wide and dumped all their remaini
ng stores on us at once. Except it kept going and going. I stood between Oliver and Giselle, and I could see them both through the swirling white—just. Sterling was lost to me already.
Until he suddenly appeared from nowhere, so coated in white I almost didn’t recognize him. Jumping slightly, I whipped my hand out of Oliver’s sleeve and stuffed it back into my glove. If he had noticed our odd stance, he didn’t mention it.
“We need to find shelter,” he shouted. Even so, the wind tugged his words away so fast I could barely make them out. “Right now. This is a blizzard, all right.”
He produced a rope from somewhere and threaded it through a small loop on each of our packs that I hadn’t even noticed before. To keep us from losing each other. Clever.
But my admiration fell away as we began to move. Our pace was so slow I wanted to scream, and yet I had no idea how Sterling in the front managed to find a way forward at all. Several times I saw him jerk suddenly as a tree appeared directly in front of him, too obscured by the white to be seen earlier.
I had been roped between Oliver and Giselle, and my attention was soon focused solely on them. I felt as if we moved too slowly to bear, and yet they walked as if they could barely keep up. Giselle stumbled once and clambered back to her feet so slowly, she nearly got jerked back into the snow by the rope connecting us together.
When she stumbled again and didn’t get up, I tugged on the rope attaching me to Oliver. He looked back, a blankness in his eyes that scared me. But at the sight of Giselle he seemed to regain some life, turning to call loudly to Sterling.
I couldn’t hear his words, but I had already turned my attention back to the younger princess. She seemed to have abandoned any pretense of getting up and simply lay there in the snow. I dropped to my knees beside her, shaking her frantically.
“Giselle! Giselle!”
She groaned and mumbled something I couldn’t hear, feebly trying to push me off.
Ripping off my glove, I stuck my hand back up her sleeve, the cold of her skin shocking me enough that I nearly lost balance myself. She had gotten noticeably colder since our stop.
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