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All my life, I’d been taught to be proper, to be agreeable, to not take up too much space.Kind Florentia. Quiet Florentia. Strange Florentia.
My emotions sent another rush of cold through me, and my magic spread, making more branches quake. This time, I didnot fear being heard. The fae were too distracted by their cruel antics. And in that moment, I was too terrified for Garrick to know terror for myself.
“How does it feel,” Ian purred, “to be helpless? To be a pathetic littledog?” Still Garrick didn’t strike out against his attacker.
Helpless.I remembered what Garrick had told me about his weak glamour. Did that mean he was also helpless to resist the compulsions of other fae? Had Ian forced Garrick to remain still while he choked him? Was he going to murder him right here in front of me?
Perhaps this was the moment in which Garrick expected me to run. Maybe he knew he couldn’t fend off these men, and he’d only hoped to be a distraction.
Another wave of cold made me shiver. Garrick had been prepared to risk his life for me. He’d been nothing but kind and good, perhaps the truest friend I’d ever known. I could trust him more than I could trust the people I’d lived among my whole life. I couldn’t watch him die. I couldn’t lose him.
The icy knot building in my chest seemed to bloom outward, like a spreading snowstorm, overtaking everything in its path. My body was full of cold fury and purpose. The magic felt instinctual, natural.
And it burst out of me.
This time it wasn’t merely ice. It was the full strength of a raging snowstorm, frigid winds lashing at my coat and hair and huge flakes tumbling from bloated clouds that wrapped about me like a cloak. They misted and whirled in a beautiful, hazy dance, throwing snow until all I could see was blinding white. There was a rumble, and the earth shook. A roar like the mountain was descending upon us shredded the air, but the storm within and without me didn’t relent, not even with my mounting fear.
Perhaps it was fueled by my continued rage, or perhaps it was something beyond me now, too powerful in this magical land for a mere mortal like myself to control. Shrieks and screams joined the whistling wind, mingling into a clamor that made me utterly disoriented. I staggered, terrified I’d fall or be buried alive in the blizzard I’d conjured.
“Avalanche,” a voice growled, startling me with its closeness. Garrick. His warm hand seized my wrist, and I wondered if his fae or wolfish senses had been what allowed him to navigate through the snow and wind to find me. “I think even if you manage to stop your magic, it’ll be too late to stop the snow coming from the mountain peak. We need to find safety. Now.”
My teeth chattered as I searched for Garrick’s golden eyes. Whether from his warmth or the distraction of his presence, the reassurance that he was safe, the fury of the storm was already dying. The snowflakes had thinned, and the wind didn’t roar quite so loudly. “Is there time?” I asked.
“Climb on my back. It’ll be faster.”
Before I could fully register the change, Garrick had vanished—or rather, he had transformed. A beautiful white wolf with Garrick’s piercing gold eyes, standing as tall as my waist, stood before me. Without hesitating another moment, I seized some of his fur in my hands and slung myself onto his back.
My heart lurched into my throat as Garrick launched us down the mountain, snow tumbling beneath his paws as he charged around trees and leapt fallen logs with astounding grace and speed. Icy wind bit my cheeks, and, even through my gloves, my fingers grew numb, threatening to lose their grip on his fur. Behind us, the rumbling of the oncoming avalanche and the cries of our enemies grew more distant.
But I knew for as fast as Garrick ran, the avalanche would be easily twice as swift.
Tears filled my eyes and froze on my lashes from the cold, but I couldn’t fully release my magic either. Snowflakes turned into hail, chunks of black ice large enough to pelt painfully against my face and hands. I shivered so violently now that I thought I’d knock myself off Garrick’s back even before my fingers could lose their grip.
I swayed, nearly slipping off. Gritting my teeth against their chattering, I dug my knees into Garrick’s sides, hoping I didn’t hurt him as I struggled to keep my seat. He released a low growl, but it didn’t sound threatening. I imagined he was trying to encourage me to hold on a bit longer.
Behind us, the roar of the avalanche was growing in its rage. I dared a glance over my shoulder to see a wall of white churning past trees and rocks, devouring everything in its path. Swallowing down my terror, I leaned forward as far as I could, ducking close to Garrick’s warm body to keep my balance.
How much longer could he outrun this? I knew from growing up in the shadows of the mountains that avalanches could tumble for miles, killing animals and people in their merciless paths. I wondered if a death like that would be more like being crushed or suffocating as one drowned in a sea of snow. Squeezing my eyes shut against the stinging cold, I willed Garrick to run faster, willed my fingers—now completely numb—to somehow continue to cling to fur I could scarcely feel. No matter the heat of Garrick’s body, my own was freezing, like my very core was made of ice.
I wondered if my magic could kill me, turning me into a woman of solid black ice like the hailstones raining around us.
The world tilted abruptly, and I stifled a yelp as my eyes opened and I struggled to right myself, nearly tumbling off Garrick’s back. The roaring was so loud in my ears I couldn’t hear anything else, not even my own pulse. Ahead, a cavern loomed, and I realized Garrick’s intent. He knew we couldn’toutrun the wall of snow plowing toward us, so he meant to seek shelter.
My mind counted out the seconds as the snow rushed down the slope, trees groaning or splitting and crashing, only to be swallowed up in its relentless course. One tree slammed into another trunk, making the bare branches of the standing tree waver and shudder.
Suddenly, I feared being crushed by a tree before the snow even reached us.
But I didn’t have time to contemplate that further, as Garrick took a running leap, forcing me to cling with every last ounce of my strength to his fur. In the din surrounding us, my scream was silent, nothing but a vibration tearing at my throat. We landed, my forehead slamming against Garrick’s back. He leapt again, climbing a short ascent toward the cave in a rocky outcropping. Its elevation would be our salvation, the cave mouth hopefully high enough that the oncoming snow wouldn’t cover it and trap us inside.
Two more heartbeats and we were in the cave’s dark interior, the damp walls providing enough of an obstacle to slightly dull the avalanche’s thunder.
Exhaustion clung to me, as if the absence of an imminent threat to our lives had sucked all the energy from me. I sensed my magic stutter and stop, and I knew without having to turn that the low-hanging storm clouds had vanished and the hail had ceased. The cold building within me, however, had not.
I tumbled off Garrick’s back, shivering so much that my muscles ached.
Garrick was back in his fae form in an instant, fully clothed in his fur coat with his bow and quiver strapped to his back and blades at his sides, as if he’d never even been a wolf. He stooped beside me, laying a hand against my forehead and cursing. “I have no way to build you a fire, Starlight.”
“This isn’t proper in your world, I suppose, but I promise, I’m not trying to be forward.” Garrick flashed me a dimpled grin. It was beautiful, lighting up his whole face, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes. That was enough for me to worry that he was right—I could kill myself with my lack of control on my magic. “I’m going to hold you so we can share body heat beneath this coat. It’ll warm you faster.” He hesitated. “I’m going to remove your coat too, because fewer layers between us will be more effective.” The cave was too dark for me to see his expression.
