Page 70 of Kiss of Frost

Tragedies could linger in it.

I’d seen Hamish’s fall.

Except…I couldn’t have.

“Hamish didn’t fall from the North Tower. He fell from the South Tower on the other side of the castle.”

My heart pounded harder. Blood rushed in my ears. I couldn’t always control the air, but it had never, never lied to me. Strong memories could linger in the wind, but they couldn’t change the past.

The hair on my nape lifted, and my father’s voice whispered in my mind.

A dark wind is coming, Georgie. Only you can harness it.

“I’m sorry!” Graeme sobbed. He gazed up at Hamish with tears running down his face. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know…”

Blood soaked Hamish’s jacket, turning it black. Through the wound in his chest, the wind raged like a wild animal caught in a trap. And for one brief, startling moment, the wind met my gaze.

And held it.

My breath caught. The wind didn’t lie. And my father, one of the greatest air witches to ever live, had been right. Immortals didn’t leave ghosts behind.

I stepped around Callum and pinned my gaze on Hamish. “You’re lying.”

Behind me, Callum tensed. I couldn’t see it. No, I felt it in the air. I’d always been able to feel the things that moved in the currents, even when I couldn’t catch them.

Hamish flicked his brown eyes to me. His blood-stained teeth flashed white between his lips. “Cease, witch. You have no power here.”

The Oracle raged behind him. Through him. I lifted my hands to the towering wall of wind. “Maybe not,” I said. “But there is other power here.” The same sense of wonder I’d felt when we descended into the caldera spread through me again. “So beautiful,” I murmured, and the faintest breeze caressed my palms. Just a fraction of power, but it took my breath away.

I lowered my hands and turned to Hamish. “You desecrate this place with your lies.”

“Cease!” he barked, his voice suddenly deeper. Darker. The air around him rippled. It was quick. Subtle. Nothing a mundane would have noticed.

But I knew air.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Graeme staring at me from the ground. But I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t bear to see my big, gentle, broken-hearted mate humbling himself before a fraud.

I pointed at Hamish. “You’re lying. No true mate would terrorize the one he loves with blood and anguish.”

A dark wind is coming, Georgie. Only you can harness it.

Hamish’s features contorted with rage. “You stupid bitch!” he screamed, bloody spittle flying from his lips.

“It’s coming!” my father shouted across time and space.

I see it, Father. I’d always been able to catch the wind, but I could never hold it. I was a magnet for air. It liked me. But it always got away from me. I was the outfielder, glove in hand, ready to catch the fly ball. But I could never keep it.

I wasn’t meant to.

I was meant to let it go.

Hamish flew at me.

I flung my hands toward the Oracle and screamed, “COME TO ME!”

A thousand panes of glass shattered.

Wind burst from between the pillars of ice. It roared through the caldera, brushed my hands, and slipped free. A whiplash of frozen current knocked me off my feet and hurled me backward. Strong arms caught me, and I crashed to the snow with Callum’s shout in my ears.

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