Page 34 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Nalari growled, making the cave walls and ceiling shudder. At the sudden motion, a large deer with antlers spearing from his head ran toward me. I jumped on its back. It bucked a few times, pounding its antlers over my head, but it was too weak to put up much of a fight. Within seconds, I had it wrestled to the ground as two more ran past me.
A smile broke across my face when a few more deer appeared.
“I’m sending a small herd of deer toward you,”I told my Guardian.“There are seven of them. Today, these deer are our friends.”My smile widened.“I need you to remember what I said about friends, Nalari. We don’t kill our friends, right?”
“A lot of good they’ll do us alive,”she huffed out.
“I have a plan,”I told her.
“Does your plan include eating for survival?”
“Of course,”I grumbled. “Put them to sleep when they’re out.”
I elongated my canines, sensing the deer’s fear when they realized the predator I was. When I pounced, they ran toward the mouth of the cave.
Whether my plan was good or a wishful whim, I wasn’t sure yet. But when we returned to camp, before we worried about our own shelter, we’d have to build pens for the deer and any other livestock Nalari and I managed to find. We’d have to ready the ground for vegetation. And we’dhave to hope against hope that Nalari’s and my magic combined would be enough to aid us.
And I had to ensure I didn’t focus on Nalari’s words, which could only build distrust in those I’d trusted for most of my life.
“They were safe in Niev. Comfortable. They no longer have a reason not to kill you.”
No, I refused to let her words take root.
We’d been friends, family for a lifetime. That would remain the same in any realm.Right?
Chapter
Seven
TEDDY
The hillsof Colina Verde were shrouded in a bleak, gray mist that almost made my small town look out of focus. It looked nothing like the vibrant town of my youth. Hell, the lively town of only eleven days ago.
Ironically, since this bewildering winter hit, the nights looked more spectacular. As if the stars themselves needed to stand out against the raven sky, reminding us that magic did exist.
Then again, no one on earth ever had to wonder about magic. Not with the man who paraded himself on our screens with his dragon—an actual real-life dragon—with a head the size of my house, gray and light blue scales, and eyes an almost yellow-orangish color that reminded me of the sun. This man, who looked very much like a man aside from his pointy ears, fangs, and pristine, alabaster skin, called himself a fae, and on the television, he explained he was from a different realm.
As in there was more than one realm. I should have myself checked out because once the prospect of that settled in mybrain, it filled me more with excitement than the initial fear. A part of me wanted to meet one of these fae to ask the millions of questions that swam through my head daily and add the details to my dream journal, which was quickly developing into a full-fledged story.
I knew there was no possibility we were alone in this big world, but I’d always leaned more on the idea of aliens from space than beings from a different dimension.
And these beings, who were actually fae, looked far more predatory than the dragon who was never far from their commander.
For some reason, Commander Hudson and a considerable number of his followers, or warriors as he called them, were sent to our world to teach us how to survive what he named the endless winter. While he claimed to be here to help us, I was more inclined to believe he and his kind had caused our current freezing temperatures.
Why else would they be here but to fix their mess? Unless of course, their goal was invasion and conquering. Which honestly wouldn’t be all that hard to accomplish since humankind seemed more inclined to fight each other than the strangers who may very well have set our demise in motion.
I shook my head, clearing it of what I hoped were foolish thoughts. What I was sure Mom would have called my overactive imagination.
I wasn’t sure if I was glad Mom wasn’t here to live through this insistent cold with peculiar and possibly dangerous beings or if I wished she were here to remind me things would be okay.
Because, in my mom’s words, until we were six feet in our grave, we still had a chance, and all we needed was a chance. Already, hundreds of thousands—no, closer to one millionpeople had lost that chance, dying from the frigid temperatures without the necessities to keep them alive.
I pulled my comforting yet strange blanket Ryenne had found on my bed eleven mornings ago closer to my chest as I forced my legs through the snow-drenched ground. While I wasn’t sure where it came from, I was grateful for the deceptively thin material's warmth. I rubbed my socked hands together to try to warm them while wishing my clothes were made of the same material as the blanket. Or that I’d ever been somewhere other than Texas, somewhere the cold typically lasted longer than a week or two, so I’d have some actual mittens or gloves, a scarf or two, or one of those knitted hats to keep my hair dry and ears warm. Good thing I was a big fan of boots and had plenty to choose from to keep my feet warm and dry.
At least I wasn’t the only one with strange attire at church that morning. Because yep, here in Texas, we still went to church on Sundays. Despite the frozen apocalypse that no one, including our pastor, wanted to call an apocalypse. But what else did you call an eternal winter with mythical creatures trying to rule us?
Even my long-gone mother couldn’t deny how all signs pointed to the end of our world. Definitely the end of humanity.
