Page 35 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
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By the time Skyla gathered her wits enough to cast an anti-gravity spell, she and Nic were already landing and sliding down a sloping surface of ice. Nic rolled her sideways and took the brunt of their momentum as they slammed into the base of something smooth and vertical. And hard, based on the new pain in her knee.
The pulse of magic thrummed against her senses. She lifted herself up, to give Nic a chance to breathe. She smiled at his beloved face, glad there was enough light to see. “Hi.” She energized the mate bond to make sure he was okay. “Is this a good time to tell you how sexy you are?”
He smiled back. “Hi, yourself.” His eyes widened. “Look.”
She rolled over to see what he was pointing at, after first untangling her wrist and his from the chain with the keys.
Subtle light emanated from the walls and ceiling. The ghosts of Kotoyeesinay swarmed in and out of the far wall of blue ice, about thirty feet from them.
The inner glow increased and revealed two more key-shaped shadows. Skyla pointed. “I think this is what the ghosts were trying to tell me about.”
He grunted. “Lerro’s been right so far.” He rocked forward onto his feet.
She took the helping hand up he offered, then wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, soaking in his warmth and scent. “You make adventuring less scary. Thank you.”
He hugged her back and kissed her. “I think you’re the bravest woman I know.”
“That’s because you’re in love with me, and you never knew my sister.” She moved to pull away, but he held her fast.
“I don’t think I’d have liked her very much.”
“Why not?”
He brushed a thumb across her forehead to smooth a lock of her hair back. “Because she made you doubt your worth.”
She shook her head. “No, she tried to protect me, give me skills. She was born first. She was the spitting image of our mixed-race father. Nothing fazed either of them. They were both Shifter Tribunal investigators, though I wasn’t supposed to know who they worked for.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I took after Mother, whose mixed heritage included elves. I caught an elf disease and barely lived. She caught it from me and died. That’s how I discovered my gift for spirits. She needed me to give a message to my father.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, remembering the old pain. “He stopped looking at me after that.”
“Because you lived.”
She nodded. “Because I wasn’t Rayne, and I lived.”
He kissed her again. “I’m very glad you did.” He held up the keys. “Since he’s not around for me to kick his ass, let’s see what these do.”
They had to pick their way around giant bones of a disarticulated skeleton half submerged in solid ice.
“Dragon, maybe?” He pointed at what might have been a jaw with big, thick teeth. “Tinsel said Kotoyeesinay has some for defense.”
“Fort LeBlanc would be too cold for them. I think dragons are more like flying desert dinosaurs.”
“No dragon rides for me, then. Deserts are too damn hot. The hills above Santa Barbara were bad enough.”
They reached the wall. Once again, they each placed a key on the shadowed outline. The keys stuck to the blue ice.
She threaded her fingers through his and energized their mate bond. Despite the danger, hot visions of naked, aroused Nic snuck in between her rational thoughts. And of course, he felt it. “Sorry,” she murmured.
He squeezed her fingers and murmured back. “I’m not.”
The keys turned brilliant green and sank halfway into the ice. The ice wall groaned and creaked.
She and Nic stepped back as the ice buckled like a curtain being drawn from left to right, revealing a semi-circle of six massive, translucent pillars made of clear ice. In the centers of five of the pillars, a wide green and gold throne, and on each throne, a perfectly preserved naked body. A golden elf male with a long braid, a dark-skinned human female with long coils of silver-gray hair, a dark elf male with hair that looked like sculpted iron, a bald polar fairy male, and an arctic elf female with icicles where human hair would be. The sixth pillar had only an empty silver throne.
The spirits seemed more tranquil as they floated through the chamber and around the pillars.
Nic held out his hand, palm forward. “Heavy magic.” He dropped his arm. “I don’t think they’re dead.”
“I think we need to figure out how to wake them if we’re going to get out of here.” She blew out a gusty breath. “And I thought final exams were killer.”
