Page 71 of Spellbound
She pulled away and moved the see-through voile cape buttoned at her neck to around her shoulders, as if it could somehow keep her warm against the chill in the air. “Thank you, dear Eleanor.” She squeezed my hands in hers before moving back to face Raiden. “Where is Aziel?”
“We’re getting him out next.”
Cold seeped through the leather of my jacket. My fingers curled as the temperature dropped a few degrees. Raiden glanced down at me, then gave her a “come on” look.
She grinned, then swept her fingers through the air in a graceful, swirling motion. The chill in the air dissolved. “The dead follow me, brother. What do you want me to do?”
“Keep them at bay for now. Elle doesn’t like the cold.”
She nodded, her eyes narrowing in my direction. “Are you Raiden’s lover?”
The directness of her question stumbled my reply. “No, I mean, not really. Uh, like friends but not friends.”
She arched a thin eyebrow. I noticed a scar thinned the middle. “Friends but not friends?”
I looked from her to an amused Raiden. “You know what I mean.” I rubbed the back of my neck, awkwardly laughing. “It’s been, uh...”
“We’re friends, Thalia.”
I blew out a tense breath. “Yes. Exactly. Right. Good.”
He tried to contain his smirk. “Running out of words there?”
Thalia chuckled a beautiful, echoed laugh that reverberated through the forest around us. “Don’t tease the poor girl. Now, let us reunite with our brother before he tears down the world trying to escape. I’ve felt his rumbles.”
My eyes widened. The thunder we’d been experiencing, the unexplained mini-earthquakes, they were him?
“It’s been getting worse.” Raiden grinned as if the whole thing were humorous. I, for one, was nervous to meet the thunder and earthquake bringer.
***
Stars poked like pinpricksthrough the black canvas above as we made our way to the mountains. Being in Raiden’s arms as we ran next to Thalia made me acutely aware of my mortality. The many of what I thought were near misses but were in fact carefully timed dodges from large stones, trees, or people’s houses had my adrenaline pumping. By the time we reached the snowy-peaked mountains, I was ready to collapse.
I took a minute to steady myself against a ragged stone, then sucked in a deep breath. “You could have gone a little slower.” I looked around the groove between the mountains where we stood. It was lighter here, as the snow deceivingly lit the night sky with a gray glow. The jagged edges of the stark-white mountains towered through the clouds, which misted their tips from view. “Are we—”
Thalia extended her arms outward. “In the depths of the mountains? Yes.” She breathed in flakes of snow as they drifted toward the white blanket around our feet. “There are not many dead here. Only the occasional traveler who had died and got lost on their way to the afterlife.” She peered between two slices of rock, big enough for a person, and I shuddered, wondering who was there that I couldn’t see. “It is peaceful.”
A shiver danced through my body, making my teeth chatter. I licked my icy lips, which were numb under the heat of my tongue. “I’m mortal,” I announced, unsure if they’d forgotten. “I don’t do well with the cold.”
Raiden removed his heavy jacket and placed it around my shoulders. It was far too big, but that only went in its favor against the snow. “Better?”
I buried my chin and mouth in the black fabric, breathing in the fresh cedarwood, forest scent. “Better. Thanks.”
“Brother.” Thalia walked barefoot in the snow. Her silver cape fluttered behind her as it caught in the gusts of wind sweeping through the mountains, icing her armor. “It is here.” She swept her arms up toward an area of the mountain where rocks pointed upward in warning to any who wished to climb above them. “Our brother.”
The mountains trembled as a thunderous roar sounded through the mountains. I grabbed Raiden to keep myself up, but he swept me into his arms, catching my next breath in his throat.
“Aziel’s upset,” he said.
“He’s getting stronger.”
“He wants out. It’s what I had to do.”
Finally.“Had to do what?”
He held me tighter as the ground shook. “Let’s get him out,” he said, ignoring my question. “Before he blows a hole in the mountain.”
He handed Thalia the other key and took a step back. The trembling stopped, and he placed me down. “Stand behind me. There’s no saying what my brother will be like after all this time.”
