Page 121 of Burning Ice
Frost exploded outward, carving a tunnel through the fire.
The ice didn’t shimmer, it remembered. Every fracture caught a flash of flame and turned it to memory.
Steam rolled over his shoulders and coiled into the air like ghosts trying to breathe.
“Kylix!” he called again. The sound fractured down the corridor.
“Don’t,” came faint through the fire. “You’ll die here.”
“Then we die together.” His voice tore at his throat.
The tunnel breathed with him. Each inhale drew the frost tighter, each exhale loosed it again, a living corridor that refused to melt.
He didn’t freeze the world, he preserved the path between them.
“You hear me?” he shouted. “I won’t stop. Not until I reach you.”
The heat fought back, slamming against the walls until cracks laced the surface like veins of light.
He pushed harder, vision narrowing to blue and red, pulse matching the rhythm of shattering glass.
Kylix’s silhouette lurched in the firelight, close enough to hear him.
“Stay with me,” Mirel gasped. “Just say my name.”
“Mirel!” Kylix’s voice tore through the smoke.
“Say mine,” Mirel rasped. “Say it and I’ll live.”
“Kylix.”
“Then keep breathing.” Air scorched his lungs, the name steadying his pulse.
Then the tunnel shook as if the city itself had chosen sides.
Ice hissed and cracked as it met the heat. Walls shone blue before water streamed down them. Steam sheeted over his back and faded into the smoke. The tunnel melted as fast as he could make it, every inch costing him more than he had left.
Mirel widened his arms, forcing the frost to spread and create a path shielded from the fire. His own skin burned from the cold. The ice screamed under pressure, melting into sheets that rained down on his back. Each movement cost him another breath, another ounce of strength. The world shrank to noise and steam. The bond pulled at him and kept him moving.
Kylix came into view ahead, shaking off debris and forcing himself upright. He looked dazed, firelight glancing off his skinas he staggered forward. The tunnel glowed blue. Light moved across his face and broke on the frost.
A thin bright pull moved through him. It wasn’t heat. It wasn’t ice. Maybe it was light.
Mirel’s strength faltered. Frost cracked at his knees. His power drained too fast. Tears streamed down his face, too hot to freeze. “You know why I froze those crime scenes?” His voice trembled. “Because I was in love with you. For so long, I was in love with an Imperial prince. You were my hero. I used to watch you.”
Kylix steadied himself, teeth bared against the heat. “What?”
Mirel nodded, arms shaking. “You were the most handsome man I’d ever seen. So powerful. So intelligent. So…” His throat closed as his knees gave way.
“Mine,” Kylix growled. He started toward him. The tunnel collapsed behind them, the explosion chasing the ice down. Fire and frost collided in a blinding flash. Mirel forced one final surge, widening the walls as light flared white around them.
For a second he saw them reflected in the glass around them. Two silhouettes, one blazing, one frozen, locked in the same storm. The tunnel shook as if the city itself drew breath to watch.
“Good timing,” Helianth said under his breath, more to the air than to them.
When the world stopped moving, Kylix held him against his chest. The heat still licked at the walls. He pressed his mouth close to Mirel’s ear. “Stay with me. You hear me?”
Mirel’s eyelids fluttered. “Told you… I’d come.”
