Page 59 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Melody

I shiver constantly. The cold is so deep, so severe, so uncompromising, I know I won’t escape it. It’s going to claim me. They’ve conjured layers of clothes for me—anoraks from the human world and a blanket of fur. I have no idea where they came from. Caryan’s magic maybe, but I no longer care. My head is dizzy, as if wrapped in a layer of snow, my teeth won’t stop chattering.

I feel tired, too tired to walk on. I don’t realize I’ve tumbled again, barely feeling the icy snow that seeps in everywhere, but hands lift me and carry me, soft wings brushing against my cheeks, shielding me from the worst.

I hardly register how they set up a tent. When I open my eyes again, I realize that it is huge, with beds and a massive wooden table in the middle. Three fires burn in iron bowls that are scattered all over. I’m lying next to the biggest one, wrapped up like a bundle.

Slowly, so slowly, my senses return. I blink a few times, finding Caryan watching me. His eyes are storm-dark again and unyielding, like his aura as he’s crouching next to me on the ground.

“Drink,” he says serenely, handing me a steaming cup.

I try, but my fingers are so cold I can barely close them around it. I want to lie down again. To close my eyes, just for a second…

“Drink, Melody.”

A rumble of power jolts through me, so hard it hurts, as if something is burning its way through the inside of my skin. I take a sip, trying hard not to spill any liquid. Then my eyes drift shut again.

I barely hear Ronin’s voice when he enters the tent and a waft of cold swipes in. “It must be close.”

I told them in the forest what I’d seen. I tried to describe the shape of the peaks and the formation of rocks and ice so they might find it without me having to climb up all the way. I know Caryan could have demanded that I show him through my blood, maybe could have forced me to show him as he said. When Kyrith, and then Ronin, once suggested that he should, he growled at them. That shut the topic down quickly.

I can’t shake the feeling that he’s avoiding it for a reason beyond my comprehension.

Maybe it’s because he didn’t see anything in my blood the last time. Maybe because of something else entirely. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want me close… doesn’t want to feel this connection again.

My thoughts have become indistinct and slow. All I can think of is the cold, so deep and raw it’s as if it is eating me from the inside.

“You might want to go and check yourself—” Ronin says, but Caryan pivots around, snapping his teeth at him. Ronin steps back, hands raised defensively in front of him.

I feel someone lifting my head, a body sliding under the layers of blankets and jackets and pressing up against me, wings folding over me as soft as the snow outside. I’m asleep again, drifting in and out of nightmarish sequences when there’s a sound like an avalanche. A cracking of stone and snow, screeching and hissing.

Inhuman and terrifying.