Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
My stomach flips. “Great. Haunted caves. Perfect study spot with my new partner.”
He ignores me.
We start down the trail, the gravel crunching underfoot. With each step, the trees close in, the air sharper, colder. It feels like we’ve stepped out of one world and into another entirely. I wonder if this place, like Endir, has its own stories to tell and dark secrets from the past that nobody wants discovered.
Excitement suddenly bubbles up within me, only to be quickly tamped down. I’m not here for actual school. But how nice would it be if I were?
It’s a full mile hike to the first cave—which I wish I’d known. Every three steps I take is just one giant stride for Aric, so I’m winded by the time we reach the mouth of the first cave. Its massive entrance is encompassed in white ice compounded from years of snow melting and freezing over and over again.
The inside is brighter than I imagined, but the ceiling starts to get lower the farther you walk. Aric disappears into the cave without calling back to see if I’m okay or even waiting for me. I have to step carefully as I follow him, thanks to rocks and ice chunks littering the ground.
A stream trickles to the left, the sound of dripping water not helping my nerves. It’s clearly melting, the dome of ice over our heads.
“Hey, Aric?” I call into the eerie blue darkness. “I thought you said we’d explore around the entrance first. See if things are safe, then take some notes and pictures?” He keeps walking ahead of me; I can only tell because I can hear his feet crunch against the ground. The ceiling of ice gets lower the deeper I go into the cave, making me feel progressively more claustrophobic and panicked.
I hate the cold. I hate ice. This was a bad idea, miscalculated to the extreme.
There are better ways to keep your enemy close, right? If there is an avalanche or cave-in, we’ll be dead.
I’m so distracted by the fact that I have to duck that I nearly run into Aric’s back.
The cave opens to a cavern. The world around us is blanketed in blue and white.
His jaw unclenches. “It’s breathtaking.” His voice sounds awed, deep. Almost vibrating. The icy world around him feels like home—that much is clear. To me, it’s cold, but to him, it’s everything his sleeping half is missing. And I know more than anyone, the best feeling in the world is knowing who you are, and a lot of that comes with knowing where you’re from.
“Aric.” I grab his arm and discover that he’s shaking. “Things don’t look stable.”
I send my Aethercall toward him, testing whether he really is immune. He shudders. Is he fighting it off?
If he awakens in here, there’s no way I could fight him off safely, and if he suddenly realizes he can find Mjölnir and use it? I’m as good as dead. Would it answer to him without me? Or would he just cheerfully bleed me dry and see if that worked?
I take a deep breath and look down at his right hand. It’s still trembling. He reaches up and runs it through his inky hair.
He shakes his head and blinks like he’s trying to refocus. “Yeah, this feels wrong. We should go.”
Thank the Gods. “We finally agree on something.” I turn too quickly and slip on the ice, but Aric immediately grabs me by the shoulders. We share a sigh of relief right before we hear a thunderous crack reverberate through the cavern.
“Stay. Still,” he whispers, and his hot breath against my neck sends a bolt of electricity straight down my spine.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. The cave groans with more loud cracks. He pulls me closer against him and wraps his arms around me. I can feel the power, the heat pulsing through him.
Another loud crack rips toward the mouth of the cave as snow and ice start to crash from the ceiling above us.
“Run!” he yells.
I do as he says, dodging shards of ice as more of the ceiling collapses above us. We’re going to die here. I’m going to die in the Ice Caves with a Frost Giant. There’s irony in there somewhere.
Maybe if I make it out alive, I’ll laugh at how ridiculous the thought is, but I’m currently trying to dodge falling daggers of ice. One narrowly misses my foot. The cave is collapsing at an alarming rate, and I can’t run any faster.
Another large piece of ice falls to my right, but I can see the mouth of the cave up ahead.
We’re going to make it.
Aric is turning around to ensure I’m right behind him when a sudden jagged shard falls right between us. He grabs my hand and jerks me toward him just as the ground starts to slide beneath our feet.