Frost & Bothered (17 page)

“Hey.” Logan bent over me. “How are you doing?”

“You liar. That’s not Aslan.”

“Better. That’s good. I told you it was Connor, but you wanted to argue.” He touched my nose. “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah.” My eyes drifted shut.

“No sleeping.” Logan hauled me into sitting position.

“I’m freakin’ tired.”

“I know, but you need to get warm first.” He moved me around and then sat behind me to keep me from lying down.

I blinked. “Pretty fire.”

“Yeah it is, if I do say so myself.” Logan rubbed his hands together before pressing them against my cheeks.

“You’re squishing my face.” My words came out sounding like “Oor skithin mah faith” and I started giggling.

“It’s for a good cause. You don’t want it falling off, do you?”

The fact I had to think about it made me realize I might be in trouble. I dredged a couple of words out of the slush my mind had become. “Frost bite?”

“I think we got you under shelter in time. Shifters aren’t susceptible to it, and I don’t know what it looks like. I’ve only heard of it.”

“Oh.”

Logan dropped his hands and hugged me. “But you do have a healing ability. You’ll be okay. I just need to keep you warm.”

“She’s coherent now?”

“Mostly.”

“Great.” Connor dumped his armful of wood by the fire. He proved to be the spitting image of his father, aside from his skin being the same beautiful, clear light brown as Tanner’s. He wore Dane’s jacket, which was too big in the shoulders for him.

Kneeling beside us, he smiled at me. “Hi. Sorry I’m not Aslan.”

“ ’S okay.”

“You did make a good argument for it. I mean, the whole lion in winter thing? I’d probably think it was Aslan too.” He picked up one of my hands. He felt as hot as Logan did. “You take the chilling out thing way too seriously.”

As he began gently rubbing my hand between his, I wondered how big of an ass I’d made of myself. I couldn’t remember much from first seeing him to being here. Wherever here was. I blinked a few times, and finally looked around. We were in a cave. “Ow.”

Connor stopped rubbing my hand. “Does that hurt?”

“Pins and needles.”

He grinned, not at me, but Logan. “That’s a good sign.”

“Yeah.” Logan hugged me a little tighter.

I
woke up nice and toasty, due to sleeping between two huge, fur-covered bodies. Those same bodies presented a problem because I needed to locate the closest approximation to a bathroom, having just woken up.

Once I made it clear they were in danger of getting wet if they didn’t immediately rise and shine, the guys took my trip outside as an opportunity to shift and put their clothes back on. Even though I hurried to avoid freezing my delicate bits, I missed out on the chance to admire Logan’s chest. Dude could dress faster than he could kick an ice golem to bits.

“Let me see your hands.”

I held them up for inspection. Logan pinched the tip of each of my fingers after inspecting their color. “I’m fine.”

“I’m hungry.” Connor patted his stomach. “Haven’t found a damn thing to eat except snow.”

“Lucky you.” I pointed to my over-sized purse. “I have some breakfast bars in there.”

“You just became my most favorite person in the world.”

“There’s a bottle of water too.”

“Marry me.”

Logan rolled his eyes at the other man. “When did you start carrying food in your purse?”

“After I turned into a giant crankypants because I kept forgetting to eat while we were looking for my mom.” Those hadn’t been my finest moments. There’d been screaming and tears and I vaguely remembered threatening to stake Derrick “where the sun don’t shine”. Or maybe it had been Stone? One of them.

Connor picked up my bag. “May I?”

“Yes, and pass a couple over here.”

We munched strawberry-filled cereal bars and sipped water. After Connor finished his, he asked, “What’s the plan?”

“Try to pick up the golem’s trail and see if we can find the others who were nabbed. Unless you want us to take you home first?”

“Well, I hate worrying my parents, but are you certain you can get back here?”

Good question. “I’ve been able to teleport into a sidhe when I want to, and I teleport into the Barrows a lot.” But the Barrows were mostly public spaces, and for all I knew, Thorandryll could have given me a free, anytime pass into his sidhe. “But honestly, I don’t know.”

“Okay, I can wait.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t want to be the reason the others aren’t found.”

I had already liked him for the not-being-Aslan apology. Now I liked him more. “Okay, we have our plan.”

P
lans were great to have, but not knowing important information tended to throw giant wrenches into them.

Connor hadn’t seen the ice golem, or any other living thing during the two days before our arrival. All we’d seen was the ice golem and him. Though we were alert, we weren’t actually ready when the first attack occurred, not long after we left the cave.

“What the hell?” I yelped as the ground around us erupted, spewing forth a few dozen short, grayish white creatures. None of them were over two feet tall, but they all held long, sharp icicles, which they quickly proved unafraid to use.

“Snow gremlins.” Logan kicked one away after slapping aside its frozen spear. The gremlin shattered when it struck a half-buried rock at landing.

“Ow, you little,” I shook my hand and kicked the gremlin who’d poked it. The satisfying thwock of boot connecting to face meant my retribution hit its intended mark. Another one poked me in the leg. “Okay now, that is not nice.”

There were too many of the snaggle-toothed little freaks for us to keep them away. I called up my pyrokinetic ability, and started blasting them with fire.

Connor cheered, before he and Logan began tossing the gremlins around, trying to keep them off of me and break up the clumps they gathered into. I kept blasting away, while dodging the little critters’ increasingly violent stabs.

“Last one,” Connor said, planting his foot between the gremlin’s legs to heave it into the air. I hit it with a ball of flames. “Done!”

“Good, let’s get moving again.” Logan picked up the leather bag. “How are you doing, Cordi?”

“Not too tired yet.” I was hungry though. One little package of breakfast bars didn’t last long, but we only had three packages left.

“Okay, forward march, people.”

Connor and I obeyed, following him. We took a break about an hour later, and had a brief discussion before deciding to eat one bar each. They came two to a package, so we’d still have something for later.

Break over, we began walking again, and the ground before us trembled, then snow flew as more gremlins leaped into view.

So much for my paltry lunch. “This is not a friendly place.”

“It does kind of suck.” Connor scowled at the advancing gremlins. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Logan looked at the sky. “We’re going to run out of daylight if this keeps up. I want to find shelter before dark.”

“Well then, gents, step back. I’ll handle these guys. You can get the next batch.” I eyed the gremlins. They were scurrying forward, sticking close to one another. Tapping into my telekinetic ability, I let it build up before throwing out both of my hands. “Cordi smash!”

Gremlins flew backward, their icicle spears shattering. Quite of few of them also shattered, but the rest climbed to their feet. More than one shook its head before they began running toward us again.

“They just don’t give up,” I complained. “Fine. How about a welcome bonfire?”

I created a wall of flame, and the gremlins ran right into it. None of them tried to avoid it at all. Their high-pitched screams of rage hurt my ears, but the sounds faded quickly as the little creeps melted. “There.”

“Awesome.” Connor held up his hand, and I high-fived him. When our palms met, he flinched. I looked down at the same time he did, to see the sharp, icy point jutting from the left side of his stomach.

Logan whirled around, kicking the gremlin away before stomping it to pieces. I tried to keep Connor upright, but he was too heavy. I did keep him from slamming to the ground as he passed out. “Logan!”

“Right here.” He pulled the melting spear out of Connor.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of ready to go home, and see about coming back with an army of elves.”

Logan checked Connor’s side. “I’m good with that. At least we found one of the missing.”

“Okay. Here we go.”

Logan took hold of Connor’s hand, and mine, when I held it out. I teleported us, and we hit something in between, bouncing off it and appearing in mid-air.

“Holy...”

We landed in a snowdrift, creating our own shower of the white stuff. It was also dark, and I wondered if we’d teleported into the future or something. “Crap.”

“You all right?”

I sat up and wiped snow from my face. “Yeah. Are ... uh-oh.”

Logan sat up, looking where I was. “Is that...?”

The hound growled.

“Nope, not mine.” I scooted forward. “We’re friendly, just lost. If you could maybe give us directions, we’ll go away.”

“Hold, Leandra.” Thorandryll stepped out from under a tree. At least, I thought it was him. The bow and arrow pointed in our direction made me take a closer look. Same golden hair, same face, but his eyes were dark instead of pale. “Who are you?”

“Discord Jones. Why do you look just like Thorandryll?”

The elf lowered his bow a few inches. “He is my brother. You’re human.”

“That’s what I keep telling everyone.”

“What is a human doing in the company of two shifters? And in Unseelie lands?”

“Freezing my butt off at the moment. Mind if I stand up?”

“Slowly.” He watched me, while his hound watched Logan and Connor.

“Thorandryll’s never mentioned a brother.” I dusted snow from my coat. “What’s your name?”

“Kethyrdryll. How do you know my brother?”

“He hired me to solve a problem.”

Kethyrdryll stared. “He hired a human to handle something for him? How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“Why would I lie about that? He gave me a hound, too.”

“Which hound?”

“I don’t want him here until I need him. Wherever here is. Unless this is your sidhe?” Had we made it home after all? “Wait. You said Unseelie lands. Who or what are they?”

Kethyrdryll raised his bow. “How can you know my brother, but not who the Unseelie are?”

“Because I apparently didn’t read enough fairy tales before the Melding. Would you please put that bow down before someone loses an eye or something?’

“No. You are the first people I’ve seen in,” he hesitated. “Quite some time, and you are not Unseelie.”

I sighed. “I asked nicely.”

“You did,” Logan agreed.

“I’ve blown up a god. You’re not going to be much trouble, dude. Put the damn bow down, now.” I glared at the elf. The hound crept forward. “Stop right there, pup. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I will if you try to hurt us first.”

Leandra froze and sniffed several times. “
She smells of my son
.”

“You’re Leg... uh, his mother?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Your hound. Long story, but I can understand dogs. And hounds.” How could she be Leglin’s mother? “He said he was three...”

Kethyrdryll lowered his bow. “Hounds are quite intelligent, but they aren’t skilled with tracking time.”

“Oh.”

“You said something about the Melding?”

“Yeah.” I glanced at Logan and Connor. “We’re cold, hungry, and he’s injured. Do you have shelter nearby? I’ll be happy to answer what questions I can, once we’re out of the cold.”

“What’s the name of my brother’s personal healer?”

“Alleryn, and he’s my friend. A good friend.”

The elf nodded, putting his arrow away. “Follow me.”