Frost & Bothered (29 page)

Kate sniffed. “Doesn’t erase them.”

“I’ll do it.” Everyone looked at me. “Well, it makes sense. I don’t have a clue how to use blood or hair against people.”

That wasn’t true in the strictest sense, because I could use both to find people, or find out if they were alive. But I couldn’t do spells with it.

Plus, I trusted Kate, and she’d always been careful to keep Thorandryll from obtaining my hair or blood. Leglin had once told me he’d witnessed the Prince do “terrible magic” with those things. “Come on, I’m the most logical choice. I’ll burn everything once I’m through the maze.”

“What’s to prevent you from removing an item once out of sight?” an elf asked from across the table. He had long, silvery-blonde hair, and a pleasant, not suspicious, expression on his face.

“I wouldn’t but if anyone’s worried, we can tamper-proof whatever’s used to hold the stuff. I’ll wait to destroy it after, until everyone’s seen it and verified I haven’t opened it.”

“Satisfactory solution,” he said with a nod.

“We don’t know what lies in the maze, Miss Jones. It would be safer for a warrior to undertake this venture.” Thorandryll inclined his head. “I mean no disrespect by that statement.”

“Hey, I’d be happy to sit here, sipping hot chocolate and eating bonbons instead of freezing my tootsies off. But I’ve actually spent some time studying mazes recently, and I’m a Tracker.”

The prince glanced at his brother, who smiled. “Be that as it may...”

“Lady Discord is the reason we’ve passed the first two challenges,” Kethyrdryll said. “I have faith she will successfully complete this one as well.”

“We trust Cordi,” Damien said.

“So do we,” Dane waved his hand to indicate Logan and Connor.

“We trust our prince’s decision upon this matter,” the silver-haired elf said.

“Cordi won’t require charms or potions,” Alleryn remarked, and Thorandryll side-eyed him.

I returned to eating my stew and trying to decipher which herbs had been used in it. My name was in the hat, and everyone could argue pros and cons all they pleased.

Which they did for over an hour, before deciding one representative from each of our groups would go.

Me for the humans, Logan for the shifters, and Thorandryll for the elves.

All I could think was, “This will be fun. Not.”

––––––––

I
tucked the little, clear glass bottle into my shirt after pulling the leather thong it was attached to over my head.

The bottle held a hair from each shifter, both witches, Illy and Leglin, as well as the tip of one of Percy’s feathers. Kate had corked the bottle and sealed its top with wax.

“Not that I mistrust you,” she’d said, and I’d nodded.

Thorandryll had a similar bottle, full of hair from each elf and their hounds. Logan wanted me to carry his, Connor’s, and Dane’s hairs, in case he had to shift.

“All right. Wait here until the way is clear,” Thorandryll said.

“Twenty-four hours and no word, come find us,” I whispered to Kate. She patted my arm.

“I’ll be on the lion.”

“No, it’ll be my turn,” Damien said before hugging me. “Be safe.”

“That’s the plan.” I left them arguing in murmurs over Connor, to give him and Dane hugs. “We’ll see you guys.”

“Better. I don’t want to have to tell the boss I misplaced you.” Dane made a face. “Or tell Terra that I lost both Logan and you.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want that.” I laughed and walked over to Leglin. “Keep an eye on them for me.”

“
I will
,” the hound promised. “
You will call if you need me?
”

“Yes.” I hugged him too. Illy, I skipped, because the husky was watching me from the cover of the pavilion’s entrance. Percy was in the pavilion, perched by the fire. They were kind of hurting my feelings, avoiding me the way they had. Maybe I smelled funny, or perhaps it was the frequency thing.

“We’re ready, Miss Jones.”

“So am I.” I joined him and Logan, and we walked down the incline that led to the maze’s entrance.

The elf didn’t hesitate, striding right into the passage, which was wide enough for us to walk side by side.

Walls of seamless ice, too thick to see through, created the passageway It didn’t take long to reach the first turn, and not a few minutes later, we had a choice to go left, right, or straight.

“Okay, thoughts?”

“Right would put us heading toward the castle again,” Logan said.

“The most direct route isn’t always the correct one.”

“Guys, stop. I’m not going to listen to the two of you argue all the way through.”

Thorandryll sniffed. “Which passageway do you suggest?”

“Straight first. If we hit a dead end, we’ll back track and go left next.” I walked ahead, and pulled out the dagger Kethyrdryll had given me to scratch a one on the wall of my chosen passageway. “Come on, speed’s a priority.”

We went straight at every opportunity. I scratched a one on a wall at each juncture, until we hit a dead end. “Crap. Okay, let’s go back.”

Ten feet back, we turned, and Logan said, “Um, Cordi?”

“What?”

“Your mark’s gone.”

I closed my eyes. “Of course it is. Why did I think that would work?”

“We can retrace our route, Miss Jones. By memory and,” Thorandryll gave Logan the slightest nod. “By scent.”

“Great. Lead on, fellas.” I followed them until they stopped short several minutes later. “I don’t want to know why we’ve stopped, do I?”

“Scent trail’s gone.”

“We did not pass through here.”

“Grr.” Pushing between them, I looked left then right. My sense of direction had given up trying to keep track some time before. Not that it mattered if the maze was changing. “Let’s go left.”

H
ours later, I regarded the smooth wall of ice ahead of us. “Well, isn’t this just perfect? Another friggin’ dead end.”

“We have two choices,” Thorandryll said. “Attempt to retrace our steps again to take a different route, or go through.”

“By ‘go through’, I’m guessing you mean I melt a hole in it.” When the elf nodded, I scowled. “Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Possibly, yet as you’ve continually reminded us, we are under a time constraint.”

“A maze this size, we could wander for days,” Logan added. “Unless you have any psychic leads that help us through faster.”

“Nothing yet.” I’d been hoping for my tracking ability to kick in. It would make things so much easier. “But I don’t want to try melting a hole and have the whole damn thing decide to bury us.”

“Retracing our steps it is,” Thorandryll muttered, turning around. I traded an exasperated look with Logan. The elf was getting on my nerves. He’d suggested I use my telekinesis to lift him, so he could see where we were. I’d tried that, and the walls had grown taller.

We’d taken a break for some rest and food after that, and had to listen to him bitch under his breath until I was ready to try catapulting him with my TK. Imagining him smacking face first into a wall had nearly given me a case of the giggles.

The fact that I knew we were running out of time kept me from giving in to them.

Another thirty minutes passed before we found ourselves at a new juncture. The maze had changed again. I wasn’t the only one growling choice words as we looked down each passageway.

“Which way now?” Logan’s teeth were showing, and his eyes had lightened.

“Give me a minute, and hey, calm down.”

“I hate this. It’s a giant trap. A cage.”

I patted his shoulder, and caught a glimpse of something from the corner of my eye. Ginger was standing in the left passage. Pre-vampire Ginger, not rotting or covered in blood. She wore jeans and her favorite lavender tee with a white kitten on the front.

She smiled and beckoned before turning away and beginning to walk. I stared at her figure, not sure what to do. Ginger paused to look at me and make a “Come on” gesture before she turned right.

“Cordi?”

I looked at Logan. “Let’s go this way.”

“Are you all right? You look like you saw a ghost.”

If only he knew. “I’m good. This is the way we need to go.”

“Okay.”

I led the way, hoping it wasn’t a mistake. After all, why would Ginger, or her ghost, appear to help me? I had murdered her.

Or had Merriven been lying? I shivered, recalling thy slimy feel of him in my mind.

But why would he lie? He’d had me at his mercy, locked in his little pocket realm. The bastard had kept me from using some of my abilities. I had the sneaking suspicion he’d manipulated my anger and grief, and knew for certain he’d tried to lull me into accepting being turned.

Maybe he had lied. He’d gone spelunking in my memories. I wasn’t certain which ones he’d accessed. The problem was, I’d never know if he’d lied or told the truth. Merriven was dead, beheaded by order of the council.

We’d reached the turn, and Ginger was waiting thirty feet ahead. She tossed a smile over her shoulder and began walking again. Looking at both men’s faces as they flanked me, I could tell neither could see her. What if I were leading them straight into trouble by following my delusion?

I chewed on my bottom lip. We were running out of time. Maybe Ginger’s image was replacing a tracking thread, because I was crazy. Or going crazy.

A crazy psychic might see ghosts. Or think she was.

I wished I knew what the hell was going on. Every other time I’d seen Ginger had been horrible. Why was this time different?

Logan caught hold of my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. I wondered what he’d say if he knew what I was really following. Things had been going so well between us. I didn’t want to mess them up by sharing my fears about my mental health.

Instead, I gave him a quick smile and kept following Ginger as she led the way deeper into the maze. We walked for a few hours, without running into any dead ends. I’d nearly reached the point of stopping when she disappeared around a corner. Turning it, we saw the opening and beyond it, the dark, smooth wall surrounding the castle.

“Well done, Miss Jones,” Thorandryll said before taking the lead. He didn’t look at me. Probably couldn’t stand the sight of me holding hands with a shifter.

As Logan and I cleared the maze after him, a faint grinding noise sounded. I turned around and stopped. “What is that?”

“We solved the maze. It is no longer needed, and is beginning to descend. Once it has, the others will be free to join us.”

“Oh.” I let Logan’s gentle tug put me in motion, and we walked across the flat, snowy area to the recessed entrance in the wall. Up close, the stone walls weren’t black, but a deep, dark blue. The outer wall stretched high over our heads, and the main entrance was blocked by thick, metal bars. “How do we open it?”

Logan peered through spaces in the barrier. “Why open them? You can teleport us inside.”

“The castle is aware. We’ll need its permission to enter, or it will attack us,” Thorandryll said.

I turned around to check the maze’s descent. “We’d better wait for everyone else.”

“You did mention a lack of time. I’ll attempt to gain our entrance while we wait.” Thorandryll moved into the recessed entrance and put his hand on one of the stone blocks. He closed his eyes.

Nothing exciting to see there. I turned around to watch the maze sinking instead, and shivered. “This is pretty damn weird, even for me.”

“Are you cold?”

“Little bit.”

Logan came up behind me to share his cloak by wrapping it, and his arms, around me. “How’s this?”

Standing cuddles. Definitely okay. “Better, thank you.”

I had plenty of time to think about stuff while we waited. Stuff like how easily the two of us got along, how warm he was, and how much I liked him. Slightly problematic stuff, since I didn’t know if I was ready to settle into a long-term relationship, if things did work out for us.

Logan had done a great job of making certain I knew he was seriously interested, without being super pushy. He’d become a lot of fun to daydream about as a possible future boyfriend.

Maybe what I needed to concentrate on was what I wanted. All advice from my mom and Jo aside, I’d yet to grow super comfortable with playing the field. Plus, it was hard to find a guy who didn’t end up freaking out about my abilities.