Of Enemies and Endings (43 page)

They weren't like Matilda and the Living Stone Dwarves. There would be no last-minute alliance here.

It was officially time for make a break for it. I opened my stride, ignoring the pain lancing my knee.

“Not so fast.” Istalina flicked her wand at the right wall.

It leapt forward, like it was spring-loaded. I shoved back with my left hand, hoping that West's ring could hold it.

The impact nearly shattered the bones in my arm. It probably would have if wind hadn't built up around my elbow and blasted it, so hard that it carved a divot out of the ice under my palm. The gust grew stronger. It ricocheted off the ceiling, blowing my hair into my mouth and swirling down the hall.

The wall stopped, but I wasn't sure how long the wind—even if it was laced with magic—could last against solid ice.

My shoes squeaked again. The wall gained another inch. Not long, I guessed.

“Quick thinking,” said one of Istalina's clan mates.

“Thinking isn't enough,” said the other.

“You'll need power,” said the first.

“More power than you have,” added Istalina, but she didn't sound as happy about it as the others did. She was probably thinking of her mother.

Apologizing wouldn't begin to make it better, not when their hate was so
personal
. Even telling them I knew would probably just set them off.

The ring had grown as thin as a strand of cooked spaghetti. I could almost
see
it shrinking.

“You'll be dead in a minute or two,” said the first witch. “All we have to do is watch.”

I glared at her. I'd just taken out an entire army of ice statues. I refused to be defeated by a
wall
.

The trap didn't extend the whole length of the corridor. The witches were in a safe section. All I had to do was cross the forty feet or so between us, and I would be out of danger.

Well, from being crushed.

I took one step toward the witches.

The wall gained at least four more inches. West's ring carved a fresh divot in the wall, about two feet from the last, and three craters opened up in the ceiling directly above me.

“Warning shots,” Istalina said. “Try to move again, and we'll aim for your legs. The wall will crush you all the quicker then.”

“You're supposed to die by the trap,” said the first witch, clearly sad about it. “Orders from Her Majesty.”

You are not worthy of me
, the Snow Queen had said in the courtyard.

All this time, Solange had wanted her palace to finish me off. She would get all the credit, and tell her followers I wasn't anything special.
In the end
, she might say, with that cold, triumphant smile,
all it took to kill Aurora Landon was one small enchantment
.

No wonder the door below the balcony hadn't been locked.

The witches cackled.

The wind rippling up from my left hand seemed to falter. The ring had shrunk to the width of paperclip wire.

My head throbbed. I was so tired.

Not like this. Not killed by the Snow Queen's stupid
house
. If I had to die, I wanted to bring that heart back to her. I wanted her to kill me herself.

A crash echoed in the hall behind the witches.

Istalina raised her wand. “They've gotten through,” she hissed.

It took a second for me to catch on. Someone
else
had come.

The witches lashed the air with their wands. Spells sizzled down the corridor and, at the end, a familiar voice gave an order. “Shields! Good. Now arrows!”

No way. It was another trick. The Snow Queen was trying to confuse me, to get me to lower my guard—

But arrows
did
thud into the witches. One struck the second witch in the chest, and she fell back into the path of the wall. Another pierced Istalina's shoulder. She ripped it out and stabbed her wand at the wound. Smoke puffed up, and before the gusting wind could blow it away, she squeezed off another shot. “Don't let them get any closer!”

“She doesn't have much time!” said another voice down the hall. Lena. My heart leapt with hope. “Here! I'll make sure it holds!”

“Cover me.” Orange wings, so huge that they brushed the ceiling, flapped down the hall and toward the frantic Wolfsbane witches. Another flap and I could see the rest of him, the wooden cylinder in one hand, a shield in the other, and his mouth a grim twist.

Chase.

o!” Istalina raised her wand, but right above her, Chase folded his wings. Both of his sneakers landed on her face. She crumpled to the ground.

Then Chase ran my way.

I couldn't believe he'd followed me. It should have been impossible. I'd sealed the entrance hall.

The first witch, bleeding from her hip, flicked her wand. “Duck!” I shouted.

He did. The spell missed and hit the ceiling instead. Still running, he shouted over his shoulder, “Geez, what part of ‘cover me' did you not understand? There are only two witches left.”

“And we only have
one archer
left!” came Lena's voice.

Both
of them came, and one of the archers, too.

Chase slid to a stop. Holding his shield in front of us, he fumbled with the ends of Lena's retractable spear. “How do you—”

“You twist it,” I said. “But I don't think that'll hold this wall.”

“Lena promised it would. Besides, we're out of time.” Chase nodded at my ring. It was finer than a hair, just a tiny shine of metal. He twisted the staff-stump. The shaft zoomed open. Both ends stopped just a few inches from either side of the corridor.

The gust around my arm petered out. The ring was gone, all used up.

The wall shot forward. Chase's arm reached back and kind of scooped me behind him. Sweet, but it wouldn't stop us from getting crushed.

With a crack, the staff hit and held. Fractures crackled across both walls.

As rescues go, this one had some room for improvement. My worries about cave-ins tripled. “That still might not hold.”

“Better go before we're squished.” Chase pointed down the hall. “Lena's casting a strengthening spell on it from over there. Her control is still kind of spotty. Can you walk? If the answer's no, it's piggyback ride time.”

“I can walk.” I didn't want to be carried. Last time Chase had tried, he'd told me how heavy I was. “Maybe not far, though.”

“No, not far,” he said softly. He hadn't turned around yet. I think he was afraid to take his eyes off the two remaining witches. The archer was keeping them busy, firing off so many arrows that the witches couldn't use their wands for anything more than blasting the missiles out of the air. “What do you say we tackle those two while we're at it?” He started forward.

I followed, just a step behind. “What do you say we keep the shield in place in case they're bluffing?” I said, not ready to take any more risks. My left arm ached as much as my right leg.

“Your Tale. Your call,” Chase said, sounding vaguely disappointed, and my chest swelled, suddenly full to bursting. He'd
come
. He was talking to me.

We had cleared most of the hall. I tested my sword arm. It was okay. I could handle a brief surprise attack. I put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “I'll take the one on the left.”

Chase nodded. “Now!”

The witches hadn't realized we'd gotten so close. When I pounced, Istalina shriek-squawked and stuck her wand in my face. My hilt struck her temple before she could cast anything.

The one on the right slumped against the floor, bleeding from her hip and her shoulder, and her wand rolled out from between her fingers. Chase didn't spare her a second glance. He turned down the hall and spoke to the shadows that Rapunzel's light couldn't reach. “We're good, Lena.”

The booby trap wall slammed against the other side, and then the corridor
did
cave in. Ice chips rained down. Cold bits invaded my collar. Chase shielded me, his arm around my shoulders again.

“Oh, thank gumdrops,” Lena called. Footsteps padded down the hall, fast.

When I looked up, Chase was glaring down at the witches, sword raised like he expected one to jump up and start casting at any second. He didn't seem to notice that slivers of ice had melted in his hair. Or that his arm was still around me. Or that I was leaning half my weight against him.

“What are you
doing
here?” I didn't mean to say it like an accusation.

Chase looked genuinely surprised. “You said you needed me.”

It's totally possible for a person to be overjoyed and completely exasperated at the same time. After so many years of knowing Chase, I was pretty familiar with the feeling.

He leaned in, examining my face. His fingers grazed my cheek. “Rory, what happened to you?”

I probably looked horrible. I shouldn't have cared about that, especially when he was pretty banged up too. His lip was swollen, and his chin had a huge bruise. “What happened to
you
?”

“Jailbreak. Our target was the Fey royalty, but while we were there, we went ahead and let out everybody.” He tried to play it cool. That only lasted two seconds. His grin took up half his face, fat lip and all. “It happened to us. So, I thought to myself, why can't it happen to the Snow Queen too?”

“Since
when
?” I said.

A small, wiry body slammed into me. When she wrapped her arms around my waist, I felt her metal hands. “Lena? How did you even get inside?” I whispered, ignoring the pain that flared in my ribs. I hugged her back.

“I told you, Chase,” Lena said fiercely. “She didn't know you were trying to trick the Canon. She's not
that
good at lying.”

I sheathed my sword. My head was still throbbing, so I was having trouble keeping up with this conversation. “You were trying to trick the Canon?”

“Weren't you?” Chase said. “Everybody was watching us when we left the meeting, and then you shouted that we were planning on leaving. We had to throw them off. A big, ugly fight in the middle of the courtyard was a genius . . .” He drifted off. “Lena's right. You didn't know. You were serious.”

And Chase hadn't been. He had lied so well that he managed to fool me. It had been a long time since that happened. We really
had
drifted apart this summer.

“Told you!” Lena knelt next to Istalina and pocketed her wand. “So, they're all still alive. I'll go ahead and send them back to the dungeons.” Lena pulled a brassy-green ring out of her pocket. She slid it on Istalina's finger. The witch vanished, and Lena moved toward the other two. “I enchanted these to send them straight there. They'll be a little cramped, their whole clan in one cell.”

“Poor cramped killer witches. I'm all torn up over it.” Gently, Chase grabbed my chin and tilted my face to examine the side that had hit the comb bar.

“What?” I said, wondering if Rapunzel's glass vial was bright enough for my blush to be visible.

Chase took my hand, the one with the light swinging from it, and he held it close to my face. I jerked away, grimacing in pain. “Sorry,” he said, and it sounded like he actually meant it. “I had to check. Lena, I think Rory has a concussion.”

Lena gasped. We were alone in the hallway. She'd already gotten rid of the other witches without me noticing. Well, a concussion was one explanation for being so disoriented.

Chase grabbed my right arm, the one that hurt less, and secured it around his shoulders. He helped me down the hall. The glass vial bobbed and weaved, making shadows dance down the corridor. The path curved up ahead. “We brought some Water of Life.”

Wow. The Director's rationing didn't count for much. EAS had used a ton of it during the week. We would be lucky if we still had some left over by the end of the day.

“You stole the Water from the Director?” I said, determined to prove that I wasn't as dumb as I'd been acting. It did not help that my stomach was doing somersaults. Either my head really was spinning, or being pressed up against Chase was having a very embarrassing effect on me.