Witch & Wizard 04 - The Kiss (19 page)

Ross plows into me from behind as I try to get traction on the pebbles and skid to a halt. “What are you
doing
?” he asks between gulps of air.

I put my head between my knees, trying to think of how exactly to say this to the friends I’ve already put through so much.

“I’m turning back here,” I say, looking him in the eye.

“What do you mean? You can’t….” Ross frowns in confusion. “Izbella said to stay on the east road.”

Janine knows me too well, though. “He’s going back to the camp,” she explains to Ross. She looks at me for a long moment, her green-eyed gaze never faltering, and I think I see the hint of a smile. “Whit still wants to save those kids.”

But there’s something else, too: Larsht said Wisty was on her way up the Mountain. If that’s really true, I have to warn my sister. Whatever happens to me.

“Guys, we don’t have a chance if we go back into the forest!” Ross exclaims, and darts a worried look behind us. “You
know
they’re tracking us by now!”

I nod. “Probably. It’s a slim chance and a huge risk, and I don’t want you to take it this time.”

“Whit—” Ross starts, his eyes troubled.

I shake my head. “Really. You’ve both done more for the Resistance, for the City, and more for me than I ever could’ve asked for. I know it’s insane,” I say, blowing on my fingers. “And I can’t guarantee that I’ll make it back… but I have to try.”

“I’m sorry,” Ross says. His eyes overflow with tears. “I want to, but I just… I just can’t.”

“Don’t be sorry.” I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “You’re a true friend, Ross. Now go. Escape.
Survive.
”

Ross nods and starts to turn, but then realizes Janine isn’t following.

“You, too?” he asks sadly.

She shrugs. “I guess in the end I’m just as crazy as he is.” Janine gives him her most good-natured tough-girl smile, and a hug.

“Be careful,” Ross warns, and then he leaves us, looking over his shoulder with one last look of regret.

“We have to be quick,” Janine says. Her lips are blue, and I know that we don’t have more than an hour or two before we get stuck out here. We cut inland on the pine-shadowed path and then dart between trees and over rocks, across the snow at a speed we wouldn’t have thought was possible a day ago.

But the camp is nowhere in sight.

“We’re going in circles,” Janine says as we pass a familiar scarred rock.

“It was in a valley,” I remember. “Maybe we just need to get to lower ground.”

We trek down a steep ridge into the heart of the Mountain. But when we get down there, it’s just another bowl-shaped dip, with no camp, and nowhere to go but back up.

I grit my teeth.
You had to be the hero, didn’t you, Whit? You couldn’t just let it go.

“We’ve lost too much time,” Janine says between chattering teeth. Her lips are a deep blue, and I can see she’s getting groggy. I hug her close to me, rubbing her shoulders under the fur and trying to get her circulation going.

“We can still turn back,” I say desperately. “We can still make it down—”

But at the top of our shallow ridge, I can already see them.

The snow leopards are prowling over the steep rocks, and right behind them, the soldiers are spilling down the narrow trail on horseback, their crossbows poised to fly.

We’re trapped.

Chapter 57

Wisty

“TAKE ME UP your precious Mountain, Heath!” I scowl. As much as I don’t want to be around him right now, I know he’s right: Magic is the only shortcut to the Mountain. I narrow my eyes. “Now.”

Heath nods and holds up his palms.

Let’s do this thing.

I line up my fingers and immediately feel the current between us. I won’t meet his eyes, though. There’s our power and then there’s
us
, and it’s hard to keep them separate when it feels so intense every time we touch.

The energy builds, but I don’t have to push against it this time—
we’re getting stronger.

I don’t know what I expected, but I’m surprised to see the tunnel pulling out of the fence, foggy and swirling. We peer into it and I see my brother. He’s running, and there’s fear in his eyes.

What’s he running from?

I step forward, but it’s distant and unreal like before; I can’t get to him.

I drop my hands. “You said you could get us there!” I accuse as the tunnel evaporates. “We’re not even moving. What good is it to see what already happened?”

“Look, I’m just as new at this as you are, Firecracker,” Heath says. “Do you want to try again, or would you rather walk?”

“Don’t call me that,” I say irritably. But he’s right. I shake out my shoulders and take a deep breath. Once again, I place my hands against his.

“Think of trees. Think of snow and cold,” Heath whispers. “Think of the flower I made you.” The heat starts to build between us.

Think of Whit
, I tell myself, closing my eyes.

Sparks crackle between our fingers.

We have to get to the Mountain. Have to. Get there.

Then there’s a surge of power so strong that my body starts to convulse with the insane pressure and my eyes fly open, but my vision is a blur.

I think we’re spinning. Or is it everything else that’s moving? My hair whips against my face and I slide my grip up to Heath’s forearms, holding on for dear life.

The streets warp and change. It’s almost like going through a portal, except instead of feeling my cells dissolve and reform, the whole world seems to rearrange itself around us, and when it finally settles, we’re someplace else.

Someplace with dark trees and white snow and cold, cold air.

“We actually did it!” I say breathlessly. I focus on the rocks at my feet, still fighting the dizziness and nausea.

“What’d I tell you?” Heath asks, but his voice sounds uneasy. “Oh, no…” he murmurs.

I look up, and the wind whips my face so hard it blurs my eyes and steals my breath. Heath’s looking out across the ridge of the Mountain, and my eyes follow.

We’re looking at the scene of distress that we saw in the tunnel.

Whit and Janine are a hundred yards to our right, running up and away from us out of the valley. They’re wearing fur vests, and they’re both obviously weakened; Whit is almost dragging Janine as he stumbles forward. I still can’t see what might be chasing them.

“Hey!” I yell, trying to reassure my brother. “I’m here!”

He stops in his tracks and turns his head to look at me, confusion written on his face.

“Wisty?” He squints, wrinkling his brow.

The smile of relief starts to spread across his face, and that’s when I see it: the enormous spotted cat on the boulder above him, pouncing for the kill.

There’s no way I can get there in time.

“Whit!” I scream, and point desperately. But he doesn’t see the threat, doesn’t understand.
“Whit, look out!”

Chapter 58

Whit

WE’RE RUNNING FOR OUR LIVES, but suddenly, my vision is a series of images that don’t make any sense:

Wisty
, somehow here, on the Mountain.

Janine
, darting in front of me, shoving me out of the way.

The leopard
, falling from the sky.

And then the blood.

Everything comes back into sharp focus with the blood. That, and the sound of Janine’s screams.

The snow leopard’s paws are wrapped around Janine’s body, its teeth sunk deep in her side. It shakes her violently back and forth, and blood sprays from another gash in her neck, soaking the snow.

It’s killing her.

I’m on my feet now, charging at the animal. But with Janine limp in its jaws, it turns and bolts toward a tree.
Once it drags her up there, there’s no hope.

With supernatural speed and instinct taking over, I leap forward before it can start to climb. As I slam into the leopard from behind, it
yowls
its protest, losing its grip on Janine. In that brief millisecond of opportunity, I fling the creature away from her, and she collapses to the ground like she’s boneless.

I don’t know what her wounds are, or if she’s conscious. I don’t even know if she’s alive. And it’s killing me that I can’t tend to her. Not yet.

The other leopards are crouching just overhead, and the first is already moving in again.

Now I’ve come between the predator and its prey. I stand over Janine defiantly, and the cat flattens its ears and puffs out its nostrils, snarling.

It leaps, but I’m ready.

We clash midair, and then tumble to the ground. I wrestle with the writhing beast, gouging at its eyes and pulling its tail, and somehow I manage to work my arms around its neck. It swipes at me furiously, but my arms stay locked in a viselike grip, and it’s not long before I’ve beaten it.

I’m breathing heavily already, but the other leopards are on me now, too. Faced with such horrible odds, something takes hold of me and I just…
snap
.

Forgetting the cold, forgetting the exhaustion, and forgetting that I’m not immortal, I go at them with everything I have. I don’t even morph. I attack with my bare hands, fighting for my life and Janine’s, hitting and punching with furious abandon.

Before long, my arms are shredded with deep scratches, but incredibly, I find strength I didn’t know I had, and I know I can take them. I slam one cat against the rocks, throw another out over the cliff. It sickens me to do it, but I don’t have a choice.

When the last leopard hisses and slinks away, I sink to my knees next to Janine. I stare at her gouged flesh, her open wounds, and it doesn’t seem real. A cold numbness is spreading over me, and my brain clouds with static.

The soldiers are coming
, I realize vaguely, as arrows start to bury themselves in the trees around us with low
thunks
. I’m pretty sure someone is screaming, too, but the white noise in my head is so deafening, I barely register anything else.

Nothing matters without her.

I swallow hard and move closer. I touch Janine’s broken body with shaking hands, feeling for a pulse, but I’m too late.

She’s not breathing.

BOOK THREE

THE THIRD TRUTH: KNOW LIGHT FROM DARK

Chapter 59

Wisty

IT’S A WAR ZONE.

Giants gallop toward us on huge horses. Arrows whiz past my ears. Somewhere, wolves are howling.

And my brother’s there, in the middle of it all, kneeling over Janine.

I look around wildly. It’s complete and utter chaos, and the attackers are almost upon us. The ground shakes under my feet and small rocks start to fall down on us from the rock walls above as they thunder down the path. It already feels like we’re surrounded, with no escape.

I can see their faces now, their mouths contorting with hatred as they scream for our blood. And their weapons, held out from their arms, with the sharp ends aimed toward us.

Whit has his back to them all, though. He’s concentrating hard, trying to heal Janine after that horror show with the leopards. His hands are on her shoulders, and they’re covered in blood. Tears stream down his face, but I’ve never seen him look so determined.

I’m thankful—the thought of losing Janine is devastating.

But Whit’s so vulnerable himself now, so exposed, and
that
makes me panicky. I couldn’t scramble across the rocky ridge fast enough earlier, and I thought I was going to have to watch him get eaten by those monsters. Now that he’s in danger again…

I have to defend him this time.

The strong, defensive feeling makes my M boil over. With an angry yell, I thrust my arms toward the charging warriors, lighting sparks around their horses’ feet and sending jolts through arms holding weapons. A few axes clatter onto the rocks, and some of the horses rear up.

But more come, and more.

The black dots keep pouring down the pass into the valley. I can protect myself and lash out before they get to me, but some of the men are shooting arrows now, and they’re coming closer and closer to Whit. There are just too many to attack one by one.

I need something bigger.

“Give me your hand!” Heath shouts, as if he heard my thoughts.

I frown uncertainly. Can I trust him now? Here, on his home turf?

“Wisty,
now
!”

I nod finally, and grasp his fingers with all my strength. It’s the only way.

We turn to face the onslaught, and the power explodes out of us full force. Streams of fire cut across the forest like shooting stars. The brush begins to smoke and catch, and soon the trees in front of us are blazing, creating a terrifying barrier for our attackers.

This power—
our
power—is stronger than anything, I realize. It has me in its grip, and it is a terrible force to behold. It destroys a century-old forest in minutes. It flattens a whole line of men when a tree falls with a deafening crack. It eats up plants, and animals, and air, and all it spits out is falling ash. There’s no dulling it or taming it as it burns a path of total destruction.

But I don’t want to tame it, anyway. My brother is in serious danger, Janine is probably dead, and my fury has no bounds. I’m done hesitating or negotiating.

I want to make everyone pay.

Chapter 60

Whit

WISTY HAS SET the whole world on fire, and I don’t even care.

My eyes stream from the smoke, I’m coughing uncontrollably, and the heat is so intense I feel like I’m roasting from the inside out.

But somehow, Janine’s still getting colder.

Her lips are blue and her hands are icy. Life is draining right out of her.

“Come on, Janine,” I say through gritted teeth. “Come on, come on.”