Immortal Winter

1

I WOKE IN MY ICE TOWER, covered in a coating of sweat, lying next to a dead body.

With a gasp, I scrambled back against the headboard of my own bed. Other than the motionless figure beside me, nothing around me had changed, though it was tinted yellow from the flickering lanterns.

Arina’s dead body?

I’d never seen a corpse. Not a real one. I eyed the spike sticking out of her forehead and the odd snarl twisting her open mouth. My head swam, and I swallowed convulsively.

I knew I needed to act, but all I could manage to do was let Arina continue to bleed out—onto the sheets and onto me. I should have been screaming. I should have been throwing myself off the bed and toward the window. But I didn’t, anchored in place by fire and sweat and blood.

I tried to connect the scene in front of me to some memory, something that swam barely out of reach. I stretched after it, catching a fragment: yesterday was Arina's day. The day I wouldn't be alone.

A pain day.

I looked forward to those. That much I knew.

Forcing myself to sit up, I scooted away from her still form, my jaw clenched with the memory of pain. I would have laughed at what lingered but there was a body to attend to. Stumbling out of bed, I stepped out of my clothes and limped toward my ivory dresser. On the way, my feet grazed against something rough. Some imperfection in the ice. Something that wasn’t there before.

I backed up and stared down at the message scratched into the ice, blood swiped across it to highlight the letters, like ink rubbed on a seal impression to darken the image.

She found me. She knows. Went to warn them. Don’t take the infusions. Watch out for Kip.

My body began to tremble, even before my mind caught up.

Yesterday.

A WHISTLE SWEPT THROUGH the tower on the early morning chill. With a shiver, I dropped my ice pick and backed away from the block of ice I’d been staring at for three days. As I rushed to the window, the usual flurry of excitement added urgency to my step.

I grabbed my cloak from the hook mounted on the wall and slid it over my white gown. After pulling the hood over my disheveled hair, I moved to the small opening that served as a window and pressed my hands onto the sill to lean out. Far below me, a figure draped in the royal colors of silver and black waved both arms, her face covered with the black fur lining of her hood.

Arina. An involuntary grin split my face.

Not that she was my only visitor these days, but she couldn’t know that. Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

She shoved back her hood, her dark, braided hair instantly dusted in the snow rushing across the landscape, such as it was: trees lined in icicles and ponds frozen over long ago.

Arina cupped her hands around her mouth. Send... Down, Jayla! A howl of wind swallowed the rest of what she said.

I tipped my ear toward the opening. What’s that? I yelled.

Dammit, Jayla. It’s cold!

I almost said it was always cold, but Arina knew I really didn't notice it anymore.

Reaching for the silver pouch resting in a small, ice-frosted nook, I pulled out three strands of hair charmed by Imani, Queen of Sector Four.

With a flourish of my hand out the casement, I released them into the wind and watched them settle in the mounds of snow fifty feet below, at the base of my home. I leaned out farther, excitement wrapping around my bones. This was it. The moment I looked forward to every week.

Magic.

The ice quaked where the strands hit it. Tiny lines, like veins, rippled toward the tower. My heart thudded as the hairs, now morphed into stalks, punched through the blankets of white. A crunch reached my ears, followed by a low boom vibrating against my feet through the tower.

The new growth reached into the air, like someone stretching his arms overhead in a yawn. The wind sent snow swirling into the as icy leaves broke from the sides of their surface. Then, three fully formed vines crept upward, moving in synchrony, while tiny footholds formed between them—a living ladder.

Arina stepped into the first hold and began to haul herself up. When she was inches below my window I reached a hand toward her. She took it, as always, almost crushing it in her strong grip.

What did you bring me? I asked, wide-eyed.

She huffed. Can I at least get inside first?

I bit my lip and apologized as I pulled her the rest of the way inside. She landed squarely on her feet and began brushing the dusting of snow clinging to her cloak. As she unbuttoned the garment and handed it to me, I admired her raven skin. The snow coating her high cheek bones reminded me of the sky I gazed at every night, the stars I wished on—the same wish every night: to get better so I could rejoin society.

So I could serve my gracious Queen.

I took her cloak and hung it next to mine. Her gaze darted around my home. She frowned. You didn’t build a fire.

I’m sorry. I lost track of time. I sucked on my teeth for a moment, then rushed toward the fire pit near the wall. Sparking a match, I held it against the blue-black coal and stepped away as a deep blue flame shot toward the ceiling.

Ice fire.

The only thing that burned in Othala.

Arina joined me and waved her hands in front of the fire. She sighed, enjoying the warmth flooding her body. I stepped away with a gulp. Ice fire has always set me on edge. The flames seemed to hiss a warning: step too close and we will engulf you.

I tapped my foot as she turned slowly to warm all parts of herself against the heat. My gaze swept to the military green duffel at her feet. It took all my strength to not grab it up and empty its wondrous contents all over the floor.

She chuckled and nudged the bag. Go ahead.

Swallowing a squeal, I dove toward it. As I unzipped it, the sound of the teeth prying apart made my head swim. I paused before reaching in.

These were the moments I savored. The moments a bag made me feel connected to the world.

The first thing I pulled out made me squeak with excitement. Arina perched on a nearby chair and leaned forward.

I don’t get the appeal, she said as I thumbed through the slightly soggy, worn pages of a thick book. I traced my fingers across the title: A History of the World: B:16. Before the Sixteen.

I smiled up at her. That’s because they’re merely books to you.

Her sculpted eyebrow arched toward the ceiling. And what are they to you?

I hugged the book to my chest. Lives I can live inside my head. A life inside this tower.

The corners of her eyes crinkled into something like sadness. She reached out and ran a thumb across my cheek. You, Jayla Storm, are like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I placed the book by the bag so I could unload the rest of its treasures. Did you know that before the Ravagers' numbers exploded, people used to be divided by skin color? They were even placed in groups based on the size of their noses! I shook my head, unloading the things she usually brought: food packets, clothing, and my infusions. You and I couldn’t have been friends in the Old World. Isn’t that ridiculous?

Arina inclined her head, smiling slightly.

I peered into the bag again, rummaging through the small bundles of art brushes and bed linens, pulling them out and lining them up on the floor in front of me. There was even a small, blank book. I held it up. What is this?

A journal.

I blinked at her.

She smiled. It’s for making a book all your own.

My eyes widened as I turned it over in my hands. Incredible.

I stood and moved to place it on my night stand. Running my fingers across the blank book’s surface and shaking my head, I said, A world divided by color when there were monsters in the midst.

Ravagers. Skeletal beasts with eyes that spat fire.

The monsters I helped multiply, merely by being born—the ones who had followed me everywhere I went ... except here.

2

I SANK ONTO MY HARD mattress and twisted my slim fingers together. Tears burned my eyes. The bed sank down low as Arina joined me, placing a muscled arm across my shoulders.

What is it, child?

I turned to her, my tears blurring her regal features. Why does Queen Imani keep me alive?

Her face slipped into its usual mask of pity. All human life is sacred. She ran her fingers through my ice-tipped hair. You know that.

I nodded. We fuel her magic. I blinked to push my tears back down. But, I’m only one person. If I... I gulped. If I were executed, maybe those monsters would—

Hush, girl. She pulled a familiar kit from the bag still on the floor. The queen is determined to find a cure. And we have no proof that... Her jaw clenched, then she took a deep breath. We do not know for certain that ending you will stop them. They’ve been around as long as anyone can remember. And besides, curing you might decrease their numbers. She gestured for my arm and I held it out toward her with my eyes closed. You never know.

She pricked my skin with the needle, and as always, I jumped. When the sting eased, I opened my eyes and watched as my blood filled the small vial.

Still white, I muttered, disappointment darkening my tone.

Arina removed the plastic strap and took the needle out of my arm. She placed it in an orange, plastic bin and packed the entire thing into an empty sack.

You’re sticking to your regimen?

I nodded. Are they any closer? My voice sounded smothered, as if my vocal cords were draped in a blanket.

She sighed. We have a great team on it. Be patient.

I wanted to laugh. To tell her I had become patience. I’d been in isolation for nineteen years, ten of them in this tower, and for eighteen of those years, Arina had been my only friend. I wanted to tell her about my nighttime visitor, but that would be dangerous.

She stood, and panic gripped me like a fist of ice fire.

I'll see you in a week.

I launched to my feet. Can’t you stay?

She was halfway to the exit before she turned slowly around. Her expression was cautious.

For a little while? I asked, gesturing toward my shelves that rose toward the ceiling. I went to the nearest one and grabbed my latest creation. Rushing back to her, I handed it over and she took it in gloved hands.

The earth. She looked at me with soft eyes before peering back down at it.

I did it based on the globe you brought me.

The water is blue.

With a wide grin, I pointed to the oceans around our land. I made the South Atlantic and Indian oceans extra blue.

The pride melted from her face. She almost looked—frightened. How?

My heart thumped against my rib cage as I hesitated. I don’t know. I placed my arms behind my back and laced my fingers together. It’s the oddest thing. I wished, and wished, and wished for it, and one day, I looked at my shelf... I threw my arms up and laughed. And it had turned blue.

The skin around her mouth tightened and she slammed the globe back onto the shelf, causing it to quake. My small, icy world shattered into a dozen jagged shards.

No! I rushed forward and took a few pieces into my hands as scalding tears streaked down my cheeks. No!

Don’t be ridiculous. Her voice was as harsh as the unending winter around us. People can’t wish things into existence.

I turned toward her, my lower lip quivering.

Her expression didn’t soften. If you speak any more of this childish nonsense again, I won’t bring you any more sculpting ice.

I shook as if the cold had finally found a way to reach me. Why are you so angry? I sounded like an infant but didn’t care. She ignored me as she gathered her things and headed toward the always open window. After throwing on her cloak, she turned to me once more, her expression still hard.

I’ll recommend the queen’s council give you a higher dose of your infusions.

I nodded. She started out the window and I sniffled. With a sigh, she dropped back inside. Lowering her head, she said, I apologize if I seem harsh.

With a weak smile she gestured me toward her. My eyes narrowed. All I could do was stare at the broken splinters of the piece she shattered.

A sigh followed by her footsteps echoed in the room. She placed a finger under my chin and forced me to look up. I admire you, Jayla. Most people, they would go crazy in all this isolation. But you... She gestured at the hundreds of sculptures piled on my shelves. You created a world of your own. Her expression, still hard, didn't match her voice. But people can’t think things into being. The queen must have spelled the ice.

Of course. I nodded, but I wasn’t buying it. The traitorous thought made me sick with guilt. I should never doubt the queen. She protected us all. She was the only one who could.

I’ll see you in a week. Arina turned back to the window. I followed, the broken globe still in my hands. She crawled up and out, and I leaned through the window, following her descent. The icicle vines vanished inch by inch as she lowered herself to the ground. As her feet touched the snow I had another unwelcome thought.

Maybe people could do things that couldn’t be explained. And maybe I had turned that ice blue with only my thoughts.

SHE LEFT.

Arina left yesterday.

So what was her body doing in my bed? I stared down at the words scratched into the ice.

She knows.

Who knew? What did she know?

And why couldn't I remember anything after Arina's exit from the tower?

I'd had an infusion. I recognized that pain.

I stood naked and shivering, frozen crystals of Arina's blood crusted on my skin where it had soaked through my clothes. I had no idea what to do.

Something slamming into the side of the tower jerked me out of my storm of fear and doubt. A gust of wind ripped through my bloody, damp hair. The sound of a loud scrape followed by a mutter caused me to spin toward the window.

Someone was out there.

My legs tingled as I forced them toward the sound. It was like moving through the very ice I walked across.

Before I could make it to the window, a large black hook anchored itself onto the sill. There was another grunt, and a hand appeared beside it. A figure draped in a dark hood pulled itself up. I stopped in my tracks. I could tell by the broad spread of its shoulders that it was a male—and he now perched on the sill, pulling his hood down. My heart almost froze in my chest.

Wide, green eyes turned toward me. They were a green I’d never seen before in the living world, this world coated in ice. Even with all my books, that was a shade I couldn’t describe. I imagined looking through the thick green of a forest, and the flecks of gold in them was the sun dancing off leaves. The olive skin around those eyes tightened and he quickly turned away.

Oh, crap. He shielded his face and a twitch of anger played at my muscles. I wanted to study the color of those eyes more. I’m so sorry.

His voice was a smooth buzz in my ears. It swirled through me, warming spaces I hadn't known were cold. I stopped shivering. I should have been tossing him from my window, but I was still confused, and now—fascinated.

As he eased himself down, he removed a bag from his shoulders and inched toward me, gaze averted. Snow rained down around us as he removed his dark cloak and wrapped it around me. The inside was warm.

Like his voice. Like his eyes.

He let out a breath and finally raised his face with a smile. Then his gaze swept the room. Icy hells!

He met my gaze again, his eyes narrowed. I’ve been waiting a long time to see you again, Jayla.

When I didn't answer, he sighed and shook his head, allowing a dusting of snow to fall from his dark, close shaven head and onto his long eyelashes. I’m sorry it had to be like this.

He extended his hand toward me. I glanced down at the maze of dark ink tattooed starting at his knuckles and extending up his forearm. I’m Kip Gracen. I’d love to catch up, but we have to clean this shit up and get out of here.

3

HIS WORDS SHOCKED ME back to reality, or something close to it. I backed away from him as I tore his cloak off and threw it at his feet. I’m not going anywhere with you!

For all I knew, this stranger with the forest-green eyes had murdered Arina, left her in my bed for me to find.

He crouched, grabbed his cloak and turned his back on me. Holding it up behind him, he said, Please, put something on.

I stared at him as something built in my chest. Something like fury, an emotion I wasn’t all that familiar with. The presence of Arina’s dead body wrapped around me like some diseased skin. I wanted it off. She was one of the only people in the world I knew, and she was gone. Forever.

Drawing a deep breath, I moved forward and shoved him. A warm rush surged through me. I’d never done anything like it before. He stumbled toward the window and whipped around.

Get out! I stormed down on him and pushed again. The palms of my hands tingled. This felt good. It was better than feeling loss. Get out! I was screaming now, my taking angry runs down my cheeks.

Kip held out his arms in front of him, palms toward me as if warding off my anger, and stared at a point somewhere over my head. I can’t do that. His jaw clenched. I can’t leave this tower without you, or everything has been for nothing. His eyes darkened as his gaze slowly lowered to meet mine. "And it can’t have been for nothing."

His intense eyes stanched the emotion swelling inside me, but not for long. I didn’t know what he was talking about, and I was pretty sure I didn't want to know.

As I tried to parse out his words, the tower began to shake. I grabbed onto the dresser to steady myself. Kip’s eyes widened.

No. Not yet. He turned and rushed back to the window. No! Whipping around, he removed something from the pocket of his black pants and darted toward me. My gaze followed his movement as he popped the top on a clear vial of what looked like glittering, white sand.

What are you doing? I asked as he pinched the grains between his fingers.

I’m sorry, but we don’t have time for this. He lifted the sand toward me.

Without thinking, I rammed my foot into his shin. I might not look like much, skinny and all angles, and I wasn’t really a fighter, but locked in a tower for my whole life, I’d had a lot of time to work out.

Ow! Dammit! He stumbled forward.

Come near me again and there’s a lot more... The dust flew up into my face, cutting off whatever threat I was about to make. I coughed, waved my hand, and my mind blanked. It was like someone fanned a white sheet across my thoughts. I could see them, but I couldn’t get to them.

Crap! Kip corked the bottle as anger flashed in his eyes.

I tilted my head, feeling calm and washed out.

"You have no idea how valuable this