Of Sorcery and Snow (32 page)

They vibrated with agitation until Chase took a deep breath, concentrating until they stilled. Now we just had to kill time until they disappeared. “Talk about what?” I said.

“Nothing.” He refused to look at me.

“Are you mad?” I asked, trying to figure out what I'd done.

He shook his head, but he was lying. He still wouldn't meet my eyes.

“I'm sorry I gave you that weird look when you rescued me,” I said softly.

Chase's fists clenched and unclenched. “Rory, that's not it. It wasn't a big deal.”

I was starting to babble. “It just surprised me, that's all. She took your hand, and you didn't react, and we've—”

Chase doubled over, his hands tearing at his hair, and said something like,
“Uuuuugggggghhhhhhh.”

I jumped. Either this had been the wrong thing to say, or Arica had just cast a long-range spell over him.

Then he thrust his face close to mine, eyes blazing. “Listen, Rory—I will tell you if you really want to know, but I don't think you do. I think all you want is get to the palace, rescue those kids, and deal with everything else afterward.”

“Everything else . . . ?” I repeated, barely breathing. Our faces were inches apart, and I wanted to lean forward and shrink back at the same time.

But when Chase's glare softened, I remembered the way he'd
glanced at his hand linked with Arica-Rory's, the way he'd started to smile . . .

Oh my God.
No
. He couldn't.

He'd told me, two nights ago, that I reminded him of his
brother
.

He jerked away. “Forget it.”

But I couldn't forget it, even when he stared down at the floor and swallowed hard.

I wanted to tell him that that I couldn't think past finishing Miriam's quest for her.

But that wasn't true. Thinking about Miriam made me think of George too—how they'd been inseparable and how they'd still broken up. It didn't matter if Characters started pairing off in eighth grade. It couldn't possibly be worth it. I couldn't risk losing Chase. I couldn't imagine my life without him.

So I just froze, like a complete idiot.

Finally his wings winked out. “They're gone,” I said. Without even glancing at me, he slammed through the door, marched down the stairs, leaped on his mount, and urged it back to the trail, like he couldn't wait to leave me behind.

The others were happy to see the scales I brought. Hadriane and Forrel beamed at each other. Lena actually
squealed
and started prying the scales off the tail stump with the dagger she used to chop up spell ingredients. But when I told her about Arica and being a flower-bird, she looked seriously freaked out. She even started watching me as we rode. When the symptoms started about a mile later, I found out why.

One minute, I was staring at Chase's back, wishing he wasn't ignoring me and wondering how to get us back to normal. The next, my arms and legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. My eyelids felt even heavier. I couldn't keep them open.

Apparently getting enchanted and unenchanted is really hard on your body, especially when it involves shrinking that small. Lena said I just needed to sleep, but since we had to keep moving, they had to tie me to my reindeer with Chase's rope to keep me from falling off.

I drifted in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day. Chase didn't even tease me about it. I wished he would. I kind of missed it.

When Lena woke me a couple hours later to refresh the heating spell, I could barely stay awake long enough to say the rhyme. When I opened my eyes again, it was dark, and Lena was leading her reindeer down from a ridge, whispering, “Oh my gumdrops, it's
there
! The Snow Queen's palace! Maybe a mile out!”

“We can't go now,” Chase said, behind me. “Rory's still asleep.”

“No, I'm not.” I wanted to see. It was torture to be this close and not be able to go any farther. “We can go.”

“We can't.” Forrel had crawled up on his stomach to spy over the ridge. “The Snow Queen has wolf and troll patrols guarding the perimeter. We'll be easy targets crossing in the moonlight.”

Hadriane protested, and Chase offered to disguise us. I guess now that Lena knew he was part Fey, he didn't bother to hide his glamours. I wanted to argue too, but my stupid overenchanted body drifted off again.

I came to when Hadriane began untying the ropes around me and my saddle. Forrel tethered the rest of the mounts in front of a dark cave.

I wished I could have stayed awake for the planning. “What happened?”

“We're stopping for the night.” The dwarf princess was clearly
unhappy about it. “Forrel thinks we should move in after the moon sets.”

Yeah right.
I
was holding up the quest. I could tell by Lena's worried face. I couldn't let them lift me out of the saddle and tuck me into bed like a baby, so when Hadriane got the ropes off, I said, “I got it.”

Unfortunately, when I slid off the reindeer, my legs had other ideas. My feet struck the ground at a weird angle. I would have taken a nose dive if someone hadn't grabbed me.

“Easy,” said Chase. He looked at me this time, but as distantly as a stranger.

“Let's get you inside,” Lena said. She tried to lead me into the cave.

Chase's hand dropped from my arm, but I didn't go yet. I couldn't leave it like this. This was bigger than fighting over me killing or him keeping secrets. This could push us apart. I might lose him anyway. “Chase . . .” My voice cracked.

He waited, face hard.

“Thank you for coming after me.” That was all I could think to say.

He looked me straight in the eye. “Rory, if you're in trouble, I'll
always
come for you.”

I could hear how much he meant it, and I felt better. Some things didn't change.

“I'll always come for you too.” According to Arica, I would probably
have
to. “And Lena.”

“Lena too.” Then he smiled, in such a familiar, exasperated way that I knew we'd be okay in the morning. “Get some sleep. You can't rescue anyone like this.”

he dream came again, despite the enchantment.

Torlauth smirked, his bronze hair reflecting more light than his sword, his wings flapping in anticipation.

The Snow Queen smiled too, her eyes alight with triumph under her towering icicle crown. “Isn't this what you always wanted?” she said.

My left hand drifted toward my pocket, and I looked down the row of prisoners—at Lena's shaky smile, at Chase's smug grin, at Forrel's white face, at Miriam's desperate tears—

Miriam. Alive,
I thought, and hope bloomed in my chest.

Hadriane shook me awake. “Lena said you should be all right by now. Are you?”

I sat up and rubbed my face. I was a little achy, but otherwise, I felt fine. I nodded.

“Then join us. We've had a messenger.” She sounded eager, so obviously it was the
good
kind of messenger.

The others sat in a circle around a white, fluffy creature with a pointed face, dark eyes, and a long snout. The fox turned her little nose up at me, deciding I was less than awesome.

Lena passed me a note. It was written on paper torn from a
small notebook, the writing cramped and tiny. “It's from
Evan
.”

“His Tale's ‘The White Snake.' He can talk to animals,” Chase explained to the dwarf princess as I started to read.

To the rescue party (if you're out there):

The Snow Queen has us. If you're heading toward her palace, I guess you already know this, but here's what you don't know: She's planning to give us to some allies she's invited out here. If you get this after dawn on Friday, April 8, don't bother coming—she's already given us away. If you get it
before
Friday, wait and come then—your best chance is to sneak in with the guests.

Then follow the fox. She knows how to get to where they're keeping us.

—E.

P.S. Feed her if you can. I've promised all these foxes an unguarded henhouse of their very own if they help us.

Lena tackled that last part and ordered a bowl of raw chicken from the Lunch Box.

I started counting days. “It
is
Friday, right?” I couldn't believe we'd been out here for that long. Poor Mom.

Lena nodded, fighting a smile. The note had gotten her hopes up too. That's the thing about bad luck. It makes you really appreciate
good
luck, and also not to trust it. “What are the chances?”

“I don't think chance had much to do with it,” said Hadriane. “Do you remember the fox Forrel wanted to shoot yesterday? How many foxes did Evan send to find us?”

But I knew what Lena meant. “It's like Miriam's Tale is still helping us.”

She could still be alive. But I didn't tell anyone about my dream. If I'd misunderstood it . . . “What time is it now?”

“An hour before dawn,” said Forrel. “The Snow Queen's guests have lined up at the entrance. Most of them are on foot. We should leave the mounts behind.”