Page 14 of This Frozen Heart

“Of course.” Kay glances up as he begins walking again, sliding down to the road that is as snow-covered as the forest. “I have a shelter prepared for us about an hour’s walk ahead.”

“We don’t have an hour.”

Kay doesn’t answer and continues trekking.

I glance back up at the ever-darkening skies.

We’re going to die.

Chapter Eight

Kay

Every choice I have made has brought me to this moment, trekking through the tundra with a hostile resource in my arms. For the past fortnight, I have studied every encounter Constantinium has had with this particular rebel cell until I formulated the strategy that led me to this trek.

Every word that has left my mouth in the last forty-eight hours has been carefully crafted to create exactly the illusion necessary for me to lure their leader into my arms. Well, that wasn’t the original plan, but despite popular opinion, I am capable of flexibility should the situation call for it.

Still, as I trudge through shin-length snow with a hostile weight in my arms, I wish my plan hadn’t panned outquiteso perfectly. This is a truly arduous journey, and my body cannot decide if it is overheated from exertion or freezing from the steady downpour of snow.

The benefit of my Healer Bloodline Magic is that I will eventually recover from all nasty side-effects. However, since it is sorely tainted, I still suffer a little, my body always lagging in the healing process.

I pause in front of the pine tree I indicated to my team from a map. A satchel I packed myself dangles from the branch. I awkwardly tug it off the branch with my neck and let it hang off me while my prisoner remains in my arms.

“W-we need to seek shelter,” Gerta says. They’re the first words she’s spoken since her teeth began chattering violently with the temperature plummet.

I frown. My body may overcome any physical obstacle placed in its path, but Gerta has no such accelerated healing, at least as far as I’ve documented. She needs higher blood flow to prevent her from losing extremities to frostbite. “I’m going to set you down and make you walk.” That will help with her blood flow and limit my overexertion.

“With wh-what?” Gerta demands. “We’re dead any route we take if we don’t find shelter soon. Can you even see your path?”

Actually, it is very difficult to see anything except white all around us. If the snow were a more liquid form of water, we’d have drowned by now. But as long as I have my compass strapped to my wrist, I know what direction we’re traveling.

“My men have set up a perimeter for us just ahead.” Every step I take expends more energy than I ever expected.

I numbly try to uncoil myself from Gerta before I even realize what I’m doing. But I can’t take another step with her in my arms.

“W-we’re never going to make it,” she gasps as I set her on the ground.

Gerta immediately collapses, nearly taking me down with her.

“We have to,” I counter, uncoiling the chain from around me more slowly than I’ve ever moved before. “Failure isn’t permitted.”

“I don’t think failure cares whether you’ll permit it.” Gerta tries to stand but collapses. She curls in on herself.

“No, don’t do that.” I grab her arm and tug her to her feet with the last of my strength. “You’re encouraging hypothermia to set in.”

“It might be too late for that. We’ll be fortunate to survive this at all— let alone with our fingers and toes.”

I wrap her arm around my shoulders and stumble forward again. “You grew up in these wildlands. Surely, this isn’t the first blizzard you’ve encountered?”

“It’s the first one I’ve been foolish enough to be caught in! Just unchain me and let me die free.Youare free to die tired.”

“No.” I stumble a few more steps forward, and that’s when I see it. Somethingotherthan white.

Billowing smoke.

“Look!” I cry.

Gerta turns. “I think that’s the deserted cabin.”

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