Page 34 of Iced Heat

“XAV!” his name tore from my throat.

“Where did he go?” Selt asked, glancing around.

I didn’t have time to explain to anyone what had happened. Had she drained him the way she attempted to drain me? Breathing still hurt, but there wasn’t any time to lose. I snatched up our egg from the nest and then rolled up the icy sheet of mist that was Xav into a ball. I wasn’t even sure how I knew it would work but it did. Liatris followed on my heels as I took the steps two at a time down into the kitchen. Like all houses designed by Moonscale Dragons, my house had a walk in freezer. I dove into it with Liatris shouting at me as I slammed the door shut behind me.

“Sequin!” Liatris called out, banging his palm against the walk-in’s door. “She can’t get out! You’re safe! What’s going on?”

All of those questions had answers that didn’t belong to me.

“You can’t have your egg in there!” he pounded on the door again, but I ignored him as I sat our egg down in a basket of frozen peas and set to work on Xav. He was still cold. So my best guess was that he was still inside the mist or was the mist. He used up too much energy fighting her. I stretched him out over the floor of the walk-in and glanced around until I found the bags of ice I bought when I was on my smoothie kick a few weeks ago. I grimaced but didn’t know what else to do. So I stacked them up on top of him.

“Come on, alpha,” I cooed to him while Liatris continued to beat down the door.

“Sequin!?!” Dad’s voiced reached me and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“How do you make ice wake up?” I shouted through the door.

“Umm…. If we ever had a riddle code word, kiddo, I don’t remember it,” he said, his voice concerned, but gentle.

“I… It’s complicated! My egg is icy, though! It came out that way! So no worries there!”

I sank onto the floor near Xav and let out a long, deep breath. I didn’t know how to help him, and I had to tell someone. So, I told Dad. I told him all of it over our family link.

“Overuse of magic, causes people to faint. I’ve seen dragons fall over and stay that way until they felt better. He probably doesn’t have enough magic to shift back yet.”

“How do I give him magic?”

“You let him rest. I know he can withstand the walk-in temperatures and maybe your egg can too, but can you?”

“For now. I have to. There’s no one else. Liatris is a lion and ---”

“When you need a break I’ll sit with him, okay? We’ll take turns until he’s back to himself.”

I thanked him but couldn’t imagine that Xav would stay knocked out for that long. Only, I was wrong. For days, Dad and I alternated back and forth on who sat with Xav. I hated leaving him alone but Dad was right. I wasn’t made to be cold all the time. I carried my egg back and forth between the freezer and the nest. Even going up to take a nap made me feel like a big, fat traitor. My mate was hurt because he saved me and I couldn’t even put up with a little bit of cold to stay by his side.

Teddy came and stayed, along with Sunny and his mate. Selt and Liatris took up in the kitchen cooking as if we’d all starve to death if they didn’t. I let Teddy comfort me but I felt hollow inside without Xav around. Why was his mum like that? Why did she show up to cause trouble? Didn’t she care about our egg? Our hatchling was her family too. How had I gotten so lucky with my family?

“We’re his family too now, Seq,” Teddy said, picking up my thoughts over the family link. “Get some sleep. Dad has him and Dad’s scarier than any lady with squid tentacles.”

Chapter Nineteen

Fred

Xav was still a sheet of ice. Only now I wasn’t sure how much of the ice was my son’s mate and how much was frozen condensation that was added from the walk-in.

“Xav, we’ve got to talk. I get how convenient it is to sleep for a few decades. I’m really good at sleeping for decades. So, believe me, I know, but I want you to know that Sequin is okay. I think the only time it’s acceptable to sleep that long is if your mate dies or your kid. Your egg is fine too. Getting a bit too big for Sequin to carry around everywhere but he’s still doing it. Won’t let any of us help him. So, if you’re hibernating because you think you lost the fight you can wake up now. If you’re hibernating because you can’t wake up, you need to figure out how to tell us what you need.”

I bit my lip and stared down at the sheet of ice. This wasn’t the first time I tried to talk to him. I tried every time I relieved Sequin and every time the result had been the same. Sequin had mentioned him being able to take on other elemental forms including fire but throwing him in the oven didn’t feel like the right thing to do. If he was in his elven form, I’d have set up an IV to keep him fed and hydrated. Only I couldn’t find a single vein on him in this form. Did ice eat?

“They went really high in the sky to eat the cold up there, I think. At least, that’s how I took his explanation,”Sequin chimed in sleepily over the family link.

High in the sky it was but only once my egg brat was out cold and the others were distracted. I snuck the sheet of ice that was Xav out of the walk-in freezer and out into the backyard. To be honest, I was relieved for the chance to stretch my wings.I’d been cooped up at their house too long and needed some fresh air. I wasn’t certain how far up I needed to take him but I’d give it my best shot. Sequin was too young to lose a mate. I barely survived it and didn’t leap onto Lotus’s funeral pyre only because the kids needed me. So, out came my wings as I kicked up off the ground.

The ice that wasn’t Xav started to melt away before I cleared the top of the houses. I kept him tucked under my arm as I flew higher toward the clouds above my head. I knew the clouds would be cold. Above them was an even colder layer of atmosphere. It wasn’t my favorite place to be but I’d do anything for my egg brats and their partners. The ice sheet wiggled under my arm, almost coming lose.

“Sequin?” A voice groaned.

“Almost, kiddo. Almost,” I said, unsure if I should keep going up.

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