Page 25 of The Midnight Blizzard

Chapter 8

Icouldn’t help looking around nervously the closer Jack and I got to the records room the next morning. Each time we passed a guard, I found myself beaming a little too brightly and nodding a little too vigorously, so eager to avoid detection that I overcompensated and likely aroused more suspicion because of it. How many recognized me from my previous inquiries about the records room? Would they know what I was planning?

The plaque on the wall slowly came into view as we made our way along the long, empty corridor with the enormous window showing the interior of the records hall. I stared through the glass, where shelves upon shelves were loaded with scrolls of parchment. I would finally be able to search for the will. “You’re sure you can bring me here?”

“No,” Jack said, looking just as nervous as I was as he withdrew a key. He looked over his shoulder and hastily unlocked the door. “But I didn’t ask because I have a good idea what the answer will be. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right? No scribes are scheduled to be here all morning.”

With a metallic grinding noise, the lock’s bolt slid back, and the door creaked open, allowing a gust of slightly dusty air to swirl out into the hallway. Jack and I piled into the room, quickly shutting the door behind us.

“First you miss your meeting yesterday, then you dodge the king, and now you’re sneaking a woman into a forbidden room?” I clicked my tongue. “How did a rogue like you ever manage to become an advisor? And here I was thinking you were all respectable.”

Jack spread his arms wide. “The benefits of being an orphaned mage who is friends with a prince. I can get away with a surprising amount so long as I give my opinion on mage-related laws. How else do you think I have time to train my dogs?”

“Oh, I thought that was time you were supposed to be in those important meetings you missed,” I joked, looking out the windows at the corridor beyond. I fell silent, then dropped to the ground as footsteps approached. Jack crouched beside me, out of the line of sight if someone were to peer through the window.

The footsteps drew closer, then slowed and paused for a moment outside the window. I saw their flickering shadow cast on the shelving as I plastered myself closer to the wall, praying that we wouldn’t be seen. I couldn’t even breathe. Was it a guard? A scribe? Someone completely different? After several long moments, the footsteps started up again and faded down the hallway.

“Why are you hiding?” I laughed quietly at Jack. “You’re allowed to be in here, remember?”

“I forgot,” Jack snickered, then pulled me to my feet. Both of us stared out the window at the hallway.

“What if we’re seen?” I couldn’t stop my insides fromfeeling like they were alive with crickets, all crawling or hopping over each other. Each tiny noise from beyond the records room made me whip my head around and stare for the source of the sound. “If anyone looks in that window, they’ll know I’m not allowed. Is there a cloth or something we can use to cover it?” I stared around, as if hoping a canvas would leap from the shadowed corners and present itself to me.

“You want to be alone with me, with no risk of interruption?” Jack teased. “How scandalous. A contestant enticing the prince’s advisor into a dark, secluded room might start some rumors.”

I widened my eyes dramatically and lowered my voice seductively. “What sort of rumors would those be? They can’t be any worse than rumors about an evil mage who enchanted the royal family to elevate his position and status.”

“What about a beautiful, unmarried woman being caught alone with said evil mage?”

Jack slowly reached his hand toward me, just above my shoulder, with his eyes locked on mine. Law or no law, I wanted him to kiss me. I adjusted my position slightly so my arms wouldn’t get trapped between us and tilted my chin upward slightly. When was the last time I’d chewed a peppermint leaf? Was my breath suitable for kissing?

My hope was smothered as Jack placed his hand on the large glass window instead of at the back of my head. Immediately, tiny ice crystals formed where he touched, growing and intertwining as swirling patterns and elegant, lace-like designs thickened and branched into mesmerizing shapes. The frost crystals evolved from what looked like enormous snowflakes plastered against the window into athick layer of ice that shielded us from the view of anyone who might walk by.

I placed a fingertip on the ice and glided it across the surface, marveling at how it was cold but not wet. It was like a thick, opaque glass.

“Satisfactory?” Jack asked, then added, “It won’t melt.”

“Really?” I asked in hushed tones, pressing my entire hand against the ice, testing his claim. “That’s amazing.”

Jack’s hand was still on the conjured ice. “I can make it warm too. Here, keep touching it.”

A moment later, the temperature began to elevate until it was pleasant to the touch.

“I don’t think this even counts as ice anymore,” I said, slowly running my hand over the glass-like surface. “You can’t have warm ice.”

Jack’s hand brushed against my hair and I went stock-still. A wave of heat quickly enveloped my body, warming me even faster than the ice.

My heart palpitated frantically. Anyone would be able to read my mind right then with how poorly I was hiding my feelings. Breathing normally was impossible; I either forgot how or else would inhale short, tight breaths that did nothing to help me think rationally. We stood so near each other that I could feel his body heat. The fresh peppermint scent that always lingered about him hovered so tantalizingly close I could have tasted it. Forget the ice wall Jack had just conjured; I was going to melt into a puddle myself before long. There was every chance I had steam gushing out of my ears.

Jack’s gaze slid over my face, his hand still on the ice, but he didn’t lean in any closer, though there was a deep longing in his eyes. Oh icicles, was he waiting for me tomake a move? We were quite alone. How far could I lean in before I would be seen as too forward?

As I debated the various options at lightning speed, Jack inclined his head a fraction of an inch so our noses nearly brushed. Eagerly, I began to rise to my tiptoes, but?—

“Didn’t we come here to look for your father’s will?” Jack’s voice was quiet but firm.

The spell between us broke. Trying valiantly to act as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, I bobbed my head up and down. “Of course,” I said in a rush, trying to sink back down onto my heels and distance my face from Jack’s while hoping that my secret desire hadn’t been too obvious, though I knew it had been. “I was just trying to think of where…where to start.”

He cleared his throat. “I suggest in recent legal forms.” Jack gestured toward a part of the wall, where hundreds of scrolls were rolled tightly and forced into tiny cubby holes. “I didn’t find it in the incoming documents yesterday when I looked, so it must have already been processed. If the scribes are doing their jobs correctly, they should all be labeled.”

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