He glanced back. “Unfortunately.”
Lex huffed out a breath. This jerk… “I’m going to fail, and then what? I die, and you find option B? I suppose one human life isn’t a big deal in the scheme of things.”
“It is far more complicated than that.” Garrin’s face was less expressive than his eyes. But right now, those eyes grew haunted.
He moved a couple feet away and looked out at the white horizon. “Dark Fae have traversed this unforgiving land for millennia. It was only during the last few hundred years that travel through the Land of Ice became nearly impossible. Our magic falters when it never did before. We’ve lost many lives attempting to escape our prison.” He looked back. “The prophesied one is the only way out.Youare the only way for my people to leave Dark Kingdom. And to leave we must go through the Land of Ice.”
Lex pressed her fingers to her forehead. “You’re talking in riddles, and my head feels like someone is stabbing it with a knife. For the hundredth time, I don’t have powers. I can’t send us through space like Amund or heal like Zirel. And I can’t help you cross this awful place.”
“But you will.”
Lex growled in anger. Garrin was stubborn, and now they’d die because of it.
His mouth twitched. “You are feeling better if you are making angry animal sounds. You must no longer fear me.”
She wasn’t hyperventilating, no. Not since he’d distracted her with his warm hand stroking her forehead. And as seriously pissed off as she was at his taking her from the only security she’d ever known, he was right; she didn’t fear him anymore.
How could she fear a man who risked death by giving her his only coat? Seriously, why wasn’t he freezing? Zirel and Amund had on their coats, and even they bounced on their heels to keep warm in the frigid wind. “I’m too annoyed to fear you.”
“I will keep that in mind the next time you panic,” Garrin said, his mouth turned up.
She shot him a death glare.
Choking sounds came from the other men.
Garrin’s brow quirked. “You know, Lex, I’m not used to insolence from females.”
Her teeth chattered harder. She huddled inside the hood and pulled his coat closer to her face. “Jas says I’m more headstrong than people realize. I must be getting used to you.”
“I would like for you to grow used to me.” Longing simmered in his eyes, then he said, “If I could have avoided all this…” His jaw clenched, and he seemed to grapple for words. “It is of no matter. I hadn’t anticipated your powers would not be formed. We expected you to be in possession of your magical ability, given your year of study. How oldareyou?”
So she wasn’t what he expected? Shocker. That was what she’d been telling him all along. “Twenty.”
“Twenty?” Garrin’s chin jutted back.
“It is odd,” Amund said, his brow furrowed.
She looked at Zirel, who was also staring at her strangely. This was getting annoying. “What is odd?”
“You are past the age in which Halven come into their powers.” Garrin picked up a handful of snow in his gloved hand, and Lex watched it melt faster than it should. Especially in below-freezing temperatures without a coat. He glanced at his men. “Once we are in Dark Kingdom, we will speak with the elders and inquire as to why her ability lies dormant.”
Her jaw dropped. “You kidnapped me…and you’re not even sure what I can do?”
Garrin bristled and wiped the moisture from the snow onto his pants. “The prophecy didn’t specify when you’d come into your magic, or even what it would be—only that a child of Dark blood would become my people’s savior. No one from Dark Kingdom has stepped forward to claim such an ability in the hundreds of years of our isolation. The only conclusion was that the prophesied one lived elsewhere.”
Lex let out a pained sigh. “That sounds like an extremely vague prophecy.”
“Perhaps, but our elders are never wrong. Come.” He stretched out his hand to her. “It grows dark and cold. I will show you something, if you allow it.”
Lex reached for Garrin’s gloved hand, and a shock wave of sensation ran up her frozen limb through the layers of clothing that protected her.
She slammed her eyes shut. The charge she felt whenever they touched was getting annoying.
He tipped his head in the direction of an area that was relatively flat on the mountain. Lex peeked at it and took in a dizzying view of the rest of the area.
She closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly.
When she opened her eyes again, Garrin was watching her patiently as though waiting for her to calm. “You’ve witnessed Zirel’s ability to heal and Amund’s ability to create portals for travel. Are you not curious about my abilities?”
