Alex flashed a patronizing smile over his shoulder. “Sounds like you have a problem.” The amulet pulsed, and he was gone.
Jason ran back into the main chamber and took Selene’s hand. “We’ve got to go. The portal is closing.”
“You’ll never make it,” Nickelova rasped, laughing in a way that seemed painful. “If you leave now you’ll freeze to death before you reach the portal, and if you wait until you shift, you’ll never make it before it closes.”
Jason and Selene glanced toward each other and then at the slight, curled form leaning against the wall. Jason strode to her side and held out his hand. “Help us get out of here and I’ll see you come to no harm.”
Nickelova smiled sadly. “You are such a fucking hero, you know that?” She said the word hero like it was a curse. “I am not leaving this cave. And neither are you.”
He grabbed her throat.
“Go ahead. Squeeze. What’s one more death on your already tarnished soul?” She chuckled.
Selene’s hand landed on his arm. “She’s not worth it. She’ll never make it out alive.”
His grip tightened. He needed to kill her; it was too dangerous to leave her alive. But he couldn’t do it in front of Selene, not with her looking at him like that. He released her neck and thought fast. Taking Selene’s hand, he ran toward the passageway and descended to the bedroom where Nickelova had taken him before. “There must be a closet. She must have had gear for Alex, even if she had none for herself.”
“Here!” Selene rummaged behind the folding screen. There was an entire set of brand new men’s gear. Jason started dressing. Selene dug out yoga pants and a sweater that bagged on her less curvy figure, then donned a pair of snow pants. Jason handed her a puffy white parka.
“The zipper’s broken,” Selene said.
“I don’t imagine she had cause to use it often.”
“It’s good enough.” She shrugged into it. “There’s nothing else.” Hat, gloves, and boots later, they made their way toward the cave exit.
“You’re not going to like this, but I need to kill her,” Jason said. “Alex can control her now that he has her heart. It’s not safe leaving her alive.”
Selene raised her eyebrows. “What? Do you know this for sure?”
“Yes—what the fuck?” Jason balked as they turned the corner into the main chamber. A body-shaped cocoon had appeared where they’d left Nickelova.
“Dear goddess”—Selene’s eyes went wide—“she’s mummifying herself.”
Through a silvery membrane, Jason could see Nickelova clinging to the dragon scale he’d plucked from her chest with his bone weapon. The same material the amulet was made of. Nickelova’s eyes were closed and silver plates were shingling themselves over her from the feet up. Why hadn’t he killed her when he had the chance?
Selene removed her glove and knocked her knuckles against the shell forming around the woman. The resulting ring of hollow metal filled the chamber. She glanced toward Jason. “What do we do?”
“We try to make it to the portal. Come on. We don’t have much time.”
As the sunsank in the arctic-blue sky, Selene followed Jason out of the mouth of the cave and into the burgeoning storm. They worked their way down the first drop, Jason helping her when her smaller body couldn’t reach between handholds and footholds. The climb was nearly vertical, and she struggled to find her grip on the mountain in her boots and gloves. Struggled, until after thirty minutes of grueling effort, her grip failed. At the same time as she heard Jason call out, she dropped, skimming the icy stone and bumping down the side of the mountain.
“Ow! Ahhh!” Her insulated pants ripped and her shoulder smacked against a sharp crag. Sticky, warm blood oozed from the wound, but the ride didn’t stop. Not until she slapped the side of the mountain where the slope leveled off with a back-cracking thump.
“Selene. Selene, are you all right?”
She could hardly hear Jason through the blowing wind. It was a painfully long time before he reached her and in those minutes, she concentrated on her breathing. In and out. The pain eventually numbed with the cold.
Finally, he was at her side. The snow stung her cheeks but it was her shoulder that worried her. It throbbed. She couldn’t move her arm.
“You’re bleeding,” Jason said.
“I hit my shoulder.” She tried to sit up, and a wave of pain and nausea forced her back down. “There’s something wrong. I can’t move it.”
He took a closer look. When he rotated her wrist and tested her range of movement, she cried out. His face paled, and she knew it wasn’t because of the dropping temperature. “I’m not a doctor but it looks dislocated to me.”
“Or broken.” She frowned toward the setting sun. “No time. Leave me. Find the portal.”
“No,” he said firmly.
