I sprinted to a window set in the wall of the prison cell.
I felt the others at my heels, but I barely registered them as I took in the scene below.
The lava moat had cooled, but it hadn’t been a natural cooling as a result of the Ember King’s death. The lava was black and dead beneath a thick layer of ice, ice that led right up to the castle doors.
Auggie gasped as he pulled his hand back from the windowsill, where frost was creeping over the black stone.
Freya’s jaw tightened. “Just what we needed.”
“What is it?” Auggie asked, frowning down at the scene from the window.
“Nothing good.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
As a group,we raced out of the bowels of the castle and propelled ourselves up the staircase. In the dungeon, we were sitting ducks, trapped and easy pickings for the cruel villain who sought us. We had to reach the main level and, with any luck, find a back way out of the castle before the Ice Queen could track us down.
My stomach churned with anxiety as the walls around us grew slick with frost, and the air cooled quickly enough that I could see my breath escaping in white clouds.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Erik said. “She can’t catch me again. I won’t let her.”
I wondered how she could have found us. She could have tracked the portal energy, I supposed. Freya had used a portal on her pets, after all. With a sample of energy, tracking another portal to this location would have been easy enough. In fact, my parents had created such a potion. I frowned. And knowing my luck, maybe I had once supplied the Ice Queen’s minions with the very ingredients necessary to get the jump on us.
We sprinted past room after room, wondering where another exit could be. Would the Ember King evenhaveanother exit? I eyed the holes in the walls, like the one that Freya and I had slipped through previously. Now that the lava was no longer a threat, that might be our best bet to escape. I was about to say so when we were stopped in our tracks by a guttural roar.
Ahead, the doorway we’d been running toward was suddenly filled by a creature covered in a coat of white fur, its bulky frame bending to fit through the opening. It had two short blue horns protruding from the top of its head and a pale face to match its fur, the face of a monster, with red eyes and a large mouth full of teeth. Its arms ended with deadly-looking blue claws. I eyed Freya’s axe, wondering if it would be able to work magic twice.
A tinkling laugh behind us was almost worse than the roar of the beast. It sounded like icicles clinking together, or ice cubes slipping into a glass. And it was accompanied by a blanket of cold air that rolled over us like fog, freezing my breath and chilling me to the bone.
I turned to face the Ice Queen and was rather impressed by her gorgeous figure. She was tall and beautiful, with hair as white as snow, matching a sleeveless, form-fitting dress that brushed the floor with each step she took. Her skin was also white but was tinged blue, as if she’d been out in the cold. Imagine that. Her lips were just as frosty, and her eyes were a cold and unfeeling deep blue.
“Don’t mind the yeti,” she said, smiling at us. “He doesn’t have very good manners. But then again, neither do you, trying to slip away without even a greeting.” She clucked her tongue. “And after stealing my property at that.” Her eyes sought out Erik. “There you are, my beautiful boy. I was terribly devastated that you would run away. Again. I may have to actually punish you this time.”
“We saw how you punish people,” Freya said. “I bet the Council of Witches will have something to say about it.”
Tinkling laughter again. The Ice Queen had a very calm air about her. It was disconcerting, like she didn’t expect we would be able to fight her at all. “Oh, the Council of Witches. Those obsolete hags couldn’t find their way out of a cauldron. And anyway, what happens in my domain is my business. They have no authority there. Here, however …” She shrugged. “Believe me, what I did in Greenland is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you for taking my witch away from me.” Her features hardened. “Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”
I eyed the yeti looming in one doorway, and the Ice Queen in the other. We wouldn’t be able to get past either of them easily. “It’s a short drop to the moat, friends.”
Freya stiffened beside me. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“Now!”
The yeti charged us, letting out another roar, but I hardly paid attention to the outburst as I ran for my life toward the windows, yanking Auggie after me.
“Stop them!” the Ice Queen ordered.
The ground was growing slippery beneath my feet as ice grew thick across the floor, but I was nearly to the windows. As soon as I reached them, I gazed down. Thankfully, it really was a short drop.
“You first,” I ordered Auggie. He looked wary as he inched out the window, looking down at the frozen moat below. “Don’t think about it. Just jump.”
Auggie leapt, emitting a small cry as he fell through the air. When he landed safely on the ice below, I let out a breath.
I looked back over my shoulder to see where the others were.
And cursed.
Freya was pulling her axe out from the throat of the yeti, crimson blood spraying over the floor, a stark contrast to its coat of white fur. Erik was skidding wildly in his attempt to hurry in my direction.
