His tone was guilty, as if he felt awful he hadn’t been able to be the solution to my problem. I gave his hand a squeeze, to tell him it wasn’t his fault, before I looked around.
The Rec Room was pretty deserted this time of the morning. Most people were attending early Friday classes. We had other matters to discuss. “Did you guys manage to discover anything about the stones while I was gone?” I whispered.
Stefan leaned in and dropped his voice. “No. We haven’t found a thing.”
“Alexei and I have been poking around in griffin lore, but we aren’t making much headway,” Kiara said apologetically.
“To be honest, we were all too worried to do much of anything without you,” Theo confessed.
Odette stuck her lip out in a pout. “I haven’t had a single vision since the start of the semester. I thought my druid powers would be more helpful by now.”
“Yes, but the gods don’t send visions until the right time,” Theo pointed out. “And it wouldn’t have done much good for you to receive a vision when Emma was in lockdown, would it?”
“I suppose you’re right.” Odette crossed her arms. “Although Idohope I get another vision soon. We’re out of ideas on where the other stones might be, and I’m tired of staring at water all day trying to get an answer.”
“Give it time, Odette.” Theo stroked her hair, and she crooned at his touch.
“So where do we go from here?” Alexei asked. “It’s been two months since we found the alicorn stone, and we haven’t made any progress since then.”
“We have to figure out if the griffin stone is on Earth, or in Edinmyre. That would be a start,” Kiara commented.
Delmare groaned. “Oh, great, so we just have to narrow it down to one planet or the other. That should be easy.”
“We can’t give up,” I insisted. “My Babcia has been teaching me to transport my spirit to Edinmyre through meditation. Maybe she has some sort of Unseelie spell that could help me determine whether the rest of the stones are on this world, or the other.”
The group nodded. A bunch of us had to get to class, so the remainder of our friends left. Ethan and I didn’t have a Friday class, so we were left alone in the quiet space of the Rec Room.
“Since you’re officially free to roam, I have something special in mind,” Ethan said. He grabbed my hips and turned me toward him, letting his gaze roam my body with a lazy smile.
“What is it?” I was dying to get out and see the world again.
“It’s been some time since we’ve been on a date. You’ll need to bring your skates.”
My heart started in excitement. I’d been longing to get back on the ice since the last time I’d stepped off it. “I’m totally ready. Let’s get me out of these walls.”
The first step outside onto the school grounds was a breath of fresh air, and I sucked in the cold. There was a heavy snowfall that coated every statue and bench. Snowflakes fell in thick chunks from the sky, covering Ethan’s coat. I expected him to take me to the rink, but he took a different path that diverged into Dolinska.
“Where are we going?” I asked. The city looked so beautiful, the stone bridges covered in snow, the headlamps glowing as people bustled from the bakeries to the alchemy stores. The smell of roasted coffee beans hit my nose, and shoppers bustled from this way to that.
I was captivated by the beauty of the city as if I’d never seen it before. In this light, after being isolated for so long, everything looked brand new.
“You’ll see.” Ethan playfully squeezed my gloved hand and didn’t answer.
We came to the edge of the city, near what looked like a park. Near the woods was what looked like a long path of ice that curved into the trees. People were donning ice skates and getting on the path, skating into the forest.
“It’s an ice skating trail,” Ethan explained. “It winds through the woods around Dolinska for a mile.”
Those words practically gave me an orgasm. “What are we waiting for? Come on!”
I grabbed Ethan’s hand and dragged him to the start of the trail. We threw our skates on, and I wasted no time getting my blades on that skating trail.
Ethan and I skated hand in hand. The skating trail wound around the trees, the city of Dolinska looming on our right side. I felt the cold air hit my face as I skated, and my spirits lifted. I was so happy. This moment was perfection itself.
As we skated, creatures began to emerge out of the wood. A feathery, snake-like creature with white and purple fur skimmed by overhead, flying on the wind. A couple of icy tarantulas climbed over the bushes, and white moths with fluffy wings fluttered ahead of us on the path, leaving sparks and glitter behind them. A white horse, with tree branches for feet and a mane made of white flowers, breathed out a gust of ice particles as we skated by.
“Ice faekin,” Ethan said with a nod. “They won’t hurt us. They’re merely curious. They only come out in winter. In the warmer months they migrate north, to the Arctic Circle, but in winter they like coming close to Dolinska. They think shifters and sorceresses are interesting.”
They were captivating to look at. As I was observing the ice faekin and all their different quirks, something else in the woods caught my attention.
