Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 21 of 27

Vael came back at dusk. His boots scraped the stone floor of Annie's cell. She sat where he had left her, arms locked to her sides by his frost. The ice had crept from her wrists to her elbows. It held her like a fist. She had spent hours reaching for the fox's warmth in her chest, for any thread of borrowed fire to melt it. Nothing came. The fox was too far away. "Time," Vael said. He pulled her upright by the collar. Her frozen limbs would not bend. He half-carried, half-dragged her out. They climbed a stair cut into the mountain. Above them a castle rose, black stone and shadowed towers, its windows glowing sick colors. Cold wind bit her cheeks. Annie's thoughts spun. Where was her fox? Was Kaelen even looking? His father had called her a burden. Maybe Kaelen thought so too. Maybe he wasn't coming. The idea hurt more than the frost. She swallowed it and searched again for fire she could not find. Heavy doors opened. Vael hauled her down a long hall lit by torches. At the far end sat a man on a stone chair. Scars crossed his arms, his neck, his face, thin white lines over dark skin. His eyes fixed on her the way a butcher looks at meat. "Master," Vael said. He forced Annie to her knees before the chair. "The cold girl. The one you wanted." Vexor Darkenblade rose. He walked a slow circle around her. "Empty," he murmured. "No fire of your own. Yet you carry a hearth-spirit's bond." He crouched to her level. "That bond is a door. I collect doors." Annie's arms were ice. Her wand was gone, broken in the snow. She had one thing left: intent. Frostwyn had taught her to feel warmth through the bond, faint as it was. She stopped fighting the frost. She listened for the fox instead. There. A spark, small and moving. Closer than before. The fox was near, and it was climbing. Vexor gripped her chin. "Show me the door," he said. Annie pulled. Not fire, she had none to spare, but the bond itself, drawing the fox toward her. The spark surged. Warmth flooded her chest and raced down her arms. The frost cracked, hissed, and dropped from her skin in shards. Her hands were free. Vexor jerked back. "Vael. What is this?" A sound rose outside. A stag's cry. Ice splintered somewhere in the walls. The torches guttered as cold flooded the hall. Vexor's scarred face twisted. "The Frostwyn line," he spat. "You brought them to my gate." He seized Annie's arm. "Then I take you now, before they take you back."