Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 24 of 27

Kaelen and his father reached the labyrinth at a dead run. The stone gate stood open. Inside, a figure waited in the dark. Vexor. His body was raw and burned, his skin split with fresh scars from Annie's fire. He turned when he heard them, and his mouth twisted into a smile that had no warmth in it. "You won't make it," Vexor said. "She's too far in. Her life is draining fast." He laughed, a wet and ugly sound, then squared his shoulders and raised his hands to fight. High Mage Frostwyn stepped in front of his son. Frost climbed his staff, white and sharp. He looked older than Kaelen had ever seen him, but his eyes were steady. "Kaelen, go," he said. "Find her." He did not turn around. "I have this one." Kaelen ran past them both. He did not look back at his father. The bond had pulled him here, the same thread that tied Annie to her fox, and it pulled him still. He followed the stag's cry deep into the twisting passages. Walls closed on both sides, wet and gray, turning without end. Somewhere ahead, faint, he heard a small sharp cry. The fox. He turned toward it and ran harder. The corridor split. He chose the fox's voice over his own eyes. Then a shape stepped out of a side passage and blocked his path. White hair, blue eyes, a black scarf pulled to the nose. Kaelen stopped cold. He knew this face. The scout who had taken Annie from the woods. The one who had broken her wand and left it in the snow. "Vael." Kaelen's hand went to the wand at his belt, Annie's replacement wand, the one his father had made. "Move." Vael did not move. He tilted his head, calm, as if they had all the time in the world. "You're the Frostwyn boy," he said. "You came for the cold girl." His voice held no anger, only a scout's flat patience. "She's not yours to take. My master paid for her." "Your master is losing," Kaelen said. "My father is at the gate. Vexor is burned to the bone." Something flickered in Vael's eyes then. Doubt. He glanced back the way Kaelen had come, toward the sounds of frost and fighting. In that half second, the fox cried again, closer now, desperate. Kaelen did not wait. He drew the wand and struck low, a spike of ice across the floor. Vael leapt back to keep his footing. It was all Kaelen needed. He shoved past the scout and ran, into the passage where the cry came from. He heard Vael curse behind him, then follow. Kaelen rounded a blunt corner into a dead end. The fox stood there, its tail a dim flicker. At its feet, Annie lay folded on the stone, pale, her sleeve dark with blood. Kaelen dropped to his knees beside her. She was not moving. "Annie." He pressed two fingers to her throat. Faint, but there. Alive. And Vael's footsteps were closing in the dark behind him.