❛ I had a feeling so peculiar, this pain
wouldn't be for 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆. ❜
⎯⎯ ⠀ㅤִㅤ ୨⠀♡⠀୧ ㅤִ⠀⠀ ⎯⎯
𝓗wang eunji, who also goes by iana, felt her world stop. it stopped the day she le...
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↳ chapter twenty-five ₊˚.༄ [# the cold is bitter]
IANA WOKE UP TO ROUGH TAPS AGAINST THE GLASS. WITH THE REMNANTS OF sleep still wrapping around her mind, it took her a while to realise those rough taps were rocks- no, sleet. Frost built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out her view.
"An ice storm?" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"
Iana shook her head. "I don't think so,"
The storm didn't seem normal, like something sinister was intentionally causing it.
She thanked whichever god was the least shittiest that Jason was a light sleeper. He crawled forward, grabbing their seats for balance. "We've got to be getting close."
Nobody gave him a reply. Leo had driven the helicopter swimmingly, until he suddenly couldn't. Its movements turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn't been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and they started to lose altitude.
Below them, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and from the back, Iana saw Leo yank the stick, just clearing the treetops.
"There!" Jason shouted.
A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light that reminded Iana of the tracer fire at Midas's compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. The fight seemed to be everywhere.
Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about forty five meters from the house and killed the engine. Iana was about to let out a sigh of relief when she heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling toward them out of the mist.
"Abort mission!" Iana screamed.
They leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking Iana off her feet and splattering ice all over her body. Her body felt jittery, getting up on shaky knees and her breath caught in her throat. The helicopter had been completely flattened by a chunk of snow, ice, and dirt the size of her bedroom.
"You two all right?" Jason ran up to her, Piper at his side. They both looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud. Iana's heart skipped a beat when she noticed Leo wasn't with them but his voice came from beside her.
"Yeah." he shivered, looking over at her. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."
Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No... it's all around us."
