The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 48: Ice

The lyrics in this song are from "How to Save a Life" by The Fray.

A scream of shock and terror broke through my concentration of ripping wolves apart with ice. I immediately froze, two bloody icicles in my hands. "Der? Was that-?"

Derek looked at me, panting, his eyes blazing. "I think so."

"Jesus, Skylar!" Evalynn shouted. She immediately took off running after the scream. I let my ice swords fall to the ground, and ran after Evalynn, Derek and Thomas hanging back to keep the other wolves at bay.

When we got to the tree where they were hiding out, my stomach plummeted. Four dead wolves were lying below the tree. Evie and Diamond were holding eachother in shock up high in the branches. Skylar's hands, arms and complete upper body was covered in blood, and she was standing above a bloodied, mutilated Jamie.

She wasn't crying. She wasn't screaming. She wasn't doing anything. Just standing there. I melted the spikes off my arms and legs, and quickly ran over to her. "Skylar? Sky, sweetie, what happened?"

I turned her away from Jamie's body, trying not to look at it. "Skylar?"

She looked up at me with vacant eyes. "He said he loved me. Then he saved my life by jumping in front of the wolf." Her voice was monotone, like a recording.

"How did....how did the wolf die?"

She looked down at her hands. "I...I don't know. I think I killed it."

I looked around for a weapon. "With what?"

"With these." Skylar held up her hands. "Oh God, Harry." She sobbed. "He's dead, he's dead again, because of me!"

Despite the blood and fur we were both soaked in, I pulled her close, feeling bile rise in my throat. Just as quickly, I pushed her away and spun around to vomit. I had just wiped out all of the grey wolves in Germany. Jamie was dead, again. I had failed Skylar. I wanted to keep Jamie alive for Skylar's sake. But I had failed.

I forced myself to look at Jamie's body. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh God." I moaned. I gently picked up Jamie in my arms. "Oh, God. Jamie. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I was supposed to protect you, I'm so sorry."

Behind me, Evalynn pulled the now sobbing Skylar into her arms, trying to soothe her. I stared in horror down at Jamie's lifeless body, limp in my arms. His throat was ripped open, chunks of flesh and muscle missing from his arms.

I don't know how long I sat there, cradling Jamie in my arms. I leaned up against the tree, and just held him. Eventually, Derek and Thomas came back. Skylar sat next to me, crying silently, leaning her head against my shoulder. Diamond and Evie slid down from the tree with a now conscious David and Tony close behind them.

For a long time, nobody said a word. Nobody knew what to say. But then, after a while, Skylar spoke up. "Why did we even come here? We should have stayed home and graduated."

Some sort of window to your right, as she goes left, and you stay right between the lines of fear and blame, and you begin to wonder why you came.

Nobody said anything, but Skylar looked up angrily. "Seriously you guys, if we hadn't come, Jamie or Stacy, or whoever he was would have been fine! It's our fault he's dead now! We were supposed to protect him, but we had no idea how! We have no idea how to protect anybody!"

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere out there in the bitterness, and I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life.

"Skylar, it's nobody's fault." David said quietly. "Stacy would have died in a matter of months anyway. He died saving you today. He died doing one last good thing."