Before Beasts, There Was Ice--Book 8

Freeze or Burn

As the cold crushed in, like water to burning lava, Kai curled in on himself, adrenaline spiking his blood and ramming white hot heat into his limbs. He thought he could hear the sound of a small engine and hoped it to be a snowmobile, but otherwise was overcome by the great groaning of the metal ship as it tipped.

Not into the water!

Fueled by the sure knowledge that he and every last one of them would die if they fell into those arctic waters, he scrambled to his feet, skin alight like gold in the night, feathers burning brilliant scarlet.

And rocketed up in a fell swoop of wings.

His heart raced, pumping more and more fire into his system as the flames in his steel drum went cold as it rolled across the deck. He shot towards the control room door, throwing sparks across the side. Flapping to stay upright, he tore open the door to receive an armful of bewildered Ayah. In the gloom of the flickering light of the cabin, he made out no others.

"Where are they?" he asked over the groaning of the ship.

"Tyson's with Eiden in the back cabin," she gasped. "They hit—there's a hole—"

"Then this ship is lost." The sound of the little engine had grown closer than ever. "Get on shore. Meet up with Ray and Tala and run."

The whole boat shuddered and the lights went out.

Her pale hands twisted against his bare chest.

"You need a coat! You'll freeze!" she cried.

"Not right away, I won't. Go!"

Biting her lip, eyes wide with fear, she slipped past him and caught herself with a quick pump of her wings. Even as he kicked off, half an eye on her, he could feel the cold pressing hard against his film of heat, waiting to swallow him whole.

Ocean splattered on him like knives. But he found the door, even at a 45 degree angle, and tore it open.

"Tyson!"

"It's sideways!" squawked a terrified dragon somewhere in the darkness.

"Stop freaking and get out of here. You can fly, can't you? Get to Ray and Tala!"

"But what about—"

"I'll get him, just go!"

Like a slither of silk, Tyson shot past him as Kai squeezed himself in. The glow of his skin and feathers helped him to find the other young man, encompassed about by heat packs and heavy cotton quilts. Lifting him was, once more, like lifting a bundle of feathers and bones, and Kai's chest ached as he hauled the other man back outside and took back off into the air.

BOOM.

Water sprayed up. Pain, sheer blades of agony, tore across his flesh where it touched. Black streaked out across his glow and he screamed so hard and quick he tasted blood in his mouth. In the coiling and constricting of his muscle spasm, he somehow managed to use them to clutch Ayah's brother tighter to his chest.

Then he hit the deck—hard, wetness, icy agony, rolling against the railing where he hung, clutching the unconscious light denizen and staring at the black waters rushing up to him. Out across the water stood a looming, blinking monstrosity. Even as his brain told him battleship, he saw a sea monster, vast and toothed and ravenous.

A keening, whistling noise, like the wind through the reed, whistled across the crashing water, pitching until it became a heart rending flute. As more water splashed onto him, dimming his heat back within him and breathing the frost into his flesh once more, the flute wavered in a whimsical, undirected song.

White streaked out beneath him, cold as he had only once known blackened his vision. He clung to the bundled man in his arms as the white spread, freezing waves mid leap, reaching for the ever encroaching sea beast.

Have to stay warm! He furiously stoked his inner flame, squeezing and pushing even as his consciousness rolled black with pain.

And then, just beneath where he hung, a familiar thin figure walked beneath him, hair as bright as his feathers had once been.

Tala, standing on the frozen ocean, held his hands up to him.

"Kai," he said in the cool, measured calm. "Get back in the ship. Max won't let it sink. You have to get out of the cold."

But Kai knew he wouldn't be able to move, even as Tala said it. He had gotten too far, frozen too much, and he couldn't leave him behind.

Tala's expression stretched down, eyes widening, mouth opening like a shy bird's.

For a split second, Kai saw the child Tala that stood in his doorway and silently screamed.

"Just try until I get there," he said instead.

But then Kai felt more than heard the landing of another weight, and mere seconds after he felt strong, clawed hands scoop under his arms. Tala's face went lax.

"I've got you," Ray panted. "Let go, I can't carry both of you. It will only be for a moment."

Kai didn't even have a choice in the matter. His grip crumbled beneath Ray's strength. Strong arms half dragged, half carried him into the darkness, threw him down on something soft, wrapped more soft about him until it left to return with another's body.

Another boom shook the night, but the boat did not move. Only inwardly moaned.

Swaddled and away from the water, Kai fought against unconsciousness and turned all his attention inward to his fire. The cold nearest to it ached the most, but he curled as tight in as he could, wrapping his wings about him till his joints popped and feathers overlapped twice in several places.

Slowly, but surely, the heat crawled out again.

"Ayah."

Kai jerked, but didn't dare raise his head outside his cocoon, even as he felt the other bundle next to his begin to move.

"Ayah...Ayah..."

The man's attempts to get out of bed were ruined as a great crack pushed the ship back, tilting the boat the other way. The light weight of Eiden pushed him up against the wall. A heavy thrumming rumbled up from the deep and a crack of light made its way through a part in his feathers right above his head. He couldn't've uncoiled his neck, even if he had wanted to.

The bundle besides him shuddered and went still.

And so did Kai—down, down into the freezing darkness.