24. Apples, Mirrors, and Crowns

Chapter 24

Apples, Mirrors, and Crowns

LORI

T he eyes of the face-shaped heart bore into me, and my skin tingles all over. His mouth is curled downward, his brows drawn into a painful frown, while high cheekbones and an elegant jawline glare at me through the ice.

Tears blur my vision and freeze as soon as they touch my cheeks. I angle my jaw to the side, unable to endure the direct gaze of the giant's heart.

The creature's spiky white hair and pointy nose look sharp enough to spear through flesh, and his bite of power ripples across my skin. This creature is ancient. It was born long before any of the royal Fae we met this morning, and will live long after they're gone.

Whatever it is…is permanent.

"I am Chenu." The raspy tenor voice comes out rough and dry, like stone grounding on stone, and gives the impression it hasn't been used in decades. "What would you offer me in exchange for your soul? An apple, a mirror, or a crown?"

I close my eyes for an instant. My mother's voice echoes in my ears, and my mind drifts back to the yellow-painted walls of my childhood home. My fingertips tingle at the vivid memory of the textured illustrations glazing the pages of her old book full of bedtime stories.

"You were a man, once. A powerful oracle," I blurt out, remembering the pretty patterns of my frosted bedroom window. "But you ate your brother to survive out in the cold."

The Chenu gives a small incline of the head. "Men eat men in the cold embrace of hatred, ambition, or desperation. I was not the first nor the last."

I run through the items lying under the glass cloche.

A mirror would reveal how far he's fallen, how little of the man he once was remains. But it also serves as a doorway to other worlds—a means of escape. It's too small to squeeze through, but it might represent freedom. I'm fairly certain that the crown of thorns wouldn't fit over Chenu's disheveled hair, but circles symbolize the cyclicality of life: birth, death, and rebirth. The apple, a symbol of knowledge, immortality, and temptation, also represents love, beauty, and wisdom.

It's also entirely possible that the riddle forgoes another secret option I'm unaware of.

Chenu's vibrant eyes fall to my side, his hardened irises sparkling in the night. "You've been a hair away from death."

The spider bite throbs under his scrutiny. "I have."

"What would you offer me in exchange for your soul? An apple, a mirror, or a crown?" he repeats patiently, a dreamy smile stretching his cracked blue lips.

I could try to kill him, but not without revealing my identity or risking a fight I might not win. Violence should be my last resort here.

"If we answer correctly, you will let us pass?" Daisy asks.

Chenu raises a long claw toward Daisy. "Why should I let you do anything? You do not truly crave the price at stake and you…" He extends and flexes his hand in my direction. "The immortality you seek will not satisfy your hunger. A mortal man and a tree grow until they get old. An immortal festers in his own hubris, unaware of the one thing no one should take for granted."

I arch a brow. "And what exactly is that? Life?"

If I make him talk, he might drop hints at the solution to his riddle.

He shakes his head, chunks of ice detaching from his hair and falling to the ground. "All life starts and ends at the whims of the spindle of the gods. Thousands of creatures are born and die every day, without fail. In itself, life is not righteous nor worth protecting, and death is not the enemy, but a certainty. I live, and yet I suck souls out of imprudent girls and murderers alike. Why shouldn't I eat you, too?"

A full-blown shiver rattles me to my core. Blood-sucking weasels were bad enough. I do not want my soul to be munched on and swallowed by this damned ice creature.

"What would you offer me in exchange for your soul? An apple, a mirror, or a crown?"

His voice is sharper, and I know he won't ask again.

I live, and yet I suck souls out of imprudent girls and murderers alike…

I reach inside the glass dome and pick up the apple, quickly tossing it at Chenu. "An apple. So that you would know right from wrong."

The ice giant bites down on the plum red flesh of the fruit and transforms into a man in front of our eyes. He's perfectly naked and beautiful, his jaw matching the shape of the previously frowning heart. "I see you now. You are the one who comes as two. You will make a fine queen."

His piercing gaze causes my teeth to chatter and my arms to shake as he raises two fingers to the trail. "You should hurry along if you want to save the midnight sun."

I follow his gaze, a ball-shaped cloud visible in the distance. "Midnight Sun? You mean Elio?"

Daisy hooks her elbow in mine and tugs me along the path. "The scary monster-man told us to go, Sixteen. Let's go!"

The strength of the pull almost knocks me off balance, and I follow her lead, my extremities still numb from the pressure of Chenu's gaze and the sizzle of his enigmatic smile. It's like he could see my entire future…

Daisy gives him a wide berth, and her chest heaves as he lets us walk past him. "Come on! Let's catch up with the others before we lose their trail or another creepy fairytale creature comes for us."

I crane my neck around to catch one last glimpse of him, but Chenu is gone, vanished into a cloud of snowflakes.

The huge, silvery moon and an abundance of stars illuminate the snowy forest, and the absence of clouds makes it easy to follow Wendy's trail. The Winter Fae is best equipped to find her way in this white immensity, and her mortal friends follow her lead. Six pairs of footsteps are visible in the fresh snow as Daisy and I walk carefully behind them and slow down whenever I catch their voices on the wind.

Luckily, I've got a better ear than all of them, and the mountain breeze hits us square in the face, keeping our hushed conversations from carrying forward.

Walking in fresh snow is tiring to say the least, but the dresses keep us warm, and the lonely eyeball camera doesn't fly higher than our heads as though it understands our need for stealth.

After about an hour, the trail in front of us switches from the clear footsteps in the snow to a well-traveled trail flanked by a steep rocky cliff. The imprints of sleigh runners, foot traffic, and paws make the terrain easier to navigate, but Wendy and her team are nowhere to be found.

Daisy braces her hands on her thighs, sweaty and breathless, and I motion for her to stay quiet. "Those prints are too big for sleigh dogs."

She bends down to touch the closest set of animal prints. "That's an understatement."

We continue forward and reach a crossroads. The path to our right ascends the mountain, while the path to our left heads downhill, revealing a gap in the rocks that offers an unobstructed view of the valley below. The spectacular oval shape of the crater makes it clear that this entire mountain range was once an active volcano.

"We were walking along the rim of a huge caldera," I say.

A narrow path heads down to the crater's center, at least four or five miles down.

Far off in the distance, the lights of the Ice City flicker in the night. The fortress of death emits a warm orange glow, its walls snuggled up to the crater's steep cliffs.

Screams and shouts echo in from the narrow path leading down to the Ice City, and the shrill edge of the voices quickens my pulse as I peer over the ledge.

About half a mile down the winding path, three sleds pulled by enormous black-and-blue wolves have stopped to greet our fellow competitors. Humanoid figures stand on the footboards behind each sleigh, and I gawk as one of the horned silhouettes steps toward Wendy. The monster slams a long stick that shines with a yellow glow into her chest, and the Winter Fae falls prone to the ground, the motion knocking her out in an instant. Her two friends quickly suffer the same fate.

The Reds crouch with their hands extended forward to retaliate against their attackers, but they're unarmed and outnumbered four to one. They manage to escape the first couple of blows coming at them, but even with their impressive hand-to-hand combat skills, the creatures make quick work of them.

A long set of white horns spirals upward from the monsters' foreheads, making them about seven feet tall in total, but their leather boots and knee patches look as mundane as they come.

"What are these monsters?" Daisy gasps.

"Not monsters. People," I correct her, slowly coming to terms with the truth myself. The men's helmets are mounted with intimidating horns, but it's a uniform. Human hands tie up the girls' wrists and pack them in the front of their sleighs like luggage.

A bit of color returns to Daisy's cheeks as we both retreat from the ledge and back onto the trail. "Are we supposed to walk around them? What kind of challenge is this? Even the Reds were powerless against them."

"I don't think they're part of the challenge." The bite of power rolling off of them is odd, and what would be the point?

"I'm no good at throwing roses, Sixteen. So unless you want me to seduce them into letting us pass?—"

"Look there. Another camera," a man shouts over the wind, pointing to the eyeball hovering above our heads. His voice is powerful and slightly accented, close to a Celtic accent, but I can't place the exact provenance.

The sleighs glide swiftly toward us, and I press Daisy against the rock cliff behind us. Her mouth hangs open in a silent gasp as I cloak us both in shadows. The ice wolves race past, their drivers clad in thick leather gear and gray scarves.

One of them shoots an arrow at the camera, and it falls to the ground in front of our feet with a tok .

"I'll get the Spring seeds and meet you back at the mine," the archer says, then separates from the group, heading toward the challenge's starting point.

The others quickly steer their beasts up the mountain. Up close, the massive wolves stir a deep unease in the pit of my stomach.

Daisy's eyes widen, her ire melting in favor of muted fear. "You're a spider ?" she whispers like the word is blasphemy.

"Yep." It's useless to deny it now, and I summon my shadow blades to life. "We should follow them."

"Why? The Ice City is all the way down there."

I squint at the nefarious storm sticking to the top of the tallest peak. Something's not right, and my blood races. "Elio's up there."

Daisy braces her hands on her hips. "And how would you know that?"

Blood floods my cheeks, but my voice cracks with fear as I say, "I can feel him."