Chapter 24

“Avalanche!” shouted Bael. He sprinted toward her.

She turned to run, knowing they’d never make it in time. As the cornice bounded toward them, it broke into smaller pieces of ice, setting off more floods of snow. Bael caught her about the waist and plowed forward, tumbling off the ridge, but it was too late.

The avalanche hit with the roar of a jet engine. They tumbled down the slope amid blocks of ice the size of small houses. Bael tried to hold on to her, but a massive piece of ice smashed into him, and he spun away. Ursula tumbled through the snow, which pulled at her legs like frozen quicksand. Somewhere in the back of her brain, she remembered that to survive an avalanche, you were supposed to swim on top of the snow. She swung her arms and kicked with her legs, scrambling to keep her head above the surface.

“Bael!” she shouted, her voice drowning in the roar of the churning snow. Through the sea of white, she glimpsed a grove of pine trees hurtling toward her at breakneck speed. Panic ripped through her mind as she approached the trunks—and slammed directly into one. Tree bark pressed into her face, and snow from the avalanche piled up and over her. In an instant, the sun disappeared, and she was plunged into a frigid darkness.

She struggled against the snow, but it packed in tighter and tighter, entombing her in a frozen embrace. Oddly enough, despite her terror, there was something strangely peaceful about the soft sound of sliding snow and the scent of pine needles.

Although snow was packed into the back of her jacket and up her pant legs, she felt no pain beyond an icy trickle down her spine as it melted. She wiggled her toes and fingers. She didn’t appear to be hurt at all. She took a breath, but the snow didn’t allow her to expand her lungs much.

I’m not going to die like this.

She tried to move her arms and legs, but she found them frozen in place, like she’d been dropped in cement that had instantly solidified.

A stiff pine branch pressed into her cheek, its needles sharp as pins. She tried to move her head out of the way, but only succeeded in driving it into her mouth.

Okay. I’m going to become one of Callum’s unnerving stories.

Ursula forced herself to relax as she tried to focus. I need to think of a plan. But her mind wasn’t quite working properly, and her fingers and toes were starting to grow numb. She gritted her teeth as another icy trickle of water dripped down her back. It was then that the first inklings of an idea came to her.

Slowly, she began to channel Emerazel’s fire, the heat warming her veins. Her toes and fingers burned as the fire thawed them. She summoned the flames along her arms and into the snow itself. Steam misted past her face until she was able to move her arms. Slowly, she brought them forward until she was able to grab onto some of the tree branches. Then she did the same thing with her legs.

As the snow melted, it dripped along her back and down her thighs in icy rivulets. She forced herself not to flinch. Eventually, she was able to move both feet close to the tree.

“This is going to suck,” she muttered to herself as she channeled fire into her head and shoulders.

Icy water poured over her, dripping between her breasts. She ignored it, pulling hard on the tree branch with her arms. Her body moved up a few inches. She waited for snow to fill in under her feet, then repeated the procedure. It took her ages, but eventually she was able to inch her way up the side of the tree.

At last, her head broke the surface, and she sucked in sharply, breathing in the clean mountain air.

On the snow’s surface, she threw herself down, catching her breath until she felt ready to climb to her feet. Her jacket and pants were scorched, and the soles of her boots smoldered. All around her, enormous boulders of ice jutted from amidst the splintered tops of trees.

“Bael!” she shouted, her voice echoing across the remains of the snowy field. Almost immediately, she put her hand to her mouth and turned to look back up at the cornice. Nothing else was falling, at least.

Slowly, she began to make her way through the snowy field, searching the white expanse for Bael. Her pulse raced when she found his pack on the snow. It had torn open—its contents spilled across the snow. At last, she found Bael resting against a large chunk of ice. His chest was above the snow, his lower half buried. There were deep scratches on his face, and his eyes were closed.

She ran to him, and his eyes opened. “Ursula. I was terrified you were?—”

“Dead?” Ursula laughed. She knelt to touch his cheek. “I’m fine. I was buried. My fire got me out. That’s all.”

She looked down at the snow packed around him. “Let me dig you out.”

Bael shook his head. “No. You can’t.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, pulling at his arm. “You can’t stay here. You’ll freeze to death.” She looked up at the darkening sky, and the red rays of sunlight.

Bael looked at her with gray eyes. “Ursula. Both my legs are broken. Strong as you are, you won’t be able to carry me. You’ll need to go back to the village. Have them send a rescue party.” A trickle of blood dribbled from his lip. His eyelids fluttered, then closed.

“Bael?” Concern pierced her chest. She touched his shoulder, but he didn’t move.

I can’t leave him. I just can’t. As quick as she could, she channeled what remained of Emerazel’s fire into her hands and began digging him from the snow.