39

Jade and Trevor accompanied me a bit on the lake. It was impossible to take a deep breath in the cold, the air only burned the lungs. The tracker she gave me buzzed on my wrist and my phone buzzed along with it. I got it out quickly.

Trevor: We're taking care of you, Stone.

I looked at him and shook my head since he was standing next to me. I had to chuckle a little, annoyed that I had misjudged the Alaisters so badly. It buzzed again as I looked at it.

Trevor: It's fucking cold in here. Hurry up.

Caspian had tried in vain to persuade Jade and Trevor not to come.

Jade had been upset about Esme and Taylor not being able to return from England. I hadn't understood everything, but it seemed as if witches had created a barrier that they couldn't cross.

Caspian was within earshot of us the entire time, but he hadn't even intervened when they said Caspian had caused it. He just nodded and ordered Jade and Trevor to stay home as well. After that, her resolve to come along had only grown stronger.

Still, they decided rescuing Grayson made more sense than putting me in danger. Caspian had patiently explained to them that he would have done it long ago if that were possible.

The only way to sufficiently distract Elisane, he had insisted, is to come back here. Only when she felt sufficiently confident in what she was doing would she become inattentive.

Jade and Trevor nevertheless stood in front of Caspian's plane as we were about to leave and without asking, walked in ahead of us before we reached it. Caspian just shook his head and held me back for a moment.

The two even pulled their own private jet alongside Caspian's to show him there were other ways to get to St. Vincent of Ice.

Her brother Wyatt stood by the whole time and watched everything with a serious expression. He hadn't said a word in the last few days and I wasn't sure if he would have been able to. His throat wasn't red or blue, it was jet black.

Although nobody said anything about his condition, I was sure it had something to do with Grayson's disappearance and Elisane. He nodded off everything Trevor and Jade did, much to Caspian's displeasure.

You can't get rid of us, Jade had growled at him when he showed them the airplane door from the inside so that they would leave him again. He could have just kicked her out, or one of the other lycans accompanying him, but ultimately he didn't.

We had spent the last few days as normally as possible. Having the undivided attention of everyone at uni, I saw Caspian for the first time today.

I'll protect everyone you care about, not just Grayson, he'd said this morning, looking at me thoughtfully. Whatever was on his mind, there was more than this.

I may have misjudged Caspian completely. He cared, and not just for me. He seemed to know more about everyone around me than I did myself. It only hinted at how little I knew about everyone who had been close to me these past few weeks.

I heard Elisane's voice again. My gaze went from Elisane to Caspian. He was standing next to her, as he had told me a hundred times before. Everyone was a good kilometer away from me now. Caspian towered over everyone by at least half a head and was easy to spot.

In contrast to the others, Caspian was only wearing a light leather jacket over his shirt, which I had so often cried wet over the past few days. He didn't even twitch the muscles he had, as if they weren't working.

Everyone around him was wrapped in thick jackets. That all seemed different with Caspian. He could warm a coffee cup with his hands.

"Take care," Jade grabbed my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes. "You remember everything I taught you, okay?" Jade hastily hugged me and said goodbye.

"We'll catch up as soon as we can," Trevor added, shaking from the cold.

I put my phone back in my pocket. It might be the last time I heard from them, soon there would be no reception. I slipped my glove back on and looked at my friends again before turning around.

I looked at the icy hell I had traversed so many times with Jade over the past year. We'd stocked all the rescue posts with equipment in case the fox would go limp before they found it. I just never expected last year that I would be standing here today.

Everyone knew them, but there were so many that no hunter knew where the fox would go. And there was nothing in the ice that could hold the smell long enough.

Over the past few days she had repeatedly reminded me of where which crevasse was. Even if the snow would hide her, she had even told me to walk so that I could find her.

Being found quickly had been a survival strategy so far. However, it wasn't mine for today.

I walked further to the marker and turned around nervously. My fellow students were now lined up to the left and right of Elisane and Caspian. Those in my class were already in their wolf form, and the onlookers were wrapped in thick cloaks.

I saw Jade's hesitant silhouette blurred behind Caspian. I vaguely felt Trevor's hand rest on her shoulder. Talking out my two friends about holding back today was a one-way street that neither Caspian nor I could face.

Whatever Elisane was planning was something she wouldn't watch from afar. Caspian hoped so, he honestly admitted. He explained to us that it would give Cyril the opportunity to subdue her brother. He assured us that she wouldn't leave Grayson thousands of miles away with her brother, not least because she didn't trust him.

I had my own theory, but kept it to myself. She had told me she would set him free in exchange for my life, and since she certainly wasn't happy with that, she would let him suffer afterwards. No, she had no intention of killing him.

I had no choice. If Caspian's plan went awry, mine wouldn't. I wouldn't let the only chance to save Grayson himself slip past me. I hadn't given up hope that things would go well for at least him.

The lake on which I was standing did not release the water, which was buried under meters of ice, even in summer. It was still a good four kilometers to the other end of the lake and two to the next shore on either side of me.

Jade had repeatedly reminded me that it would be much harder to reach the checkpoints over the mountains from there.

I felt the ring under my glove, snaking around my hand. Ever since I stepped on the lake, it has moved constantly on my finger. I pulled off my glove and watched it slip around my finger faster and faster.

The heat it caused warmed my entire hand and radiated through my body, so that without a glove, I suddenly didn't mind the cold. I could have stood here lightly clad like Caspian.

He had assured me so many times that everything would be fine that I ended up believing what he said desperately. If he had said the moon fell from the sky, I would have believed it without asking.

He stood close to Elisane and put his hand on her back. I should know it's all just for show. It had to be, but it made my stomach feel sick.

Caspian had told me this morning that as soon as I saw him standing next to Elisane, Grayson would be safe. If so, why didn't he do anything? He could easily overpower her now.

I also suddenly wondered why I hadn't seen Cyril yet. By the time we left, Cyril had practically disappeared from the face of the earth. I knew I still didn't know everything, but if I did what Grayson would get out of it all safely, there was nothing to doubt. It was just the panic that made me doubt. It's just panic.

I walked slowly across the frozen lake. When I reached the designated marker, I stopped. I looked around again and looked at the waiting crowd, at my fellow students who were beyond excited and at the three faces I hoped to see again tomorrow.

I saw Elisane raise her hand to signal the start. An ominous thunder echoed across the valley before she dropped her hand, and I saw an avalanche off to my right, racing toward the lake, right between me and the others.

"Run Tara!" I heard Jade yell across the lake. A second detonation shook the stillness of the valley, mingling with the rumble of the avalanche heading toward the lake I was standing on.

I stopped dead in my tracks. The ice cracked beneath me. More and more cracks formed. That couldn't possibly have triggered the avalanche, it was only halfway down the mountain.

I looked around at my friends, but directly in front of them the ice broke so fast that only huge ice floes were swimming in front of them. The detonations echoed through the valley again and the floes continued to break at a rate I could never reach the other end of the lake.

I just stopped.