“To keep a favor.”
Elian nods, and I forget that we’re murderers and enemies and when my identity is revealed, he might very well try to kill me. I don’t think of Yukiko claiming him like a prize she doesn’t know the value of. And I don’t think of the Sea Queen or the notion of betrayal. I think of my human heart, suddenly beating so fast – too fast – and the crease between Elian’s eyebrows as he waits for my answer.
“Are you ever going to kiss me?”
Slowly, Elian says, “That’s not a favor.”
His hand moves from beside mine, and I feel a sudden absence. And then it’s on my cheek, cupping my face, thumb stroking my lip. It feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done and the best thing I could ever do and how strange that the two are suddenly the same.
How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.
“Do you remember when we first met?” he asks.
“You said I was more charming when I was unconscious.”
Elian laughs, and he’s so close that I feel his body shake against mine. I can see every scar and freckle of his skin. Every streak of color in his eyes. I lick my lips. I can almost taste him.
“Ask me again,” he says.
His forehead presses against mine, breath ragged on my lips. I close my eyes and breathe him in. Licorice and ocean salt and if I move, if I breathe, then whatever fragile thing it is between us will disappear with the wind.
“Just do it already,” I say.
And he does.
35
Lira
THE PATH ENDS IN water, just as it began.
With Yukiko as our guide navigating us up her sacred route, we slice our journey in half, never lost or wavering. She leads us to camps with quickfires bright enough to burn a hole through the mountain itself, and up paths that cut as much through time as they do the mountain. Quicker routes, faster courses, trails littered with cheats. Technology that sometimes even carries us part of the way. It’s not a surprise that the Págese royalty are able to survive the climb with so many tricks at their disposal. It’s also not a surprise that anyone not from their bloodline doesn’t survive.
Though I hate to find any common ground with the likes of Yukiko, even I have to admit that her family’s scam is clever. Using everything they can to perpetuate the legend of their origins, ensuring the loyalty of their people through awe alone if nothing else. It’s not a bad hand to play. Like Elian and his golden blood. Or me and Keto’s deadly power. Though in my case, the legend happens to be true.
I stop dead and the rest of the crew stills alongside me. Elian’s gloved hand hovers dangerously close to mine, and though I feel the air spark and warm between us, I don’t look at him. I can’t. I can only stare ahead, my feet burying themselves farther into the snow the longer I stay still. But I can’t move, either. Ahead, there are wonders. There is the palace, carved from the last breaths of my goddess Keto.
Though we’re no more than five hundred feet from the peak of the mountain, we find ourselves at the base of a great canyon, surrounded by chutes of falling water that crash onto a pile of black rocks. They look like the remnants of a landslide, and when the water thrashes against them, it creates mounds of steam that hisses as it rises, before finally dissipating into the clouds. Amid the froth, the rocks float aimlessly on the edges of a great moat, like borders to keep the miraculously unfrozen water inside. In the center, surrounded by island tufts of snow, is the palace. It’s an iceberg that towers to the height of the waterfalls, with windows made from solid wind and ornate steeples that curve and protrude at awkward angles. It is a body of sculpted snow, a fortress of slants and edges that eclipse the glory of the mountain itself.
A broken path of ice leads to the palace, but it is too fragmented and unstable to ensure safe passage for an army of one hundred. Instead, we find a batch of large rowboats secured on the outskirts of the moat, where it is at its calmest, farthest from the three sides of the falling water surrounding us. We split ourselves between the vessels and row toward the mouth of the palace, our boat pushed half by Torik’s strength and half by the great gusts of wind that propel us forward in a crooked line.
When we dismount, the palace is leagues above us, and I have to arch my back just to get a good enough look. But there’s no time to take it in, or wonder how it’s possible that a palace built from snowstorms can seem somehow warmer. A degree or two above the rest of the Cloud Mountain. Yukiko powers ahead with purpose and we follow her into the depths of the iceberg, using her torchlight to guide us when she walks too fast for us to keep pace.
The walls gleam like halls of mirrors, so that suddenly our numbers are doubled. Tripled. All I see are faces and tufts of breath that mingle among us like fog. We can’t help but linger a little behind, walking slower as we try to decipher what is a reflection and what is actually Yukiko. When we fall too far behind and she rounds a corner much too far ahead, we’re forced into a fleeting darkness. Elian’s hand finds mine. He squeezes, just once, and everything in me quickens. Heats. My body curves toward him and I press my free hand to the glacier walls. When we find the curve to the corner, Yukiko’s light illuminates our faces once more.
I don’t drop Elian’s hand.
Yukiko pauses at a large ice wall that shines against the heat of her flame, echoing our faces back to us. She hooks the torch onto a small brace and takes a step back.
“We’re here,” she says.
Elian gives me a quick glance and then unhooks the key from his neck and hands it to Yukiko. His eyes are impatient as Yukiko holds it up against a concave in the wall. The dip mirrors the patterns on the necklace perfectly, from every ornate swirl to its fanged encasing. It’s the perfect lock for our key, and when Yukiko presses the necklace to the wall, it clicks securely into place.
Snow drops from the ceiling and runs from the walls like water. There’s a heavy groan, and then the thick pane of ice heaves itself backward and reveals a cavern too large to be housed inside this moderate palace.
Elian enters like the thirsty explorer. I follow quickly behind him, paying no mind to the princess I brush past. Everywhere is blue. Thick trunks of frost press against the ceiling and then drop back down in leafy tufts. They stem from the walls like branches, veins of ice paving the floor in roots. It’s a forest of snow and ice.
The crew swaggers slowly in and gazes around in wide-eyed wonder. Unlike the rest of this iceberg, the cavern is truly a place of beauty. A place touched by Keto. But Elian doesn’t marvel at his surroundings. He stares resolutely ahead, at the center of the dome.
A steeple of ocean water floats in a perfect mixture of emerald and sapphire, and I recognize it instantly as water from the Diávolos Sea. From my home.