The Secret World of Briar Rose(97)

? ? ?


A SNOWSTORM HAD overtaken the world by the time Corin reached Winterland. The bitter wind howled like a cry. Snowflakes morphed into tiny pins that struck her cheeks. Still she trudged forward in the snow, her own icy dagger in hand. A trail of dead crows paved the way for where Ezran had traveled. He’d gone through the mountains and past frozen lakes, where cracks formed past each footstep.

Some of the ice began to drift upward to the sky, like hail moving backward. Corin dodged the torrent of crystals while jumping between broken pieces of a frozen lake. A chunk of ice flew into the air and cut her shoulder. Her foot slipped on the glacier as she hurtled into water.

The lake was so cold she thought her bones would freeze over. Her blood pressure spiked, her heart beating wild like a hammer. She tried not to let water clog her throat as she gasped for air above the surface. Her hands grasped for the ledge, knuckles turning white to the bone as she struggled to lift her weight. Her wet clothes had gotten too heavy, and the water threatened to drag her down. She stared at the horrified reflection in the ice: face as pale as a sheet, lips turned blue from the cold.

The glacier had also brought something to the surface. The chain around her neck drifted up, the pendant swirling in the water, the amulet glowing red. Corin remembered handing the necklace to Briar, telling her about the sacrifices her family had made. She remembered Malicine giving her their amulet, a relic of their own lineage as well.

Perhaps these tokens were always meant to be given away from one person to another, like a price to pay. There was a reason why, despite her insides screaming to give up, that Corin kept going. For her mother and father. For Harlow and their friends. For Malicine and Elly.

For her.

Corin wanted a better world for every person she ever loved.

She gasped a lung full of air and pulled herself out of the water. Her arms wrestled across ice, the amulet tucked under her vest, glowing through the fabric and shimmering red across glaciers. She dragged herself across the lake until she could reach snow again. Her teeth chattered like they would fall out. It took everything in her willpower to charge forward, no matter how sharply the wind bit into her skin.

She followed the trail of dead crows leading to the caves. Glaciers glowed a bright blue light, and the open mouth of crystals swallowed her in its entrance. A bitter cold filled the cobalt-colored space. The cavern walls, once glistening like jewels, dulled into a muted gray. Darkness clouded beneath the ice floor, the silhouettes of whales drifting by as limp bodies. The ice no longer vibrated with a rhythmic pulse, but a deep, droning sound of death.

Footsteps echoed from the other side of the cave. She turned the next corner and pressed her back against the wall. The ice felt too cold against her skin, like it was biting through her clothes. Ezran’s presence brought a different chill as he roamed down the corridor.

Icicles turned black in his reflection. Darkness spread across cracked ice, but if she stared closely enough, she could make out an expression in the amorphous gloom, the vague silhouette of hollowed cheeks and mournful eyes within the nebula. He drifted through the caverns like a ghost, yet there was a steadiness in every step, a heavy weight he carried like a dragging shadow.

As he moved, the walls beside him glowed with new visions. Scarlet burned across icy rocks and swirled into a kaleidoscope of scenes unfamiliar from Corin’s memories. Ocean waves under a colorless sky. A young blond boy sinking alone. The bitter smell of salt and tears wafted through the caves like a crisp morning.

Then ocean hit the walls, and water trickled down the ice, eroding away into a new memory. A necklace of pearls tucked inside wooden cases at a marketplace, a slender hand snatching them amid distracted eyes. The ice fractured, and those same fingers interlocked with another’s. Her skin was tinted brown next to his pale hands, yet when the glaciers stretched high enough to reveal the woman with dark hair, the pearls resting on her collarbone made it known that she was his.

She had belonged to him. Until she wasn’t anymore.

The walls shattered as hundreds of pearls splashed to the floor like teardrops. Ezran reached to grasp them, but they melted past his shadowy limbs. A sorrowful groan reverberated through the caves. A hollow voice scraped the ice.

“We were supposed to be happy together. Until that family ruined it all.”

Though his amorphous form didn’t have a face, Corin could tell Ezran had turned to her from the way the shadows shifted. She pulled back to hide behind the wall, but there was no use. In every broken piece of ice, she could see his permeating gloom reflected.

“You destroyed my dreams, Amelia. Now it’s time for me to destroy yours.”

Ice shattered like starlight across the walls. Water burst through the caves, a typhoon disaster exploding and sending Corin off her feet. As quickly as the glaciers fell, the darkness lunged toward Corin. She swung her dagger, but the weapon caught between his shadowy fingers, wispy limbs curling around the blade and cracking the ice. The dagger shattered in her hand and cut her skin. She yelped in pain before a force kicked her chest to the ground. A heavy weight dropped onto her ribs as his shadow clouded her vision. She choked for air, while his darkness wrapped around her throat, strangling her.

“I assumed you were a petty thief, but it’s worse than that. You think you can change and be a hero now. Perhaps that’s why you love this fantasy world so much, how it feeds your delusions. But remember this: You ended up here by chance. You took my place that night, and it was never yours to begin with.”