The memory of how it had felt to stand helpless before the leopard haunted me. But the mountains also grew steeper and more treacherous, and I had little time to think of other things than keeping my feet and following the path the others broke for me.

Giselle had obviously not filled Oliver in on the true situation with the leopard because he continued to view me more warmly than he had since the deal with Cassandra. And Giselle herself seemed to have forgiven me for not supporting her attendance on the trip. Apparently she viewed us as comrades-in-arms after the run in with the leopard.

But their approval could not rebuild my shaken confidence. I was utterly determined not to prove myself the weak link again. And so I concentrated with utmost focus on my hiking, my technique improving enough that I no longer always trailed far behind the rest.

Undoubtedly we had all noticed the snow growing deeper and the temperature dropping, but no one spoke of it. I could see them all reacting to the cold in various subtle ways, though, and could only be silently grateful for the heat that kept me perpetually warm from the inside out.

I still worried, however, and that third night it took me longer to fall asleep than usual. The steady breaths sounding from around the fire made me think I was the only one lying awake—until Oliver’s whisper sounded from the darkness.

“Do you think they’re still holding off? Lord Treestone and the Elamese. They know we’ll need some time, right?”

I started and bit my lip. It had been constantly at the back of my mind—a pressure that never eased as I tried to move faster up the mountain—but I had no desire to talk to Oliver about the potential coup.

My silence didn’t deter him, however.

“Would you really stand against me? If it came to a coup?”

I sighed. “Not against you, never against you. At least, that’s not how I think of it.”

“What other way is there to think of it?” He sounded bitter.

So the leopard hadn’t been enough to win me forgiveness, after all.

“With things as they currently stand,” I said, “without our interference, there shouldn’t be any bloodshed. A bloodless coup. And possibly only a temporary one. If it comes to one at all.”

“And my parents?”

I grimaced, although he couldn’t see me in the dark. I didn’t want to admit out loud that I didn’t know what the coup had planned for them. But surely Lord Treestone and the Elamese didn’t mean to execute them? Not until they had actual evidence of what was going on, at least.

The silence lengthened while I hoped a little desperately I was right. I had gone over and over it in my mind, and I still didn’t see what else I could have done. We were all trying to save Eldon in our own way.

“They didn’t say exactly how long they would wait, but I’ve been thinking about that. I think they were protected from the enchantment before because they were so far south. But my own people have been slowly freezing up, just like your people. It’s hard to say how long it will take, but if they wait long enough, they may lose the motivation for a coup.”

Oliver’s indrawn breath sounded loud in the darkness, and then he gave a quiet bark of humorless laughter.

“I have no idea what to think of that. Should I be hoping that more of my people succumb to this curse in order to save my family? Soon we might not have a kingdom left to rule at all.”

I shrugged and then remembered I needed to speak aloud. “I don’t know.”

Silence fell again, before Oliver’s sudden whisper made me startle for a second time.

“No bloodshed. That’s why you agreed, isn’t it? To protect me. You think I’m going to get myself killed if I oppose them.”

“Of course. What other reason could I have?”

He sighed, the sound heavy in the darkness. “How did we end up here?”

I tried to think of an answer and then decided it must be a rhetorical question.

“I’m so sorry, Oliver. About everything.”

He shifted slightly, the sound barely audible above the sleeping breaths of the other two.

“You’re not the one planning a coup, Celine. And you didn’t create this curse. You’re just trying to keep us all alive. I might not like it, but I can understand it.”

Did that mean he’d forgiven me? He didn’t say any more, and after another stretch of silence, his breaths joined those of the others. I would just have to wait and hope so.

* * *

As we headed out the next morning, even I could feel the temperature dropping. I tried to remember if it had warmed at least slightly after the previous sunrises. It didn’t help my confidence that Sterling kept glancing at the sky in concern.

“What’s wrong?” I finally demanded, looking from Sterling to Oliver and then finally Giselle. “Am I missing something?”

“This weather…” The unease was clear in Oliver’s voice.

“It’s not looking good,” Sterling agreed. “Maybe we should find somewhere to hole up for a day or two.”

I was already shaking my head as Oliver spoke.

“And risk getting snowed in? We don’t have enough wood for that. We wouldn’t be able to keep a fire burning.”

He seemed to be carefully not looking in my direction, and I wasn’t sure whether he was driven by the desire to keep my abilities secret or just the determination not to be held up when we were already so close. I was fairly certain I could keep us all warm if it came to it, but I wholeheartedly agreed with either motivation. I had no desire to spend any more time than necessary stuck uselessly on this mountain.

“Aye,” Sterling rubbed his chin. “You have the right of it there.” He sighed. “I suppose we’ll press on then and try to outrun it. I just wasn’t expecting anything this bad. Things are deteriorating faster than I realized.”

“Outrun what?” I asked.

“The coming storm.” He frowned. “Let’s just hope it’s not a blizzard.”

“We just have to get close enough to your village, though, right?” Giselle watched him with sharp eyes. “We must be getting close now, and once we’re in the circle of the enchanted object, we should be safe from something like a blizzard.”

Sterling nodded, his gaze still on the sky. “Aye, that’s right, Your Highness. We might be able to reach the village today even. Depending.”

I met Giselle’s eyes, and she shrugged slightly. Oliver continued to show a determined face—pressing forward without consideration of failure—but Giselle and I were both significantly more skeptical of our so-far helpful guide. Except there was nothing we could do at this point if he was lying to us.

I could only hope he had no more desire to be caught out in a blizzard than we did.

* * *

The sky had soon become a solid wall of gray, hiding the sun from view. I itched to light up my hands—just so I could clearly see the path ahead of me—but I carefully refrained, keeping a tight hold on my inner fire.

But as the temperature plummeted, I found myself fueling that inner warmth more and more just to stay warm. It had become an exercise in self-control as I pushed the heat down my arms to warm my fingers, holding it just short of bursting out into the open.

The effort held so much of my attention, that I had stopped watching the weather. So it took me by surprise when the first snowflakes fell. They were soon joined by others, however, and ignoring the heavy flurry became impossible.

Now that I had returned my attention to the others, I could see that they looked almost deathly cold. The tiny sections of exposed skin on their faces shone red, and Giselle’s body periodically shook with deep shivers. Oliver kept throwing her concerned looks, but in truth he didn’t look much warmer himself.

When we stopped for a brief rest, I approached Giselle, slipping off my glove once her body blocked me from Sterling’s sight. Biting my lip in concentration, I slipped my fingers up her closest sleeve until I reached her skin just above her wrist.

“Oh,” she gasped, her eyes flying to mine. She lowered her voice. “You’re so warm!”

“And you’re freezing,” I whispered back, equally quiet.

Oliver positioned himself between us and Sterling, glancing my way, his eyes holding equal parts concern and hope. After my efforts all morning, I was confident I could do this. But I understood his concern. And shared it. I would have to walk a very fine line.

Slowly—painfully slowly—I pushed heat up through my arms and out my palm. I felt a gentle warmth radiate out against Giselle’s skin as a soft puff of hot air pushed its way up her sleeve, briefly ballooning out her jacket before it found its way out the other openings.

“Ohhh…” She closed her eyes for a brief moment, a grateful smile on her face. “It’s so warm!”

I grinned triumphantly across at Oliver who smiled gratefully back.

“Your control is getting better,” Giselle whispered, and I shrugged.

“I’ve had a lot of practice this trip. I’m fairly certain I would have frozen to death already without…” I gestured toward my middle wordlessly.

“I wish my godmother had given me—” Giselle cut off her words at my warning look. For all we were talking quietly, the less said the better.

I waited a minute before carefully sending another rush of hot air up her sleeve. Then another minute and another burst of heat. Slipping my hand out, I moved to stand casually next to Oliver. Sterling continued to show no interest in us, his eyes focused on the ominous sky, the flurries of snow, and the path ahead of us. I didn’t like his frown.

Holding out my hand, I hovered just above Oliver’s sleeve, my eyes asking him a silent question. I hadn’t hesitated with Giselle, but this felt different, despite my only offering to touch his arm.

He bit his lip, and then a shiver shook him, and he nodded slightly, extending his own hand toward me. Not looking up into his face, I slowly slid my bare fingers up between his glove and sleeve. As soon as my fingertips brushed against exposed skin, the controlled fire inside me roared, and I took a deep breath, pausing while I roughly pushed it down, reasserting my control. I would have to be even more careful this time.

I glanced up into Oliver’s eyes, expecting to see confusion at my pause, but his eyes held something else entirely. The coldness that had lingered between us since my agreement with Cassandra had indeed fallen away. Lost perhaps somewhere in the darkness of the night before.

I looked away quickly, already struggling to control the raging inside. Forcing myself to concentrate, I pushed my hand up until my full fingers rested against his forearm.

Slowly, inch by inch, I released some of the heat within me, letting it creep up my arm and then out. I loosened my internal hold even more, and a rush of warm air—stronger than the one I had used on Giselle—rushed up his sleeve.

He sighed, his eyes briefly closing as I felt his body relax. I hadn’t realized how tense he had been. I watched his now relaxed face with concern. For just the moment, he had let himself go, and it emphasized how tightly he had been in control before. Just how cold was it, really? I had no way to know how much my ability masked the effects of the weather. If we continued to press on, would we make it to the village?

Just as I thought it, the flurry of snow became more of a solid wall, as if the clouds had suddenly opened wide and dumped all their remaining stores on us at once. Except it kept going and going. I stood between Oliver and Giselle, and I could see them both through the swirling white—just. Sterling was lost to me already.

Until he suddenly appeared from nowhere, so coated in white I almost didn’t recognize him. Jumping slightly, I whipped my hand out of Oliver’s sleeve and stuffed it back into my glove. If he had noticed our odd stance, he didn’t mention it.

“We need to find shelter,” he shouted. Even so, the wind tugged his words away so fast I could barely make them out. “Right now. This is a blizzard, all right.”

He produced a rope from somewhere and threaded it through a small loop on each of our packs that I hadn’t even noticed before. To keep us from losing each other. Clever.

But my admiration fell away as we began to move. Our pace was so slow I wanted to scream, and yet I had no idea how Sterling in the front managed to find a way forward at all. Several times I saw him jerk suddenly as a tree appeared directly in front of him, too obscured by the white to be seen earlier.

I had been roped between Oliver and Giselle, and my attention was soon focused solely on them. I felt as if we moved too slowly to bear, and yet they walked as if they could barely keep up. Giselle stumbled once and clambered back to her feet so slowly, she nearly got jerked back into the snow by the rope connecting us together.

When she stumbled again and didn’t get up, I tugged on the rope attaching me to Oliver. He looked back, a blankness in his eyes that scared me. But at the sight of Giselle he seemed to regain some life, turning to call loudly to Sterling.

I couldn’t hear his words, but I had already turned my attention back to the younger princess. She seemed to have abandoned any pretense of getting up and simply lay there in the snow. I dropped to my knees beside her, shaking her frantically.

“Giselle! Giselle!”

She groaned and mumbled something I couldn’t hear, feebly trying to push me off.

Ripping off my glove, I stuck my hand back up her sleeve, the cold of her skin shocking me enough that I nearly lost balance myself. She had gotten noticeably colder since our stop.

I wanted to pour all of my heat into her, but I managed to retain enough sense to force myself to move slowly again. This time when the warmth enveloped her, it seemed to only make her shiver harder.

I looked over my shoulder for Oliver, who had approached us and stood just behind me. I didn’t have to be able to see myself to know my face would show nothing but fear.

“She’s too cold. We can’t go on like this,” I screamed up at him, battling the wind to be heard.

Sterling appeared next to him. He looked down at Giselle with hooded eyes. When I transferred my gaze to his, he shrugged helplessly.

“I can’t find anything in this. We could be right next to a cave, and I wouldn’t be able to tell…”

I looked around wildly, but he was right. Solid white surrounded us in every direction.

Oliver looked helplessly between me and Giselle. I could see the conflict within him, and I shook myself. This was ridiculous. What was the point in keeping my secret if the others were going to die for it?

I surged to my feet. “Oliver, help Giselle up. Sterling—” I turned to him. “Didn’t you nearly run into two trees just back there?”

He leaned closer, and I had to repeat myself.

“Aye.”

I frowned. The tree before that had been off to the left slightly as well. If there was a clump of trees there, it might provide some meager protection at least.

I ripped off my second glove and used my still warm fingers to unlace us from the rope. Sterling looked like he wanted to protest, but at sight of the determination on my face, he subsided. I reattached us all in a new order. Me at the front, followed by Oliver, then Giselle, then Sterling.

Between the two men, they had managed to prop Giselle back to her feet. She swayed slightly but remained standing, and her eyes seemed to have regained some sense. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Her body had made enough of a dent in the snow that the fresh falls hadn’t quite erased the mark of it. Using the slight dip for reference, I moved backward and to what had been our left. A tree appeared from nowhere, and I barely stopped before colliding with it.

I took a deep breath, reminding myself this was what I had hoped to find. I pushed forward until I had passed four trees before stopping and gesturing for the others to huddle close.

We formed a tight little circle, slipping off our packs and allowing them to fall to the snow behind us. Once we were all sitting, I gestured for Sterling to pass me the small number of sticks he still had tied to his pack. I had seen him save some from the night before as well as gather a few more before the blizzard hit. He tried to yell at me that there was no use of thinking of a fire, but I shook my head angrily and gestured more firmly.

Shrugging, he turned and fumbled with the strap before managing to get them free. I wasn’t sure I needed them, but they would provide a center for the fire I intended to create, and I figured they certainly couldn’t hurt. Piling them haphazardly in the tiny space between us all, I paused for a brief second and met Oliver’s eyes.

He looked regretful but resigned.

Pushing my bare hands forward, I sent a controlled burst of fire from my fingertips into the wood.

With a yelp, Sterling almost toppled backward, his pack stopping him from going over completely as he threw himself away from the fire in shock. I ignored him and kept the flames going until the wood finally dried and then reluctantly began to burn.

I stopped for a second to take a breath as the others all swayed toward the warmth. The thick snowflakes kept falling fast, however, and our little fire wouldn’t last long on its own. Thrusting my flat palms into the air, I sent out a gust of hot air. It dissipated quickly, but one glance at Giselle was enough to stoke my internal temperature to raging hot.

Scrunching my face, I sent a strong wind streaming from my hands. I pushed them out in a circle as the wind continued to come, shaping it until it rushed around us in a tight circle. The warm cocoon that now enveloped us repelled the flakes that still fell, giving the little fire a chance to burn steadily.

Three deep sighs sounded, and three bodies slumped against their packs as their muscles slowly relaxed. I, on the other hand, remained upright, every muscle in my body tight and controlled. I had never tried to keep my power going for so long or with so much precise control.

Keeping one hand upward, warm wind still pouring from me, I pointed the other downward, fresh fire leaping from my fingertips to feed our small blaze. It burned brighter and hotter than the sticks would ever have allowed.

I glanced briefly at the others again, concerned for their recovery, but the shock in Sterling’s face and the awe in Oliver’s made me look quickly away. I couldn’t afford any lapses in concentration. Not when all of their lives depended on me.

The minutes stretched on, and I could no longer even guess at how much time had passed. The wind continued to howl around us, shrouding the rest of the world in endless white. For all I knew we were all that was left of Eldon. Of all the kingdoms. Perhaps the ice and snow had already won.

But no. I pushed back the thought, my flames briefly flaring up until I pulled them back under control. Not while I still had breath and strength. I would fight with every bit of fire within me.

But as the endless day stretched on—long since passed into night for all I knew—I could feel my strength failing. And yet the storm raged on, its own strength unabated. I might have started to feel truly afraid, but I had no energy left even for that.

A bigger fight was now being waged inside me. I struggled against my exhaustion, the black abyss of unconsciousness reaching for me with eager hands. I pushed it back, pouring even more of myself into my wind and fire, the rest of the world fading away.

Oliver’s voice broke through to me, my name on his lips and his hands on my shoulders. But he pulled back immediately with a wordless exclamation. How hotly was I burning?

I tried to speak, to warn him away from me, but no words would come. And the tiny break in my concentration proved too much. My wind died, and the fire with it, the loss of the bright flames plunging my world into darkness.

Black roared up to meet me, and I fell unresisting toward it. Just as it engulfed me, I felt my body fall into strong arms. And this time they didn’t flinch. My heat was gone. I had nothing left.