The Hunter's Game

Chapter 5 - Flame and Frost

"I'm getting the feeling the forest does not want us here." Alex said, his brown horse at the rear of the small group.

They'd left Jartol several hours before, after a short meal with the three hunters they met there. Now they were on their own, already past the border of the forest.

"Your'e not the only one." Gideon answered gravely, staring up at the trees above their heads. They loomed, the branches nearly striking their heads.

The tension in the two was clear with the way their muscles were wound tight.

Dawn rolled her eyes and shared an exasperated glance with Jacqueline. A moment later she tore her eyes away, the urge to swing a fist at her back in her.

It was more than just the enmity they'd built in the School; something deep inside her that had began roiling since the rite at the school wanted her to leap upon Jacqueline and unleash hell on her. It was an overwhelming and very unreasonable feeling.

"I'm beginning to question the judgment of sending that poor bird to find this captain. There's absolutely no way it would be able to fly in these trees." Alex added, staring mournfully at the empty cage hanging from his saddle, where the dove Akhand had provided them had been kept.

"It's just a dove, Alex." Jacqueline sighed in frustration. "The order has thousands more."

"And that is excuse to lose one?" Alex whirled on her, his face twisting in anger. "You're just on more human in the order. Does that make it okay to throw you away?"

Jacqueline flinched and her face colored slightly. Alex had obviously touched a nerve there.

She opened her mouth to say something when Gideon pulled sharply on his horse's bridle to bring it to a halt. He twisted in his seat to glare at them.

"Keep your voices down. Do you want to let every predator in the woods to know we're here?" He hissed.

Jacqueline turned on him, a snarl on her face, and suddenly her eyes were glowing orbs, aquamarine light pouring from them.

Dawn instinctively dove from her horse, hitting the ground with her eyes shut. There was a flash of light, and the temperature suddenly dropped, as though winter was upon them.

Dawn slowly opened her eyes and looked up, not knowing what she was expecting to see. Her jaw dropped in surprise at what she saw.

Jacqueline lay in the center of an explosion of ice, her horse stumbling to its knees beneath her. The frozen earth around her stretched towards Gideon, but it stopped a mere feet before the hooves of his panicking horse. Alex was fine, behind Jacqueline, but his horse threatened to buck him off in an attempt to escape.

Dawn's horse had already taken off into the darkness of the forest, wildly neighing as it galloped away.

Jacqueline stared at her hands, face stretched in an expression of awe and... fear. Her clothes had tiny icicles hanging off it and her hair had turned white, but she didn't seem to notice.

"What in the Patriarch's name was that?" Alex gasped as he finally regained control of his wild horse.

Dawn knew, and by the look in Jacqueline's eyes, she knew as well. Jacqueline had just accessed her power for the very first time.

"Quick!" Gideon barked, regaining his wits faster than the others. "We need to get out of here before every animal that saw that light comes running."

He glanced at Jacqueline's horse, which was now on its side, legs pawing the earth weakly. Jacqueline's ice must have killed it.

"Damn it." Gideon snarled, realizing Dawn's horse was gone as well. "Dawn, get behind Alex. Jacqueline, with me. Now!"

Jacqueline snapped out of her torpor, and with a hand from Gideon, swung onto the horse behind him. Dawn quickly joined Alex, who flicked the reins, pushing the horse into a gallop, leaving the ice and the dying horse behind.