Iron Frost - Clan of the Rim Chronicles #1

6

CALDER KEPT HIS SILENCE looming around our journey once again, but my irritation of it didn't change. I was told by him the night before that I would get the answers I wanted, and I wasn't going to let him out of that agreement no matter how many times I had to ask.

"Why did those guards kill my parents? I mean. . .my protectors? If they were after me, why didn't they just leave them alone?"

I watched him clench his jaw for the thousandth time since I'd met him, and I knew by now that had to mean he was either angry or uncomfortable. But I figured it mostly meant he was holding something back.

"You said you would tell me what you could about my questions, Calder," I reminded him. "You know how important this is that I find out what I need to. I've been thrusted into this whole other world and life in the span of a day. The least you could do is that."

Calder gave one more moment of pause before he finally replied, "I already told you. Hanir and Linnea were just in the way of what the knights wanted. It would have happened to anyone who was there, whether from our world or from the ephemeral one. The knights would have killed a newborn child if it prevented them from getting to you. The cost doesn't matter to them."

I felt a small spout of bile churn in my stomach at that thought, but continued. "Hanir and Linnea didn't look like you and I. Why is that if they were from this place? The guards from yesterday appeared just as you do. They had pale skin and black hair, even the weird pointy ears I've held back asking about. Which means everyone here must look the same way. Hanir and Linnea were both tan with brown hair, and. . .right before Linnea died I noticed her eyes turn an amber color. It was like fire."

"Hanir and Linnea were a rare race in the realm that died off years ago. They were fire fey," Calder explained. "They were the only two that had survived their kind's uprisings agaisnt the frost fey. When they surrendered their loyalty to the Clan of the Rim their lives were spared. They were assigned your protectors because their heat kept you hidden and your powers dormant all these years. The iron knights never would have found you if you hadn't kissed that human, an ephemeral."

All of this information seemed insane and it was hard to take in all at once, but I had to keep going. With Calder I didn't know how much time I had before he would shut off from me again. I needed to get in every question and answer possible.

"Why did it happen?"

Calder turned his gaze away from the path to look up at me puzzlingly. "What?"

"Why did I freeze Blane to death when I kissed him?"

The words pained me to say them, partially because I still hadn't come to terms with the fact that I'd killed the only guy I'd ever crushed on or kissed. I wondered if the police had found his and my protectors' bodies by now. Or if Jessi was waiting for me in the school parking lot to gossip about getting her homework partner's phone number. It seemed so unreal to me that just yesterday morning I was at the breakfast table, not even realizing my entire life and everything I knew was going to change forever.

I felt a tear prick one of my eyes and I quickly wiped it away before Calder saw.

"We. . .our kind," Calder began, "our lips can't touch the ones of an ephemeral. It's like a body chemistry thing, if you want to call it that. Our kiss can legitimately save and heal another frost fey, by transferring our power over to them. Though we can hold that power back if we want to, it was different for you. You have no control over your powers right now, so when your lips touched Blane's you sent some of it into his body. Because he was a human and not one of us, it killed him."

I took a moment to process all of the information I still didn't fully understand, then quickly changed the subject. I didn't want to know what or if something happened when a fire fey kissed someone. . .