There's Ice in His Veins (A Jack Frost Fanfic)

Chapter 12: Her Orbital Majesty

"The moon puts on an elegant show, different every time in shape, colour and nuance." -Arthur Smith

***

We'd been mazing through the cave for about forty-five minutes now. We managed to figure out that I was the key to finding the center. If I went in the wrong direction, my chest would burn. If I didn't, I was fine.

"This doesn't make sense," I said angrily. "We should be there by now!"

"Maybe...maybe, I don't know...this'll sound stupid..." Jagalan stutters.

"Jack, we don't have time for that. Just tell me."

"What if your chest is burning because it's the sun trying to trick us? Like, what if when it hurts we're going in the right direction, and the sun is trying to make us lost?"

I stare. At what? The cave wall. Because she's right. Completely and utterly right.

"You...are a genius!" I exclaim, enveloping her in a hug and spinning her around. I put her down and kiss her sweetly. "What would I do without you? Don't answer it's rhetorical."

We go down another path to start over, and this time, whenever my chest burns, we keep going. It goes away after I persist in the same direction and returns to guarantee our accuracy.

In no time we're where we we're supposed to be. It isn't a huge space, enough for about ten people, comfortably. A crystal basin sits in the center filled with water, and a hole in the top is sized to fit the image of the sun or moon perfectly.

"Do we have everything?" I ask as Jack unpacks her bag. She checks them off and works immediately. First is the crushed up amethyst. The water sizzles like it's hot when I pour it in. Next we plac the moonflowers top down on the surface. They sink to the bottom and shrivel. The fungi bubble and sink too, and the moonstone melts right into the liquid. "Is that it?"

Jack unsheaths a knife. "Not quite."

"What're you doing?" I ask, suddenly alarmed.

"I need your blood; otherwise, it'll be futile. Just prick your finger-a few drops will do. Also, you need to drink a cup and inject some of it into your bloodstream as well."

I take the small pocket knife and prick my finger, squeezing it to drop in five drops. I feel like five is a nice even, or I guess odd, number.

"Jack we have forty seconds," Jack says in a panic. She hurriedly stirs the mixture until it turns a light pink. She fills a tin can with it and finds a syringe under the basin, filling it with the potion.

I watch and feel myself falter a bit. I lose focus as Jack hands me the can, but I drink as much as I can, which was luckily all of it. I suddenly want out of the confined space. My gums become sore as do my fingernails, and I groan, sinking to the floor.

"Jack?" I hear Jagalan call my name. The moon light is suddenly blocked and casts a tangerine glow in the cave. "Jack!"

I stumble back to a standing position, gripping the basin for support. I look inside and smirked.

"J-Jack?" Jagalan is against the wall with the syringe, seemingly afraid.

I look back into the pink fluid. "We only have seven minutes and thirty-one seconds." It wasn't my voice-to this day I don't know whether to call it the sun's or someone evil affiliated with the sun-and it echoes around the cavern. It is deep and determined, husky and raspy, like an old man on his last breath.

"Seven minutes...and thirty seconds." I watch my eyes glaze over and lose every tint of blue they ever had. Now, they flame like the inferno, red with burning passion.