Cherie Colyer - Hold Tight

“And he’s holding back,” Brea gloated. She had taken a seat on the grass. Bright orange and red poppies peppered the ground around her.

I carefully stepped around the meadowsweet, moving closer to Josh. Brea remained safe and warm in her bubble of summer while Reed brought the wrath of winter upon us. With a flick of my fingers, I held a sphere of fire the size of a basketball. It hovered in the air in front of us, providing a source of heat.

“What do we do?” I spun to my left and then my right, looking for a way out of this mess. The shadows hid behind tombstones, unfazed by the change in weather.

“We move to Plan C.” Josh swiveled to follow Reed’s movements, never once letting him out of his sight.

I had told Isaac and Josh that Plan A—trapping Brea—was flawed because Reed would never give in so easily. He was more cunning than they were willing to admit; my previous attempt to deceive him into going home had taught me that. Plan B, on the other hand, let Reed believe he was winning. He’d have no reason to call upon winter’s bitter grip. More importantly, it ensured my family and friends remained safe. The guys disagreed, however, and had said I was the one underestimating Reed. Then, before the guys would agree with me that Josh shouldn’t take on Reed alone, they made me promise not to invoke Plan B without Josh’s consent. They hadn’t told me of any other options, though.

“When did you come up with a Plan C?” I asked.

“Just now,” Josh replied, dropping to a crouch a moment before a crystalline arrow soared over his head. “And I still don’t like Plan B, so no, it’s not okay to go there yet.”

“You’re hard-headed,” I scoffed.

The next arrow pierced the ground at my feet, and I had no doubt it landed exactly where Reed had intended it to. I ran a finger over its shaft, yanking my hand back. “It’s made of ice,” I said in awe.

“Last chance,” Reed snarled. “Release my sister and accompany me to the solstice celebration or, when I’m done here, the next person I visit will be your brother.”

He held out a hand for me to take, a smile playing at the corner of his thin lips. My next breath filled my lungs with the sweet scent of pine and snow, causing my thoughts to swim in my skull. I opened my mouth to reply, but my powers bit back the Okay, just leave Chase alone I’d been ready to say.

Josh stepped in front of me, momentarily blocking my view of Reed and giving me the precious second I needed to realize what agreeing would have cost me. I said a silent thank you that Isaac had gotten Dad and Chase out of the house, then put my hands on Josh’s shoulders and peered around him. “Stop messing with my head!”

Reed pulled another arrow from the quiver on his back but didn’t fire it.

“What’s Plan C?” I whispered to Josh.

He replied out of the side of his mouth. “We teleport the hell out of here and take Miss Sunshine with us.”

“That is not better than my idea,” I hissed.

It would have been, if I knew how to travel by telekinesis or if Josh could carry a living object with him, but as it was, he had only managed to transport himself short distances.

“They’re plotting their escape,” Brea so kindly informed her brother.

Thick columns of ice jutted out of the ground like stalagmites, scattering the shadows, pushing up headstones, and uprooting trees. Josh leaped out of the way as a jagged pillar of ice broke through the grass beneath his feet. A large crack tore through the frozen dirt and traveled outward, swallowing one of our candles as it continued to the base of the large stone angel. The next icicle shot up in front of Brea, knocking the meadowsweet aside and freeing her.

“I warned you,” she said and vanished, leaving Josh and me with a very pissed-off faerie.

Josh held his arms in front of him, wrists crossed. He inhaled deeply, swiftly sweeping his hands downward on the exhale. Rain poured down around us in a sheet so thick it appeared as if we stood inside the eye of a hurricane. I gathered the moisture from the air and conjured a storm cloud over the spot where I’d last seen Reed. Lightning struck, but since I didn’t hear him scream in pain, I guessed it had missed its target.

“I can’t see him,” I said, stating the obvious.

“We need a minute to regroup,” Josh replied as he kept the waterworks flowing. He adjusted his hemp bracelet and whispered, “I love you, Kaylee.” If I didn’t know Josh wasn’t the type to give up, that’s exactly what I’d have thought he was doing.

The temperature dropped again. The torrent froze solid from the ground up for as far as I could see, leaving Josh and me trapped in a smooth tube of ice. The grass became slick. I twisted, looking for any sign of Reed, and slipped. The next thing I knew, I was on my butt looking up at Josh.

“Happy now? We’re his hostages.”

“It’s not over yet.” Josh pulled me to my feet.

I brushed frost off my jeans. “We don’t have any other choice, Josh. You know it.”

Fine spider-like veins raced along the wall of our jail, producing thin cracks all around us. Chunks of ice exploded inward from our left. Josh and I ducked, arms over our heads, as debris pummeled our backs. Reed stepped through the hole created by the explosion, bow in hand, arrow drawn and pointed at Josh.

“No!” I jumped up, my boots slipping on the frozen ground, but I managed to stay on my feet. Reed didn’t even flinch. “Arrow!” I screamed, hand held in front of me, praying that adding the word to my desire would make the spell work.

An instant later, I held the arrow in my right hand. I chucked it to the ground behind me. While Reed reached over his shoulder and grabbed another, Josh threw a bolt of energy at him. I pushed out a surge of power and just managed to knock it away.

“What are you doing?” Josh barked.

“We’re not killers!”

“He’s the one with the arrows!”

“Bow!” I yelled. The bow disappeared from Reed’s hand and reappeared in mine. I looked at Josh. “Using your powers to kill will turn your soul black!”

“Then so be it!” Josh’s eyes narrowed, the sky darkened, and lightning cut a jagged line from the heavens toward Earth. Reed jumped backward just before it struck the ground where he had stood.

I dropped the bow and, with my hands raised in front of me, hit Reed with a burst of air, pushing him a few feet away from us. To Josh, I said, “I won’t let you kill him, Josh. He’s not worth an eternity in hell.”

“And I won’t let you risk a lifetime in Neverland!”

“Yes, you will.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Trust me, please.”

“Only if this fails.” Josh attacked Reed with another bolt of energy. Reed shouted a stream of words in a language I couldn’t understand.

Josh held another bolt. He’d just brought his arm back to launch it when a layer of ice slinked over his shoes and up his legs. Dropping the bolt, he tried to move, but before he could free himself, he became encased in a frozen shell.

Reed appeared next to me, and I quickly moved to the other side of Josh.

Reed leaned around him. “You may not have noticed, but Witch Boy can no longer protect you.”

“Release him!”

“So that he may attempt to kill me again? I think not.”

I ran my fingers over Josh’s ice-covered bicep. It was smooth and extremely cold. “If he doesn’t freeze to death, he’ll suffocate!” When Reed only chuckled, I yelled, “I kept him from killing you!”

“You ended our battle. Nothing more.” He held a hand out. “Come with me.”

The afternoon couldn’t have possibly gotten worse. Reed had managed to free his sister without stepping foot in our circle or near the door back to his realm, Josh looked like an ice sculpture, and I was stuck in the creepy section of the cemetery with the faerie I was supposed to avoid and half-dozen shadows that hadn’t been scared away by the supernatural fight. To add to my list of growing problems, now that I wasn’t battling Reed, it was all I could do to keep from trembling with a mix of want and dread.