Page 2 of Ice

Kole’s body stiffens.

Fire skitters beneath my skin.

A figure appears. Silver hair, dressed in a brown skirt and a black roll-neck sweater. Round glasses, small earrings, but large gold bangles on her wrist that remind me of Rev.

“Miranda?” I breathe.

That’s her. Kole’s voice echoes in my head. I’d know her anywhere.

As if she can hear me — even though she’s too far away to possibly hear me — Miranda meets my gaze. Her eyes are so pale they’re almost silver, too. She lifts her fingers to her neck, and then I realize there is something around it.

A copper-colored band, like a collar but tighter, presses into her skin.

Miranda steps in line beside Zephyra, and Zephyra trails a long lithe finger along the collar. “This was my last witch’s invention,” she says. “Not magick, actually.” She takes something from her pocket. A small round black object, which she turns over in her hand as she studies Miranda’s face.

Miranda does not look at her. Just stares straight ahead.

At me.

“If I press this button, what happens, Miranda?” Zephyra asks, her lips almost brushing Miranda’s ear.

Raising her voice, speaking loudly and confidently as if she’s leading a lecture not standing in front of a hoard of vampires, Miranda says, “If Queen Zephyra presses the button on that remote, metal spikes will pierce my throat and kill me.”

A shiver of dread coils around my lungs and constricts my breath. The sensation builds inside me, becomes hotter, fuller, bigger.

There’s the fire again.

Straining to be set free.

I run through scenarios in my head. Vampires are fast, but these days I’m faster. I could take the remote, toss it into the undergrowth, free Miranda, then torch Zephyra and her followers before they even blinked.

If I was in control.

Which was hard enough before…. let alone now.

Now, with whatever spell surrounds us, I have no chance.

“You have what I asked for?” Zephyra asks, looking at Miranda.

Nearby, Tanner has dropped to his knees and is crouched over Mack, checking his pulse. “He’s breathing,” he says, meeting my eyes. “But he’s not good.”

I close my eyes and try not to let the rush of emotion eviscerate me as it tears through my chest.

I cannot lose him.

Snow has lowered himself to his belly and is pressed against Mack’s side, licking his hand.

“We said we’d come with you. They need to get out of here. Mack needs help.” I search for Kim, but I can’t find him. When did he disappear? The vamp who drank from him has disappeared too.

Zephyra turns to Miranda. “Well? Do you have what I asked for, witch?”

Running her fingers over her collar and taking a deep breath, Miranda nods. “I have them.”

Slowly, she reaches into the pocket of her skirt and pulls out what looks like a small leather cuff. She hands it to Zephyra, then a second, a third, a fourth.

All black.

All perfectly ordinary looking.