Ice Country(64)

“I will,” Siena sobs, and I feel a hot tear slip down my cheek, the first in a long time, since the Cold took my father. I wipe it away with an angry hand. Wes stares at me across the hall, brows heavy.

“And you, Circ,” Skye says, a little louder, “don’t let me hear of you doin’ anythin’ to hurt my lil sis, or you know I’ll find a way to kick yer butt from wherever I am.”

“I won’t,” Circ says.

She’s not stopping there. Everyone’s getting a turn. “Feve,” she says, “you’ve done some searin’ stupid things in yer time, and you’ve hurt me and my sister more’n anyone, save fer my father, but yer more’n yer past, more’n what you done. Throw it all behind you and be the man yer capable of.”

“I’ll make you proud,” Feve says.

“Wilde, my sister,” Skye says. “You might have a different mother, a different father, but you’ll always be my sister.” Another freezin’ tear splashes below me and I scrub at my eyes with my fists.

“I know, Skye. And you mine. Go with honor,” Wilde says.

“Buff,” Skye says, and I stop rubbing my face. I didn’t expect us to be included in her goodbyes. We’re just Icers. “You seem like a good fella, and you’ve got a good friend sittin’ ’ere ’side me. He seems like he’s got more thunder in him than a storm sometimes. Help him control it ’fore he searin’ gits himself killed, will ya?”

I can’t hold back the laugh that chokes outta my throat. “I’ll try,” Buff says, as if he’s just been given the biggest challenge of anyone.

“Uh, Dazz’s brother,” Skye says.

“Wes,” he reminds her, watching me when he says it.

“Thank you fer tryin’ to help us. When you think of me, I hope you think of someone who tried to pay you back, who tried to fight fer you the same way you fought fer me.”

“I will,” Wes says, tucking his head in his hands. He barely knows her at all, and yet I can tell he feels her, the truth in her. The realness.

“Now git yer rest everyone,” she says and I stop moving, stop fidgeting, just sit there like a stone, waiting. Has she forgotten me? She mentioned me in her speech to Buff, so maybe that was all she had to say. I hang my head, knowing full well I shouldn’t expect more than that considering we’re only a few days from having met each other.

But still—I’d hoped.

Selfishness. That’s what my thoughts are, plain and simple. She’s gonna be hung and I’m worried about whether she’s thinking of me the night before she dies.

But still—I’d hoped. I won’t sleep tonight.

Not one wink.





~~~





I musta fallen asleep because my eyes jerk open suddenly. The wall torches continue to burn, because Big’s probably not conscious enough to put them out. Everything’s quiet, except I know something woke me up.

A stone clatters around my feet, which are sticking out into the middle of my cell, away from my head, which is resting uncomfortably against the wall. I look at the rock, changing color from orange to red to yellow and back to gray as the flames flicker.

Clatter, clatter.

Another stone careens across my cell, skipping all the way to where it rests by my side. I curl my fingers around it, retrace its path to where it musta come from.

The hole in the wall. Skye’s hole.

I slide on over to it, blinking away the sleep I didn’t expect in the first place.

Skye’s looking at me. “Icy Dazz,” she says. My toes curl slightly.

“What’re you doing awake?” I say.

“Hard to sleep on yer last night,” she says. I cringe, wondering how I manage to consistently say stupid things through this hole.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t me—”

“I’m just kiddin’ ya,” Skye says. “Don’t git yer—whaddya call the small clothes you wear under yer other clothes?”

“Skivvies?” I say, like a question.

“Sure. Whatever. Don’t git yer skivvies all in a knot.”

“Skye, I—”

“No,” she says. “It’s my night to do the talkin’. ’Cause if I’m talkin’, I ain’t fallin’ apart, I ain’t losin’ the dignity I found when I left my father behind to join the Wildes. I won’t lose that, not tonight.”

“I’m sorr—”

“What’d I say?” she says, showing me the finger she’s got to her lips.

I don’t say anything. Just wait.

“Better,” she says, sending her eyes through again. “I know we ain’t hardly more’n strangers, but I’ve got feelin’s for you, Dazz, I’ll go right on out and say it, ’cause, after all, what do I have to lose, right?” I nod, feeling a burst of something good in my chest. I don’t say anything because she told me not to.