Ice Country(93)

“Well, thank you for sayin’ that, kid, but I’m proud to be a part of such a rowdy and mischievous bunch. Anyway, we snuck our way in like rodents, keepin’ behind the melee. It took ten men and Hightower ’ere to break into the palace vault, but we did it. Now I’m richer than the richest snow-blowers in the White District. Tis only fair that you get a share for everythin’ you been through. Consider it payment for killing my biggest enemy, may the king rot in a shallow grave.”

“Did you know the king was hiding behind a puppet figurehead?” I ask

Abe chews his lip. “Well, I had my suspicions, but never enough to prove anything. But now one’s dead and the other ain’t far behind, so enjoy the spoils.”

Feeling the weight of the coins in my hands, I lift a hand to my forehead, feeling the room spinning. “I don’t know what to—”

“Don’t say a freezin’ thing, kid. Just take it,” Abe says, smirking. “I’m not usually this generous, so be quick ’fore I change my mind.”

I don’t have to be told twice. I cup both hands together, knowing I’ll need two hands for one of Hightower’s. Abe’s brother tilts his palm and lets the silver fall like shimmering rain into my hands, piling up and filling them to overflowing, and yet still they fall, clattering to the floor, scattering.

“Thank you,” I say, misty-eyed, but I’m talking to Abe’s back, because he’s already at the door.

“Hope the kid gets better,” he says, opening the door and stepping outside.

“I’m sorry about your wife,” I say, but I don’t know if he hears me.

Hightower lingers for a moment, staring off at Jolie. Then he starts to lumber over to her. “Whoa there, Tower,” I say, springing in front of him. Luckily he stops, because if he didn’t I’d be human paste under his feet. “The door’s that way,” I say, motioning to where Abe’s waiting outside.

Tower grunts, points to Jolie. I look up, way up, into his eyes, which are crystal-blue, and ogre-sized, like everything else on him. I never realized his eyes were blue, and for some reason it surprises me. “You want to see her?” I say, replacing see with eat in my head.

He nods. I hope he means see and not the word I was thinking.

I chew on my mouth for a second. Hightower, despite his somewhat scary and threatening appearance, has been nothing but good to me, other than when he held Buff back so Abe could beat the living shivballs out of me. But I probably deserved it then, and he did save my life on at least two occasions. If nothing else, he’s earned my trust.

I step aside to let him pass, watching his every move like a hawk.

He approaches Jolie, kneels down—which means he’s still almost as tall as me—reaches toward her. My spine stiffens, but I don’t stop him. His movements are slow, almost gentle, if gentleness is possible from such a large person.

He touches a single finger to Jolie’s forehead, runs it along her skin, pushes a few strands of loose hair away from her eyes. And if all that’s not surprising enough, his next move is so shocking I swear a lightning bolt hits me in the head. He kisses the same finger, and then places it on her forehead, as if kissing her with his lips would be inappropriate coming from such a gargantuan.

He stands, grunts something, I think a farewell, and then ducks through the door and is gone.





Chapter Thirty-Four





Three days later Jolie still hasn’t moved.

With only two days before Skye and her gang leave to find the Stormers, Feve’s been teaching the healers what they’ll need to do for Jolie after he’s gone.

Skye insists I’m not coming with her, but I am. At least that’s what I’m telling Buff.

“I’m going,” I say.

“You sure you want to leave Jolie?” he asks for the third time.

I shake my head. “I don’t want to, Buff, ice it! By the Heart of the Mountain you know that’s true. But I have to. You know I do. I owe Skye, Siena, all the others. I owe it to Jolie to find out the truth.”

“But isn’t Skye telling you not to come?”

“Yah, but I’m freezin’ going anyway, okay?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll watch out for her while you’re gone.”

“Nay. Clint and Looza already said they’ll do it. You’ve got to come with us.”

Buff’s face falls. “Dazz, you know I want to, more than anything, but I can’t. Father, he’s not getting back on his feet anytime soon and I have to get a job—a real job—or Darce and the others are gonna starve.”

I smile. Not at the thought of Buff’s bed-ridden father or of his brothers and sisters starving, but because I have a solution. Compliments of Abe and Hightower. Buff takes my smile the completely wrong way. “Something funny?” he says, his fists coiled at his side.