Garrin raised his hands and drew on his power. The snow around them rose and compacted, slowly forming a dome around them. He was careful not to move too quickly, but even so, Lex gasped.
“Do not be afraid. I have complete control. I can throw the snow across the horizon or compact it, as I am doing now.”
Lex swiveled her head back and forth at the walls forming around her. She huddled inside her coat and blinked several times, shivering harder than normal.
“Breathe, Lex, as you did earlier,” Garrin said as he worked. “The dome will protect us from the elements, not harm us.”
Garrin turned toward one side of the dome and brought his hands together as though in prayer. He slowly separated them, and the ice and snow trenched and formed a tunnel that led to the outside, allowing air circulation while keeping heat in. Finally, Garrin blew on the interior walls, warming the compacted snow until it melted. Then he blew again and cooled the melting snow, turning it into an icy, hard shell.
“My prince,” Zirel said, and Garrin looked over his shoulder.
Lex shook near an interior dome wall, her eyes glassed over.
Garrin rushed to her. “Can you hear me?”
No answer.
He tore off his gloves and grasped the sides of her face with his palms. “Look at me, Lex.”
Her teeth chattered violently.
“Lexandra,” he said, “look at me now.”
Lex’s gaze collided with Garrin’s. “Wha…? How do you know my name? No one knows my name. Except for Jas.”
He rubbed her temples gently. She was so fragile. For the first time, he truly feared she wouldn’t reach his kingdom alive.
The notion was unsettling. This woman did not deserve to die. And the thought of it made him wish to shelter her. “You told me they call you Lex,” he said in a calm tone.
She swallowed. “I never told you my full name.”
“Your given name is traditional in our land, with Lex as the diminutive. Lexandra means defender of people,” he said, smoothing his thumbs over her forehead. “And you were born to defend and protect.”
Her shaking grew less violent the longer she listened to him.
Garrin slowly lowered his palms, but he remained within arm’s reach.
“Aside from the fact that just looking at the walls of this igloo brings on a panic attack,” she said, “how did you make it?”
“It is my gift—one we call ice and fire in Dark Kingdom. And when you are ready, your gift will help many too.”
She closed her eyes. “This person you’re searching for—they can’t be the only one able to help.”
He glanced down and let out a resigned breath. “If the myths are to be believed, there is no other.”
She looked at Garrin, her gaze hard. “The myths are wrong.”
No matter what happened, there was no doubt in Garrin’s mind that Lex was special. He felt it when he touched her. If only he understood her ability and how to manifest it. “The prophecies have never been wrong. You forget who sired Fae. Angels do not lie.”
“The angels made the prophecy?”
He nodded. “According to the elders.”
Lex didn’t show signs of panic, but she retreated into herself for the rest of the evening, and Garrin didn’t know what to make of it. She fought so hard to convince him she wasn’t special, but Garrin sensed that she was with every part of his being.
He remained close to Lex, awake long after his men had fallen asleep. Each time she began to shake, he reached over and calmed her with a touch. He managed to get her to eat a few Allon leaves and drink the water he’d melted from the snow, and finally, she slept more peacefully.
“She is correct,” Amund said, rolling to his side to face Garrin.
Garrin stared at the ceiling, his hands beneath his head. “I thought you were asleep.”
“We don’t know for certain that she is the one.”
Garrin rubbed his beard. It had grown while they scouted for Lex in the Earth realm, and he hadn’t bothered to cut it. It was good protection against the cold. “The only way to hide her among humans was to keep her with our kind at the university. We checked hundreds of females, and she is the only one who withstood my powers.”
“But she hasn’t any magic.”
“That we know of,” Garrin said, and looked across the dome. “You said yourself that you sensed her to be Halven.”
“I was wrong,” Amund said.
“Wrong?”
“I no longer believe she is Halven.”
Garrin lifted on one elbow. “Explain.”
Amund looked at the sleeping woman. “Once we entered the Fae realm, her energy level bloomed—and it has continued to grow.”
“What are you saying?” Garrin asked.
“Lex is not Halven. She is full Fae.”
