The Frozen Beginning (Elemental Diamond Book 1) (33 page)

Glacier watches him with starry eyes, debating whether or not to tell him the truth.

“Fielder, nothing will come from this. At the end of the tournament, we will go back to our regions. We won’t ever see each other again.”

Fielder’s defeat is instantaneous. The fight leaves him, his shoulders sagging heavily. She hadn’t given him the answer he wanted. Glacier takes a thick breath as she awaits his reply.

Instead, he turns his back and walks off around the corner. Glacier feels her heart ache with the same pain as it had the night Fielder had played Mink’s Song. The painful tug reminds her of the night she had shut him out. Quickly wiping her eyes, she moves to follow after Fielder.

Momentarily startled by her reflection in one of the mirrors, Glacier observes her features. She moves forward and reaches out to the mirror surface. Her fingers rest on the cold glass, but her reflection is frozen in her original position across the room. It continues to stare at her with a crazed gleam in its eyes.

Glacier stumbles away from the mirror, startled by her reflected counterpart. The reflection advances in the mirror, green and blue eyes shining with evil intentions as it approaches her.

Terrified by her reflection’s threatening stride, Glacier’s legs turn wobbly, collapsing beneath her. She scrambles away, her echo taunting her with her sick, evil glare.

“Fielder!”

As her back reaches the mirror on the opposite side of the passage, she feels a cold arm wrap tightly around her neck from behind. The hold chokes the air from her lungs, the cold skin seemingly oddly familiar against hers.

“Your father is dead because of
you
.”

Glacier’s eyes widen as she hears the voice,
her voice
, whisper in her ear. Her hands claw at the arm around her throat, as she manages to turn her head to catch a short glance behind her. The familiar white frizzy hair is tied back in a ponytail, as identical eyes to her own blaze with a ferocious anger.

Glacier’s own eyes almost explode from her skull as she registers her reflection choking her.

Her lungs burn from lack of oxygen, her eyes burning with tears. Glacier’s head threatens to explode as she struggled for air. Her reflection grins maliciously, an expression Glacier’s wasn’t sure that she could ever make.

“Michaels is dead. Care is dead. Alue is dead. Neena is dead. Aleena is dead. And when you finally leave this place, Castor will be dead.”

Glacier’s eyes are furiously red, her lips a pale blue. Her head seems lighter, yet heavy with pain. She can barely comprehend what her evil reflection is muttering in her ear, as they ring loudly with warnings of suffocation. Her fingernails sink into the arm coiled around her throat, just as Fielder appears from around the corner.

Momentarily stunned by what he finds, he misses Glacier’s other reflection attacking him from behind.

The echo jumps him from behind, tackling him to the ground and wrestling him onto his back. Fielder swings his arms to fight off the echo, but quickly finds himself restrained. Two more echoes of Glacier materialize from other mirrors, quickly detaining him.

With one echo pinning both of Fielder’s wrists to the floor, another version of her straddles his hips. Fielder tries to lift his arms and shake away the clones, but their hold is unexpectedly strong.

Glacier, they are just mirrors. You can break them
.

The sound of Sparrow’s voice in her head is soft, almost inaudible, but it still surprises her as if it had shouted.

With the new realization, Glacier quickly tries shooting her head back, propelling it into the reflection behind her. There is a loud smash, as the three-dimensional clone crumbles like two-dimensional glass. There is a sudden rush of oxygen through her lungs, causing a momentary seizure as her blood begins to pump oxygen around her body once more.

Her arms are pulled back behind her shoulders in an awkward lock, projecting her chest out as her head lolls back. The grip around her is ice cold, a feeling still completely unfamiliar to her. The hold that her glass clone has on her is tight and unbreakable. She hangs limp in the hold, her eyes barely open as she still tries to even out her breathing. She hears her voice around her murmuring various things in an almost wicked tone.

“She has been
aching
to do this,” the clone straddling Fielder’s hips whispers, as he pulls and tugs to break free.

Glacier manages to open her eyes, just as the side of her head is slammed against the floor. She cries out, her head swarming with a splitting feeling, a powerful throb aching behind her eyes. She opens them a small margin, watching as her clone leans over Fielder, pulling his head back against the floor by the hair on top of his head. His jaw is clenched as he tries to move under the powerful, unearthly strength of the replicas.

The clone that straddles him sends a quick devilish smile in Glacier’s restrained direction before gazing down into Fielder’s open eyes. He seems momentarily stunned by her intense gaze, but he continues to try to break from their tough grips.

The clone slowly starts to move her hips over Fielders, pressing down as she grinds. Fielder grunts with surprise, clenches his eyes shut as his nostrils flare. The clone lowers her head to press a kiss against his neck, biting gently. She chuckles when Fielder tries to move away from her intimate touch.

Glacier watches with accelerating anger as her replica grinds against Fielder slowly, whilst the other two copies hold him down.

Her anger boils past the point of explosion. She deliberates different ways to break every glass copy of herself.

Gathering her strength, she whips her head back once more. The clone restraining her anticipates the manoeuvre. Neatly dodging the attack, it laughs callously in Glacier’s ear.

“Fielder, they are just mirrors. They break like glass,” Glacier cries out past her gritted teeth.

She feels the moment he understands her, as the air in the room grows warmer.

His eyes are feral, his teeth clenched tightly as he growls, “Get off me!”

A surge of strength rips from his chest as the small flask on his hip suddenly explodes. The fire surrounds him like a second skin, red hot with rage. The reflections of Glacier scream with pain as they slowly melt into puddles of shinning silver.

The air becomes hard to breathe as the clone holding Glacier’s arms quickly retreats back into the mirror, running down the corridor and around the corner from which they entered.

The flames continue to flicker like scorching waves around the two elementals until it slowly recedes into a small fire resting against Fielder’s hand like a ball. Glacier’s forehead is covered in perspiration, her eyes and skin burning from the blistering heat. She rolls over as the pain takes hold, her head burning as hot as her flesh. Her skull pounds as she tries to take deep and calming breaths.

“Glace, are you OK?” Fielder manages to whisper out, his energy depleted.

Glacier, get up. You need to finish the maze. You are close
.

“Glace?” Fielder calls out again, his voice strained and breathy.

Glacier groans in response, the vibrations sending painful spasms through her head. The heat in the air starts to dissipate until she can manageably breathe past the thick humidity. Lying on her side, Glacier’s body slowly begins to thrum with numbness. She hears a fumbling sound from Fielder’s direction, followed by a strong pull on her ankle as he drags her towards his body. Fielder crawls closer until Glacier can feel his breath fan across her face in hot puffs.

“Glace?” His voice is barely above a whisper as his hand brushes her cheek softly. She moans quietly in acknowledgement, her cheek tingling with the heat from his skin.

Her head continues to pound as she leans into his warm touch, the air around them still thick and clammy. His hand brushes her hair soothingly, his hand coming back wet with dark red.

“Your head…”

Fielder sits up to put pressure on her open wound. Glacier cries out a shrill scream at the sudden painful compression, clenching her teeth together tightly with a whimper.

“I’m sorry. I need to stop the bleeding. I’m sorry.”

She suddenly feels his fingers around her shoulder and upper arm before there is an audible tear of fabric. Fielder pulls her now severed sleeve down her arm past her hand before bunching it around his fist, pressing hard against the back of her head once more. Biting her tongue as the pressure sends harsh pain through her skull, she groans out her plea of agony.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers once more, gently wiping the wetness from her below her lower lashes.

Keep moving Glacier. Your time is running out
.

Glacier groans at the voice’s reminder. The thought of solving the Labyrinth being to alluring, Glacier tries to push herself up from the ground.

“We have to keep going Fielder…” she murmurs, her voice hoarse and scratchy. Seemingly surprised by her determination to solider on, Fielder helps her into a sitting position.

“Your head is bleeding, Glacier, really badly. Just wait for someone else to solve it, and then we are out—”

“No,” she snips, “I have to win. I
need
to win, Fielder…” The desperation in her eyes does not go unnoticed. Her Pyre companion watches her with empathy.

He studies her for a moment, his eyes sad before nodding his head in understanding. Fielder climbs to his feet as he picks Glacier up under her arm with one hand, the other still compressing against her head wound.

The jostling sends a painful spasm up her neck and across the back of her skull, causing a low hiss to escape between her teeth. When she is standing, Glacier gingerly lifts her sleeveless arm, a small ache taking over as she replaces Fielder’s hand with hers. Thick blood trails down the back of her neck in flowing streams, slowed by the makeshift compression held against the open gash.

Glacier feels her fingers wet with the dense liquid, and her mind becomes hazy with the loss of blood.

Now on her feet, Glacier sways with dizziness. Fielder catches her whimsy body, holding her gently against his side.

“Glace, I don’t think it’s a good idea. If we run into anyone from the Terra team—…” Glacier hushes him with the same frantic look, her desperation incredibly evident. Fielder sighs deeply before he starts to stride forward with Glacier tucked into his side safely.

“How did you do that before, Fielder?” Glacier manages to rasp out, her head pounding as blood slowly continues to pulse from the back of her head. The sticky substance continues to spill between her fingers as it seeps steadily through the material of her severed sleeve.

Fielder understands what she is referring to. He shrugs his tense shoulders, tightening his arm around her.

“I have no idea. I had thought this place was a Dead Zone…”

The two contrasting elementals follow the mirrored corridors, their eyes following their reflections, searching for any flicker of danger.

They come to the end of the corridor, stopped by a large mirror reflecting their baffled expressions. Fielder looks to Glacier, for the OK that she will be fine without him supporting her. She gives a small, almost unnoticeable nod, planting her feet firmly against the floor as Fielder slowly relinquishes his hold on her. She tenses her midsection as she tries her hardest to stand upright.

Fielder approaches the mirror at the end of the “Dead Zone”, a few metres ahead of where Glacier stands weakly. His reflection follows his movements trustingly, as he reaches for the echoing glass. As soon as his testing fingers press against the mirror, Glacier’s reflection breaks out in a sprint towards him.

Suddenly panicked, she shouts out to him, “Fielder, that’s not me!”

Her ears prickle, and her skull thumps loudly in her ears. Fielder spins to Glacier, proving her statement. When he turns back to the mirror, he quickly raises his clenched fist, launching it into the glass.

Almost like slow motion, every mirror shatters around them from the one punch. Their surroundings collapse around them, falling down in splinters before disappearing into the concrete floor beneath them.

As the mirrors fall, they reveal a large, black space with minimal lighting.

The other contestants stand spread around the room in various positions and locations in a circular formation. The distance between them all is similar to the size of a field. They all face inward, towards the centre of the room.

Turning her head from side to side, Glacier recognizes every face around her despite the distance. Gamble and Porter are the closest to her and Fielder, standing roughly fifty metres off to their left. Branch and Keena stand at opposite ends of the room. Bronze stands close to Brogan, with enough distance between them that shows they are not an alliance.

Brink stands across the room from Fielder and Glacier. His annoyed glare still visible from the vast distance between them.

Everyone gazes around guarded, trying to identify where their teammates are, and how close their enemies stand.

Glacier’s eyes meet briefly with Keena. The lonely twin’s eyes show her feeling of betrayal, as she recognizes Glacier’s companion. Glacier sends Keena a guilt-ridden look, her arm aching from being held above her shoulder for so long.

Everyone is silent for a moment before there is a loud clack. A sudden light illuminates a small podium in the centre of their formation, like a beacon. Glacier immediately recognizes it as the finish point.

“Fielder, run!” Glacier calls out to him before pressing all her surviving strength into her legs. She pumps forward with all the energy she has, everything protesting against her will.

I have to win. I have to win
.

Fielder takes off ahead of her, gaining momentum quickly. It is in that moment, that everything around them erupts into elemental chaos.

Every contestant sprints toward the beacon like a group of hungry animals chasing their prey. Flames and dirt are thrown far distances, intended to slow or injure any contestant that cross the other’s path. The water sloshing in the air, and the sizzling of the fire is almost inaudible over the loud pumping of blood through Glacier's ears. The blood-soaked sleeve is forgotten, dropped to the concrete floor as Glacier races forward towards the beacon, desperate to win.