ALEXA AND MILO ARRIVED AT a remote area in the north of Iceland called Hesteyri. At first Alexa was shocked at the bitter cold. The icy air felt as if it were burning her bare skin. She pulled her hood over her head and pulled her mittens on. Although she knew she wouldn’t die of hypothermia, the soft flesh of her mortal suit certainly did feel the cold.
The Icelandic landscape was even more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. Towering snow-capped mountains, glittering rivers, rolling hills, thick woodlands, and miles upon miles of white, endless snow. She could even see ice floes drifting out on the black waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The unspoiled landscapes were enough to take her breath away.
The gusting wind blew thick flurries of snow that covered their tracks, not that they needed to worry because Alexa hadn’t seen any signs of civilization or animals. She had hoped to see an arctic fox, or maybe a reindeer. Perhaps it was too cold for even them.
“We might be immune to the cold,” said Milo. “But not these bodies. The coat and clothes are not really for us, but they will keep these bodies from falling apart. You won’t freeze to death, but there’s a chance your skin might freeze and split because of the extreme cold.”
“I know that,” Alexa replied, a little annoyed. “How much longer until we get to wherever we’re going?”
Milo smiled but said nothing as he ploughed through snow that wisped around him like fairy dust.
Milo appeared to be following an invisible path that was hidden by a foot of snow. Alexa had no idea how he knew where to go. Her boots crunched in the snow and ice as she matched his steady pace. He seemed to know where they were headed.
Had he been here before?
Maybe the Legion had fitted a bio compass into his brain, and it was leading the way.
She debated asking Milo to tell her more about the angels that had lost their mortal memories. But she knew she was being silly. Nothing he said could help her.
Her head throbbed constantly, and she tried not to think about it. She felt really tired, despite her M-9 suit. Her thoughts were still in turmoil, and it was taxing. She needed to focus.
The sun began to set as they ascended some foothills, and the winds blew harder. Alexa was thankful for the boots Milo had given her. She would surely have fallen behind without them.
Alexa liked the way Milo’s shoulders swayed and the way his hair billowed around his head like grasses caught in a breeze. She liked looking at him when he wasn’t looking at her. She liked the angle of his jawline and the way his muscles moved so smoothly under his coat. The reddening sky reflected in his eyes, and the sun kissed his skin. He walked straighter and seemed more at ease here in the snowy landscape. He looked like he belonged here.
But he was still a mystery to her. At first, she thought he had been Metatron’s man through and through, but now she wasn’t so sure. There was something sad about his eyes, and she sensed that something haunted him. She suspected that Milo and Metatron weren’t exactly friends.
“How long have you been an angel?”
The question popped out of her mouth before she realized she’d spoken out loud. She was glad she had become more comfortable with him.
Milo’s shoulders tensed, but he didn’t break his stride. “Longer than you.”
“I figured you would say something like that.” Alexa looked for a reaction, but his face was blank.
“Lance was killed in the second World War,” she continued. She wiped some snow from her eyelashes. “And he’s been a guardian ever since. But you’ve been around for much longer, haven’t you?”
Because Hades recognized you, she wanted to say.
While she wanted to ask about his connection to Hades, she wanted him to tell her, to want to tell her. She wanted to know more about him, but if he wasn’t ready to share—she wouldn’t push him.
When he didn’t answer, she asked, “Well, since we’re going to be paired together for a while, why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”
She watched his expression.
“What do you like? What do you do when you’re not killing demons? I’m not asking for anything personal. Just tell me some little things about yourself, so I can get to know you better. That way it will be a little less uncomfortable.”
Milo raised his eyebrows. “You mean you want to be friends?”
“Not friends,” said Alexa, suddenly regretting the way the conversation was turning, and feeling slightly embarrassed. “More like agreeable colleagues.”
“Agreeable colleagues.” Milo laughed, a hearty full laugh. “Sounds like an office job where people drink too much coffee. We’re angels, not mortals. And we’re not colleagues—we’re partners.”
“Fine. Call it what you like, but if you still want me to trust you, and if you really do have my back, I need to know a little about who you are. I don’t know anything about you. The only things I know is that Metatron assigned you as my petty officer, and you’re a skilled fighter. You probably train for hours on your days off when everyone else is having fun. That’s what I see when I look at you. I see a warrior, but that’s all.”
She looked at him more closely. “Do you have any family? Friends? Do you like females? Males—?”
“What?” Milo stumbled, but straightened up quickly.
“Well, what?” Alexa smiled, and she tried hard not to laugh. “There are some really hot male angels—”
“Alexa.” Milo rubbed the side of his head. “You’re giving me a migraine with all these questions.”
“So, give me something, and the pain will go away,” she pressed. “I still don’t know anything about you.”
Milo said nothing for a moment. “I’m the person standing next to you. That’s all you need to know.”
“Fantastic.” Alexa rolled her eyes. “You know,” she said irritably. “I don’t remember who I am. I’m only the person standing next to you because I don’t know who else to be. But you…you have a past. Who are you? Do you have a last name, or is it just Milo—like Prince or Cher?”
“Who’s Cher?”
Alexa pursed her lips. “Well, now I know you were born sometime before the 1960s if you don’t know who Cher is.”
It occurred to her that Milo had never asked her anything about her own past either.
They walked in silence until Milo said, “I know what you’re trying to do. And I can understand it. But the truth is, my past is irrelevant to you and to this assignment. I’m not…I’m not very good at making friends, and I know you’re disappointed by our lack of conversation. I know you would have preferred someone else as your petty officer, the scout Lance, most probably. But he wasn’t assigned to you—I was. And I promise you that you can trust me, and I do have your back. You can count on me, Alexa.”
Alexa gave up after that. Instead of trying to make conversation with Milo, she thought about Erik. Although he had been a giant SOB and had hurt her, at least he could keep up with a conversation and make her laugh. In those precious moments they had spent together, he had made her feel alive. Milo made her feel like paste.
The thoughts and experiences she had shared with Erik were the only memories she had left. They provided her with the only insight she had into who she was. She clung to them.
But the more she replayed her conversations with Erik, the more foolish she felt. Erik belonged in the mortal world with Rachel, a real girl, not with her, a dead girl.
Milo halted suddenly, and she turned to look back at him.
He looked wary.
“We need to move faster,” he said. “The sun is about to set, and it’s going to get really cold really fast. From this point on, we don’t stop. Keep up, or your skin will tear, and then we’ll have a real problem.”
Alexa hurried along next to Milo, kicking up snow as she went.
“Do you know where we are going? Or are we just going to run like idiots in this blizzard and hope for the best?”
Milo pointed straight ahead of them.
“The Elders’ Guild is at Icefall Castle.”
Alexa could only see flurries and a wall of white about a hundred feet in front of them.
“I can only see snow,” she said. “You’re sure we’re in the right place?”
“I am. Are you ready?”
Alexa shook her head. “Why didn’t we just appear at the castle in the first place? Why are we out here freezing our asses, when we could have been warm in there?”
Milo lifted his hood. “The elders don’t trust anyone, and that includes angels. You can’t just appear inside their walls. The elders have wards and spells that protect them from demons and other supernatural beings. Including us. It’s why they chose such a remote place—out of reach—out of sight.”
“What kind of demons?” Alexa stared at the white landscape trying to remember if she’d come across some snow demons in her demonology lessons. “There’s nothing here. Why would demons come to this part of the world when they could be in L.A. where there are more innocent people to feed on?”
“The kind that wants to make trouble, and the kind that would kill to get their hands on the guild’s secrets. The kind that waits for easy targets. Unfortunately, the elders became very closed-off and secretive over the years. We’re very lucky they’ve granted us access. Now, no more questions. We have to go.”
He gripped her arm and pulled her into a jog before she could protest.
They ran into the blizzard and had to bend their heads into the freezing wind. After a few minutes, Alexa couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of her, and she had to rely solely on Milo’s steering.
There was barely any light on the hills. The wind was driving the snow clouds across the setting sun, and Alexa guessed it was only a few minutes or so until dusk. She’d lost track of time. Time was irrelevant in Horizon, but she knew they had to hurry on if they wished to reach Icefall Castle before night, before their soft bodies turned to ice and shattered.
When the sun disappeared, it was like she had been hit with a wall of ice, and her fear of dying in this endless white hell became real.
The anxiety that had been mostly academic before made her alert and watchful. Ice pellets struck at her face and went into her eyes. She felt the skin on her cheeks and lips beginning to split. If she didn’t keep moving, her mortal body would simply freeze where she stood.
The wind increased, but Milo didn’t slow down. Neither did she.
Her feet, face and hands were freezing and when she tried to open her mouth, she simply couldn’t move her frozen jaws.
The path grew steeper, and through a break in the gusting clouds, Alexa could see a cliff-face ahead. It was a huge, black and white vertical mass, a much darker backdrop for the swirling snow than the clouded sky.
Alexa felt an ominous and different type of cold tug at her senses like death. And then the wailing started.
No wolf, coyote, or any other earthly creature could make the sound she heard. It was the sound of a beast from another world. A second long, piercing shriek echoed across the tundra like the shrill wailing of a thousand babies.
“Ice beast,” shouted Milo. “Lesser demons that the elders trained for protection.”
Alexa forced her lips to move. “I thought you said—”
Milo drew his sword and shouted, “Run!”
Alexa braced herself against the wind. The gusts were like a river pushing her back and swirling around her legs. But with a furious act of will, Alexa ploughed into the winds and didn’t falter.
Milo’s jog became a sprint, and she drew out her blade easily and dashed after him. If she lost sight of him, she’d be lost. Then she’d be fair game for whatever demons were howling in the blizzard.
The howling screams increased in number and got louder, and then they seemed to merge into one great wailing roar. It was so close that Alexa flinched and whirled, slashing her soul blade into the empty air beside her. But she couldn’t see anything in the blinding, cursed snow.
Was she going the right way?
She couldn’t see. She was lost.
“Milo!” she bellowed into the wind. She could barely hear her own voice over the shrieking howls.
A figure emerged from the white.
“This way!” Milo grabbed her hand and pulled her with him again.
His tight grip was comforting, and he ran tirelessly. He was like a great stallion in an open meadow. She concentrated on not tripping and matched Milo’s speed only because he was pulling her along.
More howling. Alexa didn’t look back but ran faster. She felt her thighs burn from the cold. And then she felt her mortal suit rip along her knees and elbows. Her body was shredding apart like paper that was being ripped into ribbons. The more she moved, the worse it got.
Still they ran. If Milo’s body was in the same shape as hers, he didn’t show it. They hurtled on through the mounds of snow.
Alexa felt a presence press behind her.
A polar bear creature was right behind her. Its black tongue lolled out of its snout, and its great jaws looked as if they could swallow her whole. Its eyes glowed with white fire and its gaping mouth was lined with flickering red coals that were dark with drying blood. It was a mixture of beast and something not quite human, as though its transformation had been interrupted.
The thought of the creature’s mouth around her neck spurred her on with a burst of speed. She sensed many deaths and smelled the carrion from many bodies. And then thousands of red eyes emerged in the blowing snow behind them as some kind of abominable snow creatures began to chase them, too.
Alexa tried to scream and kept running. She could see her soul blade in her hand, but she couldn’t feel her fingers on the handle. Milo still held her other hand, and they raced through the great heaps of snow and down a hill together.
Alexa could almost feel the hot breath from the creatures licking the back of her neck. She tasted the salty mixture of the blood solution that flowed through her suit, and she could feel the searing pain of more tears in the skin along her legs and her back. Her jeans were wet with her blood, and the freezing cold made them as stiff as metal.
Spots of yellow light bobbed into view and got brighter as they approached them. The light filled her with hope, but the beasts were gaining on them.
Milo faltered, and they fell forward into the snow. She scrambled back up, and Milo pulled her into a run again. She couldn’t see and began to panic again, but Milo held her steady.
A black and white structure like a great crown of rock that had been sculpted from the mountains loomed out of the snow in front of them. As they got closer she could see that it had a Gothic look to it, like an old church with pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs, towers, parapets, and tracery windows. She could just make out a tall tower. And light. Glorious light.
They hurtled over a bridge of stone and ice, through a gatehouse, and under a giant metal portcullis that looked like the mouth of an ice beast. They rushed through a courtyard and toward a large door. Milo slowed, and his legs wavered drunkenly. But just when Alexa feared he was about to fall, Milo put on a last burst of speed, threw himself against the door, and started to smash the knocker against the wood.
“Open the doors! Open the doors!” Milo screamed, as he pounded on the door.
The howling increased. Alexa looked over her shoulder—
A hundred pairs of red eyes shone through the blizzard, and the creatures that were chasing them bounded onto the bridge. Their screams and wails were becoming unbearable.
There was a click and a loud groan as the rusted hinges on the door swung open. Light from inside cut through the darkness around her, and Alexa blinked back her blindness until she could see.
A scarecrow-thin man in a long white linen robe stood in the doorway. He was tall and bald, and Alexa could see his penetrating black eyes under his bushy eyebrows.
He looked down at them from his long hawk nose and said, “You’re late.”