I lower my arm. Through the thick white clouds of my breath, I see Kai kneeling, staring at her hands. Frost covers her forearms in lacelike patterns. Her short dark hair shimmers with ice, the frozen strands clinking softly in the silence. A tear slides free, freezing halfway down her cheek, and a hysterical laugh bursts out of her.

She looks up at me, her eyes swirling white.

She walks toward me and bends to pick up her flashlight. Then with a sudden whiplike crack, she backhands it across my jaw. I fall facedown in the dirt. She leans close, and her cold hand pats my side. “You don’t deserve my forgiveness. Or my trust.”

I wait for another arrow to sink in its claws. Instead, the temperature in the cave warms. I lift my head as the crunch of her retreating steps grows softer, moving farther and farther east. The direction we came from.

The direction I was headed when she shot me.

Toward the incinerator, where Chill and the others are waiting for me.

I stumble through the dark, no idea how far I’ve gone. My pulse pounds painfully against the swath of torn shirt I’ve tied into a tourniquet around my thigh. I focus on the roughness of the walls, on the sound of the tunnels, every other sense heightened by the absence of light. I have to find Amber before Kai hunts her down.

A dim light shines around a bend in the tunnel ahead of me. I stagger toward it, tripping through a familiar arched opening. Voices trail softly from the other side. Julio and Chill bickering. Poppy’s half-hearted admonishments. Marie’s dry laughter.

The cavern swims around me, their faces coming in and out of focus as I grab the edge of the archway to hold myself up.

“Jack!” Poppy cries out.

Three other sets of eyes swing my way. Chill rushes toward me. “Jack! What happened?”

“Where’s Amber?” I manage between breaths.

Julio and the others exchange an odd look. “She smelled someone coming—a Winter. She said it smelled like you—that you must have found your magic. She was too excited to wait, so she went to find you.” He pales. Like a shot, Julio grabs a torch from the wall and sprints down an adjacent tunnel. I stumble after him through the narrow opening. Behind me, I hear Chill and the others following.

I chase the torchlight. The glow expands as the tunnel widens, illuminating a cavern ahead. Amber’s on her knees in the middle of it, her body limp and her chin sagging against her chest. Kai stands behind her, holding her upright by an arrow in her back. Kai’s white eyes swirl with frost as she lets go.

Amber collapses facedown.