The Final Warning

56

NORMALLY I WOULD have been swearing bitterly to myself at this point, but what with the Angel-reading-minds thing, I tried to hold off.

I looked over at Fang, lying next to me on the hard-packed snow. The strong wind was filling our mouths, noses, ears, and eyes with icy grit. “Great,” I muttered, and he nodded.

“I’m sorry,” Angel called up, close to tears.

“It’s okay,” I said. Years of successful lying stood me in good stead, and I sounded convincing even to me. “Just hold tight for a second…”Plan, plan, need a plan.

“It’s awfully cold,” said Angel, teeth chattering. “Akilaand Total went to sleep, and they won’t wake up.”

Oh, crap,I thought.

“Angel?” I called. “The only way we can get the dogs out is if you tie the rope around them and we haul them out first. Then we’ll get you.”

“Them first?” said Angel.

“They can’t hold on to the rope, like you said. But you would have to be last. Or”- I had to give her all options- “or we can get you out first, if you really can’t wait.”

Which meant leaving the dogs to die, if they weren’t already dead. Silence, while Angel considered.

“I’ll tie the rope around Total first,” Angel called up, and my heart flooded with pride.

Total was pretty light, so he was easy to pull up. When we got him out into the biting wind, he blinked and stirred a bit. Fang quickly zipped him inside his jacket. Fang himself was shaking with cold, and I knew having a big icicle next to him wouldn’t help. We threw the rope down again and waited for eons while Angel tried to tie it around the much bigger dog.

“Akila’sreally heavy,” Angel finally called. “I tied it on the best I could.”

Fang and I both pulled together, and we hauled up the eighty-pound dog without too much difficulty. As it had with Total, the frigid wind seemed to wakeAkila up a bit when she got to the surface. I started rubbing her fur roughly all over, trying to get her blood going, while Fang dropped the rope into the crevasse again.

Total’s voice came sleepily out of Fang’s jacket. “Angel?Akila?”

“They’re okay,” Fang told him.

“Angel?” I called. “They’re both out. You did so good, sweetie! I’m so proud of you. Now you just hang on tight to the rope, okay? We’ll have you up in a sec.”

“I got the rope,” Angel said, close to tears. “But my foot’s still stuck. I don’t think I can get out.”

I looked at Fang in anguish. All of us were risking hypothermia. I already felt sleepy and weirdly warm, and Angel’s voice was weaker and weaker. Plus, even if we got Angel out, would she be able to fly? How would we carryAkila? She weighed almost as much as I did.

Crap.

57

FIRST THINGS FIRST,I thought.

“Angel, instead of holding on to the rope, tie it around your chest, under your arms. We’ll pull you out.”

“But my-”

“I know,punkin,” I said determinedly. “We’ll just have to try.”

Fang and I together were strong enough to pull so hard that we’d break Angel’s ankle. She wouldn’t be able to hold on through that. Hence the tying. But at least she would be free. I still had no idea how to getAkila home.

“Okay, I’m ready,” came Angel’s small voice.

Fang and I nodded to each other, then slowly, firmly pulled on the rope. There was hardly any give. I heard Angel make a little wail of pain, but we kept pulling as it became harder and harder. Suddenly Angel cried out, and the rope was much easier to pull.

“Angel?”

“My foot’s out,” she said miserably.

We had her up top in a few seconds, and then we were both hugging her.

Angel looked up at me, her face shockingly white. “We won’t make it back,” she said. “Not in this storm.”

“She’s right,” Fang said. “We need to dig a hole and hunker down, wait it out.”

It took me only a second to agree. Carefully we stepped away from the crevasse and began looking for shelter. There was a rocky outcropping about ten yards away, and slowly, painfully, we dragged ourselves there, holding tightly to Angel andAkila.

Angel and the dogs crouched down while Fang and I dug out a cave as fast as we could. Since our hands were frozen and we couldn’t feel them, this took longer than we hoped. Finally it was big enough to hold all of us- barely. We grabbed Angel, Total, andAkila, and pulled them into our makeshift shelter. Fang and I kept our backs to the wind, and within a minute, the storm had blown enough snow to seal us in. It was amazing how the wall deadened the sound outside. The lack of wind howling in my ears was deafening.

I took off my sunglasses and checked us all out. Angel was still pale and shaking with cold. Fang was trying hard not to shiver, but he was obviously grimly miserable. Total was struggling to his feet.Akila was standing uncertainly, pressed against the back wall of the shelter. Her thick fur was full of ice, and I quickly rubbed my gloved hands over her, brushing the ice to the ground.

“How’s your ankle, Angel?” I asked.

“It hurts. It might not be actually broken, though. Don’t know. It hurts.” She was wiped, hardly able to speak.

“Okay, everyone, rub your arms and slap your hands against your chest,” I ordered, fighting the urge to just lie down and go to sleep. It was quiet in here, cozy almost, and maybe I was imagining it, but I felt warmer. “Get that blood going!” I reached over and rubbed Total’s fur. “How youdoin ’?”

“I’d give a lot for one of those thermal pools about now,” he said, his voice thin and crackly.

“You and me both,” I said with feeling. I glanced at Fang. “Too badBrigid isn’t here. I bet she’d know what to do.” I probably only sounded about 70 percent bitter.

Fang met my gaze evenly. “I’m sure she’ll come find our frozen bodies.”

“We’re notgo

Instantly I regretted baiting Fang, but what do you know, even a little bit of anger warms you right up. “No, sweetie, we have this shelter. We’ll be okay,” I said. “We’ll just wait out the storm, and as soon as it’s over, we’ll all get back to the station.”

I wondered if the others had got caught in the storm. I sure hoped not. I was totally not up for rescuing anyone else.

58

HERE’S A TIP: If you’re ever stuck in an ice cave in the middle of a storm with two bird kids, a talking dog, and another dog, do yourself a favor: Bring a book. ’Cause once it seems as though you might not die any second, it suddenly becomes intensely boring. And if Total hummed another song fromMy Fair Lady, I wasgo

“I’m cold,” said Angel, then caught herself, sitting up straight. “Not that cold.”

That was my brave little soldier. Tough as nails.

“And my ankle’s so cold it doesn’t hurt much,” she said with a little smile.

We had to get her back to the station, have someone look at her ankle. We all heal supernaturally fast, but if her ankle was broken and it healed wrong, they’d have torebreak it.

The storm was still howling outside, as far as we could tell. I was starting to feel sleepy again- one of the early warning signs of hypothermia. This space was too small for us to move around to keep warm, and despite the fact that we were packed in like sardines, we didn’t seem to be warming one another up. It was slowly growing darker and darker as the storm made our snow wall thicker.

I tried thinking angry thoughts to get my blood warm, but after just a few minutes it seemed like too much trouble.

“This is the end,” Total said.

“What?” I said. “No, it’s not. This is not the end.” I wanted to say a bunch more, but it seemed so hard to speak. “It’s not the end till I say it’s the end.” My tongue felt thick, my mouth dry.Brigid had told us not to eat snow for water, but I was dying to.