The Chronicles of Fire and Ice (The Legend of the Archangel Book 1) by L.L Hunter Page B

crush on her teacher, so that he would lead her into a magical realm to save his brother. When she thought about it, her life had become complicated. What would her good, kind Grandmother think of her now? She put the feather down, but not before tucking the silver dagger that Dyston had given her for emergencies into an ankle sheath. She remembered the warning and concern in his eyes vividly the day he had given her the dagger.
    “Only use it at precisely the right moment ,” he had told her. She knew that now was the right moment. She slipped out of her room and ran two doors down, and knocked. She only had to wait a moment before Jacob answered. He let her in right away.
    “ Any developments?” he asked, before going back to the bed to join Kat, sitting beside her.
    “ I’m going to the Realm of Light tonight with Lakyn,” Scarlett told them.
    “ Wow. What did you do to convince him, sleep with him?” Kat asked, not knowing that Scarlett had done just that. Scarlett tried not to let it show on her face, which was hard. For all she knew, she had a big neon sign on her forehead announcing, “I slept with Lakyn Blackbell!”
    “ No, I… just talked to him,” she finally said, covering herself, but not very well.
    “ You talked to Lakyn?” asked Jacob, unconvinced.
    “ Well, I admit I had to flirt maybe a little, but it worked, and he agreed to take me. I’m going to get Dyston out.”
    “ Good luck,” Kat told her, pulling away from Jacob for just a second to hug her.
    “ Do you have a weapon?” Jacob asked. “Dyston has a special dagger, the Blackbell dagger, it…” Before Jacob could finish, Scarlett had pulled the dagger out from under her jeans’ leg.
    “ You mean this?” she asked, waving in front of them.
    “ Yes, how did you get it?”
    “ Dyston gave it to me one night, after he realised who I truly was. I guess he knew what was coming.”
    “ It’s inevitable,” muttered Jacob. Kat glanced at him, concerned.
    “ I better go. You know how impatient Lakyn is. I love you guys,” she told her friends, hugging them one more time before she left.
    She opened the door to the library . It was dark, apart from a single glowing ball of bluish-white light emanating from within the tree.
    “ Lakyn?” she called, moving gingerly forward into the library.
    “ Here,” he said, appearing in front of the light.
    “ What’s this?”
    “ The gateway.”
    “ To the Realm of Light?”
    “ Yes, but we have to hurry. I can’t keep it open forever. Here, take my hand,” he told her. She stepped forward into the light and took his hand.
    “ Now, promise me you won’t be scared,” he said, before they stepped into the gateway in the tree. Scarlett was confused. Why would she be scared? They were going to a place she had always thought was a myth, the way her grandmother had told her. A place full of globes of light and crystal rivers, and castles that floated on clouds. It sounded magical.
    Scarlett didn ’t know what to expect as she stepped through. Solid ground maybe, or clouds—but not this, not a feeling of falling from an unimaginable height. She wanted to scream, but then she realised that she was moving forward, not down. And that Lakyn was carrying her. His arms were around her waist, and his enormous marbled wings were carrying them gracefully through the light. Scarlett blinked. Everything was so white it hurt her eyes.
    “ Where are we?” she asked, blinking. But the voice didn’t come from her throat, she realised. It came from inside her head.
    “ Above the realm. I’ll land soon,” he said back telepathically. The sensation was strange. Did they all talk this way here?
    “ Above? You mean we’re not actually in the Realm?”
    “ We’re in, but we’re flying in its stratosphere. Okay, it’s all right now. Hold on.” And then Scarlett felt herself suddenly dropping. She gripped Lakyn tighter.
    “ Why did you do that?” she asked, once he was flying horizontally