Chapter 49 Chill.

Chapter 49: 49 Chill.

My jaw actually dropped. Well, this was certainly going to make the rescue a hell of a lot quicker. "Glacia!" I said. "There you are. Did—"

"Go home, Miles."

The iciness in her voice brought me to an immediate halt. There was no way I’d heard that correctly. "What?" I said. "Glacia, what are you talking about? I came here to get you."

Only then did I notice how distant her expression was.

Her features were stiff and emotionless, as cold and unfeeling as an iceberg drifting toward the Titanic.

She stood with her arms folded, her white coat fluttering in the frigid air spilling from behind her, drifting down the staircase like mist from where she stood at its peak.

"Leave here and leave me alone," she said, each word sharp as the first bite of winter. "I have no more business with you."

Well, that was an odd reaction. I extended my magnetic senses toward her, but there wasn’t a single scrap of metal on her apart from her uniform.

So she wasn’t a robot, and while I couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility of an evil clone, the Captain didn’t exactly seem like the sort of guy who could casually produce one at short notice. Occam’s razor therefore suggested she was lying.

"Yeah, that doesn’t seem right," I said, allowing myself to descend until my feet touched the floor before casually heading toward her.

Glacia’s eyes tightened. "Leave, Miles. I will not warn you again."

"What happened to ’sir?’" I said. "You know, it was weird when you called me that but at least it didn’t sound as bad as my actual name from you."

"I have no interest in working for some low level thug!" she barked, lifting her hands as freezing air gathered around her, her hair whipping about beneath the power she was summoning. "Now leave. Or I shall make you!"

"Then go ahead," I said, spreading my arms as I continued toward her. "Make me! I’m wide open. I won’t fight back. What kind of mentor would I be if I fought my student?"

Glacia snarled and dragged one hand across the floor, sending a beam of freezing cold racing over the ground. Ice erupted behind it like jagged spikes, but it passed nowhere near me.

"You asked for me," I said, starting up the staircase. "You studied under me. Why? Why run now? What are you really afraid of?"

"Stay back!" Glacia snapped, but I saw the flicker of emotion cross her features as she swung her opposite arm toward me.

A second column of ice erupted, this time on my right. It was closer, but still nowhere near enough to hurt me, though it did dust my coat with frost. "I... I’m warning you!"

"I came to get you, Glacia," I said. "I came for you."

She stumbled backward a step, her lips trembling while her lashes rapidly blinked back tears. "I... I can’t. I..."

I had closed the distance enough.

I seized her, swept her off her feet and pulled her into my arms, hugging her tightly against my chest.

Fuck, she was cold! Holding her was like wrapping my arms around a human ice cube, but I didn’t let go, squeezing her firmly as I felt her trembling against me.

"Glacia," I said. "I’m here for you."

She trembled, then suddenly wrapped her arms around me, gripping me tightly before breaking down into tears.

I kept her pressed against me, slowly feeling the vicious cold recede, the icy wind fading away as her body gradually began returning to its normal warmth.

"Sir... I’m sorry. I’m s-so s-sorry," she whimpered, sniffling. "F- father... he... he came to me. He t-told me that... that if I d-didn’t go with him, he’d k-kill you. I’m so... I’m so s-sorry, sir. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it..."

I stroked her hair, calming her until the trembling stopped, though I continued letting her hold onto me. "It’s okay," I said gently. "It’s alright. I know. It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you out of here."

A tremor passed through her, and Glacia lifted her face from my chest. "Sir," she said, sniffling. "I... I don’t think we will..."

I didn’t have to ask what she was talking about, because another blast of freezing wind swept into the ballroom. Compared to this, Glacia’s cold felt like a Mexican summer.

I turned toward the doors she’d entered through and saw a swirling wall of white pouring through them. The paintings lining the walls cracked and popped as frost consumed them, disappearing beneath the growing whiteout.

Oh fuck.

I grabbed Glacia’s hand and pulled her down the stairs behind me.

We raced across the ballroom as the roar of a Zero storm thundered from the hallway.

It exploded into the main chamber, howling like an avalanche as snow and frost rushed along the walls in a freezing tide, covering everything beneath a gleaming coat of ice.

We were almost to the exit when a beam of cold shrieked over my head, encasing the doorway beneath a ten-inch-thick barrier of ice.

So much for getting out quickly.

I turned around with Glacia and looked upward.

Because Captain Zero had arrived.

I remembered him from our encounter at the museum, but seeing a villain actually wearing his costume was an entirely different experience. Like some ancient relic that had just been thawed out of the ice age.

He stood at the top of the stairs, wrapped in the enormous hide of Arctic’s father, with three faded scratches crossing his eyes that I hadn’t noticed properly before.

His beard was thick, his mustache curled with aristocratic disdain. His eyes were hard blue, and atop his head sat a rigid military hat that had probably once carried a red star.

The moment his gaze settled on me, I felt the temperature drop.

This wasn’t some street-level thug trying to establish himself, or some rookie villain eager to prove himself by challenging someone above his weight class.

This was a man intimately familiar with evil. A man who controlled it. Wielded it. Under different circumstances, I’d probably have been fucking awestruck by the sheer menace radiating from the figure standing before me.

But these weren’t different circumstances. He’d sent assassins after me, kidnapped my protégé, and that meant things were inevitably going to be a little tense.

Still, you had to admire the artistry.

"Unhand my daughter before I take those hands off you." the Captain said, his voice heavy as falling lead, every word accompanied by a swirl of the wind.