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Chapter Twenty-Three
Rowan knew the clay mines were always prepared for situations such as this. She and her Domineer prisoner walked through the mine for almost an hour. The darkness of the tunnels did not bother Rowan in the least, but with her captive’s arm around her shoulders again, she could feel him breathing and trembling in fear, and frankly, it did nothing but annoy her.
Eventually, Rowan stopped and set the Domineer down onto the cold floor of the mine. Listening intently, she could hear that the winds of the terrible storm had already begun engulfing the mountains once more. In no time at all these mines could become nothing short of a frozen tomb. Rowan felt around the walls until her hand came across an object suspended there.
At this point, she finally felt relieved as she stripped herself of the Outsider’s filthy clothes she had thrown over her own
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Rowan’s eyes were glazing over as she struggled to remain awake by the fireside. Her Domineer captive had been unconscious for hours. In a way, she almost regretted having knocked him out earlier; not because it made her feel guilty, but rather she felt as though she needed the closure of finishing what her best friend had begun, and that meant finding out what the Outsider knew.The mines were quiet, and it certainly helped to soothe Rowan’s dismal spirit. The storm winds had been dying down until they sounded like hardly more than soft gusts whipping through the trees. This told Rowan that the storm was almost over and it must have been nearing dawn. She felt her consciousness daze once more with exhaustion, but she suddenly jolted awake. Whether or not it was merely her disoriented vigilance playing tricks on her, she was not sure, but she could have sworn she heard something coming fr
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Back at Rowan’s fire, Ian had finally regained consciousness. The first thing he had noticed was that his captor was gone, and no doubt it had crossed his mind that it may have been his only opportunity to escape while he could, but something told him it was against his better judgment. The Ravennite girl who captured him may have been young, but she had proven to him a force to be reckoned with. After she knocked him out, making her angry further was the last thing he wanted to do, so he simply stayed where he was; lying by the weakening fireside in the same position as when he had awoken.Only moments later, he could see his captor returning from out of the darkness of the tunnels. Rowan did not seem to take notice of her Domineer prisoner lying right where she had left him. Her eyes were drowning in raw anger. She suddenly stopped and threw her fists against the dirt surface of the mine wall, lett
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The exhaustion was overpowering. Alex could not tell exactly how long the two of them had been lumbering through the snow. It felt like hours had gone by, and Alex was becoming dazed and tired, constantly licking his lips due to near dehydration. They did not seem to be making much progress as they hiked alongside the frozen river.As they trudged along, Alex noticed a strange sensation come over him as he felt the hairs on his arms standing up. His mind was fuzzy and disoriented, and understandably so, but with every moment that passed, the air around him was feeling more and more empty and still. It almost seemed unnatural, just like Rowan had described the storm in the first place.Alex stretched out his arms and glanced back at Kota. “How are you doing?” he asked hoarsely. “Are you alright?”
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The very first step he took into the valley felt strange enough. Alex did not know how deep the snow would be, but he was somewhat shocked when his foot barely pressed down into it, almost as if the snow was solid. That, however, was not the only peculiar thing that dug its way into his mind. He thought the air felt still and empty before, but it was different now. Alex knew he simply had to be losing his mind; the atmosphere had never felt so strange to him before. He waved his arm through the air, but he felt little to no resistance. It was almost as though the air was not even there.Alex could not tell how long they had been walking. His natural sense of time had all but diminished. He was becoming increasingly light headed the longer he was exposed to these low temperatures, so much so that he could hardly feel the pain of the cold anymore. All he could feel was the overbearing sense of emptiness surr
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The shroud of darkness was lifting from Alex’s mind, and with it the horrid experience of his trip through the mysterious, white valley. As he finally made his way back into the woods, his head was throbbing profoundly, and he hardly took notice of how quickly the sun had set, allowing the darkness to take over the mountains once more. As a matter of fact, it had been nighttime for hours, and Alex was no longer sure whether or not he was dreaming the whole time.The temperatures were still low, but it certainly felt warmer than it had earlier. It was as if he could feel again. Still, after his ordeal, he knew that he needed to rest. The body he was still carrying over his shoulders was quickly beginning to weigh him down. Alex decided it best to stop and break for a while. He headed over to the nearest evergreen he could find and gently sat Kota’s body down to rest against the tree trunk.
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