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Snoept past his legs and out over the precipice Oliver went down on his knees, two feet froainst him The mist that leaked froid, frozen, filled with a kind of terror he had never ilance toward hohts was all he could see through the blizzard The huge silhouette of the Falconer had risen, head and shoulders and wings a dreadful void in the heart of the storm It opened its beak, this cruel hunter, raised its taloned hands, now eed weapon and yet no less terrible, and the Falconer shrieked once more

"You must coh the words had been spoken inside his head "Otherwise you will die"

Throat raw, Oliver stared down at the winter ht in those dia as though to speak the word had cost him his final breath Yet soed, wings battling the storrasped his arth and kicked out with his legs, driving thee They tule warether they fell Oliver did not screao of the winter hter

Oliver opened his eyes The rocks were rushing up to ainst the base of the cliff, obscured by the curtain of snow, falling as Oliver and the winter ed with the blizzard itself

He turned over in the air and saw, above, that the Falconer had not given up the hunt The thing streaked down after theainst its body, its arms outstretched, talons ready to catch them, capture them, tear them But Oliver felt no fear Instead, his entire body was filled to overfloith one single, powerful eret

The Falconer shrieked again but noas far away, like a distant church bell, the ghost of a sound

The scream of the hunter was cut off abruptly Oliver cried out as a blue light erupted across the sky, enveloping everything A spike of pain ripped through his chest as though soed into his fleshor,had been torn out Blinded for the moment by the brilliance of that blue flare, he could see nothing He could feel nothing save the arether they struck water, sinking fast and deep

But there were no rocks And the water ars, lihting that weight he struggled to reach the air, eyes still stinging froht, mind awhirl with impossibility

His head broke the surface and Oliver found that he could see again But what he sawa clear sky bright with the largest, palest pearl of a e, too close A snow-covered mountain rose up in the distance Water, yes, but not the ocean There came a splash to his left and Frost appeared in the water perhaps ten feet away They were in a huge lake, so enormous that on three sides Oliver could not see the shore and on the fourth, below the mountain on the horizon, he could only just make it out With a sudden flash of terror he looked up at the sky again, but there was no sign of the Falconer

"Where?" Oliver asked, and he heard the echo of his own voice, the word he had spoken only moments before, when the world was still real and solid and knowable

Frost did not sed face above the water, the winter rimly at him "Home We are on the other side of the Veil now It was the only e bothyou here, I have surely dooht sky seeh it cradled the entire world and the sun would never return A gentle breeze rippled the surface of the lake The water arm, proof that the sun had shone that day, but the as cool Droplets of water slid down Oliver’s face and the back of his neck froth even to lift a hand to wipe them away The winter jacket he had put onit seean to drag hi out of it, and doff the gloves he had worn At last he uncoiled the damp snake that his scarf had become and let that slither into the water

Freed from those heavy clothes, he still had to contend with boots he was too tired to re at Frost and then glancing about at their surroundings The land seemed preternaturally pure Pristine The air itself filled his lungs with a kind of tingle and his strength began to return

"The other side?" Oliver asked He glanced around once more, took in the snowcapped ed must be north, and the vastness of the lake to the east

Frost did not answer He was staring up into the night sky,off his frozen form, eyes narroorry After a ly reassured Oliver was not thinking clearly and so barely recognized the purpose of the winter h hi sword, the twisted is spread out behind hi upward

"No His kind cannot cross the border He will have to find a Door, and there are very few of those"

Oliver nodded as though he understood this far better than he did It was enough, in thatpursued Then another thought struck him and set off a fresh rush of alar is still back there? Collette’s there My sister Andand my father"

"The Hunter will not trouble them He would not dare reveal himself to ordinary humans"

"He revealed hiazed at hiht threw his face into shadow

There was such ile syllable that Oliver at last recalled the winter o, when they had first burst up from the water Frost claimed to have doomed them both Oliver shuddered There were so ht of the answers thatup the back of his neck

He wasn’t ready for the answers Not yet

Emotions skirmished in his heart Terror was the undercurrent, but overwheliddiness None of this was possible This could not be happening He was getting ht now, orover her dress despite the lateness of the hour His father had invited half the firm This isn’t real

Yet he had felt Frost’s icy claws on his throat, had seen the Falconer and felt the adrenaline surge through him, had careened off that ocean bluff with the winter man and tumbled down and down and down to the waves He felt the water war from where he had touched Frost bare-handed before He smelled the air of this world, felt the rivulets of water running down his face His tongue snaked out and he tasted it Salty Like tears

"Oh, my God," he whispered