Frosted (Frosted #1 | Jackunzel)

{ Chapter Seventeen }

He couldn't risk it. Jack couldn't risk using his powers to help her now, thanks to the moon's unwritten rules. Corona and snow were strangers to one another; it wasn't Jack's job to introduce them, regardless of how tempted he was. He couldn't risk—at least, not until he knew Rapunzel was in immediate danger. And, as much as he hated to admit it, she didn't seem to be just yet.

The stranger dug brown boots into the sand as they circled over a small bend, spinning to press he and Rapunzel against a hidden curve in the earth. He mumbled something Jack couldn't hear into her ear and, when she started to push up in protest, he forced her back down to his side.

Jack made it to their side just as the pulse radiated through the air.

Rapunzel groaned behind the thick hand covering her mouth, just as a wave of nausea washed over Jack. He fell to her other side, shoulder and thigh pressing against hers with a heated buzz. And then the heavy breath in the air came like a bitter vibration, bringing with it a deep thrum humming in Jack's ears.

The entirety of it was over in a matter of seconds.

"What was that?" Jack demanded, still struggling to put himself back in order. Rapunzel repeated the question once with her voice still muffled behind the stranger's hand, and twice to the open air.

"I don't know," the stranger admitted, brown eyes wide with fear. "Palace guards. They've been chasing me for a while."

"Why?"

"Well don't make me spill all of my secrets, blondie. I have to keep some for the encore."

Jack scowled, though the man couldn't see. He looked at Rapunzel. "We should go."

"I guess I should introduce myself," the sleazy grin came back to the strangers' face as he extended his hand in greeting. "Name's Flynn Rider. And you are?"

Rapunzel frowned down at his hand, leaving it unshaken. "Crescent Moon Darnel." Her tone was stiff, uncertain. Good, Jack thought, though he knew he'd been wrong in not trusting people beforehand. Rapunzel had proven that to him several times over already. Still, someone with guards chasing them reeked of trouble—the kind Jack didn't particularly enjoy.

A flicker of suspicion passed over the stranger—Flynn's—face, but it was quickly replaced again by his easy grin as he lowered his hand back to his side. "Now—Crescent Moon Darnel, was it? Mind telling me where your shoes are?"

Flynn stood then, pulling her up with him. To Jack surprise, she looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes almost shyly. He could have sworn he spotted a blush creep over her cheeks. "Never had the use for any," she said all-too-casually. Jack groaned and swung himself up on a low hanging branch, which caught Rapunzel's brief attention. She pursed her lips, her face stilling when she looked back at Flynn.

"Why are there guards searching for you?" She asked again, while Jack surveyed the wood. That pulse of nauseating energy—he'd never felt anything like it before. The closest thing to it had been the ejecting spell Rapunzel's mother, Dame Gothel, had set on him. If he could just talk to North... He might know more about it. About everything that's been happening here.

Flynn's hand moved to rub at the nape of his neck. They were wasting valuable time with this entire conversation. They should have been well on their way by now.

"Oh," Flynn drawled with a dismissive wave of his hand. "That's nothing to worry yourself about, blondie. Just a bit of sleigh of hand gone sliiightly wrong. Thing is—I heard from a certain caravan crew in Linie that there was a girl wandering alone to The Howling Wood. Luckily for you, I just so happen to be heading the same way."