Vortex hovered over Santoff Clausen. The Wind screamed around him, obedient to his commands. He watched as snow pelted the trees below, blotting the land white. Pitch was right. Finding Jamie's orange coat would be so easy now.
He plummeted to the ground gracefully and scanned the trees. All was still and silent, save for the wailing of the wind to hide away. Behind him, something crunched.
Spinning around, his eyes landed on Vanish. His lips twisted into a demented smirk as an icy dagger formed in his hand. Vanish only narrowed her eyes.
"Give me the kid," he said calmly, "and everyone goes free. For now."
"What does he want with her?"
"Don't know. Don't care. Hand her over."
Vanish raised her voice. "If you don't know, why help him?"
"I owe the guy a favor," Vortex growled. "Give me the kid, or-"
Something hit the back of his head. Hard. Snarling, he whipped around and threw the dagger blindly. It narrowly missed North's head. The fat man laughed and held up Twinetender. Vortex's eyes widened as Vanish brushed past him to grab it.
"Hey!" he shouted, chasing after her.
She grabbed the staff and flittered between the trees, making sharp turns she clearly wasn't used to, as he inched closer and closer with every second. Suddenly, she threw the staff into the air.
"Piggy!" she called out.
Toothiana swooped by overhead, catching the staff. She shot skyward as Vanish just shrugged and hid deeper in the trees. Vortex blinked in shock. Then he darted up after Toothiana into the open sky. He snapped his fingers, and the Wind assaulted Tooth, forcing her to drop under the trees again with a yelp.
"You're gonna have to catch me," she said before disappearing.
"This isn't a game" he yelled as he chased her.
"Shows what you know!" screamed North from somewhere nearby.
Another snowball smashed into his ear. Growling, he flung another ice dagger that direction, but didn't look to see what it hit. He kept his black eyes trained on Toothiana and his staff.
"Piggy!"
"No!" Vortex shouted, watching his staff fall into Sanderson's hands.
Jamie waved from her seat next to Sandy. Vortex glowered at her and followed, barely dodging yet another snowball. He watched her take the staff from Sanderson so he could focus. As the golden cloud sped up, Vortex snarled and forced himself to move faster as well. Suddenly, the duo shot skyward. Vortex only had time to sputter before he smashed into a snow drift.
For a second, he wanted to laugh. How stupid, to crash like that? Had he always been this stupid, he wondered. Was the Darkness making him more critical of himself or just slower? And were the guardians… playing with him? Did they really think he wasn't a threat? His amusement turned to rage at the idea. He pushed himself out of the snow, furious.
"Alright," he announced loudly, "playtime is over!"
He stamped a bare foot, and a cascade of icy stalagmite radiated outward. Somewhere in the trees, North cursed loudly in Russian, and Jamie let out a brief scream. Vortex smirked and shot straight towards the noise.
Floating over the slender icicles, Vortex scanned the trees for the girl. He chuckled.
"Oh, now you're hiding?" he asked softly. "Come on out, Jamie. You know he's right. The more time you spend with these losers, the more likely you are to get hurt."
Only silence met his ears. He held out his hand, and a ball of hard ice formed in his palm.
"You want to play games? I'll play, then. Russian Roulette," he said.
He threw the crystalline ball at one of the trees. It shattered on contact, and a thick layer of frost raced up the bark, making the wood creak and groan until it split. Another scream erupted, this time of pain and fear. Not Jamie, though: it sounded like one of the other girls. He hesitated, but pushed the guilt down and made another glassy orb.
He cleared his throat. "I'm not supposed to hurt you, but I will if you make me."
"Jack."
Vortex spun around to see a young girl. Again, not Jamie, though she did look similar. Her brown hair was straighter, her eyes a deeper shade of umber, and only one small dot near her eye. She was taller, too, maybe eleven or twelve, not eight.
"Where's Jamie?" he demanded.
She looked confused. "Don't you recognize me? You taught me how to have fun. You made it okay to laugh."
"Is this a joke? Get. Me. Jamie."
The girl shook her head and pulled a thin red box from the folds of her cape. Then she walked calmly up to him and pressed a hand to his chest. Vortex stared at her and the now glowing box.
"You're it."