I was high in the sky, more ways than one…bitch drugged me and took me on a private plane outta Chicago. Took me to Freezerland. Didn’t get pushed outta the plane this time though…didn’t have Fraser to send me skydivin’ without a parachute down to deep snow…which back then hadn’t been greatness, but better than where I am now. I fuckin’ hate these times when perps handcuff me with my own cuffs.

/o\ /o\ /o\

It’s a single-room mountain cabin, where Ray can’t be out of Victoria’s sight and where both of them are out of sight from the sparsely populated community in the valley below. When the drug begins wearing off and Ray opens his eyes, Victoria tells him who she is and where they are, and gives him a sunny smile…a smile like an Arctic sun, fiercely bright without a trace of warmth. Ray has a wild thought about that ghost story Fraser told him back before the Quest, that Lou Scagnetti story, and there was a chick in it who Fraser had said was a “beautiful princess from the valley below,” and there was something about the winds whipping her hair around and the snow swirling. And now here she is, the beautiful princess of winds and snow, the one who makes men into ghosts.

/o\ /o\ /o\

At the Yellowknife Airport info desk, Fraser has momentarily stood still, rigid with shock, tightly holding the items from Victoria which might be either clues or merely teases. Then he reins in – as best he can – the raging emotions that might impede his ability to rescue Ray. He heads out for the Yellowknife RCMP Detachment.

/o\ /o\ /o\

Without hope of getting free, simply because motion is his nature, Ray rattles the handcuffs and tugs them against the metal grill-work of the bed’s headboard. Victoria’s attention is drawn to him. “I expect you’re aware of how much Ben is inclined to putting things in his mouth,” she says in a mild conversational tone. Then, whispering low and dirty, putting her hand on Ray’s cock, she says “And I wonder how much you’ve experienced it.” Now Ray does go still, tense with apprehension at her touch…and she abruptly gives him a harsh grope, followed by moving her hands to his manacled wrists. Looking intently at Ray’s hands, she says “Fortitude Pass…the deadly cold…Ben put my fingers in his mouth to guard my hands from frostbite. He saved my life…saved me and then caged me. If I had clutched shards of ice ‘til my hands froze, if I had clutched shards of glass ‘til my hands bled…that would have been less painful than having him warm me and then imprison me.”

Victoria goes silent, keeping to herself that as much as she hates Fraser she equally loves him…keeping to herself that she will continue to take everything from him…keeping to herself that she will not be satisfied with anything less than being the sum total of what remains for him.