A Bite of Frost: Paranormal Anthology

by Zoe Parker

  Hard fingers dug into my scalp, fisted a clump of my damp, brown hair, and yanked my head back until I peered up into his cold, calculating gaze.

  “You will be stripped of your powers, you whore.”

  A drop of spittle landed on my cheek.

  “You can’t do that. You’re not strong enough.” I knew antagonizing him was a bad idea, but I’d grown to despise the egotistical man Patience had tied me to. I couldn’t allow her to force me into a handfasting with Elijah, permanently mingling my powers with his and effectively removing me as her direct competition. If only she’d believed me when I’d told her hundreds of times that I wanted no part of running the coven.

  Elijah glared down at me. “I would’ve been after the handfasting. We were supposed to rule this coven together.”

  “Don’t you mean you were supposed to? You know as well as I do, you never intended to be equals. You’re no better than the humans, thinking you’re better than me because you’re a man, but only women can rule the covens. Patience thinks she will use you to control me. She thinks I am meek and obedient, submissive, when the truth is you are her lapdog. Patience chose you because you are weak.”

  “You bitch!” He tugged my head back painfully then shoved it forward, my chin almost bashing into my chest. “Patience will rip your powers from your body, and you will be nothing.”

  I glanced over at Julius and saw him struggling under the weight of Nathaniel pressing him face down on the frozen ground. His skin had begun to turn blue, but his brown eyes were hot with rage. I hated seeing my beloved, level-headed Julius pushed to the brink as he was.

  A fireball rocketed passed his face, landing barely a foot away, burning through the ice and snow to singe the grass beneath.

  “Stop! Please, Patience, I beg you to stop.”

  Patience descended the stairs with a haughty air, lazily tossing fireballs to land before me, just far enough away to keep from setting my skirts ablaze. They sputtered out before they could lend any heat to my freezing body.

  “You are a brazen harlot. Who else have you given yourself to?”

  I tried to answer, to defend myself, but she spoke over me, cutting me off.

  “What other abominable betrayals have you committed? Have you gone to the church and confessed our sins? Is the preacher and his flock coming for us right now? Is this cur helping you plan to overthrow me? You were my legacy, my beautiful Dani Rose. Elijah is nothing, no one. His power would’ve fed yours, and you could’ve inherited all of this someday, had you not turned your back on me. Lied to me. Betrayed me. You were like a daughter to me.”

  Elijah flinched at Patience’s denigrating words.

  “I’m not your legacy, Patience.” I gritted my teeth. “I’m your pawn, your way to retain leadership even after the council forces you to step down as High Priestess. I want no part of any of this!”

  Turning as if she had all the time in the world, Patience strolled to the center of the clearing, her long, fur-lined cloak trailing behind. Her calm unnerved me, and I braced myself for an attack I felt sure was coming.

  “Not only have you gone against me, Danielle, but you have gone against our family, our sacred coven, and we just can’t allow you to retain your powers.” She spun around, smirking, her eyes glowing with power as the strongest witch in all the colonies. “You don’t deserve them, and you don’t deserve us. Really, the only choice left to make here is whether we allow you to live. Maybe we should take away your beloved and let you drown in misery alone.” A cackle exploded from Patience’s mouth before she quieted, murmuring words under her breath.

  With hands out, aimed at me, Patience whispered a spell, one I’d never heard before, sending chills down my spine. The air in the clearing thickened, charged with magical energy, weighing down upon my shoulders, slowly smothering me. I tried to grab my throat, but Kohl and Marcus held my arms in their constricting grips.

  “…illaria es pontefa streff!” As the final words of the spell left her lips, Patience’s hands lit up with fiery light, bursting forth to slam into me.

  I threw myself back with all my weight, nearly knocking my captors back with me, and screamed as the balls of light bombarded my torso. As they impacted my body, the light balls exploded, illuminating the clearing and the surrounding forest, and I waited for the burn or pain or something, but I felt nothing, closing my eyes against the brightness.

  “…pontefa streffa!” Patience yelled again as the coven gasped collectively.

  I opened an eye to see her leaning forward with her palms out at me, straining to force all her power into the spell. Her gaunt cheeks paled with the effort. Two more balls of light flew at me, and I turned my head away from their shine, but they barely flared when they hit me.

  The air lost some of its charge and took on the scent of petrichor with a slight overlying stench of burning hair. I wrinkled my nose and tilted my head in curiosity, blinking at Patience. She glared at me, arms limp at her sides. Coven members inched closer, coming out of the shadows to gawk at me.

  Puzzled, I looked down at my body, sure I would at least see some scorch marks, but other than the rips in my dress from the initial attack, I was unscathed. Patience sighed loudly, tucking her hands into her sleeves at her waist, and slowly marched to me, stopping a couple feet away.

  I shivered from the bitter cold and Patience’s icy glare. A light snow had begun around us, and each tiny snowflake felt like bee stings on my frozen skin. Julius had gotten back to his knees when Nathaniel had stood to stare at me.

  “What should we make of this?” Patience hissed. “You are not as powerful as I am. You shouldn’t even be upright…”

  With the entire coven staring at me, I was at a loss, shocked that I could survive such an onslaught of power and terrified she would do something worse to me. Whatever luck I had, I didn’t believe I could withstand a collective attack, and I searched my thoughts for something to appease Patience.

  “My… my shielding!”

  Patience narrowed her eyes.

  “My birth shielding… You and my mother performed the blood spells to create my shielding wards. You cannot harm me because your power went into those permanent wards.” She stood straight with her shoulders back, crossing her arms, and cocked an eyebrow at me, considering. I slumped with relief, letting Marcus and Kohl hold me up.

  For several long minutes, Patience paced the clearing, the coven backing away to wait in a half-circle between her and the house. I looked over at Julius, examining him for injury, and thankfully, finding nothing more than bruises visible. He returned a small, encouraging smile. I smiled back, praying to the Mother that we would escape this nightmare unscathed.

  Julius tore his gaze away from me when Patience paced over to stop in front of him.

  “Hm.” She tapped a finger to her lips. “I wonder… yes. Yes, that is what should be done.” Grinning, she swept around at the waist to smile at the waiting coven. “You will be pleased, my children.”

  Settling back on Julius, Patience reached out to cup his chin with one slender hand. “Do you love Danielle?”

  Julius nodded slowly.

  “Would you do anything for her?”

  “Y-yes…” Julius’s eyes slid over to look at me, his chin still firmly in Patience’s grip.

  “Of course, you would.” With a small, satisfied smile, Patience began whispering, her voice so low, even Julius strained to hear her. I closed my eyes and focused on her voice, catching a word here and there and biting my lip at the finality of her tone.

  With each word, her voice rose in volume. “Noctra… forcha… espo… es felinium… in sior eterna!”

  A rope of red light snaked from her hands to Julius’s face and down to his chest. His head flew back in a silent scream. Veins popped out everywhere I could see his skin and they began to glow with the ominous red light.

  Patience leaned in close as the tail of the red light slithered from her, sinking into Julius’s flesh, and she kissed his lips soft
ly. I cringed, ashamed of my fear and angry at my helplessness.

  Turning her head slightly toward me, her mouth still hovering close to Julius’s, Patience smiled wickedly. “You should thank your lover, Danielle. He has taken his punishment and yours.”

  “Wh-what did you do to him?” I shivered uncontrollably, my teeth chattering.

  “Two curses, my dear. Your beloved will spend eternity bearing the consequences of your treachery. You will grow old and die while he remains frozen, ageless, doomed to watch all he holds dear wither away. He will walk this world forever and…”

  Julius shot upright, knocking Patience away, his body rigid and his eyes rolled back in his head. His body began to shimmer and flicker eerily, disappearing and reappearing. One moment he was kneeling before Patience in agony, and the next he was a large, silver cat lying on his side, lifeless, only the rise of his ribcage showed him still breathing.

  “…he will do it as a common house cat.”

  Chapter Two

  Patience stooped over Julius’s feline form, peering down at him with a cocked head and a mocking smile. “Look at your man, Danielle. He’s nothing to you now. A lowly creature, not fit enough to protect you or love you as a man. He will spend the rest of your life watching you from the dirt. I suppose I could have made him a rat or an insect, but I’m not cruel. When you tire of him trailing at your heels, at least he’ll be able to find someone to take him in. Look at him. I bet he’s a pretty cat under all that wet, muddy fur.”

  Astonished, I stared at Julius, tears trailing down my cheeks. “How could you? This is shameful, Patience.”

  She stood and nodded at the two men holding me up. They abruptly let go and I fell to the side, burying my hands in Julius’s fur.

  “Go, Danielle. Leave this place forever and take that mangy thing with you. You are banished from the coven, and if you run fast enough…” She leaned down to whisper in a cruel voice. “You should run for your life. I can only imagine what Elijah will do when he catches you.”

  Turning my head to look into her face, I shuddered at the vicious gleam in her eyes. I snatched Julius up into my arms, stumbled to my feet, and ran for the forest without looking back. As soon as I crossed the torch line, it was as if I’d exited a protective bubble that had kept the worst of the weather out. Bitter winds chewed through my flimsy clothing, and I sunk into knee deep snow with each step.

  Gathering as much magical power as I could muster, I enveloped myself in an aura of distraction, so anyone who came near would be less interested in capturing me. I also asked the trees I passed to grow and extend their roots, making the path behind me perilous. I could only do so much, especially after all I’d endured in the past hours, but I welcomed every little advantage that allowed us a chance to escape.

  The chilling sound of Patience’s cackling filtered through the dense trees. I looked over my shoulder and saw the glowing orbs of torches floating in the distance like orange and yellow will-o’-the-wisps.

  I hadn’t been fleeing more than ten minutes before Julius writhed in my arms, letting out a pitiful cry, and I had to stop to lean against a tree, the snow not quite so deep under its boughs. Julius’s form began to flicker and fade again, his weight growing until I had no choice but to put him down.

  “Oh goddess,” I murmured as he howled with pain, holding my hands uselessly over him, agonizing over what I could possibly do to help him. “Julius…”

  In a blink, he was a man again, his clothing the same as before, only wetter and muddier. As I fretted, worried about hurting him if I touched him, he moaned and rolled to his back, squinting up at me with shimmering golden eyes.

  “D-Danielle? What’s happened to me?”

  “Oh, my love, I’m so sorry.” I pressed my fingers to his cheek. “You’re paying for my mistakes. Patience has done a most cruel thing to you. I will spend the rest of my mortal life making it up to you, I swear.”

  Julius raised a shaky hand to cup my face. “No, darling, this is not your fault. I hold nothing against you.”

  My heart raced in my chest, and I leaned down to place a soft kiss on his forehead. “We aren’t safe here. I don’t know how you are in your body again, but I can’t carry you this way.”

  “You were carrying me? How? I don’t remember anything after Patience started whispering to me.”

  “There’s no time to explain. Elijah and the coven hunters are after us. He’ll kill me if they catch us.” I moved to help him up, but he grabbed my hand.

  “What did she do to me, Danielle? I must know.”

  “She transformed you into a cat, Julius. Patience made you a cat with infinite lives. You will live forever.”

  Julius’s eyes drifted as he turned over the news. “A cat? Forever? What about you?”

  “I am mortal, my love. Once I pass into the Mother’s summerlands, you will be alone, unless you find another…”

  His eyes shot back to my face. “Never! You’re my soulmate. I will always love you.”

  I shook my head, smiling sadly. “Be that as it may, our lives are forever changed. I’m so very sorry.”

  “No. No apologies. I won’t hear them.”

  The crack of a twig broke into our moment of misery. “We must go now. Can you walk?”

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  I helped him to his feet, and we began our arduous trek through the deep snow and dark forest. Those floating orbs followed us the entire way, always in the distance, an ever-present threat stalking us.

  Julius leaned heavily on me, one arm braced over my shoulders. “You said she transformed me? If that is so, why am I not a cat now?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t have enough power to complete both the shape-changing curse and the eternity curse after she tried cursing me twice.” I caught him as he stumbled over a tree root.

  “Where are we going?” Julius’s lips were turning blue, his breath coming out in billowy clouds.

  “We’re almost to the village. Maybe we can find shelter somewhere.”

  “My mother would shelter us.”

  I hitched his arm up before it could slip off my shoulders. “I don’t want to endanger her.”

  “There’s nowhere else to go, Danielle. We must get warm, or we will freeze to death.”

  Reluctantly, I agreed. “We still need to pass through the village, or risk climbing the mountainsides to go around.”

  “It’s late evening, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, worry eating my insides as we reached the edge of the village.

  The houses bordering the village were run down homes of the less fortunate. Thatched roofs were thin, and barely kept the weather at bay. No one wanted to live near the witches, even though the covenstead was situated a mile away in the northernmost reaches of the mountain valley.

  We plodded over the muddy road, keeping to the shadows, but the village narrowed in the middle, forcing us to pass onto the main lane. The church and the cemetery sat on either side, and I would have chosen to sneak through the headstones and frozen graves, but a new fence had been installed recently, and I was too exhausted to try climbing over with Julius in his condition.

  “Careful, my love.” Julius clung tightly to me. “I hear the preacher winding down his sermon.”

  Just as we reached the front of the cemetery, stepping onto the cobblestone lane, the double doors of the church swung open, spilling out the first of the parishioners in their fur coats and top hats. The nasally voice of the preacher’s wife, Mrs. Bishop echoed over us.

  “What a wonderful sermon! We are so blessed. Thank you for coming this evening.”

  Mrs. Bishop climbed down the stairs, struggling to hold her heavy skirts up while grasping the railing. Her many layers of outerwear made her nearly as wide as she was tall, which she wasn’t at all. A lithe man in a velvet overcoat offered a helping hand, which she took gratefully, offering a simpering smile in return.

  “Keep your head down. Don’t attract her attention.” Julius
attempted to straighten and walk beside me casually, but it took great effort.

  “I’ll try, but we must look affright in our torn clothes and no coats.”

  “Maybe she will be too distracted to see—”

  “Hello there!” Someone called from the church’s gate.

  “Oh!” Mrs. Bishop fluttered her hands, waved off a couple attempting to pay their respects, and rushed to the gate. “Who goes there? Are you well?” She turned to the man beside her. “Do they look well to you? Are we being overrun by vagabonds, Mr. Everly?”

  “Hard to say, Missus. They appear rather disheveled.”

  I cringed, clutching Julius’s hand tightly.

  “Keep walking,” Julius said, urging me forward.

  “Mr. Hartfell, is that you? And is that Miss Rose with you?” Mrs. Bishop rushed forward a couple steps before stopping and looking at the man pointedly. He dashed to her side, offering an elbow that she snaked an arm around, squeezing tight enough to make him wince.

  “Hold on there, you two. You missed services.” She rushed over, dragging the man along in her haste.

  Julius and I glanced at each other, barely containing our groans. I sighed, then put on a pleasant smile and helped Julius turn to face the insufferable woman. “Don’t look directly at her, Julius. Your eyes shine like spun gold in the light.”

  “What?” He blinked at me, incredulous. “How do I hide…?”

  “Greetings, Mrs. Bishop.” I clenched my hand to keep myself from fidgeting with my torn skirt.

  “Evening, ma’am.” Julius sounded congenial, if weak, tipping his head to her and trying to keep his face shadowed. We were both aware she thought little of us, not being part of wealthy families, but not invisible enough to avoid her oh-so helpful criticisms.

  “Heavens, you both look quite bedraggled.” She glanced at the man beside her. “Don’t you think so, Mr. Everly?”

  The man harrumphed. “Quite.”

  “What has happened to you? Were you attacked? It’s those vagabonds, I know it. I must inform Mr. Bishop of this.”

  Julius shook his head. “No, ma’am, we were not attacked—”