Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Soulmates of Seasons Book 2)

by Eva Brandt

  “I will be honest with you. I do not know if I trust you. However, I owe Queen Cheimon’s family more than I could ever say. They are the ones who granted me and Mariko shelter when we had no real place to go. King Helios might have done it at least in part out of self-interest because we were useful as guardians for this place, but I know that Queen Cheimon is not that way.

  “In all my years, I have seen many kings and queens, and I know that a great majority of them forget that the true reason for their existence is to protect the people. She has not forgotten it, not ever.”

  Oki glanced at the metal capsule, taking in its frost-covered surface with the same apprehension we ourselves felt. “Do you know that this prison originally held Snegurka prior to Queen Cheimon taking her powers from her? I arrived in Chronikos one year before the whole thing happened, but I remember Snegurka was cognizant at the time, still fighting the enchantment. I believe now that it is part of the reason why Her Majesty went through with the transference ritual to begin with, because she did not want the torture to continue. And if you are indeed her soulmates, you must also have her kindness, her compassion, and her strength.

  “Besides, if a soulmate spell was what drove Snegurka insane, it stands to reason that a true soulmate could fight her madness back. Mariko might have been able to help a little, but you are the only ones who can truly stand by Queen Cheimon’s side.”

  Raijin and I could not argue with that logic, and even if we had been inclined to try, we didn’t have time to dwell on further doubts. A wave of magic suddenly swept over the room, and the ground above us started to shake, making the fire enchantment inside the pit flare, protest and strain. The sound of shattering ice reached my hearing, reminding me far too much of the moment I’d seen Cassia’s body dissipate like a broken mirror.

  “It’s starting,” Oki said tightly, vibrating with an agitation that was unusual to see—or scent—in an undead being. “Quickly. Help her.”

  We didn’t need to be told twice. Praying we had made the right choice, I pressed my hand to the capsule and let the world around me fade into nothingness.

  * * *

  Cheimon

  Guilt tasted bitter, I thought distantly as I stood in the icy tundra that was a representation of my own mind, facing the ghost of my past and trying to protect the future I had once hoped to have. It tasted bitter and foul, and it made me wonder how I’d ever dared to take in the sweetness of my soulmates’ affection when I had been so very aware of everything I should have done, but hadn’t.

  I stole a look at Emmerich’s pale face and wished for the first time since I had met him that he had never come here. My dragons deserved better. Had they not ended up on Chronikos, they would have undoubtedly found mates who would’ve been able to give them good lives. Hatchlings, as Emmerich’s parents had said. I had no idea if that was possible now, but I hoped that they would eventually find their way home.

  Maybe everything did indeed happen for a reason, and that was why their parents had arrived in my realm, to give them the support they would need once I was gone. That was a comforting thought. Almost.

  Shaking myself, I pushed back my melancholy and focused on my enemy. Now was not the time to get distracted by my foolish emotions, not when Snegurka was right in front of me, emanating demonic magic. “You know,” I told her, “believe it or not, I never did agree with my father. I hated the idea of imprisoning you in that pit. In that sense, maybe you are right, and I am too soft, too weak.

  “But even so, I am still strong enough to do what I should’ve done all those years ago and take from you what you should’ve never had.”

  The truth was a little more complicated than that. Had I not stepped up to absorb Snegurka’s powers, she would’ve stayed cognizant while in her metal capsule. My mother had promised that once Snegurka’s powers faded, that would no longer be the case, and it had helped anchor me during those first days when the alien magic I’d taken from her had scared me so very much.

  Naturally, Snegurka did not care about such things, nor did she feel in any way grateful toward me. Then again, I had not expected it.

  “You’re a fool, little half-breed,” she spat back, baring her teeth at me. “You could never really beat me. The first time was just luck, and after that, it was your father who kept me trapped. You are not him. You cannot hope to contain power like mine.”

  “Probably not, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try anyway.”

  Up to a point, she was right to be skeptical about my chances. I was at a significant disadvantage, more than I had been when I had faced her in the amarok caverns. Her repertoire of mind magic was far more extensive than my own, if only because her less than inspired choices in life had mutated her original skills into something so very twisted and cruel. In fact, if not for my natural connection to my Yuki-Onna, my spirit might have completely lost its hold on my body after that first attack.

  But I was back now, and I refused to let her take what did not belong to her. I might not have terrifying powers of possessing people, but I still had my soulmates, the soulmates she believed were hers.

  Anger exploded through me at the memory of her trying to convince Emmerich to discard our bond. The space around us responded to my tempestuous emotions so fiercely that I almost feared I would turn into a version of my own enemy. A harsh blizzard rose around me, and ice bloomed at my fingertips and beneath my booted feet. “I think now that I’m not so different from my father. He might’ve been selfish and cruel, but so am I.”

  Yes, guilt tasted bitter, but fear was even worse, and I could not be afraid anymore.

  “What you are is a liar and a thief,” Snegurka snarled, “and I will claim my retribution from your carcass if I have to.”

  The sky above us darkened, the demonic nature of her powers clouding the mindscape the three of us now shared. I didn’t flinch away from it. When Snegurka summoned her magic, ready to do exactly what she had said, I stood my ground once again, but this time, with the complete and utter knowledge that I could not afford to fail.

  The bright ice-blue of my power struck the dark force Snegurka emanated, and the impact sent us both reeling back. I staggered but did not fall. All I needed was a chance, an opening that would give me the opportunity to go through with my plan.

  It was a little easier said than done. Snegurka was powerful and determined, and while my mind had rebelled against the dark hold of her possession, I was still feeling the aftereffects of my earlier decision to heal the amarok pup.

  I had no choice but to throw all caution to the wind and pretend I was indeed as weak, foolish and helpless as she had deemed me to be.

  As that decision settled in my heart, Snegurka’s magic began to push my own back. The corrupted tendrils of her accursed abilities reached out to me and threatened to consume me whole, mimicking our confrontation in the cave.

  “Cassia!” I heard Emmerich cry out. With the corner of my eye, I caught sight of him trying to get up but failing. His strength and abilities would not help him here, not when Snegurka still controlled so much of this space, so much of me.

  I ached for him, for the fact that I was forcing to watch something so horrible, but I could not shield him from it. I could only hope that I’d succeed in the rest of my plan, and give him the future I would never have.

  As Snegurka’s dark power made contact with my ethereal hand, she started to laugh, the insane chuckles echoing in the space around us like thunder. “I told you, you don’t have a chance to beat me. You’re mine now. Everything you are is—”

  “I don’t think so,” my fifteen-year-old self said from behind her, interrupting her mid-sentence.

  Snegurka’s eyes widened as she finally understood what I had done. She tried to turn and focus on the new threat, but it was too late. By the time my other self finished the sentence, a thick vine had already pierced Snegurka’s chest. Letting out a choked gasp, she collapsed, her dark magic rushing away from me and returning to her as she desperate
ly attempted to keep her consciousness from fading away.

  “Y-You tricked me,” she stammered, clutching the wound and trying to stem the blood flow. Distantly, I couldn’t help but wonder how it was even possible for someone to bleed if we weren’t in the real world.

  “You yourself said that I am a liar and a thief,” I replied, allowing my magic to smooth down the parts of my mindscape that she had attempted to destroy. The dark clouds vanished altogether, and the temperature in the tundra settled into something calmer, less vicious.

  “You should’ve known better than to lower your guard while trying to take over someone else’s body,” my fifteen-year-old self added. As she spoke, flowers bravely appeared from underneath the snow and more vines emerged from the ground, wrapping Snegurka in a cocoon of vegetation that shouldn’t have existed.

  I nodded in satisfaction and exchanged a look with my younger self. The vine enchantment would hold my nemesis until I could go through with the more permanent solution I had in mind.

  Emmerich made his way to my side, still a little pale and shaky, but otherwise unharmed. “Treasure, are you all right?” he asked as he cupped my cheek.

  “Yes,” both my fifteen-year-old self and I replied at the same time. Oh, dear. That was going to get confusing if I didn’t deal with it quickly.

  I intended to do just that and return my younger self to my subconscious, where she belonged, but my plan was once again derailed when the astral space around us began to shake. The clouds swirled as if in response to a distant storm, and I cried out when the disturbance lashed out against me.

  The ice beneath our feet cracked, and the vines holding Snegurka captive started to dissipate. I desperately tried to regain control of my magic, but an external force seemed to be tugging at me, attacking my connection with Chronikos. A vicious, unseen claw reached straight into me, shattering the delicate balance of my mindscape, reaching for the core of my magic.

  I flailed in panic and anguish, attempting to fight the force back, and I encountered some success. The claw ran into a barrier created through the sheer power of my determination and will. However, no matter how determined I was, I could not fight two things at the same time. The last remnants of my spell on Snegurka faded, and just like that, she was free.

  Smirking, my nemesis waved her hand, and the teenage version of me vanished into thin air. I felt the blow echo within my sense of self, and I screamed as the claw began to shove its way through my hastily put together defenses. I could not understand what was happening, but it felt like I was being ripped apart and split open, the very essence of my being targeted by something I couldn’t hope to fight.

  “It hurts, doesn’t it, little half-breed?” Snegurka asked, her voice thick with vicious satisfaction. “Well, now you know how I felt.”

  Emmerich cursed and lunged at Snegurka. I half-expected her to attack him, but she didn’t. He still did not manage to do more than grab her shoulder. “What is going on?” he inquired. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh, I’m not doing much, my dearest firedrake,” Snegurka replied, her tone softening in a way that made me sick to my stomach. “He made me a promise, and he is finally keeping it.”

  Now that Snegurka mentioned it, she had indeed spoken of a mysterious “he” before, presumably someone who had helped her on her quest. Was it Ded Moroz? Had her father done something else in a misguided attempt to assist the daughter he had lost so long ago? No, it wasn’t possible. Ded Moroz was imprisoned in The Palace of Serenity. Surely, he couldn’t have gotten away. And even if he had, what kind of power could he have unleashed that affected me like this?

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Emmerich said, “but I made a promise too, a promise to keep Cassia safe. I won’t allow you to do this.”

  Snegurka shook her head and shot him a pitying look. “That’s very cute, dearest, but I’m afraid you’re powerless here.”

  “I don’t think I am,” Emmerich answered, and suddenly, I could feel myself getting stronger. “You know, Snegurka, when Kerryn, Raijin and I arrived here, the three of us had a realization. Dragons aren’t really prone to sharing anything, but we decided that a female like Cassia was too brave, beautiful and strong for one mate alone. It stood to reason that she’d have three.”

  “She still does,” Kerryn said, stepping out from the mist, to Snegurka’s left.

  Mere seconds later, Raijin appeared as well, this time to her right. “Your magic might be more powerful than ours, but not everything is about magical strength.”

  Emmerich glared at her, and his hand suddenly started to glow where he was still holding onto her shoulder. “You called Cassia weak for wanting to help an innocent pup, but I say that you are the one who is weak because you could not face her without targeting the people you once swore to protect.”

  I wasn’t sure things were quite so clear cut, but the true meaning of their words transcended the black and white separation between strength and weakness. Hadn’t I realized it myself earlier? I might have made mistakes, and I might have failed my soulmates and my people, but even so, I had been granted a gift and a blessing Snegurka had never had, something her accomplice—no matter who he might be—could not shatter or combat.

  My mindscape went calm and still, the storm that had almost broken my sanity turning into a gentle cool breeze. Snowflakes started to fall from the clouds, and in each of them, I saw a person, one of the people I had decided to fight for at age fifteen. Somewhere in the distance, the claw was still attempting to break into my mind, but it failed to make any progress.

  “They’re right, Snegurka,” I said as I got up. “I don’t know what allies you have and what they decided to do to hurt me, but in the end, it makes no difference. I might only be a foolish half-breed nymph, but I’ve earned the loyalty of the people and the love of my dragons, and you can never crush that.

  “What is your goal, truly? What do you hope to accomplish? Gain my magic? You had a good portion of it once, and we know how that turned out. Take my soulmates? It will never work. In your heart, you must be aware that they are as bound to me as I am to them. Take Chronikos? Why? It will not help you, nor will it answer any of your questions.”

  I didn’t expect to get a rational response to my inquiries, mostly because Snegurka seemed to believe she did have all the answers. But maybe that wasn’t quite true, because the vitriolic remark she should have responded with didn’t come out. Instead, Snegurka ripped her arm away from Emmerich’s hold and stepped back. She said nothing, and for a few seconds, our identical gazes locked and held.

  I’d stolen that from her too, the ice blue of her eyes. I remembered the way she had looked when we’d been in the caverns and wondered why here, in my mindscape, she was different.

  That question, like countless others, remained unasked. Snegurka smiled at me one last time and in the blink of an eye, disappeared, her figure melting into thin wisps of dark smoke and leaving no sign of her presence behind.

  I sensed the moment her consciousness left my body and could do nothing to stop it. My magic might have blocked the power of the intruder still attempting to force his way inside me, but it could not contain Snegurka, not if she no longer wanted to possess my physical form.

  It was both a win and a loss, but at that moment, I felt too selfishly relieved at having my soulmates there with me to focus on the possible consequences of her escape.

  As if guessing my thoughts and instinctively knowing what I needed, my dragons rushed to my side in a whirlwind of panic and anger. “Are you all right, treasure?” Raijin asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

  I allowed myself the luxury of taking comfort in his familiarity and strength. “I’m fine. Well... Mostly. Still a little weak, but I’ll get better.” As long as I didn’t run into any other unpleasant surprises, at least.

  The first step to prevent possible problems was finding out what in the world had happened and what kind of force had given Snegurka the chance to escape. I
obviously had another enemy, someone I hadn’t been aware of and who needed to be dealt with, at once. “Do you know what accomplice Snegurka has and what he is doing?” I inquired.

  Raijin and Kerryn shared a grim look, and their expressions almost made regret I’d asked the question. “We do, treasure,” Kerryn replied, “but you’re not going to like it.”

  They were right. I didn’t.

  Ten

  Treachery

  Emmerich

  The first thing I became aware of when I came to was the sound of a familiar, panicked voice calling out Cassia’s name. “Queen Cheimon! Queen Cheimon, can you hear us?”

  I cracked my eyes open, only to find that I was once again in the physical world, with my soulmate by my side and Viveka bending over us, attempting to provide Cassia with medical assistance. Thank the gods. My day was showing improvement.

  “I can hear you fine, Viveka,” Cassia said, as if in confirmation of my thoughts. As expected, she was stirring as well, and while her magic was still restless, it appeared to be mostly due to her anger, rather than any persisting physical damage.

  I was still grateful that Alva was present to check her over since the kind of experience Cassia had just gone through always left traces. “Lie down and let Viveka look you over, treasure,” I told her.

  I should have known better than to think it would be so easy. Cassia shook her head, freed herself from the tentative grasp of the still frantic nisse and got up. “We don’t have time for that. We need to get to the palace.”

  I wanted to argue that her health took priority over handling the traitor, but unfortunately, the enchantment that had hurt Cassia was still being cast, as evidenced by the fact that the caverns were still shaking, threatening to collapse on top of us. Most of the amaroks had evacuated, but a few males had stayed behind and appeared to be attempting to make sure we didn’t get stuck down here.