Snow Storms

by Elle Middaugh

  A moment later, screams filled the air, and all thought about Criss’s unspoken statement vanished.

  Chapter 4

  The ground rumbled as citizens scrambled to flee.

  I jumped up onto my chair and peered over the zigzagging bodies, trying to see where the commotion was coming from. Were the harpies from Eristan clouding up the skies? Hydratican or Timberlunian soldiers marching in?

  Blackwood’s enemy list seemed to grow by the day. It could have been anyone.

  “SNOWMAN ATTACK!” another voice shouted.

  My anxiety screeched to a sudden halt. Did that voice just say…?

  “Snoooow maaaan attaaaaack!” The words repeated almost in slow motion by another crazed citizen.

  Okay, yeah, I heard that right.

  But what the fuck?

  Rob jumped across the table and we sprinted after him into the square. Sure enough, just as the citizens had said, hundreds of snowmen hobbled through the streets chasing after innocent victims.

  So… an actual fucking snowman attack.

  Strange, that the people had refused to evacuate, but in the face of some rogue snowballs, they all fled.

  Gods, this was unbelievable.

  “You think this is the work of our enemies?” Cal asked quickly, muscles flexed and ready to do something. What, I didn’t know. Smash the snowballs into the ground?

  Rob shook his head. “You think fae, harpies, and sirens disguised themselves as snowmen just to sneak attack us?”

  Cal shrugged. “It’s possible.”

  “If not them, then who?” Ben asked. “The Storm King? The gods?”

  Realization passed across Rob’s face just before it hardened into anger. “Those motherfucking, interfering, dickwad gods!”

  “You think they’re messing with us?” Dan asked as he watched a snowman take down a teenage boy like a demon after a chimera egg. The kid let out a high-pitched screech until his face finally pressed into the snow. The snowman then righted himself and chased after another fleeing citizen.

  Dan laughed, his brows slowly lowering with certitude. “Rob’s right. This is definitely the work of the gods. If it were the Storm King or any of our enemies, they’d be doing a hell of a lot more than tackling chicken-shit kids.”

  Ash pursed his lips and scratched his head. “I guess it does seem like something Dion might do. He might’ve gotten Herc and Percy in on it, too. Maybe Affie and Seff.”

  Rob glared at him. “Well, aren’t you just a cool kid with all your insider information and code names.”

  Ash rolled his amber eyes and flipped his brother the bird. “Dionysus, Heracles, Perseus, Aphrodite, and Persephone—for the big dumb jackass in the front.”

  “Asher, I swear to the gods,” Rob threatened with a clenched fist.

  “Look,” Cal intervened, putting a hand on each of their chests. “We just need to figure out how to stop them.”

  “Right,” Dan agreed sarcastically. “When’s the last time you managed to stop a god?”

  “Then what do you propose we do?” Cal yelled. “Nothing? Just kick back and relax while they terrorize the town and ruin our one and only holiday? We made a promise to Peach.”

  My brows rose in surprise. “I mean, yeah, you did, but I’m way more concerned about the people’s wellbeing than my own carefree holiday. We can’t just do nothing. The gods have powers, but you five are demigods, which means you should be able to counter those powers. At least a little bit.”

  Cal pursed his lips and turned to a group of snowmen hanging from a string of garland like garments on a clothesline. “All right. Let’s see how they like a bit of Sky power fighting back.”

  The wind picked up and whipped around the square, blowing citizens onto their knees, and causing snowmen to roll through the streets, growing bigger as each somersault helped them accumulate more snow. Garland ends pulled free of their bindings and whole strands flew through the air, smothering some people and taking others out like a tripwire. And still, those snow fuckers held on, billowing like big chunky flags on the painfully cold breeze. Finally, Cal leapt into the air and flew over to them, pulling their twiggy fingers from the string, and watching in smug satisfaction as all four of them crashed to the ground.

  But there were still more, little mobs of snow fuckers running all over the place. Some of them were from our snowman making contest—a mermaid waddling through the square on my left, a snowman dropping little brown chocolates on the ground behind it, to name just a couple—but I had no idea where the others were coming from.

  Glancing around at the destruction Cal had caused, I shook my head and tsked. Garland was down and strewn about everywhere, ornaments had blown off the trees, and candles had blown out entirely.

  “I bet I could end this real quick and in a hurry,” I said, rolling up my gown’s furry white sleeves. I removed my mittens and rubbed my hands together before holding out my palms. “Fi—”

  But Dan kissed me, stopping the word from actually leaving my lips. When he pulled away, he had the decency to look sheepish. “Let’s save that as a last resort, okay?”

  I glared at him in irritation. “Fine.”

  Then I pulled my golden ax from the belt at my side.

  “You’re going to just run around decapitating snowmen and citizens alike?” Dan asked, knowing full-well what the answer to that question was.

  I growled but stuffed the ax away. He was right. There were far too many crazed civilians scattered about the square to risk using an actual weapon. Damn it.

  Dan kissed my pouty lips once more before striding toward the fountain. He reared back and slammed his fist through the ice, shattering it, and allowing the water to flow once more. He then directed it through the streets, washing away the snowmen—along with the people—in a cleansing wave.

  I smirked.

  Way to go, Sea Prince. It’s definitely much better to kill them with hypothermia than an ax.

  “Get back to your houses!” Ben shouted, and this time it wasn’t for his lack of hearing. “Get some dry clothes on and warm yourselves by the fire! We’ll take care of the snowmen situation!”

  Wet people waddled stiffly to their homes as their clothing had already begun to freeze solid. But before they’d even gotten out of the square, new snowmen and dry citizens arrived. Some snowmen were chasing people—gurgling like monsters as their twiggy arms flailed in the air; and some people were chasing snowmen—shovels, pitchforks, and torches in their hands. As soon as they got close, they fell on their asses, slipping and sliding on a thick layer of shimmering ice that now coated every last cobblestone.

  Yep. Way to go, Dan.

  Ben smacked a palm to his face and slowly dragged it down to his chin. Clearly, he was thinking the same thing I was.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he told me, then he stepped carefully out into the street, trying not to fall.

  Rob took Ben’s place on my left, while Ash moved closer to my right.

  “This should be good,” Rob muttered, crossing his arms as his brothers made complete asses of themselves.

  Ash sighed and shook his head. “I suppose I’d better help them.”

  Ben’s and Ash’s magic flared up at the same time, so that vines slowly crept across the ice just as a swirling vortex of gold dust turned Ash into a… penguin.

  “Really?” I half-shouted at him in exasperation. “That’s the best you could come up with?”

  He honked at me and pecked at my boots.

  I backed away and squealed. “I’m serious! Why not a polar bear? Or a fucking walrus? Something big, and actually capable of taking those snow fuckers down.”

  The penguin glared at me, spun around, and waddled off.

  Hades fucking hell…

  The penguin shuffled faster, gaining speed, and soon he flopped down onto his tummy and slid straight toward a group of snowmen, knocking them over like a bunch of bowling pins.

  I shut my mouth and cocked my head.

  All
right, Ash, not bad.

  The penguin hopped back onto his feet and ran again, once more flopping onto his stomach as he approached another group of baddies. Except, this time, Ben’s vines got in the way, causing Ash to tumble into a knotted mess of leafy greens. The penguin honked and squawked in frustration as he tried to break free, but Ben didn’t seem to notice.

  Or rather, Ben probably couldn’t see or hear him. The more vines he called into the square, the more senseless he would undoubtedly become.

  The vines crisscrossed across the ice, giving people the traction they needed to not slip, but also tangling up houses and knocking over decorative trees in the process. The creeping greens even picked up tables and chairs from the outdoor cafés and dragged them around the square, creating more deathtraps to trip over.

  “What are we supposed to do?” I asked Rob, shaking my head at the shitshow this ‘rescue mission’ had become.

  He sighed. “Looks like we’re gonna have to settle this the old-fashioned way. With a little grit and grind.”

  Before I could even ask what the hell that meant, he charged full tilt. He looked like a pissed off rhinoceros about to knock someone’s ass up into their throat—or in this case, their balls up into their other balls.

  As soon as he made contact with that first snowman, it smashed to the ground, leaving half of its snowy body behind in the crisscrossing vines. It was kind of hilarious looking, actually. Half of it was round and spherical, while the other half was flat as a razorblade.

  I turned to Criss, who was the only one left other than me. Neither of us really seemed to know what to do. He could heal people, but no one seemed to be actually getting hurt, and I could melt the whole town square, but that would cause an insatiable bout of horniness. And apparently my Storms didn’t want that until after the snowmen fiasco was finished.

  The bastards.

  Groaning interrupted my and Criss’s helpless staring as a zombie wandered over with a snowman’s arm jabbed through its eye.

  “Hades fuck!” Criss shouted and rushed over to the creature. “Are you hurt? Do you need me to heal you?”

  The zombie groaned again, and I was certain that Criss was just as lost as I was as to what the fuck that meant.

  “Here, just, hold on.” He put his hands to the zombie’s rotting face. “I’ll try to help.”

  I stepped closer as Criss’s healing magic came to life. It left his palms and soaked into the creature’s flaky face with a golden glow, but nothing seemed to happen. Its skin was still loose and sickly green, its limbs were still hanging from their sockets, and its eyes were just as dull and unfocused as they had been moments ago.

  “You can’t heal a zombie, you dumbass!” Rob shouted, just as Cal dislodged another hanging snowman from a strand of garland. It fell through the air and crashed into Rob, flattening them both like pancakes into the snow.

  “This is ridiculous,” Criss said in a yawn. His eyelids dropping low over his hazel eyes.

  He must’ve used a lot of magic trying to heal that zombie.

  “I was trying to tell you earlier…” he began drowsily. But he laid down on the vine-covered ice, tucked his hands beneath his head, and shut his eyes without finishing his sentence.

  I reached out and shook his shoulder. “Criss.”

  He smiled in his sleep but didn’t open his eyes.

  “Criss! What were you trying to tell us?”

  But it was no use. He was passed out.

  I sighed and put both hands on my hips. I knew from past experience that he only needed a quick ten-minute nap before he’d become conscious again, but I was getting impatient. And I was the only one left who could do something about this shit.

  Between the snowmen, the citizens, and the Storm princes, the town was getting wrecked. All the beautiful holiday décor was ruined, all the fun and games had stopped, and people were too busy duking it out with animated balls of snow to even begin preparing for the Winter Ball.

  I narrowed my eyes and solidified my resolve.

  All right, boys. Time for me to take matters into my own hands…

  “Fire.”

  Chapter 5

  Curly, peach flames danced across the dusky sky, illuminating the town square with an expanding ripple of fiery magic.

  Heat crawled up my neck and swirled through my core, sparking an ember of lust.

  Admittedly, it was a little difficult to control. Not because of the lust, but because I had to avoid so many unconscious bodies—like Ben, Criss, and random citizens—while simultaneously melting the fleeing snowmen. “A little difficult” was an understatement. It was probably the hardest bit of magic I’d ever done.

  Sweat beaded along my forehead as I strained to focus.

  Easy, Lex. Gentle pulses.

  But the extra attentiveness seemed to fuel the burn of my desire even more than usual. It stormed through my system like a hurricane, consuming me inch by inch. A lose-lose scenario, really. I had to concentrate in order to ignore the lust, spare the citizens, and melt the snowmen; but that very same concentration was fueling the flames of my lust like pure gasoline. My legs quivered as arousal and need throbbed between my thighs. My lips parted and I closed my eyes, doing my damnedest to disregard the alluring call of my cravings.

  Melt the snowmen and save the citizens. Orgasms later, Sex Princess.

  I sent another wave of fiery magic across the square, charring the vines into ash and melting the ice into a giant, lukewarm puddle. A few of the snowmen went down, their exteriors melting away to reveal shadow-like forms underneath.

  Were those…?

  But I couldn’t even complete my thought as heat suddenly flamed in my core and radiated out of me in waves. Dear gods, I wanted to fuck someone. Anyone.

  A droplet of sweat streamed down my neck and disappeared between my breasts, turning me on further. Fuck, this was bad. Even the snow and ice around me couldn’t seem to calm the heat of my burning desire.

  “It’s working, Peach!” Cal shouted as he soared through the air toward a group of snowmen who’d found their way onto a rooftop. “Just a few more heatwaves and all the snow will be gone!”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  Just a few more waves. I can do that, right? Yeah. I can totally do…

  My mind went off on a delicious tangent and I began searching for able-bodied men capable of satisfying my needs.

  I could do Rob. He stood, dusting snow off his coat from where the snowman had flattened him into the ground. I could do Dan. But he was busy funneling half the melted snow into the fountain so that it stopped streaming through the streets, and the other half into the Sand Prince’s mouth. I could do Cal—if he weren’t in the air. And Ash—if he weren’t a fucking penguin. And Ben or Criss—if they weren’t still unconscious.

  “Peach!” Cal shouted again, before he knocked the last few straggling snowmen off the roof. “Another wave!”

  Oh yeah.

  “Fire!”

  It burst out of me; intense, like the torturous lust threading through every fiber of my being. I panted and I sweltered, burning alive as passion and desire flooded me, drowning me in a sea of it. Any moment now, I’d be lost beneath the surface, too fucking aroused to even control myself.

  Rob once compared it to a vampire’s bloodlust. Insatiable and unstoppable.

  Gritting my teeth, my magic sparked and sputtered before going out entirely. I’d never before used so much of it that it had completely run out—not even during the attack on Ebony City. At least then, I’d been able to cool off between bouts of arousal. Now, I was just fucked.

  Or I would be soon.

  I took a few steps forward expecting my legs to feel weak and shaky, but instead I found them to be strong and determined.

  I wasn’t the only one who stepped forward, though. Citizens entered the square from every door, nook, and alleyway, with an almost trance-like look of intensity on their faces. Their dark eyes glowed, reflecting the peachy orange
flames that were still licking at the vines along the outer edge of the plaza.

  Men dropped their coats and unbuttoned their shirts. Women slipped off their robes and unzipped their gowns. Soft skin was suddenly everywhere, interspersed with pale skin, flakey skin, rotten skin, translucent skin, and all sorts of nudity in between. Zombie dicks, and banshee tits, and vampire cunts, oh my. Even the shadowy demons seemed to be under my trance as every creature approached the nearest body and started to fuck.

  Rob spun around and stared at me, our eyes locking like lodestones. Then he ripped his shirt apart at the chest, dropping the tattered remains onto the ground as he stalked closer.

  Fuck me, gods, that was sexy.

  Dan turned and sauntered closer, too, a rock-hard erection straining to break free of his pants.

  Yes, that’s what I want.

  Suddenly, Cal dropped from the sky and landed on a bent knee. The ground crinkled beneath the force, surrounding him like a small crater. He stood, as if he hadn’t just slammed into the ground, and slowly unbuttoned his shirt.

  Holy shit, yes.

  Ben and Criss each sat up slowly, like sexy-as-fuck zombies rising from the grave. Their gazes—molten brown and fervent hazel—scanned the writhing crowd of bodies until they landed directly on mine.

  Yes, boys. Come to me and make me come.

  The five of them surrounded me, enveloping me in sizzling heat. I felt the sudden urge to strip off my coat and belt, a compulsion to unzip my gown and watch it spill to the floor. As the straps slid down my shoulders and my hardened nipples escaped the lacy fabric, a horny little penguin waddled over and gazed up at me.

  I grinned, and without a second thought, retrieved my ax from my discarded belt and wedged it straight into his black and white chest. He fell to the ground as blood poured out of him, dripping onto the damp cobblestones like sweet syrup. Then his magic swirled to life, surrounding him in a tornado of glittering gold dust, transforming him into a ripped, sexy, and completely naked Asher Storm.

  I bit my bottom lip, allowing the last remaining fabric of my dress to fall. All I had left was a pair of lacy white panties. As their eyes roved my body, hungrily taking me in, I fed off their emotions of love, lust, and painful arousal.