by Jill Myles
The Snow Queen’s Captive
By Jill Myles
Copyright 2014 by Jill Myles
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
The Snow Queen’s Captive
Charlotte gets more than she bargained for when her fairy godmother, Muffin, sends her into a fairy tale for a second chance at life. But instead of being the hero...Charlotte's accidentally become the evil queen! To make matters worse, there’s a man captive in her basement. A very sexy, very angry man who also thinks Charlotte’s the bad guy.
Now she has to figure out how to save the day and get the guy. But will Kai be able to see the real Charlotte underneath it all? Can she thaw his anger and win his love before the ‘real’ heroine ices her? Will the Snow Queen get a happy ever after for once?
This novel features a captive alpha hero, a reluctant evil queen, a storyline nothing like that movie you’re all thinking of, and some creative use of ice in the bedroom.
Once Upon Another Time
The Beast’s Bride
The Mermaid’s Knight
The Snow Queen’s Captive
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Chapter One
This was like a bad acid trip.
Or at least it would be, Charlotte decided, if she’d ever tried acid. Had to be too much laughing gas. Had to be. Why else would she be blinking up at the sight of a little old woman with a smiling, wrinkled face, a halo of white cherub curls, and a party hat on her head? Charlotte blinked her eyes slowly, glancing over to her right. On her other side loomed a woman with a youthful round face, pink eyebrows, and tufts of hair that looked like cotton candy. She held a unicorn horn in her hand and her skin sparkled in the clinical light of the dentist’s office.
Charlotte closed her eyes and counted to five, hoping the vision would go away. She was really going to have to talk to Dr. Franks about how much laughing gas he was giving her. The fact that she was seeing things that seemed straight out of a psychedelic kids’ TV show come to life?
Told her that whatever she was on, the dosage was a wee bit too high. At least her mouth didn’t hurt. Her tooth had been throbbing for days before she’d finally conquered her fear of a root canal and decided to head in to the dentist. She’d been so shaky with fear that he’d suggested nitrous. And even though she’d never had nitrous before, she’d gone along with it.
No one had told her it’d make her hallucinate, though.
Fingers tapped her cheek. “Wake up, sweetie pie. Rise and shine.”
Could hallucinations be tactile?
Something hard poked her nose. “BOOP.”
An exasperated sigh echoed in her ear. “Not right now, Fifi. This is a sensitive part of the process. She’s going to be disoriented, so we need to be sensitive to her needs. That’s fairy godmother one-oh-one. You certainly don’t ‘boop’ a client on the nose when they first come to.”
“But her nose is just so cute!” The lighter voice sounded miffed.
“No booping the clients! Write that down.”
Charlotte’s eyes fluttered open and she glanced around. Still the older woman and the young cotton-candy one, though the latter was now scribbling with a purple feather pen into a Lisa Frank notepad. “No booping,” Cotton-Candy said to herself as she wrote. “Got it.”
“Look, she’s waking up.” The elderly woman smiled down at Charlotte. “Now smile and look friendly.”
Cotton-Candy bared her teeth in a frozen, too-wide grin, looking more like a jack-o-lantern than a friend.
Charlotte smacked her lips, and then frowned. “Who are you guys?” Her hand went to her lip, which was no longer numb. Weird. She didn’t even have any dental equipment in her mouth anymore. Her head was muzzy, too. Had too much time passed? “Did I fall asleep?”
“No, you died,” Cotton-Candy said helpfully.
“I what?”
The elderly woman reached over and smacked Cotton-Candy on the shoulder. “Sensitivity, Fifi! Sensitivity!”
“Sorry.” Cotton-Candy blinked rapidly and looked as if she were ready to cry. “I was just trying to help.”
Another sigh. “I know. But just let me handle things. You just observe, understand me? Observe.” The elderly woman enunciated the word ‘observe’. “Can you do that?”
Cotton-Candy nodded.
“I think I’m having a bad nitrous trip,” Charlotte whispered, her gaze moving back and forth between the two women.
“That’s why we’re here to talk to you, my dear,” the elderly woman said in a kind voice. She reached out and patted Charlotte’s cheek. “Why don’t you sit up so we can talk?”
Charlotte did, giving Cotton-Candy a wary look. The pink-haired girl was watching her with an almost hungry look in her gaze, and it was more than slightly unnerving. Despite the weirdness of her situation, though, she felt fine. Now that she was awake, her head was clearing. The constant ache that had been in her jaw for the last week or so was gone. She touched her cheek, surprised to find it was no longer swollen, either. “Wow, that dentist works fast.”
“Yes, about that,” the elderly woman said. She adjusted her party hat, tilting it so it hung on her head at a rakish angle. “The dentist doesn’t actually work that fast. He actually hasn’t started working on you at all.”
Charlotte frowned, touching her jaw again. “But I feel better.”
“I know you do. Allow me to explain.” Her hands went to her chest and she beamed at Charlotte. “My name is Muffin, and I’m your fairy godmother.”
Charlotte stared at the woman. Fairy…godmother? A purple feather danced into view at the corner of her eye, and she looked over to see Cotton-Candy hastily scribbling notes. She glanced back at the elderly woman – Muffin. “Um, what?”
“I’m your fairy godmother, here to guide you through this difficult time.” Her small, soft hands took Charlotte’s and she patted it. “Now listen very carefully, my dear, and above all else, I want you to relax and not panic, all right? We’re here to take care of things.”
“Take…care…things…” Cotton-Candy muttered as she wrote furiously.
Charlotte gave her a wary look, and then turned back to Muffin. “Who’s she?”
“That’s Fifi, my intern.” The smile on her face turned a little more pained. “Work exchange program.”
“What do you mean, fairy godmother?” Charlotte rubbed her cheek again. This was all so weird.
Muffin’s face wreathed into a sympathetic smile. “Did you know that you were allergic to nitrous, my dear?”
“I am?”
“You are.”
“Is that why I’m having all these weird dreams?”
Those little hands kept patting hers. “You did have an adverse reaction, but it’s not quite as simple to explain as dreams.”
“You died,” Fifi blurted again, earning herself another head-shake from Muffin.
“There’s good news and bad news,” Muffin said. “Which part do you want first?”
“Um, the bad news?” Charlotte asked, wincing a little at the thought.
“The bad news is that you died,” Muffin said, nodding. “Fifi’s right. You had an allergic reaction to the nitrous and your
throat closed up. You died before the dentist realized the problem.”
Charlotte gaped at her for a moment longer, and then shook her head. This was too weird. Had to be a laughing gas reaction. “So what’s the good news, then?”
Muffin beamed at her, and the hands gave hers a squeeze. “The good news is that your fairy godmother is here and I’m going to give you another shot at life! You’ll be given a task that you must complete. If you do so, you win a second go-around. If you lose, well, you’ve already had all the bad news.”
Charlotte pulled her hand from Muffin’s clinging grip. “And you’re sure this is not a reaction to the laughing gas? Because this definitely seems…trippy.”
“She doesn’t believe you,” Fifi said, her tone almost gleeful with excitement. “Can we show her? Please? Can we show her?”
Muffin gave a gusty sigh and got to her feet, dusting off her white party dress, complete with ruffled crinolines. “All right. I guess we should.”
“Show me what?” Charlotte watched the two women get to their feet, her brow furrowing. “What are you going to show me?”
Muffin opened the door to the small dental office and gestured for Charlotte to follow her. “The truth.”
As soon as they stepped out of the small office that Charlotte had been resting in, they plunged into chaos. People were everywhere — paramedics, police officers, weeping dental assistants. Nearby, Dr. Franks was talking to a police officer, his thin hair disheveled. His eyes were red, as if he’d been crying. Behind the mob of people, lights flashed from the ambulance parked just outside the windows.
This was confusing. What had happened? As Charlotte watched, the team of paramedics headed toward one part of the room, and her gaze was drawn to the dentist’s chair. A white sheet had been tossed over the entire thing, but there was no mistaking the lumps underneath the sheet – a body.
And when they lifted the body out of the chair, a hand fell free, and there was no mistaking that pink gemstone bracelet. It perfectly matched her blingy pink sandals that she’d worn this morning. Charlotte glanced down at her feet, but the shoes were still on there.
For that matter, she was still here, with the two strange women at her side, and no one seemed to be paying the slightest bit of attention to them. Charlotte glanced around at the scene, and then turned to Muffin. “I’m….really confused.”
Muffin nodded. “Happens to everyone, my dear.”
“Everyone…confused…” Fifi wrote furiously, not looking up from her notebook.
Muffin cast her an exasperated look and moved forward to put an arm around Charlotte’s waist. She carefully turned her around and steered her back to the private room they’d emerged from. “No need to see more of this, my dear. Come with me and we’ll figure things out, all right? I have plenty to explain.”
Charlotte nodded, allowing the woman to gently push her back into the room. Her brain wasn’t processing what she just saw. It just wasn’t. It…looked like she was dead. But how could that be? She was right here?
But everyone was ignoring her…
Muffin sat Charlotte down in a chair – used for teeth cleaning, Charlotte idly noticed – and took a seat next to her. Fifi sat on one of the counters at the back of the room, watching them and still taking notes. “Now,” Muffin said carefully. “There’s been a small problem—“
“Problem?” Charlotte’s voice rose a hysterical note, all of this finally getting to her. She gestured at the other room, still swarming with people. “Did you see all that out there? Why—“
“Shhh,” Muffin said. “Let’s calm down and I’ll explain.” Her voice took on a soothing tone. “There was an accident. No one could have predicted this sort of thing. It’s unfortunate, but what’s even more unfortunate is that you are one of the few people that have been knocked out of the weave.”
“The…weave?”
“The weave of souls. It’s all very complicated and probably shouldn’t be explained while your brain is mush.” Muffin reached over and patted her hand. “What it means is that you have an unfulfilled destiny, my girl. And fairy godmothers like myself, and uh, someday, Miss Fifi over there,” her voice got a little strained at the thought, though the smile remained, “are here to help you transition over.”
“Transition? To…Heaven?” Charlotte wrapped her arms around herself, hugging. “I don’t think I’m ready to go. There are still so many things I wanted to do. I—“
“I know,” Muffin said, interrupting. “But you’re actually not going anywhere. Like I said, you fell out of the weave.”
“Fell….out…of…weave,” Fifi intoned as she scribbled notes.
Charlotte blinked. Tried to process this. Failed. “Okay, I give up. I don’t understand.”
“You can’t go anywhere or else it would have already happened.”
“Okay, now I really don’t understand.”
“You don’t exist anymore, period. Your soul is in limbo. That’s why I’m here.” And she gave Charlotte a beaming smile to take away the terror from her words. “My job is to make you earn a second chance at life. I can put you in a new scenario and give you a task. If you prove yourself worthy and complete the task in the timeframe allotted, you win a second chance at life and a new beginning.”
“A new beginning? As in…like a baby? Reincarnation?”
“Oooo,” Fifi cooed, entranced by this idea. “Can we do that? Can we make her a turtle? I love turtles.”
“We’re not making anyone a turtle,” Muffin said in a strained voice. She focused on Charlotte, ignoring her intern. “If you win your second chance, you start fresh in a new place and time. I have to put you in to patch a weak spot in the weave to prevent other people from slipping through the cracks. But since I’m not in charge of the weave, I don’t know the place or time that you’d be sent to, only that it’s a second chance. Sound good?”
“Not really?” Charlotte began to shiver, rubbing her arms. “Can’t I go back to being me? I like my life.” It wasn’t the most fun or glamorous life in the world, but it was nice and safe. She had a decent job working at a craft store, was going to school at night to finish her college degree in business, and had her own apartment. If there wasn’t a boyfriend or lover in her life, it was simply because she didn’t have time and she told herself that those things would come later.
Except now? It sounded like ‘later’ was never going to get here. And that made her cold all over.
Muffin shook her head, fluttering the colored tassels on her party hat. “I’m afraid not.”
“But you said if I won, I could patch the weave so other people can’t fall through.” Heck, saying that aloud, she still wasn’t sure this wasn’t some sort of bad nitrous trip. “Can’t I patch my own weave?”
“You cannot. You don’t have a body to return to. Yours is dead.”
She couldn’t help but flinch at that. Dead was so very…final. “What happens if I fail?”
Muffin spread her hands. “Then I can’t help you. You remain outside of the weave forever.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened and her stomach gave a sick clench. “Um, that doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Muffin gave her a bright smile and leaned in to pat her knee. “So don’t fail, okeydokey?”
“O-okay.” She was starting to get more than a little scared. What happened if she remained here out of the weave — or whatever it was — forever? Would she exist without anyone able to see her? Ever? That sounded…disturbing. “So what do I do? What’s my task? When do I start?”
Charlotte crossed her fingers, praying that it’d be easy and fool-proof.
“You’ll start right away,” Muffin said, pulling out a tiny pink handbag and opening it. “We’ve found that you have the best chance of not getting all messed up in the head from the whole death thing—” she waved a hand in the air as if dying was no big deal, “—if you have a new focus right away. And since I’m a fairy godmother, we deal with fairy tales.”
“Fairy tales? Like…the Little Mermaid?”
“Not that one,” Muffin said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a tiny, fat book the size of a matchbook. She tapped the cover twice and the book expanded from matchbook-size to encyclopedia-size, covering the fairy godmother’s lap. Charlotte’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight, but neither Fifi nor Muffin blinked an eye at this remarkable growth. Instead, Muffin opened the book and began to flip through pages. “I’ve already got someone running her paces through the Mermaid test. I’ve picked something else for you.”
“Oh. Okay.” Charlotte leaned forward, watching over Muffin’s lap as the fairy godmother picked through dog-eared pages, seemingly searching for something.
After a moment, Muffin patted a page with satisfaction. “Ah! Here we go. The Snow Queen.”
Charlotte thought for a moment, and then shook her head. “I don’t know that one. What do I have to do?”
“You don’t know the Snow Queen?” Muffin looked at her in surprise, and then shook her head. “Kids these days. Fifi, do you know the Snow Queen tale?”
Fifi thought for a moment, then shook her head, her cotton-candy pink hair flying. “Nope!”
Muffin sighed and gave Charlotte a chagrined look. “So hard to find good help these days.” She smoothed a hand down her rustling pale skirts. “All right. I’m not much of a storyteller, but I can give you a nice recap at least. The Snow Queen fairy tale is about a young woman who is in love with her childhood sweetheart, a nice young hunk of man-meat. One day he’s stolen away by the snow queen, and the enterprising young woman must go and steal him back before he’s completely surrendered to the snow queen. There are a few variations on the tale, but if you don’t rescue him, the Snow Queen conquers the entire kingdom and blankets it in frost forever.”
“No pressure,” Charlotte said wryly. “Just the fate of an entire kingdom and a perfect stranger on my shoulders, right?”
“As well as that of your own fate,” Muffin agreed. “But yes, more or less. Are you up to it?”
