by Jill Myles
Worse, what if the old queen returned and Kai went to her with open arms, thinking it was Charlotte?
She had to do something. Something different. She had to fix this. God, she’d made such a mess of things, even worse than that stupid Fifi. Desperate, she clutched at the frosty mounds of her skirts and pushed her way inside the front doors of the castle, seeing now just how fragile and ephemeral her dwelling was. It was no place to keep Kai safe. The ice could collapse on top of her and not hurt her, but Kai was all too warm and human and fragile for this. She thought of his warm brown skin, smothered in furs so he didn’t freeze to death.
She thought of his blistered hand, frost nipped from where he’d touched her. He’d nearly lost his fingers, all because he’d wanted to pleasure her.
A sob escaped Charlotte’s throat. She was selfishly destroying him and his life, wasn’t she? Even without the mirror chips in his eyes, she was still manipulating him.
The mirror.
Gasping, Charlotte ran for the deepest recesses of the snow queen’s secret chambers. She found the thick wall behind her throne, coaxed it open, and then staggered through. There, set alone, was the magic mirror. It oozed power and malevolence. The two chips that had been in Kai’s eyes were returned, and the glass itself was unblemished perfection.
A fine mist seemed to cling to the air around the mirror. She approached it cautiously. It felt dirty to stand so close to it, like she was breathing in oily, unctuous evil with every breath.
But there was power here. Lots and lots of power. And Charlotte’s power was running low. The mirror might be able to save her.
Licking her lips nervously, she took another step forward and stared into the mirror’s reflection. There was her face, so pale and frightened, surrounded by a wild tangle of pale blonde hair. Her skin had a bluish, frosty tinge to it, but the mirror made it seem sickly, unholy. Everything about the mirror made her skin crawl. Her mind rebelled at the thought of touching it, using it, but she was running out of options fast.
“Hello?” Charlotte said softly. “Are you there?”
Alwaysss…
Yeah, that wasn’t encouraging. “Um. I think I need your help.”
I am here…speak what you need…
She looked down at her hands. They were trembling, but she wasn’t sure if it was anxiety or fear or just exhaustion. “I need more magic. I need to fortify the walls here because I need to protect myself.”
Tell me what you will give me…
Charlotte frowned. “Give you?”
All magic requires a trade…
That sounded horribly ominous. “And if I have nothing to give you?”
Don’t you?
An uncomfortable prickle touched her skin. She took a step away from the mirror. “What do you mean? I don’t have anything except ice and magic, and I’m coming to you for more of those.”
Twin pricks of light centered in the mirror, right over the spot where her eyes were. You removed these once. You can replace them again.
“In Kai?” she asked, horrified. “They made him a zombie!”
He is strong. You can use him to feed your own magic.
“No! There has to be another way!”
This time, the mirror’s tone was mocking and evil. Where do you think magic comes from, little one? Power must come from somewhere, even borrowed power. You’ve used me once before…
“Not me! Never me!”
Ah, but you are not so different from the other queen. She came to me seeking power as well…
And she’d done whatever it took to get that power. Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut, but when she did, all she saw was Kai’s mirrored, deadened gaze. “I can’t do that to him.”
Can’t you? He trusts you. All you need is to get close enough to touch him and I’ll do the rest. He won’t even notice…
Because his mind would be turned to mush. Charlotte shuddered. She wanted to leave – run away – but the power pulsing in the mirror was real and thick in the air and she was running out of options. “Tell me something else I can do. Anything. Just…not that.”
You make it sound as if you have choices…
That made her angry. “I always have choices, you son of a bitch. I can choose what I want to do. I’m in charge of this fairy tale at the moment.”
The mirror said nothing, but she could hear the echo of its laughter in her mind.
“Forget it,” she said, turning away. “I’ll figure out something else.”
You’ll be back. The other always was…
For some reason, that sent a chill down her spine. God, what if the snow queen had started out as another, normal woman and had turned to the mirror for help? What if it had corrupted her? What if that happened to Charlotte?
What if, in two days, she grew weak with fear?
No, she told herself, shaking her head. She would never do that to Kai. But if someone else came close…
Oh God. What was she thinking? She wouldn’t sacrifice someone else just to drag a few more days out of her own sorry life. The very thought horrified her. She turned and looked at the mirror. Just being in its presence made her want a bath. She felt dirty from being near it. Dirty from having talked to it. Like its evil was worming its way through her system.
Twin gleams remained in the mirror’s glass, reminding her of what it wanted.
There was only one way to fix this. Charlotte dredged up enough power to make an ice club. She approached the mirror slowly, hefting it.
You won’t do it, the mirror mocked. Where do you think you get this limitless power from already? Your predecessor has sacrificed many a slave to increase her pool—
The mirror made a delightful shattering sound when the club hit it. Shards rained down on the floor, and for a moment, Charlotte could almost see the evil miasma hang in the air like a puff of smoke. Then, it dissipated and the room brightened.
The ominous, heavy pulse of magic in the room was gone.
And so was Charlotte’s strength. As if someone had pulled the plug on her power, all of the energy left her body. She collapsed on the floor, too weak to hold up the club.
How…why was she suddenly so weak? Had she – the old snow queen – really borrowed that much power from the mirror? And here Charlotte had been expending it right and left, as if it were limitless. Right now, she didn’t even feel as if she had enough energy to get up and walk across the floor, much less reinforce the falling walls around the castle.
Things were quickly going from bad to worse. Angry tears threatened, but Charlotte sniffed them away. All right. She didn’t have much power left. She had two days before Gerda would come here, and she could prepare. She could do lots of things…
Hell, who was she kidding? She was screwed and a half. She flopped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling of her ice palace. The carefully crafted prisms gleamed with cold, incredibly beautiful and ethereal.
A drop of meltwater fell from the ceiling and plopped on her cheek.
Figured. If the roof was going to cave in in the next day or two, it’d serve her right. Just because she didn’t want to be the bad guy in the fairy tale. Well, she’d destroyed her magic mirror, and she was still the bad guy, and she was going to lose, lose, lose.
These two days might be her last days here, waiting while the palace collapsed slowly around her. She…
She paused. Sat up.
She had to get Kai out of here.
Chapter Eight
Kai was whistling when he returned to the ice fortress, a string of fat fish over his shoulder. Her suggestion to cut a hole into the ice and fish there had worked splendidly, and he’d caught them a magnificent, fresh dinner. Granted, Charlotte’s would have to ice hers down to enjoy it, but it would be a treat for both of them after weeks of colored cubes and the nutrient broth of his. He couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when he showed her his catch. Then, he’d bake them over an open fire and make her eat until she could eat no more. She’d been pushing
herself hard these last few days and she looked exhausted.
He knelt and slipped back through the hole she’d crafted for him through the wall. So much for his being her captive, he thought with a wry smile. When had that stopped being a thing between them? Ever since she walked down to the cave and pulled the mirrors from his eyes, she’d been different. Sweet. Funny. Caring. Now, he didn’t stay with her because he’d been ensorcelled – he stayed because he cared for her.
She was convinced that in two days, Gerda would come traipsing up the mountain looking for him and looking to make an end of her. He wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, Gerda was an impulsive girl, but to confront someone with the magnitude of Charlotte’s powers would be foolishness itself. Even Gerda wasn’t that naive.
To his surprise, she wasn’t in the courtyard when he entered. He called out her name, “Charlotte?” Sometimes she was just an ice-wall away and would melt through the moment she ‘felt’ him enter. But today, there was no welcoming greeting. A prickle of unease touched him, and he dropped his fish onto a snowbank, heading into the castle.
When he touched the massive entryway door, it felt slick under his glove. Was it melting? He squinted up at the skies, which were sunny but as cold as ever. Huh. With a heave, Kai pushed the thick ice open and stepped into the palace. “Charlotte?”
No answer. His footsteps increased in pace and he began to race through the halls. Had she somehow hurt herself? Used so much of her powers that she’d knocked herself unconscious? Finally wore herself out? He headed for the bedroom, where they slept curled together every night, never quite touching.
She was there, tucked into the bed they shared, a tiny figure in a nest of ice and furs.
“Charlotte?” he called again.
She sat up, brushing at her face. It was obvious he’d woken her from a slumber. It was also obvious there was something wrong. She looked weak, pale. Normally there was an almost unhealthy radiance to her, as if she were lit from within with magic. That light had been snuffed. The girl in front of him seemed incredibly fragile.
“What’s wrong? You look…” he paused, unsure what to say. Different? Sick? Pale? “Unwell.” Unease swept through him. What if…what if she’d changed again? What if this was no longer Charlotte but the other queen again?
Or worse…what if it was someone else entirely? He studied her warily.
The smile she gave him was wan. “I’m fine,” she told him. “But we need to talk.”
He didn’t like the way she slowly got out of bed, as if every muscle ached. He didn’t like the reluctant way she shrugged on one of the furs over her body. Normally she bounded out of bed, full of energy, reshaping her ice-gown into something beautiful and artistic full of crystalline facets. The gown she wore now was cracked from where she’d lain on it and as he watched, a piece of the skirt shattered and fell away, revealing one pale foot. “You need to rest. You’ve been working yourself too hard.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. Really. But, Kai—“
“Charlotte,” he said firmly. “You—“
“I’m releasing you.”
He paused. “You’re what?”
“I’m releasing you,” she said, her voice weary. “You need to go. Leave the castle today.”
“What about you?”
“I’m staying here until…until the end.”
That sounded so incredibly fatalistic that he grew concerned. “Charlotte, you’re sick. I’m not leaving your side—“
This time, she shook her head violently. “You’re not listening to me. You have to leave. Now. I’m releasing you! Go back to your people. You don’t have to stay with me.”
“Of course I don’t have to stay with you.” What in all the names of the gods was she babbling about? “I’m here because I’m—” he paused, not sure what to call their relationship. In his culture, a man didn’t touch a woman like he’d touched Charlotte unless they were wedded. He’d assumed that since they were together emotionally if not physically, she was his mate in all but the ceremony. But she’d not approached the concept of mating. He knew she wasn’t from a people like his own…did they even have mates? Did they wed or did they simply go about their lives by themselves? Because he sure as damn well thought of her as his mate.
And now she was sending him away? The thought was inconceivable.
So he said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Charlotte frowned up at him. “Kai, don’t argue with me. Not about this.”
“We won’t argue, then.” He began to thrust his hand into one of his mittens so he could touch her and help her stand up. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You are. I don’t want you here,” she protested.
“Lies.” He bit at the laces on his mitts, tightening them. “I’m going to make you dinner and I’m going to feed you, and then we’ll talk about this—“
“No,” she said again, and drew herself to her feet. Her eyes gleamed with a shimmer of ice – were those tears? – and then she clenched her fists at her sides. “This is for your own good, Kai. Leave this place and return to your people or I’m going to make you leave. You don’t belong here.”
“Leave?” He snorted. “You are my mate. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I can’t be your mate,” she gritted. He felt her drawing magic, drawing power closer to her. Her brow broke out in a shiny glimmer of crystalized sweat beads. “We can’t even touch.”
“That doesn’t matter. I can touch you,” he snarled. “Shall I show you how much I can touch you? Shall I make you come again? Make you cry out my name as I pump my fingers into you?”
“And then you lose your hand because it freezes off? I won’t let you do that.” She raised her hands in the air. “And if you won’t leave, I’ll make you leave.”
The ice surged around his feet, trapping them.
“Charlotte, no,” he growled. “Don’t do this.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I have to.” And the ice surged around him, carrying him like a wave. New bursts of ice formed on her forehead, and she swayed as she reshaped the walls and pushed him, protesting, right out of the castle itself and into the courtyard. From there, the tidal wave of ice continued, pushing him, pushing him, pushing him right out of her domain. With a hoarse cry, he tumbled to the earth as it dumped him outside of the protective wall surrounding the courtyard. As he got to his feet, the ice surged back into place, resealing the wall and trapping him outside.
He slammed a fist into the ice. “Charlotte,” he yelled. “Don’t do this!”
There was no response. She’d shut him out entirely.
~~ * * * ~~
For hours, Kai pounded at the wall, determined to make Charlotte notice him. When dusk fell, he gathered firewood, rubbed sticks until he made a fire, and camped out at her doorstep, waiting for her to return. To apologize and let him in. To flounce out in a swirl of icy skirts and yell at him so they could at least talk.
Something.
Anything.
But when a bitterly cold dawn crested on the horizon and Kai’s fire burned through the last of the wood he’d gathered, and the ice keep was utterly silent, he realized that she wouldn’t be relenting after all. With a heavy heart, he gathered his furs tight against his body, snuffed his fire, and began to walk to his people’s village.
It took him most of a day to follow the cook fires to where they’d created their lodges anew. Charlotte’s castle was in the heart of the territory that they claimed for their tribe, but they’d moved away from the edges of the sea and its bounty to the edges of the valley, where food was scarce and snow was thick on the ground.
Someone hailed him as he approached, and Kai raised a weary hand in greeting. Moments later, others in the tribe approached, swarming him with hugs and happy greetings. They were excited to see him return, hale and healthy, and he wished he could share the excitement in their voices. Instead, he kept thinking of Charlotte, the way she’d pushed him out. Her fragility as she’d
sat up on the bed when he’d last seen her.
Something in her had changed, and not for the better, and he was worried she’d somehow used too much magic and hurt herself. And even though Kajeh hugged him close, chief Dovak whacked him on the back with relief, and little Tidda patted him with tiny hands to reassure herself that he was back, he didn’t feel like he was at home.
At some point, home had become the high, crystalline walls of the palace and Charlotte’s sweet smile.
And even as he mused on this, a woman approached, her own body wrapped in thick tailored leathers, her long black braids dancing on her shoulders. Gerda smiled at him and hugged him close, and her lovely face was radiant. “Kai! You are back!”
“For now,” he agreed.
She frowned at that tepid response. Linking her arm in his, she tugged him toward the fire burning outside of her small hut. “How did you escape? Will the evil bitch come looking for you?”
“She’s not evil—” he began.
Gerda immediately grabbed his face and began to study his eyes.
He swatted her hand away. “The mirrors are gone. They haven’t been there for a while. That wasn’t her that did that.”
Gerda’s eyes widened. “There is more than one snow bitch?”
“No, there’s just the one,” he corrected, irritated at her words. “And she’s not a bitch. She’s kind. I think she’s…ensorcelled herself.” Kai thought of the mysterious people she’d begged and pleaded with in the middle of the night, who disappeared when he hunted for them. “Someone has trapped her, like I was trapped. And she let me go.”
“I don’t understand.”
No, she wouldn’t. And he wasn’t explaining it right. How could he possibly tell Gerda that while the snow queen looked the same from her cloud-pale hair to the blue tinge of her delicate cheekbones, she was completely different underneath? That one day he’d woken up and she’d changed, so completely and utterly that even he couldn’t explain it? He shook his head. “It is a long tale, for another time, and one I don’t wish to share right now.”
