Glass Frost

by Liz Dejesus

  What better plan than to kick some serious butt with the Big Bad Wolf on your side?

  Twenty-Three

  The trip was a huge blur. Every time Bianca lifted her head to see which direction they were headed, she was overcome with a wave of nausea, so she kept her head down. The last thing she wanted was to vomit all over Magnus. She really didn’t want to know what he would do to her should that happen.

  “We’re here,” Magnus said.

  Bianca carefully lifted her head. She recognized her surroundings almost immediately. They were back at Rebekah’s castle.

  Not the brightest crayons in the box if they decided to come back here. I guess they thought they’d won.

  “Ugh, frogs again. So gross.”

  “You didn’t say anything about frogs,” the wolf muttered.

  “I can’t believe I forgot about the damned things.”

  “Stand back. I’ll take care of this,” Magnus said.

  He took a deep breath and blew a path straight to the castle. Frogs flew everywhere. Bianca had never seen so many amphibians up in the air…ever.

  “Hold on tight.” Magnus ran across the drawbridge and broke down the portcullis. Bianca grabbed onto the wolf’s midnight black fur and watched in amazement as he shattered the door into a thousand pieces. Timber rained all around them. They ran through the outer ward and headed straight to the castle. Once inside, she and Terrance climbed off Magnus’s back.

  “Can you smell the prince?” Terrance asked.

  Magnus’s nose twitched as he sniffed. “Yes, this way.”

  They began to follow him around the castle, when out of nowhere, a servant appeared in the hallway. The young girl screamed and dropped the clean linens she had in her hands. She opened her mouth to scream once more, but Magnus raised a giant paw and smacked her. The servant’s head connected with the wall, and she fell onto the stone floor.

  Bianca’s mouth went dry. She didn’t want innocent people to get hurt. Magnus lowered his head and sniffed the girl. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen years old. Her dark blond, curly hair scattered all over her face and neck. There was a small pool of blood around her head, like a dark ruby halo. Magnus extended his tongue, ready to take a lick, but Bianca stopped him.

  “Oh no you don’t. The only people you can eat are Blair and Elda. No one else.”

  “You do not command me, Human Child. I do as I please,” he snarled.

  Bianca yanked a fistful of his fur.

  Magnus grunted in discomfort and growled at her.

  “Let’s see what I can do with this. Would you like to be a blue cockroach or a purple kitten? Your choice.”

  She showed him the large clump of fur in her hand, and with a tightlipped smile, she shoved it into her pocket. He narrowed his eyes at her but remained silent.

  “Lead the way if you please,” Bianca said.

  “Very well,” the wolf said.

  At least he left the servant alone.

  Terrance and Bianca followed Magnus as he led them through many labyrinthine corridors.

  “There are guards in place. I cannot help you if I am not allowed to attack.”

  “Defend yourself if they attack. If they run away, leave them alone.”

  Magnus flashed a wicked grin and disappeared into the dark hallway. She heard the guards gasp in fear and then the clink of swords as they attacked Magnus. It was quickly followed by the sound of men screaming, the crunch of bones and loud thumps she assumed were the dead bodies of the guardsmen.

  “Magnus?” Bianca whispered.

  No response.

  Bianca took a deep breath. This was not good. She turned to Terrance. “Please…find your grandfather and try to keep him from hurting innocent people.”

  “I’ll try.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips and ran after Magnus.

  Bianca carefully walked toward the door the guards had died protecting. She whimpered when she saw the blood that pooled on the floor. She took a deep breath and covered her nose with her shirt, trying and failing to hide the sweet, metallic smell of blood. Magnus had broken the door open, and bits of wood still clung to the hinges.

  She saw a shadow in the corner of the room. It looked as though someone was tied to a wooden chair, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell.

  “Ferdinand? Are you in here?” she said softly.

  Bianca quickly dug around her backpack for a flashlight, clicked it on, and was finally able to see the prince. A wave of relief washed over her. Even though he was annoying at times, Ferdinand was her dear friend, always and forever. She would’ve been devastated had anything happened to him.

  “Bianca? Is it you?” his shaky voice asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Thank goodness. Get me out of here, please.”

  “Shh,” Bianca said, gently pressing her pale index finger against his lips.

  “Where is Terrance?” he whispered.

  Bianca untied the ropes on his feet and said, “Trying to control his blood-thirsty wolf of a grandfather.”

  “And failing?”

  “God, I hope not.” She finished untying his hands and said, “Come on.”

  “Aye, aye.” He sounded much steadier now.

  Bianca rolled her eyes and tried not to smile. She had missed him.

  “We need to find the slipper.”

  “I hid it. That is why they tied me up. I stole their slipper and hid it somewhere in the castle. Follow me. I’ll show you where.”

  “Are you sure it’s the real one?”

  “No. I’m not certain. They both look exactly the same to me.”

  Bianca knew for a fact that she had in her possession one of the real glass slippers. A plan quickly formulated in her mind as she thought of what she could do with the decoy.

  “Doesn’t matter. Show me where you hid it.”

  They walked out of his cell, and together, they made their way toward the hiding place.

  “You won’t like where I’ve hidden it,” Prince Ferdinand admitted.

  “What did you do?”

  The prince wrinkled his nose and said, “I hid the shoe inside a dead frog’s carcass.”

  Bianca grimaced. “Oh! Eww, Ferdinand, that’s gross.”

  “I had no choice. I was desperate. The important thing is that they couldn’t find it.”

  “You have a point.”

  Ferdinand swiftly led her through the corridors of the castle until he found the room where all the frogs lived. It was the exact same room they had snuck into the first time they came to Rebekah’s castle. The hole they’d crawled through was still wide open.

  Prince Ferdinand looked around the room until he found the dead frog he’d marked. He grabbed a sharp rock and sliced the deceased amphibian open.

  “This is without a doubt the most disgusting thing I’ve ever done,” Bianca said, taking the slimy slipper from the prince.

  She used a corner of her shirt, which she vowed to later throw away, to wipe the slipper clean. “Come on. We have to find Terrance and hope that Magnus hasn’t killed every innocent person in this castle.”

  They walked through the corridors of the castle, listening for screams or fighting.

  “One thing I don’t understand…” Bianca said.

  “And that is?”

  “Why did they take you?”

  “It is extremely embarrassing, and I’d rather not say.”

  “Then I need to know even more.”

  Prince Ferdinand rolled his eyes, just like Bianca had taught him, and sighed. “The Frog Queen wants to marry me once the shoes amend her deformities.”

  Bianca snorted and covered her mouth. “Seriously? I wonder what Ming would say about that.”

  “Please don’t tell her about this. It is incredibly embarrassing.”

  “Yeah, I’ll try to leave out the part where a woman that’s part amphibian kidnapped and tried to marry her boyfriend. Like that’s ever gonna happen.”

  Bianca and
Prince Ferdinand finally caught up to Magnus and Terrance in the dining hall. Magnus had Blair trapped in a corner. Her hazel eyes darted wildly from side to side, obviously looking for a way out. She threw several spells at the large wolf, but all they did was make him snarl in anger.

  Bianca parted her lips to speak. She wanted to say something…anything.

  But Magnus was a force to be reckoned with; it was like trying to hold back a tsunami with a plastic spoon. Terrance’s grandfather growled and killed the wicked witch with one swift blow. He devoured her remains in one gulp. The wolf then turned his attention to Bianca. He waited for her to speak as blood dripped from his chin. Tiny droplets of crimson splattered on the floor between his paws. He licked his nose with his tongue. His yellow-green eyes never left hers for a moment.

  Two witches dead in less than a week. They were her enemies, but nonetheless, a life was a life. Part of her understood that had it been the other way around, Blair wouldn’t have hesitated to kill her, Terrance, or anyone that stood in her way.

  Bianca closed her eyes and covered her lips to keep herself from throwing up. Too much chaos and carnage. She suddenly felt ancient. As if she had somehow become the titan Atlas and had the world perched on her shoulders. Bianca wanted this to be over. She took a deep breath and asked Magnus to go home.

  “Leave? Is that what you wish?” he asked, obviously confused. There was still another witch to contend with, as well as the Frog Queen.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “You understand that next time we meet, it will be as equals. I owe you nothing now that my debt has been repaid.”

  “I understand.”

  “Farewell, Young Witch.” It was the first time he had called her something other than Human Child. She wasn’t sure if she should take it as a compliment.

  “Farewell, Magnus.”

  The wolf turned his attention to his grandson and said, “Farewell, Terrance.”

  Terrance nodded respectfully. “Farewell, Grandfather.”

  Just as quietly as he had arrived, he was gone.

  “I cannot believe you did that. What are we going to do about Elda and Rebekah?” Terrance asked.

  “I can handle them. I just didn’t want Magnus around anymore. It brings out something in me that I don’t like,” Bianca explained.

  “Carnage. He brings that out in everyone. Especially when he’s in the heat of battle,” Terrance said.

  “Then I’m glad he’s gone. The last thing I need is a bunch of innocent people hurt or killed because of me.”

  They walked out of the dining room, and as they wandered around the castle, Bianca asked, “Where is Elda?”

  “She was hiding from Magnus in the throne room. He caught wind of her a while back, but she wouldn’t come out. We believe that Rebekah is also in there with her,” Terrance said.

  “Wait a minute. She ran away from Magnus? She’s afraid of him?” Bianca asked.

  “It appears that way.”

  “So, she’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.”

  She remembered Magnus’s fur in her pocket.

  “Oh dear. I don’t think I like the way you’re smiling right now,” Ferdinand said.

  Bianca held the midnight black tuft of hair in her hand and remembered something she’d seen Rose do outside the museum. She had placed a shield around a snake and set the inside on fire. She wondered if she could do something similar…except bigger. Something she could control. She decided to use one of Snow White’s apple seeds. She quickly searched for the ivory one. She ground it up using one of the spoons she found on the dining table and mixed it with a pinch of Magnus’s dark fur. Five hours of her life were now gone. But she was desperate and couldn’t worry about that right now. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the Big Bad Wolf in her mind—or more accurately, an echo of him. No blood thirst, no defiance, a creature at her disposal.

  “Bianca, what are you doing?” Prince Ferdinand asked. “You don’t know what elements are at play here. This is dangerous.”

  She heard his words and understood his reasoning, but this was one of those rare moments where she needed to act first and deal with the consequences later.

  A gust of wind came in from every direction imaginable and spun around her like a small tornado. Her jet-black hair twirled and stung her face as the air whipped around her with reckless abandon. She did her best to ignore her environment and focus on the magic. When the spell released its hold on her, Bianca fell to the floor. Her chest rose and fell, as though she had just finished running a marathon.

  She opened her eyes and gasped at the animal standing before her. Her spell had created an outline of Magnus’s body. Except that his body was a swirl of air and fire. Its eyes were bright red coals and its fangs were triangular flames. Bianca grinned. It was exactly what she needed.

  “Come on, Wolfie. Let’s set stuff on fire,” Bianca said.

  “I don’t like where this is going,” Prince Ferdinand said.

  Bianca wriggled her eyebrows playfully at the prince. “Terrance, could you please take me to the throne room? I have a few things I need to say to Elda.”

  “As you wish,” Terrance replied.

  Follow me, Bianca communicated with Wolfie using her thoughts. She quickly discovered that it could obey simple commands. The creature moved silently through the hallways. It took them a few minutes to reach the throne room. The door was still locked.

  “Okay, Wolfie. Huff and puff and blow this door down,” Bianca commanded.

  The ghost–like wolf smirked, very similar to Magnus, and inhaled, then exhaled a gust of air, knocking the massive oak door open.

  Bianca shrieked and took a step back. The entire room was filled with snakes. The floor rose and fell with curvy scales as the reptiles slithered from one end to the other. Elda muttered several incoherent words under her breath, and Bianca watched in horror as a snake glided out of her mouth. Bianca had to take several deep breaths to keep herself from gagging.

  Attack. With that single command, Wolfie stepped into the room, and everywhere it set its massive paw down, it pulverized half a dozen reptiles, leaving nothing but ashes behind. It opened its large jaws and swallowed several dozen reptiles. They slithered and wriggled in agony in its transparent belly and within seconds were burned to ashes.

  Between Bianca’s conjured creature and Terrance’s and Prince Ferdinand’s blades, they had managed to eliminate half of the reptiles in the throne room. Her heart skipped a beat when she caught sight of the large black python. The same one that had attacked her in the cave, that caused her to fall into the pit. As it moved closer and closer toward her, she froze. If she used her magic to attack, she worried that she would lose the hold she had over the ghost wolf. The python hissed and flashed its royal-purple forked tongue at her. It was moments away from reaching her when she heard the zing of a blade slicing through the air. She shouted in surprised as a spray of blood struck her left arm.

  Her eyes traveled from the tip of the sword all the way up to Terrance’s brown eyes. He had saved her life. Bianca gave him a lopsided grin and mouthed a quick thank you. Terrance gave her a quick wink and returned to battle snakes.

  “Rebekah, this is your last chance to stand down. If you’re not going to help us, then at least have the decency to get out of our way. I know that deep down, you don’t want to hurt anyone,” Prince Ferdinand said.

  The Frog Queen looked at Elda, then at the handsome prince, and back at the snake witch once more. Rebekah stepped away from the wicked witch and joined Bianca and her friends.

  “You always were weak. We were so close to having it all. I despise you, all of you,” Elda hissed.

  “Don’t worry. The feeling is mutual,” Bianca said.

  “Give me the slipper,” Elda said.

  “No.”

  “Give it to me,” Elda shouted.

  “You want it?” Bianca spat. She quickly dug into her backpack and reached for one of the slippers. “Let’s see how well you ca
n put things together.” She then threw the glass slipper on the stone floor as hard as she could. There it was on the floor, several hundred pieces of glass glinting and shimmering with every fragment of light available in the room.

  “What have you done?” Elda shrieked, her eyes bugging out of her head as another snake slithered from her wide-open mouth.

  “Oops.” Bianca shrugged her shoulders.

  “Damn you. Damn you all! Why won’t you die?”

  Elda’s eyes went from hazel to gold in a matter of moments. A vertical slit formed in her eyes. Bianca’s heart dropped to her stomach. The witch’s body twitched and convulsed as she transformed herself into a viper. Her legs melded together until they formed a long scaly tail. Her head jerked from side to side as her dry, flaky skin changed into pale yellow scales. Elda stared at Bianca and hissed at her, showing off her salmon forked tongue.

  With a thought, Bianca commanded Wolfie to stand guard at her side. The ghost wolf quickly obeyed and leaped to her defense. Elda slithered out of her robe and did everything she could to sink her venom-filled fangs into Bianca. Lucky for her, the animal she had conjured was just as swift as the Big Bad Wolf.

  Bianca’s mind raced as she tried to think of a way to stop Elda from killing her. Prince Ferdinand and Terrance were in the distance, still fighting the reptiles in the throne room. Rebekah was missing in action. The Frog Queen had decided to save herself.

  She commanded the ghost wolf to attack and that was exactly what it did. Wolfie swiped its massive paws at the viper Elda had become, and tiny bursts of smoke hissed where it burned her. But no amount of fire slowed the snake witch’s determination. She was hell bent on killing Bianca and everyone she cared about. Bianca shook her head.

  No. Can’t let her get to Mom and Dad. No one is going to hurt them, ever again.

  She had a newfound burst of energy that somehow transferred itself to Wolfie, because he grew larger and quicker. It was taking a huge toll on her to keep a connection and maintain control over the massive creature she had created.

  “You coward.” Elda hissed as the ghost wolf struck her on the face.

  “Only coward here is you.”

  Elda coiled and leaped directly at Bianca. Wolfie gnashed its blazing teeth and burned several holes through the snake witch’s abdomen. Elda missed Bianca and landed with a heavy thud on the ground. The witch lost the hold she had on her magic and reverted to her original form. She tried to cover her wound with her hands to stop the crimson blood that oozed out of her belly. Elda opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water.