As she said the words, she pushed me to one side and spun me around. The sudden movement pushed me out of the way of another burst of icicles and left me standing in the middle of the throne room, facing the queen.
The Snow Queen laughed mockingly, the sound bouncing through the room and echoing from the ceiling.
“Inspiring words, I’m sure. But if your Oliver once saw those things in you, he will never do so again. Because I have discovered that the mirror fragments work differently when placed in the eye rather than in the heart.” Her smile grew even broader. “It is not only his heart that is frozen now. And a splinter in the eye means that the bearer will see the world as it truly is.” Her smile dropped away. “Ugly. They will see only the ugly truth about everyone and everything they see.”
I stared at her in horror. Giselle had been right. The Snow Queen had chosen to dwell in the darkest parts of herself for so long that she had lost the person she must once have been.
“Valley View,” I gasped. I finally had the answer to what poison consumed that place.
The queen smiled again, as if she approved of my joining the pieces together. “My experiments there were so very fruitful. I couldn’t have my servants losing the will to grow my food. But neither could I risk them being corrupted by outside forces—such as you—who might come up the mountain in search of the source of my new winter.” She looked insufferably pleased with her foresight. “I’ll wager they saw nothing of worth or value in any plea you made on behalf of the kingdom.”
“Well, that explains that,” muttered Giselle, now sheltering behind me. “Those poor people.”
Without warning, I whipped both hands forward, sending two fire balls soaring toward the queen. She ducked, but one of them clipped her crown, knocking it from her head.
With a screech of fury, she stooped to grab it, but had to leap the other way as I threw my next attack at the crown itself. One of my fire balls landed with precise aim, exploding the ice of the crown. Giselle and I ducked, shielding ourselves from the flying shards while the queen screamed again.
She staggered back to her feet, thrusting her arms out to either side and pulling them slowly upward, as if dragging a great weight. Spears of ice shot from the floor in every direction.
Giselle screamed and almost knocked me over as she threw herself from the path of one that erupted just behind her. I stumbled before regaining my feet and dancing away from her.
“Get to the door,” I shouted and watched her turn and run, weaving and stumbling as the spears continued to burst from the ice in a widening circle around the enraged queen.
Part of me wanted to flee after Giselle as fast as my legs would take me, but a bigger part pulled me in the opposite direction. I ran, sending my fire balls ahead of me to shatter any spears I couldn’t avoid. More and more of them thrust up toward the ceiling, and a deep groaning sounded through the hall.
I stumbled before running on. Had that been…? A groan sounded again, and the next spear that burst upward was accompanied by a terrifying crack. I saw the ice split ahead of me and put on a fresh burst of speed.
Another crack webbed out and then another, and Giselle’s earlier words seemed to echo in my ears. A frozen lake. A frozen lake. A frozen lake.
At last I reached the dais and the calmly disinterested prince. Rushing up, I grabbed his arm and looked around for another exit. Any exit. But I could see none. So, with a groan of my own, I tugged him back toward the frozen lake, now covered in towering spears of ice and crisscrossed with threatening cracks.
Oliver allowed me to pull him along but made no effort to hurry. Apparently he could no more be bothered resisting me than he could in attempting to save himself in the first place. Surely he could see that this entire place was about to crumble?
“I never liked this room,” he said, as calmly as if we were on an afternoon stroll through the forest.
Apparently he did know what was happening.
“Hurry up!” I snapped, losing my patience. “Or we’re both going to die.”
“Do you always have to be so dramatic, Celine?” he asked, deep weariness in his voice.
I staggered to a stop as a fresh groan sounded around us. Whirling, I grabbed at his jacket with angry hands.
“Yes! Yes, I’m always dramatic! And I’m overconfident. And I say what I think. But you love me, Oliver! You said you loved me!”
But even as I said the words, I remembered once again our conversation among the trees. The word love had echoed so loudly in my head then. But had he actually said it? He had kissed me, yes. But had he spoken of love?
I looked up at him, suddenly afraid as I had not been before. Had I once again leaped into something that I didn’t truly understand? The mirror fragment had twisted him, yes, but had it truly changed his heart? Or was it never actually deeply engaged at all? Did I only see in him what I wanted to be there? A reflection of my own feelings.
“Please,” I whispered, pouring every ounce of my heart into my words. “Please tell me you love me, Oliver. Because I love you. I love your strength, and your heart, and the fact that you burn just as brightly as I ever have.”
This time I was soft and gentle as I stretched up onto my tiptoes, ignoring the chaos of ice around us, and pressed my lips gently to his. Instead of a spark, a deep heat poured out of me, carrying all of my love and longing with it.
When I pulled away and looked at him, tears shone in both his eyes as he stared down at my face. As I watched, they spilled over, running down his cheeks. And something bright in them—no more than a speck on either side—caught the light, winking and shining as it ran down his face and was gone.
He gasped, his gaze still locked on me.
“I see you again.” His words sounded amazed. “You’re so full of beauty it almost hurts to look at you.” And something in his gaze told me he didn’t mean my ripped clothes, disheveled hair, or terror-filled features.
But as a smile broke across my face, the loudest groan yet made me spin around, suddenly remembering where we were. We’d made it only halfway across the throne room, the door still far out of reach.
A scream of rage made me look back at the dais. While we ran, the Snow Queen, it seemed, had made her way back to where her heartless, uncaring prince was supposed to be waiting. Her eyes were fixed on us through the jungle of ice spears, and I could see she knew what had just happened.
For the second time she raised her hands, but this time she brought them both swinging back down. A resounding, splintering crack rolled over me, and then the ice at my feet shifted, and I fell, Oliver torn from my grasp as we were both hurled into the freezing water below.
Chapter 30
Pain. That’s all I could feel at first. Pain everywhere, burning into every nerve. And not with the friendly burn of my fire. This was the burn of freezing ice.
But then the desperate pain in my lungs overwhelmed all the others, and I kicked upward toward a glimmer of light. My head burst into the open air, and I gasped a deep breath, kicking to keep myself afloat as a chunk of ice slammed into me, nearly robbing me of breath again.
I scrabbled at it with my hands but couldn’t find a grip. Pain. Needles of pain everywhere, trying to drag me back down into the depths.
Fear filled my frozen mind, and with it came a rush of heat. Memory of my power returned, and I pushed the warmth down into every part of my body. The sweet relief stilled my limbs for a moment, sending me sinking back under again. Pushing hard, I re-emerged into the air, wisps of steam rising from my body.
Looking up, I could still see the ceiling above me, but everywhere else I looked, the throne room had become a churning lake full of chunks of ice, big and small. I could only hope Giselle had made it out before the ice cracked.
But Oliver…Oliver had been with me. I twisted in a full circle, looking for his head amid the ice. I could see no sign of him.
I took a deep breath and dived under the water, grateful that it was as clear as it was cold. Still,
I had to twist and turn for agonizing seconds before I got a glimpse of him.
I dived down, arms outstretched, and managed to hook my hands under his arms. Straining with everything I had, I pushed toward the surface. We hardly seemed to move. Letting go with one hand, I gripped desperately with the other and pushed my empty palm downward. A jet of air shot out of it, propelling us upward so fast I nearly lost Oliver.
When I catapulted out of the water, I was only just clinging to one of his arms, dragging him behind me. As soon as his head hit the air, he coughed and spluttered, sucking in a breath and then another. But as soon as I let go, he sank straight back down again.
I swallowed a curse and dived after him again. The water must have frozen his limbs, preventing him from swimming. My questing hands found him quickly this time, dragging him up for another gasping breath from us both.
This time I held on, placing one hand against his bare neck and pushing as much warmth into him as I dared. He gave a shuddering sigh of relief, his eyes fluttering briefly closed. But I held on, still pumping warmth into him. Only when he also began to steam, did I let go, turning in the water to look for a way out.
“Do you see—” I turned back, but he had disappeared again without a sound.
“What—” I cut off my own words to dive back under the water yet again. Frustration drove me as I kicked down toward his sinking body. This time I used my wind again to propel us upward faster than I could swim. When we broke through into the air, I kept a tight grip on Oliver, looking around for a large enough piece of ice.
When I spotted one, I gave a final burst of air through the water, pushing myself up and out completely so that I sprawled forward, landing hard on the ice. I gasped, scrambling to gain some balance and keep an arm gripped onto Oliver as well. I lay flat, clinging to the part of him that had been partially dragged behind me. My momentum and grip had been enough to pull the arm I held and the attached shoulder onto the ice.
Slowly, I inched forward until I could get a better grip and then slowly pulled back again, dragging him after me. Once his body had made it out, I collapsed, leaving his legs to dangle into the water. It was the best I could manage on the floating ice.
I sent another burst of warmth into his skin, maintaining the flow until steam rose all around us.
“What is it?” I asked when I pulled away. “Why can’t you swim?”
He just shrugged. “It was so cold.”
“But—” I stared at him, my frustration almost boiling over. He didn’t meet my eyes.
Sudden understanding filled me, and my heart sank. His tears had cleared the shards from his eyes, had let him see good and beauty in the world again. But the Snow Queen had done a thorough job this time and had placed one in his heart as well. He had lost all initiative. He had no drive left, not even to save himself from drowning.
I crawled over, my body near exhaustion, and clung to him. Earlier I had made it through to him, even in his enchanted state. We were supposed to have won. This second blow felt like too much.
But I couldn’t give in, couldn’t let the Snow Queen win. Not now, not after everything we’d been through.
“You have to fight it, Oliver,” I cried. “Like before. Remember who you really are. You can save yourself!”
He sighed and reached up to caress my face, but no spark of defiance filled his eyes, and he made no effort to move. I felt the cold again seeping up from the ice under us and from where his legs still dangled in the water. A fresh burst of my warmth drove it away, but it crept back again, faster this time.
My power wasn’t enough. My words weren’t enough. I had nothing left to try.
But my heart refused to give up. Even without my powers, even without my mind, my stubborn determination wouldn’t let go.
“You have to wake up, Oliver,” I said into his chest, still gripping at his jacket. “You have to. Because I’m not letting you go, and I’m not ready to die.” Fear filled me as I felt us both slipping closer to death. How long could we survive floating in the Snow Queen’s melting throne room?
But love burned more strongly in me than fear. I would not give up Oliver to her icy power. Not even to save myself. Tears dripped down my already sopping face, falling onto his chest with a fresh burst of steam.
But these weren’t my normal tears. Scalding hot, they burned instantly through the material of his jacket, sinking down to the skin beneath. I lunged for the freezing water around us, scooping some up to splash wildly over the bare patch of his chest, afraid of the burns I would see there.
But the skin appeared smooth and unharmed. I didn’t even realize I was still crying until I saw fresh drops sizzle down onto his skin. Impossibly they sank down toward his heart.
With a cry and a gasp, he jerked upward, flinging me from the ice and back into the water. For a moment I could see nothing but bubbles and steam as I thrashed to right myself and find the air again. I burst up, gasping, to see Oliver staring down at me in wonder.
“Celine!”
I didn’t need to hear more than my name to know he was free. Truly free. The tears streamed faster down my face, but they had changed now into tears of joy.
“Celine.” His tone had transformed, his eyes wide in wonder. “Look.”
As my tears hit the surface of the lake, steam rose, almost obscuring our view of each other, although I bobbed just beside his block of ice. And it was spreading, racing out across the surface of the water.
He had pulled himself fully up onto the floating chunk, kneeling on all fours to peer toward me, and he reached into the water to feel it.
“Ouch!” He pulled his hand back quickly. “It’s hot!”
The temperature didn’t bother me, but something caught my eye.
“Look at the ice.” All around me, I could see the chunks of ice melting in the now hot water, the smaller ones disappearing completely.
The ice Oliver crouched on was large and thick, but I thought I could see it thinning. Soon he would be dumped into the water, and from his earlier reaction…
“We need to get out of here. Now!” I said.
“But how?” he looked around, trying to get his bearings in the room that had become a lake. Pushing himself up a little higher, he pointed. “I can see the door. Over there.”
A distant cry reached me above the steam, although I couldn’t make out the words.
“It’s Giselle,” said Oliver. “She just saw me. She must have made it out before the lake cracked.”
I remembered how I had propelled us onto the ice in the first place. “Hold on,” I said, my voice determined. “We’re going to her.” I released my air beneath the water.
“But how—” Oliver flattened onto the ice as I landed partially on top of him, causing the block to lurch and rock beneath us.
“Oof! Sorry.” I scrambled off, as the ice tipped dangerously. “You watch where we’re going, I’ll provide the power.”
When I thrust both hands back under the water and blasted a trail of bubbles that sent us careening across the surface, he laughed. We smashed into another large block and both nearly ended up back in the water.
“Whoa, steady there. Maybe a bit slower,” he suggested, positioning himself as flat as he could while still allowing himself some visibility across the choppy lake. At least the obstacles were getting fewer as more and more of them melted away.
I had wondered if we might stop melting once we got away from the hot patch where I had fallen into the water, but it seemed to have spread, great billows of steam and vapor rising toward the distant ceiling on all sides.
I faced behind us, using all my control to slow the stream of air and keep us moving forward in a controlled way. Oliver called out directions, and I moved my hands left or right, maneuvering us around any remaining blocks liable to tip us over. And all the while our own block grew smaller, pushing us closer and closer together until Oliver was crouched half over me.
A sudden wild cackle broke my concentration, and we lurched
dangerously. Looking up, I saw the Snow Queen, her white-blond hair whipping behind her and her dress billowing as she appeared to float across the surface of the lake.
As she got closer, I saw that she actually rode a block of ice, just as we did. Only she stood straight on hers, apparently having no problem with balance or controlling the movement of the chunk.
“Hold on,” I screamed again, restarting my wind and loosing my control. We flew across the surface of the water, but still she seemed to be closing the distance.
She laughed again, sounding a little mad, and threw an icicle spear in our direction. I pushed us sharply to one side, avoiding it but nearly tipping us both into the water.
“Steady, Celine,” said Oliver. “We’re nearly there. A straight shot now.”
We had approached close enough that I could hear Giselle more clearly, screaming both our names. Our block had grown even smaller, and I dangled half in the water now, to give Oliver more room.
My eyes focused in on the block carrying the queen. Despite her control, it seemed she couldn’t fight the heat of the water. It, too, was being eaten away, growing smaller and smaller. Already it was smaller than ours, although she needed less space to stand on.
My bubbles shot us forward, and I didn’t dare break concentration to look over my shoulder and see how close we were to the door. The ice shrunk again, forcing Oliver to rise up fully onto his knees or dangle half in the heated water. With him upright, I had to slow our progress, and the queen approached even closer, her arms stretched out toward us, a feral grin pulling at her face.
She stood on only a thin circle of ice now, but it was enough to hold her up. Oliver grunted in pain as he slipped, one leg falling into the water. I put on one last spurt of speed, trying to outrun both our melting boat and the pursuing queen.
But our block of ice had become so thin and light that I misjudged it, and the power of the blast made us shake from side to side, both of us sliding off and into the steaming water.
Beyond the Four Kingdoms Box Set 1 Page 79
