The Snow Queen stood at the window, fists clenched to stop herself from burying Kai and his saviour in an avalanche. If she did, she’d never find out how the fiend had escaped.
Sweeping her robes behind her she turned to follow, but a shimmering pool near the wall caught her eye. Water? Here?
She narrowed her eyes, then waved a hand to check for witchcraft. She magicked a snowball and had it land in the water. It sat for a moment then melted normally. She held out a hand, directing a blast to freeze it, but the water didn’t even ripple. “You will obey,” she growled and blasted it again. She took in a breath through her nose, the force pinching in her nostrils.
Squatting down she leaned as closely as possible to peer at the water. It appeared and smelled perfectly normal.
Except that she couldn’t freeze it.
Tentatively she reached out a finger and touched it. Pain scored through her, tearing out a scream so loud a crack formed across the ceiling.
Her body was lifted in the air, back arched and limbs splayed. She began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster until the walls were a blur, and she couldn’t tell if she was still screaming or not. Without warning she plummeted to the ground and lay in a heap. She took a deep breath and gripped the floor to stop the world spinning.
A sparkling cloud had coalesced above her. She watched it twirling for a moment before it sped away out the window.
She lay there for several moments, dazed and confused. A strange sensation was creeping over her body. Her teeth began to chatter and her body trembled. She was cold.
A scream echoed from far down the valley that broke a dam in her mind.
She cried out at in anguish as memories of centuries upon centuries of lives she’d stolen, like Kai’s, washed over her. So many people frozen, so many dreams stolen. She sat immobile as each one flashed through her mind.
Until she got to her first victim. Her daughter. Her baby girl who had been stolen by the Snow Queen before her.
The water. It was the same kind of puddle she’d left when her tears had melted her daughter’s little frozen heart, bringing her back to warmth.
Just like today, the Snow Queen before her had touched the unfrozen water, amazed she’d found a limit to her power, and been stripped of her power just as she’d been now.
She lifted her hand, flush with warm, vital blood pumping within it. She felt hollow, of power, of place, of love. The magic had sucked her dry.
She crawled to the window to look down in the valley where Kai and his saviour, who had loved Kai as she’d loved her daughter, more than life itself, were on their way back. Stumbling to her feet she turned to escape before the new Queen arrived.
Submitted by: AMANDA HARE