I bit down on my fist so hard I tasted blood—copper and salt flooding my mouth as my teeth pierced skin. The pain was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my chest as I watched my father crumple, the captain's blade sliding free with another awful sound. My father hit the ground with a softthud, his body folding in on itself like a marionette with severed strings.
My mother screamed—not in fear, but in rage. She threw herself at the captain, nails clawing for his face. Another guard caught her from behind, and then there were two blades instead of one, and she crumpled beside my father in the dirt.
Something happened then that I didn't understand.
Rage.
Not the petty anger I'd felt in the marketplace, but something that roared up from a place deep inside me. It was like standing on the edge of an abyss and feeling it stare back, recognizing something in me that was dark and terrible and completely beyond my control.
My legs moved without my permission, carrying me forward from the cover of the trees. Each step felt inevitable, like water flowing downhill. I couldn't have stopped if I'd wanted to.
Even though my mind felt numb, incapable of decision, my body was in full control. My arms came up, palms facing outward toward the guards and my parents' lifeless bodies. The temperature plummeted—I watched my breath turn to steam, saw frost creep across the grass beneath my feet in radiating patterns that were almost beautiful. The tears on my cheeks froze into lucent trails.
Above, the sky responded to the darkness that was building inside me. Clouds rolled in from nowhere, dark and heavy, blotting out what had been a clear afternoon. They moved too fast, gathering overhead like an audience assembling for some great performance.
Then the rain came.
First in scattered drops that hit the blood-soaked ground around my parents, then in sheets so thick the guards and the hounds became blurred silhouettes. Thunder cracked overhead,so loud it rattled my teeth, and lightning split the sky in jagged white veins.
"There! The witch!" The captain spotted me through the deluge, his sword still dripping with my father's blood—blood that was now blending with the rain. "Dispatch her. Now!"
The guard nearest him moved forward, blade drawn.
I barely registered him. Instead, my gaze remained locked on my parents—on the way the rain washed away their blood in pink streams, on how small they appeared collapsed in the dirt. My mother's hand still reached toward my father, fingers curled as if she'd been trying to touch him one last time.
Around the cottage, ice began to form.
Not slowly, like a winter freeze, but explosively. Massive blocks erupted from the ground in frosted walls, rising twenty feet high and spreading outward in a perfect circle around the property. The rain striking them froze instantly, adding layer upon layer until they gleamed like polished diamonds.
The downpour intensified. What had been heavy rain became a deluge, water hammering down so hard it bounced back up from the ground. The earth couldn't absorb it fast enough. Puddles formed, then pools, then a rising flood that swirled around the guards' boots.
The guard reached me, sword raised.
I still didn't look at him. I couldn't tear my eyes from my mother's face, peaceful now in death.
A blade of ice materialized in the space between us.
It formed from the rain itself—drops coalescing into a gleaming spike as long as my arm. I felt it happen more than I saw it, felt the water answering some wordless command from that dark, furious place inside me.
The ice blade shot forward like an arrow.
It punched through the guard's chest, through the king's crest, with a wet crunch, the force of the impact lifting him offhis feet and hurling him backward. He hit the flooded ground with a splash, his armor clanging against our stone walkway. Blood bloomed in the water around him, spreading in crimson ribbons like some beautiful but deadly blossoming flower.
The water kept rising.
More guards charged through the flood, water splashing around their knees as they raised their swords at me. Their war cries cut through the thunder and rain.
I watched them come with a detachment that frightened me more than the rage had. Something inside me had been unlocked—some incredible power born of rage and devastation. Or perhaps I was just broken. Either way, I couldn't stop what was happening.
Ice blades erupted from the churning water faster than my eyes could track. One, two, three—they materialized in rapid succession, each perfectly formed and sharp enough to catch the lightning's reflection along their edges. The guards couldn't even slow their paces before the blades found them, punching through armor and flesh with finality.
The first guard dropped, blood mixing with rainwater. The second staggered, eyes wide with shock as he looked down at the ice piercing his stomach. The third managed half a scream before he fell.
The water kept rising.
What had been ankle-deep moments ago now swirled around their knees in muddy currents. Around me, the water churned and eddied, but where I stood, the water created a perfect circle of dry ground.
I took a step toward the captain.
