He didn’t get far, however. Ice began to accumulate ahead of him, and he slipped, falling rather inelegantly. He spun in place as he tried to scramble to regain his legs.
“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” she told me, throwing a hand my way.
Ice clamped around my middle, holding my arms firmly in place against my sides. I wriggled and shoved with all my might, but it refused to budge. Blood still oozed from where the vines had snaked out from my wrists, however, warming the ice and making it slippery enough to perhaps slip my bonds. I worked my arms within their confines as the icy prison turned crimson.
The Ice Queen had reached Erik. She stepped over the ice as if it were regular pavement, then reached down and grabbed him by his throat, lifting him up off the ground. The blood witch stared down at her with wide eyes.
The Ice Queen clucked her tongue. “And to think that Lucifer wanted to grant you absolute power over all of the other choices available to him.” She gave him a pitying look. “But then again, someone as cowardly as you would be rather easy to keep in line.”
Erik clawed at the hands around his neck. “I can work for you instead,” he insisted, words coming out in croaks as she squeezed. “I don’t mind. You’re clearly the one with the real power here.”
“Oh, no.” The Ice Queen smiled. “Not me. Not yet.”
She leaned forward and kissed Erik on the lips. Ice raced over his face, up his hair, down his neck and torso. His hands twitched until the ice covered those as well, his body steaming from the cold. When she pulled back, she looked him over, and even from my vantage point, I could see the fear frozen in his face.
She dropped him and he fell to the ground, shattering into dark crimson ice shards. As much as he deserved it for what he’d done to the people of Kingsbury, it still turned my stomach. The Ice Queen wiped her hands, as if ridding herself of Erik. Then she turned back toward the center of the square, where Auggie lay bound.
The Ice Queen trained her focus on the sky above. The Blood Moon seemed to fill the sky. Everything around us was suddenly bathed in a sickly, bloody hue.
The moon was at its zenith. It was time for Auggie’s sacrifice.
“No!” I shouted, struggling fiercely against the ice. “Let me go, damn you!”
The Ice Queen shot me a look as she stepped over to the bench where Auggie lay, writhing as he tried to free himself of his bonds. I had a clear view as she focused all of her attention on the boy at her feet. The beautiful boy I admired, who frustrated me more than no other, but who I couldn’t imagine living without.
Auggie met my eyes. He didn’t plead, didn’t cry out. He saw me and he smiled, like he was glad that I was there with him in the end.
My heart squeezed as I strained against the ice. Desperation thrummed through my entire body as I thrashed. I needed to be out there. I needed to protect him.
“Auggie!” I screamed.
Auggie’s eyes closed resolutely.
I watched, unable to look away, as the Ice Queen’s dagger slid into his chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
My throat wasraw as I roared.
Auggie’s head slumped back, blood soaking the front of his shirt, oozing out around the hilt of the dagger buried in his chest. His lifeblood ran down his arms and dripped onto the hard-packed earth.
Shock rocked my body as I watched Auggie’s soul leave his body, a butterfly with iridescent wings that attempted to fly up into the sky, as if to reach the blood moon, but was instead sucked toward the Ice Queen, disappearing into her chest.
The Ice Queen’s body convulsed momentarily before she gasped. She laughed as she gazed at her hands. She swept them out before her and a trail of ice crystals fell from her like dust. I could feel the cold radiating from her from where I stood, yards away, even colder than the ice wrapping around me, holding me prisoner.
“It’s … more than I could have ever dreamed,” the Ice Queen proclaimed, laughing, her breath leaving her mouth in a steam of cold. “Oh, Mistress, I wonder if you even know what you’ve gifted me this day.”
A dark shimmering portal suddenly appeared before the witch, and the Ice Queen paused for a moment. “Very well,” she said. She looked back at me. “It’s your lucky day, witch. You get another reprieve. My mistress calls, and I’m afraid Hell won’t freeze over on its own.”
I struggled against my bonds. My arms had melted a tiny portion of ice at the front of my body, but it would be too long before it was of any use. “I’ll kill you,” I promised her.
“And I have no doubt you will try,” she said, putting a hand over her heart. “It really is valiant of you.” She blew me a kiss, then disappeared into the portal.
The red hue fell away from everything as the height of the blood moon’s power abated, leaving all around me still and dark and quiet.
I stared at the body of the boy I’d loved.
Loved.Yes, that had been the feeling that had been creeping over me for days. He’d somehow found a spot inside my dead heart for his roots to bury themselves, growing until he’d been helplessly intertwined.
