Long white hair. So white it’s almost reflective. Blue eyes, defined muscles -
Oh Gods no.
I rip my hand away from him, his body on one side of the bed.
Bed.
Why the hell am I in a bed?
Still scrambling to make sense of things, I push myself away, sliding off the side of the bed opposite him. My limbs are slow to respond, and when I stare down at my hand there’s a bit of blood on one of them, just a speck of red. Like something pricked my finger.
“W-what did you do?” I snarl, glaring at him. My voice sounds strange, sluggish, and it’s taking more effort than I would like to get everything out. “Where are we? How are you here?”
The man of my nightmares holds up his hands, eyebrows lifting. “Queen Neve, I mean you no harm.”
“No harm?” I growl, my mind raging. “Killer! You’re the King Killer. Where is my mother? Guards!”
He winces, but doesn’t look overly concerned. His lack of fear drives me wild, convincing me to stand through a wave of dizziness. Maybe I should take things slowly, and get a feel for my surroundings, but right now all I can see is the man who ended my father's life.
As I stare into his cold blue eyes, I see the monster in chains. Not the man in black standing before me with his hands raised.
“Father!” I scream.
Screw Ban and screw this whole dungeon. Flinging myself forward across the space, my shrill voice rings out to match Mother’s wails. “Guards! Guards, come quick!”
Mother’s frosty fingers catch my elbow as I collapse beside Father, who lies unmoving on the dungeon floor. I didn’t see her throw more magic at us, but maybe it’s residual afterthe strike angled at myself and Ban. Her magic is such a fickle thing, her control worsening the longer her curse remains.
“Neve,” Mother whispers harshly, stopping me as I try to turn Father. The blast shot him backward, his body crumbling into the opposite wall of the room before he sank against the frozen stone. His neck is bent at an unnatural angle, but I need to see his eyes.
Eyes hold life. Surely there’s still a spark in his.
“Neve!” Mother hisses this time, pulling me away from my father. The ache in my chest clouds all reason, and I give up fighting to turn my sorrow on her. “The ice mage killed him. That was a planned blow. The King is dead because of the ice mage Ban.”
Ice flies from my fingertips without permission, growing large icicles in thin air as my power expands. The sharp tips point toward the mage, who stares at me with unreadable eyes. “This is all your fault!”
“You would believe that,” he replies sadly, slashing his arm out in front of him. All at once, the icicles I’ve forced begin to bend, pointing down and away from him. “Neve, please–”
Enraged, I raise my arms and send a wave of ice at him. He deflects it away from his body, which only serves to stoke the anger. “Don’t speak my name! You have no right!”
“I know you’re upset,” he says carefully, letting snow drift from his fingertips. “But you don’t–”
All my confusion and rage bubbles over, and I scream as I thrust my hands toward him, my magic twisting and rolling through me. My energy feels low, but my magic is almost bursting at the seams.
The surge of magic catches him off guard, and there’s a flash of surprise in his eyes before he is rocked backward. Iceshards explode all around me, the blow striking the far side of the room.
No, not a room. I’ve seen this place before. I’ve been here when I wanted to hide from my responsibilities as a teenager. But in all my twenty-two years, I’ve never seen the decrepit house furnished. I thought this little cabin was a place only I knew. It used to be a little abandoned cabin in the mountains, a place probably too dangerous for a child but I liked coming here anyway. I think I mentioned it to my mother once but she brushed me off.
As my magic bursts through the far wall, knocking the ice mage out of the structure, I realize I should have used a touch more caution. The cabin was always in a precarious state, and as the dingy, large windows on the opposite wall give way from magic and the body of a man, I see the mountains all around us.
Familiar cliffs. The cold has always been my friend, and with ice magic my fears abandoned me when I realized that anything was possible if I tried.
I stumble as the building creaks, slamming my hands against the wall. Ice forms beneath my palms, and I try to steady my breathing.
Control it.My emotions are getting the best of me, and I probably should not have launched the mage out the side of the cabin.
As the structure creaks, I peer out of the newly made hole and grit my teeth. It appears we are alone at least for the moment. I may not get another chance to deal with this without any witnesses.
He killed my father. That cannot stand.
