“Put these in the shadows!” Odette yells, chucking the book at Zarev. I hold up my hands, the creepy flowers moving toward us faster than they should.
Beside me, I see Ban’s staff in my peripheral vision. The ten or so plants rolling toward us look ghastly in the dim light, but I’m pretty confident this is manageable. “Let me.”
“Whatever you say, Your Majesty.”
A little part of me preens at the fact he’s listening. I’ve met plenty of people in my past who wouldn’t listen to me, not in the face of a fight. But getting to use my magic and not hold back is something I haven’t gotten to do a lot. Ice and power are itching beneath my hands, untapped since the fight with Mother. With all the frustrations in life right now, I just want to let it go.
Stomping my foot against the cold ground, the three of them become background noise as I toss the pixie dust container in Ban’s direction. Ice pulses against my hands, and whatever the creatures are trying to say falls on deaf ears.
With my palms facing skyward, I force ice from the ground upward, frosting the plants as they wither toward us on their viny feet. Each one freezes with a strange, gurgled scream, and it only takes a few moments for ice to cover every single one of them.
A low whistle draws my attention in the silence, and I spin around as Odette begins to clap. “You may be the superior ice mage. Ban, I’ve never seen you do things like that.”
“Neve is better,” he replies, and my eyes swivel toward him. There’s pride in his gaze that makes my insides feel funny, like I’m unsure how to accept it. He’s no longer holding the staff,just balancing the container of pixie dust on his palm. “I always knew you would be.”
“Gods, you two have to stop,” Zarev groans, rolling his eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Are we not going to talk about the way your back lit up?” Odette asks, undeterred. “That was absolutely amazing and beautiful to see!”
“My back?”
Ban holds up a hand, frost following the path he swipes through open air. “When you use your ice magic, the frost I left in your skin glows. We can see it even through the dark material of your dress. And I can feel it, like an echo of my own magic.”
“Gross,” Zarev says, and I swear, he’s so homesick for whoever Rapunzel is that he’s turning bitter. “Can we go now?”
From the table, it looks like Odette has grabbed everything that I would have. Nodding, she’s already gripping his arm again, shooting him a look as they glare at each other. “Where?”
“The docks,” Ban says, wrapping his arm around me. “Zarev and I talked about this, but we didn’t get to look yet. There’s the possibility a second ship docked, so that the soldiers left here could have their own resources after Davina left. It’s worth looking into.”
Grimly, I nod. “Let’s go.”
~~~
Seeing the plants definitely unsettled us, but we don’t say anything more about them as we flee the castle. It feels wrong to disappear from my kingdom, and more than once through the shadows I find myself tugging on Ban, delaying us.
What will the survivors do without me? Not long ago, I made a big speech about doing what I must for the sake of the kingdom, and now I’m really just going to run away?
Perhaps I’m not the queen this kingdom needs.
We barely make it out of the palace before disaster strikes. Heading to the north end of the castle and toward the docks reminds me of the Sandman, but when I sweep my gaze around, I don’t see any signs of him. I don’t see anything familiar to the dreamscape at all. The big black ship has gone, and like the Reapers were worried about, there’s a smaller ship in its place.
Davina actually left troops on my coastline. If she has a naval defense up here, she must mean to come back.
I’ve barely had enough time to process this before something strikes us.Physicallystrikes us, sending us tumbling out of the shadows. Ban wraps his arms around me as we’re forced to the side, the two of us rolling as we crash into the snowy ground. It feels like we were kicked into the earth from a great height.
Ban hisses, and I know he took the brunt of the hit. I roll off him the moment we stop sliding, clambering to my feet. I’m vaguely aware of Odette and Zarev nearby, but I don’t turn around.
A scream pierces the air; that’s got to be Odette. The ice in my neck hums to life. Ban steps up behind me, a wave of power rolling down my back.
My voice is strained when I speak. “Nyra.”
“Neve,” she says, the hollow pits in her face where those unnatural blue eyes used to be staring back at me. I can see that Kael has struck the other two, and I suspect the blank eyes are what made Odette scream. “Back again to view the ruined throne?”
Ruined throne? I feel Ban beside me, the mix of dark shadows and frosty ice drawing Nyra’s unseeing gaze. I keep my voice level this time when I speak. “What happened to you?”
“Curse of the snow,” she hisses, holding up her hands. Unlike my father’s spirit, there are no horns or otherworldly designs that adorn her person. She looks more natural than she did before, almost forsaken. “The Snow Queen died, and stole our souls, taking them with her.”
“You still have a soul,” Ban argues beside me.
