The Ice Queen

  A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, crystallizing the moment it landed on her cheek.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered honestly, “I just don’t know.”

  Luminesa stood on that balcony for hours, watching as the aurora borealis danced here and there.

  ~*~

  Under Goblin

  Smiling softly to himself, he made his way up the spiraling staircase, undetected by all within. Not even the queen would find him here, not with the type of dark magick he’d shrouded himself in.

  He’d told her there would be no interference from him so long as it hadn’t already pertained to his plans, and he meant that.

  Creeping softly into the first room he came to, he stared at the child lying in the bed. The innocent, sweet little face of the miserable little monster. His smile stretched wider, growing sinister and cruel.

  Everything was going according to plan.

  He’d known that when it came right down to it, the queen might profess to loathing the very sight of humans, but she wasn’t as cold and callous as she liked to think she was.

  She had a weakness.

  One he’d discovered long ago when he’d caught her surreptitiously helping a stranded child in the woods. She’d not appeared as a woman to the little boy, but she’d guided him with pillars of walking snow out of the labyrinth of woods he’d found himself in.

  Keeping the pests and cold away from him. A night in a frozen wood that should have killed him, instead he’d walked out of there into the frantic arms of his parents, alive, well, and hale. And all due to a woman that none would dare believe it could be possible.

  From that seemingly insignificant incident a seed of an idea had germinated in his mind. He was many things, cruel, malicious, twisted, but he was also patient. Bidding his time until she’d not suspect him of subterfuge, until he could gather all the resources needed him to finally best the woman who’d become a thorn in his flesh.

  Petty though it might be, these lands were his, and he didn’t share. He wanted her gone. Wanted her mortal. Wanted that power stripped of her until she became the very thing she hated.

  Human.

  Sneering cruelly, he sat on the corner of the bed and called that sliver of spelled looking glass to him. The very one he’d given back to Luminesa.

  He’d needed that mirror; it was the key to her ultimate downfall. To anyone else it would have been foolish for him to have given it to her as he had, but he’d known what she would do.

  Luminesa had always had a fondness for children. If she’d stayed outside of the enchanted glades all of this would have been moot. He’d never have been able to win.

  But the queen had acted exactly as he’d expected. She’d come into this looped dimension Baba had created just for him. She’d come for the children.

  A shimmer of magic wafted off the silver now sitting on his lap. Picking it up, he fisted it tight in his hands. Until the sliver was nothing but a pile of fine ash.

  “Wake up, child,” he intoned deeply, sending a dark pulse of energy through his words.

  Sleepy eyes blinked slowly open.

  Grinning, he blew on the ash in his hand, spraying the shards into the child’s eyes who began to shudder and shake.

  Tears streamed from out of its eyes, as it rubbed its cheeks violently. But the poison had already been absorbed.

  The child began to cry, blinded and terrified.

  “Who’s—who’s there?” It asked softly.

  He rubbed the pathetic creature’s floppy hair. “There, there, child. All is well now. Nothing but a dream. Go back to sleep.”

  His voice hypnotized, soothed. And though the child clearly still felt the lingering effects of the glass, the tiny body shuddered once, twice, and then slowly relaxed as it once more settled its heavy head upon its pillow.

  “In the morning”—he whispered to a child now fast asleep—“when you wake, you’ll know what to do. Do not fail me, for if you do, I shall cut out your parents’ livers and eat them for my breakfast.”

  The babe shivered and the Goblin licked his lips.

  Standing, he turned, walking out the room and shutting the door softly behind him. He roamed the halls after that. Studying and learning the queen as he did so.

  She’d taken great pains to make the palace as comfortable for her three houseguests as possible. Though built of ice, there was a relaxed and almost warm atmosphere to it. Hearths that flickered in every room and burning with fire.

  There were even servants made of ice marching through the halls, busying themselves with tidying up an already immaculate palace. The animals she held so dear too had their place in the keep, roaming the halls and rooms as freely as he did.

  Heavy chandeliers spun of ice and crystals hung from massive icy beams above, lighting every square inch of the place with an ambient blue glow. Snow bees moved in tight little clusters throughout, dropping fat flakes of snow in their wake.

  This home of hers was unlike the one she normally lived in, that one was austere, somber, and empty. Only she and her damnable falcon lived in it. There were no servants. No flame. No kitchens smelling of roasted and sizzling foods.

  Why had she gone through all the effort? She could easily have afforded to keep the three of them locked up in their separate rooms until the month’s end, but she hadn’t.

  Perhaps she was truly lonely—lonelier than even he’d imagined. He smiled.

  Licking his front teeth, he continued to walk, stopping only to stare at something now and again before moving on. Aware immediately of another presence lingering in the hall, he turned and followed the astringent scent of horseflesh.

  He stopped once he saw the centaur staring forlornly out the window. He did not need to look out to know what the creature spied on.

  Luminesa was out there, no doubt communing with her winds of ice and snow. It was a struggle not to laugh uproariously at the sight of the centaur. Everything was going according to plan.

  Already the centaur was fulfilling his purpose for being here.

  To thaw the queen’s icy heart.

  To make her fall in love.

  The Goblin hadn’t understood why Baba had sent him for the damnable beast in the beginning, but he understood it now. The look on the male’s face as he watched her, one of utter fascination and budding desire...the Goblin almost choked on his laughter, swallowing it down before the sound betrayed him.

  Once it would have infuriated him to see a male chase after her, there’d been a time, long, long in the past when he’d considered Luminesa his. But that time had long since passed. All the Goblin wanted now was his vengeance.

  She’d become so besotted by her beast that her thoughts would be divided, she’d be unable to focus on the fact that the key to their release sat literally beneath her nose.

  But even if by some quirk of fate she was able to learn where it was, she’d never have the stomach to do what was needed to actually free them.

  The Goblin released a happy breath. He was just about to turn when Alador grunted heavily, turning sharp, intelligent eyes in his direction.

  He knew he’d see nothing. For he’d turned himself invisible.

  “Who’s there?” The beast asked in a deep, rolling voice, hooves clacking on the icy floor as he took a step in his direction.

  But he only chuckled, his voice mingling with the howl of the winds outside the walls.

  Bored now, the Goblin put his last piece of the plan into play.

  Holding out his palm, he blew at the pile of silver that’d suddenly appeared on it. Scattering it through the winds.

  This glass was different.

  This glass was special.

  “Have fun, beast,” he whispered, and then cackled as outside the window red eyes glowed.

  Chapter 7

  Luminesa

  Bone tired now, Luminesa was just about to finally head back to her room and try to get whatever sleep she could when she froze, heart thumping powerfully in her ch
est as rows upon rows of red, burning eyes suddenly sprouted all around her.

  “What in the bloody hell is—”

  She never got to finish her thought as suddenly the castle was rocked by a thunderous shaking, roll. The power of it tossed her to her feet.

  Two things happened at once.

  Alador came barreling through the door, and one of those red eyed monsters crawled up and over the castle’s parapets.

  Eyes widening, Luminesa stared into the deranged face of an ice demon.

  Ten feet of enchanted ice with fangs for teeth, and eyes that glowed the color of hell’s flame. It roared as it came striding toward her, gripping onto the end of an ice club.

  Behind him, came even more of the beasts.

  “Dear Gods,” she breathed.

  Ice demons were terrible, nasty creatures that crawled from the very icy, pits of hell itself. Her power was such that they’d rarely attempted to overtake her realm.

  But here...here she was surrounded by them.

  “Luminesa!” Alador roared, yanking on her arm and snapping her out of her shocked trance. “We must fight.”

  Those words were the impetus she needed to shake the fog off her brain.

  Praying to the gods that her power would be sufficient here, she rolled her hands together and crafted a bow, quiver, and arrows made of ice and shoved them into his chest. She’d designed the quiver so that no matter how many arrows Alador used, he’d never run out of them.

  “Here!” she said, and then quickly threw her hands up, blocking the demon that’d now come to within breathing distance of her before his club smashed down on her head.

  The demon shattered into a million slivers of harmless ice.

  Alador was quick with his arrows. A centaurs affinity for the bow was legendary and Alador was no different, he was a graceful study in the deadly arts.

  Luminesa could not afford to be distracted by him though, the parapet was now overrun by monsters.

  For every two she sprayed into oblivion it seemed like ten more took their places.

  The battle raged on through the night.

  At one point she’d had to throw an ice shield up over all the doorways to ensure none of them entered the castle’s confines.

  Luminesa regretted making her palace so large. The ice demons had come from all sides, thundering and swinging their ice clubs with deadly intent.

  She’d been caught in the side of the head a time or two. Her ears rang and her temple throbbed, but she and Alador were managing to keep them at bay.

  None of them had managed to enter the castle doors.

  And by the time the first rays of sunlight crested the skies, the army of thousands had trickled down to less than a dozen.

  Luminesa had turned herself into a tower of snow just to keep up with their rush...moving to and fro from one spire to another, blasting out walls of ice to hammer them away.

  By the time the sun had fully risen in the early morning sky, they were all gone.

  She and Alador sat huffing and puffing on the balcony floor, backs pressed against each other as she looked around and shook her head.

  “This wasn’t natural,” he said it slowly.

  She nodded. Having come to the same conclusion herself. “I know. They came at us from all sides, they could have easily overpowered us if they’d wanted to.”

  Turning, so that he could look at her, Luminesa realized that she was vastly more comfortable in his presence now than she’d been yesterday evening. Never would she have been able to sit in the presence of a male for this amount of time without feeling the need to get up and run far away.

  Of course, it probably helped that she was so exhausted she could barely move.

  His jaw jutted out, and she realized that his cheeks now had a fine shadow of dark hair. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest.

  It was a wonder she even noticed him at all. Her body trembled from the adrenaline of battling all night, even her bones ached, and yet...she’d never been more aware of another male in her life.

  The way rivulets of sweat still ran down his powerful chest. The curls of fog that rose from off his withers, and the way his long, black hair clung to the sides of his chiseled profile.

  She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, grateful centaurs couldn’t read minds.

  “The odds of this being a random occurrence are—”

  “Nil,” she finished for him.

  Clenching his jaw tight—so that the muscle in his cheek twitched—he nodded.

  Her pulse raced. She really needed to get her emotions under control. This was ridiculous. She was exhausted, probably stank from all the sweating she’d done, she was sure she looked no better than a drowned rat, and yet she couldn’t stop from wondering how a centaur’s lips might feel pressed against her own.

  Especially this centaur.

  “This land is cursed,” he spat, “and I would not doubt if this wasn’t the last we’ve seen of those accursed monsters.”

  When she shivered this time, it had absolutely nothing to do with her rising awareness of the male, and everything to do with the niggling suspicion that he was absolutely right.

  The Under Goblin had dropped them into an icy hell.

  ~*~

  Alador

  She’d looked so incredibly small and helpless sitting on that balcony next to him. Exhaustion had laced every inch of her body, but Alador had had to fight to keep his hands to himself and not crush her to him as he’d wanted to from the moment she’d caused the final ice demon to implode from her touch.

  Luminesa had been a thing of majestic and deadly beauty. For such a little thing, she’d packed an enormous wallop. Her power had rolled around him like heated lava, his skin had prickled whenever she’d throw a wave of that power into the night.

  Fighting beside her had been an honor. Not even a centauress could have done better. Haxion would have been impressed.

  His nostrils flared though as he recalled the flicker of dread that’d rolled through her corn silk blue eyes when he’d mentioned the possibility of there being more attacks like last nights.

  But quickly that dread had vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating determination that’d made his heart swell with pride. That unsettling feeling had so discombobulated him that he’d told her in a brusque voice it was time for her to get to bed and get whatever rest she could and that he would take first watch.

  She’d looked taken aback by his command at first, but then had given him a stiff nod. And when he’d tried to help her to her feet, she’d shaken him off, and holding her head high, had walked stiffly away from him.

  Alador hadn’t meant to hurt her...or maybe he had.

  Goddess, he didn’t know anything anymore.

  Luminesa was nothing at all like he’d expected. She’d been magnificent last night, in a way he’d only ever thought a centauress capable.

  She’d matched him kill for kill. Never once crying out for help. There was no weak link in her. She was as brave and as strong as any woman of his herd, maybe even more so.

  He’d sat on that balcony for the next four hours, dead on his feet, watching the skyline with a hawk like glare, even as his head was full of thoughts of her.

  She’d come back out just a few minutes ago, changed into a different gown of ice that’d hugged her lush curves almost like second skin, and without glancing at him, had said, “Go. I’ll watch now.”

  Alador had wanted to say more, but her falcon had come and landed on her shoulder and he’d felt her icy shield flicker between them and he’d known she’d not have appreciated it.

  He’d done wrong. He knew this. He also knew he needed to apologize, to tell her that everything he was feeling now had nothing at all to do with her and everything to do with him.

  That she confused him. Even slightly terrified him. But his tongue had grown too thick to speak with, so he’d turned and made for his room.

  There would be little time for sleeping now. The children would s
urely rise in another hour or so. The first thing the queen had done after the fight was to weave a mirror of ice that let them look into the children’s rooms. They were both there, safely tucked into their beds, and fast asleep.

  How they could have slept through the thunderous booms of the demons attacks, he knew not, but clearly they had.

  Alador felt too awake and wired to sleep now. Nevertheless, if his gut feeling was right, and the demons returned tomorrow night, he’d need to be fresh to meet that challenge.

  But when he got to his room and settled onto the pile of freshly cut hay, his thoughts wouldn’t stop turning.

  Just like when he’d been marching through the woods, he could have sworn he’d heard a voice last night in the hall, a male voice. A deep and heavy chuckle that’d rumbled straight through Alador’s very core.

  Instinct told him that it’d been the Under Goblin. Which would explain the timing of the ice demons too.

  Luminesa had looked as shocked to see them as he had, and more and more Alador was coming to think—astonishing as it was—the ice queen too was a pawn in the Under Goblin’s game.

  Closing his eyes, he decided to try and rest, even if only for a moment. So he was shocked when he opened his eyes later and knew he’d slept not just a little but several hours.

  The shadows playing across the floor let him know at least three hours had passed, if not more. Shaking himself awake, Alador expected to be shivering, freezing from sleeping on ice and a little pile of hay, but he was warm and felt fine.

  Incredible actually.

  And hungry.

  Desperately so. He’d not eaten a thing in close to three days now, he needed food.

  Getting up, he took care of his morning necessaries, then followed the hall to the staircase and walked toward the kitchen.

  A massive room bursting with activity.

  Ice maidens dressed in servant’s outfits bustled to and fro, stirring, chopping, and chatting loudly amongst themselves.

  Their words were like no words he’d ever heard before, nonsensical and yet lovely chatter that sounded almost like song.