Bianca went rigid with shock. She felt as if she’d been plunged deep into the Arctic Ocean. The cold worked through her body, entering her pores, penetrating her muscles and bones. Her ears crackled as if her mouth were full of popping candy. What is happening to me? She panicked, attempting to struggle, but her body was too heavy to move. She couldn’t lift her eyelids. She wanted to cry out, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

She heard muffled voices. Becoming still, she listened.

‘HELP! Something’s happening over here! Help me!’ She recognized her dad’s voice. ‘Bianca? Bianca, can you hear me?’

Was she back in the city? How could that be?

She had been cast out of Snow Haven! But how?

She remembered Jack’s victorious last words: ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself!’ Stop herself from doing what? She’d been trying to get Finn to remember her when she’d remembered her home and her parents. Was that what had brought her back? Her memories? Was that why Jack didn’t want siblings in Winterton? Or was it something else?

Then she recalled Ishild’s strange words to her:

‘I am old and new.

I am truth and lies.

I’m made from everything and nothing.

I have the power to change the world.

What am I?’

Had it been a spell? Was that what had hurled her out of Snow Haven?

It hadn’t sounded like a spell to Bianca.

It sounded like a riddle.

Bianca’s heart ached at being torn away from Finn and Pordis. The air she breathed into her lungs now felt warm and damp compared to the crisp, dry atmosphere of Winterton. She longed to be back there with every fibre of her being. Hot tears washed the ice from her eyes.

She heard excited voices, felt hands working to free her legs and torso.

‘Bianca, it’s Daddy. I’m here. Mummy’s here too. We’ve got you. Just listen to my voice.’

She felt a towel rubbing her legs. A warm cloth wiped her face. She blinked open her eyes and saw her mum looking anguished. There were white streaks in her auburn fringe.

When did Mum’s hair go white?

Bianca let her eyes close as the crushing weight of failure overwhelmed her. She’d set out to save Finn, and she was returning empty-handed. Finn hadn’t wanted to come home. He didn’t remember it. He hadn’t known her. How could she tell her parents that? They would never believe that Finn had given his heart to the Snow Queen, that Ishild needed it because the climate was changing, and she was melting.

They hadn’t listened to Bianca about the silver book; she knew they would never believe this.

Her body was wrapped in a crinkly foil blanket as she was laid on the ground, her head in her mother’s lap. She was shivering so hard that she was shaking uncontrollably.

‘Doctor coming through. Please stand aside,’ said a familiar, melancholy voice. Bianca blinked open her eyes. A crowd was looking down at her. There was hope on many of the faces she could see. She couldn’t bear to look at them. She closed her eyes again.

The doctor checked her over. ‘She’ll be all right,’ he reported to her parents. ‘She’s suffering from hypothermia. We need to get her indoors and keep her wrapped in blankets. A warm drink will help, but not too hot.’

Bianca tried to enjoy the sensation of her mum picking the ice out of her hair, but it felt terrible to be here and know all the other children, including Finn, Casper and Sophie, were in Winterton, having pledged their hearts to the Snow Queen.

Quilo’s words blew through her mind: ‘When the winter solstice arrives, all their hearts will be turned to ice.’

Bianca opened her eyes, and her mum, seeing that she was trying to speak, leaned down.

‘Wh-wh-wh-when . . . is the w-w-winter solstice?’

‘Tomorrow, I think,’ her mum replied, looking surprised by the question. ‘Today is the twentieth of December.’

Bianca gasped. She tried to sit up but found she couldn’t. ‘The t-t-t-twentieth? H-h-how long have I been gone?’

‘You were frozen for sixteen days,’ her dad said.

‘There are one hundred and ninety frozen children in the park,’ her mum added, then corrected herself. ‘One hundred and eighty-nine, now that you’re free.’

Bianca couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had not spent one full day in Winterton. Time was different there.

She felt a fresh surge of panic. She didn’t have long if she wanted to get Finn back and return the frozen children to their families. She needed to find a way to keep winter alive that didn’t require the gift of hundreds of icy hearts to Ishild. But how did you save an entire season?

An ambulance arrived. Bianca in her foil blanket was lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled into the back. Her parents got in and the doors were closed.

‘Where are we going?’ Bianca asked, conscious now that time moved faster in Winterton.

‘The hospital,’ her mum replied.

‘But I’m feeling much better.’ Bianca managed to sit up. ‘I don’t want to go to the hospital. I want to go home. Please?’

Her parents turned to look at the medic.

‘I can check her vital statistics in the ambulance,’ she replied. ‘If there are no obvious health risks, I don’t see why you can’t take care of her at home. You can always bring her to the hospital if you have concerns.’

‘Then we’d like to take her home,’ her dad said, and Bianca smiled gratefully at him.

When they arrived home, Bianca’s parents settled her on the sofa in the living room. Her mum built and lit a fire in the stove to warm the room. Her dad brought her a hot chocolate. Compared to the wonderfully thick and bubbly hot chocolate in Winterton, it tasted like sweet water. Nevertheless, Bianca gulped it down. She could see from their faces that there were questions her parents were holding back from asking. She knew those questions would be about Finn. She felt ashamed that she didn’t have the answers they were hoping for.

‘We got your note,’ her dad said, taking her mum’s hand. ‘That morning, when we woke up and found you gone, we went looking for you. You weren’t at school. I was frightened that you’d be in the park . . . like your brother. When we went to the police station, they said you’d been there. When we finally came home, you were already asleep, but I did as you asked. I sat by your bed. I held your hand. As the clock struck midnight, you rose and left the house. You walked to the park. I walked every step with you. Your eyes were closed the whole time. You were sleepwalking. You went to the rose garden. You went up onto the balls of your feet, you tried to lift your arms above your head, as if you wanted to hug the moon, but I was holding your hand, so you could only lift the other one, and then . . .’ He shook his head at the memory. ‘It was as if the ice came out of your skin. You were frozen. There was nothing I could do.’

‘You held my hand all this time?’ Bianca marvelled.

‘We took it in turns,’ her mum said. ‘Your dad held your hand all night, but his fingers went numb and so I took over. One of us has being holding your hand all the time since you were frozen.’

Bianca felt a ball of emotion stick in her throat and hot tears fill her eyes. She gave them a watery smile. ‘Thank you.’

‘Do you know how it happened? What caused it?’ her mum asked gently, and Bianca realized that they still didn’t believe what she’d told them about the silver book.

‘Your breaking free of the ice will give other parents hope, Bianca,’ her dad said.

‘How did you do it?’ Her mum’s face was a picture of expectation.

Bianca couldn’t reply. She hadn’t been trying to break free. Right now, she wished she was back in Winterton. Here, she was powerless to stop what was happening. And she knew that unless she could figure out a way to stop Ishild from melting forever, before the winter solstice, none of the frozen children would be returning to their families for Christmas. And that included Finn.