In front of us appeared a throne of black ice, layered with dagger-like shards jutting in every direction. Adrius swore under his breath.
“What kind of a greeting is that for someone who was nearly family…” A disembodied voice came from within the icy lair. Only the puff of her breath lingering in the air gave a clue as to where it had come from.
“Octãhvia, always a pleasure,” Adrius said to the vapor, animosity pouring from each word.
A ghostly woman materialized from the frosty air and floated toward us on a flurry of snow and ice. Glistening ice shards clung to her shoulder-length blue black hair. She grinned brilliant and clear, as though her teeth themselves were made of ice, the reflection was almost blinding.
The woman stepped toward him, and raked a long blue fingernail across his face, leaving a frosted welt.
“I can’t help but notice you are now this girl’s traveling companion.” Her eyes shifted curiously in my direction. “Yet you have a vow of fealty, if I remember correctly, darling. Did you actually think I’d forgotten? That I wouldn’t be hurt by your little tryst?”
“You— forget something so depraved? Impossible,” Adrius replied.
“So, am I to assume you are delivering the little Sidhe halfling to the underworld then? I would be more than happy to assist with the transportation of her soul in any way I can.” She grinned amicably, as though she’d just offered to help me study for finals. With a step forward, her blue-tinged nails reached for me.
The sound of rasping metal filled the room. “I’d rethink that if I were you.” His sword aimed at her, swirling green smoke curled and hung frozen in the air before crystallizing and falling like viridian snow.
The witch smiled. “You — are threatening me — with that?” she laughed. “Surely the son of Elyssium knows it would take more than an enchanted Elvish weapon to dissuade me.”
“Perhaps.” He smiled in return, his eyes dark and calculating. “But you couldn’t save them so quickly.” He redirected his aim, pointing at her two monstrous white tigers, the pair that had escorted us from the entry.
Octãhvia paused briefly, annoyance flashed in her emerald eyes. “How dreadfully rude, darling. I can’t imagine why you’d greet me with such hostility.” She pouted, her eyes staring invisible ice daggers in my direction. Thin layers of frost coated my skin.
The corner of her mouth twitched, suppressing a smile as she lowered her hand. Those beasts were apparently the only lives she had any compassion for.
“Wise decision,” he said, leveling his gaze. He didn’t lower his sword even as a thin gold filament slithered out of the cold and coiled around his ankle. “Now, we can discuss other things.” Not once did his eyes leave hers, ignoring the chain that moved like a living thing to bind his legs together. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.
“…Like, letting the girl go free.”
My breath caught in my throat — he was negotiating my release, but what about his?
“Oh darling, don’t be so dramatic. I was just having a bit of fun with your new toy. I mean neither of you any harm. If fact, I’m not the least bit interested in the human halfling — yet.” She shrugged. “You can keep her.” She looked me over, her steely eyes full of false pity. “Poor thing came from the shallow end of the gene pool. She could no more weave a simple transfiguration spell than undo, oh… let me see, let’s say, a curse placed by a black witch.” With a sniff of distain she refocused on Adrius. “Sad really… I looked forward to the challenge of a worthy adversary. It’s so hard to find suitable opposition these days.” She looked back at me the way one looks at a small, not-too-bright child. “It’s sort of like a tennis match for one,” she said, not hiding the condescending tone.
“Maybe you should give them a racket instead of slicing out their hearts and freezing their souls,” Adrius countered evenly.
“I’m not leaving you here,” I whispered. Why wasn’t he slicing through the chain, or at least trying to free himself?
Octãhvia narrowed her eyes, and the full weight of her stare pressed down on me. Cold whispered through my veins embracing me in the darkness of her foreboding power. She laughed, and I expected a blood-chilling sound. But instead it was light, airy, like the sound of ice cubes tumbling into a crystal glass. When she spoke, ribbons of frost filled the air, and then flurries of ice crystals drifted mutely to the floor. I shivered, brushing the fine dust of snow from my arms and face.
Every possible exit was flanked by two heavily-armed, burley guerrilla-men, all with the same long black hair and pearlescent skin, cloaked in full length crimson robes, lined with black satin.
I flinched under the bitter sting of her gaze. My lungs burned as I drew in a shallow breath. It was getting more and more difficult to breathe in the frigid air.
“I’m always willing to bargain, dears. Perhaps we could barter an arrangement.”
“There is nothing you have that I want.” As I spoke my breath hung visibly in the air between us. Determined, I stared up into the blackest, most unfeeling eyes imaginable. They were more than inhumane, they were impassive. It brought physical discomfort to look at her, but in that moment I didn’t care. “What makes you think I’d be willing to bargain with you?”
“Oh, but there is, dear one… There is something you want.” She nodded, a smile dancing in her eyes. “So I know you will bargain with me.”
The coolness of her voice left traces of frost on my skin. Octãhvia’s icy eyes shifted briefly to Adrius. “You have something I want. And…” Her voice hushed, “…I have something you want. From what little I know of humans, you place an interesting amount of importance on the value of a life. Fortunately, most of us in the Nevermore are not similarly afflicted. There, by my cats.” Her long bony fingers pointed toward the corner of the room.
A filigreed cage of ice hung a few feet from the ground. The shape of a woman sat hunched in the center, her knees drawn up under her chin. “But she is not just any Faerie.” She smirked. “This one happens to be your Faerie appointed to you by way of favor.”
I froze. Green girl, she was my Faerie?
Adrius ground his teeth. “What are you not telling me, Lorelei?” he murmured under his breath. “A Faerie can only be linked to another when a favor involves a physical exchange… so what happened?”
“There might have been a small incident,” I said, chewing my lower lip. “She took my singing voice.” I shrugged one shoulder determined to make light of it.
He sighed. “Anything else you’ve been keeping from me. Anything at all?”
My gaze fell to the ground. “No. And it’s fine. I got it back.” I hated lying to him, but at this point what choice did I have? I wanted to tell him the truth, but every time an opportunity opened up, the truth would only further endanger our lives.
Octãhvia watched us with an amused smirk, like we were her personal performers, and when our hushed argument was finished she broke into applause. “Brava! Brava! Very good!” Veins and tiny bones protruded from the rice paper skin on her neck as she threw back her head in laughter. “Yes, darling, the Faerie was sent by your father. And while I imagine you have many abandonment issues, I am sure you would like an opportunity to know more. Find out why he did the things he did.” She moved with the grace of a dancer, her fur cape dusting the snowy floor behind her. “Find answers to the questions that plague your darkest dreams at night, while you sleep in the house of the elf king and long for the forbidden touch of his son.”
Cringing, I felt my checks scorch.
Out of the corner of her eye, her pupil-less gaze darted toward Adrius. “Or perhaps your nights are solely filled with… Faerie dreams?” She grinned, arching her brows.
The heat in my face worked its way down, drenching me with perspiration that rapidly cooled and turned to frost. I hoped Adrius wasn’t watching too closely. Most of my nights were spent dreaming of him, and there’d been one especially startling dream about Julien that had me weirded out for most of the day. But she wasn’t talking about Adrius or Julien. She was talking about my dreams of the Shadow fey… Zanthiel.
Adrius stepped forward, the thin gold filament made a noise in protest. He aimed his sword at the witch. “You will not speak to her that way. Do you understand me?”
Octãhvia raised her hand. A stream of jagged shards of ice flew at him, slicing through the chain, piercing his arms and pinning him to the wall. I ran to help him, but her boney hand wrapped around my upper arm, numbing my flesh beneath her touch almost instantly.
“Relax, darling.” She purred. “I have no desire to kill the charming young prince. However, I will end the faerie’s life without a thought, if I do not get what I want.” She pointed across the room.
I struggled to pull free. When I looked at Adrius a moment later the frozen spikes had melted, and he slid to the ground. Growing crimson stains spread across the white shirt under his vest.
Octãhvia released me and stepped back. My arm burned, but all I could think about was Adrius and healing his wounds. I held my breath and ran to him, placing my hands on each of his arms.
With cold spreading in my heart I looked around. It was a scene from an ancient Roman coliseum… A frail waif hanging perilously out of reach from three ravenous white tigers. I’d never considered the mental stability of animals before now, but there was something crazed about these tigers. The way they paced frantically, teeth bared… frothing at the mouth. It was as though they possessed the souls of the criminally insane. It wasn’t just a hunger they waited to satisfy; it was bloodlust.
Fauna. What was she doing here? The caged green faerie dangled above the predators and she looked understandably terrified. A faint luminescent glow illuminated her skin, but it diminished with each passing moment. If the light was linked to her life-force, then she was fading quickly. From what I’d learned of Faeries, they couldn’t survive these temperatures for long. At least not the Seelie fey who existed in the Summer Court. Iron chains bound her arms and legs, burning into her skin, leaving it raw and bloody. I looked away, unable to stand it any longer. It was impossible to consider that this being, which had caused me nothing but trouble, was worth trading Adrius for. Yet it was unthinkable this could be the Faerie’s fate… anyone’s fate. How could they place so little value on a life?
“Take me instead!” I pleaded. “I’m the one you want. Take me and let the others go.”
“No, Lorelei.” Adrius put his hand on my back as he stepped in front of me. “You’re not the one she wants. I am.”
I stared at him, my mouth gaping yet silent. What was he doing? Was this some sort of a trick, a ruse to free us all? Considering how well his let’s just knock on the door plan went, I was justifiably concerned. I couldn’t let him risk his life this way. Shaking my head, I watched him walk toward the witch, his golden green eyes matching her icy glare.
“You can’t do this,” I whispered.
“I have to.”
“No, you can’t leave us, not like this.” I stared at the fey which dangled inches from the salivating jaws. Her lips were blue, her ankles and wrists were swollen and raw from the iron chains that bound her. Was she really sent by my father? Was it possible?
I lunged forward to grab hold of his arm
“Lorelei… It will be alright. Trust me.”
“I do trust you. It’s her I don’t trust. Look at what she’s capable of.”
He pressed his lips to my ear. “Go with Tilak. Take the map.” Pulling away, he gave me a grave stare. “And for the sake of my sanity, promise me, you won’t do anything crazy.”
“Oh, blah blah blah. This is all so touching, darlings, but you need not continue with the dramatics. Adrius knows he is worth more than this fey, and more useful to me alive than dead… for now.” She smiled, gliding a few feet away from us. It was the longest I’d ever been close to this woman, and my bones ached from the bitterness of her presence.
“I desire much more from him than merely his soul.”
My blood ran cold.
Her black fingernails raked across his chest. I felt him stiffen — whether from pain or revulsion, I couldn’t tell. But I wasn’t letting go of his arm. As though clinging to him would somehow ensure a happy ending to this nightmare. How had it come to this so quickly? I placed myself between Adrius and the witch queen.
“You’re not taking him — or his soul.” I fumed, burning with a protective fury. Octãhvia cocked her head to the side, her bluish lips curled into a thin, cruel smile. She seemed delighted and perplexed at once by the challenge.
“Hmmm — you are more fearless than most of your kind, dear.” With no more than raising her eyebrow, the ceiling split, releasing a lightning bolt of ice tearing through the room. A small ball of ice fire formed in her hand, and leaping cobalt fames danced in the air, sizzling as flakes of snow came in contact and melted instantly into water.
Adrius shouted, “NO!” and shoved me out of its path. The ball of fire pummeled him full on, the blue flames twisting into arms which entangled him, dragging him to the ground writhing in agony. I screamed, running to help him but one of the hooded guards grabbed me. I stared helplessly, as his body contorted in pain, his veins straining against his skin. Flames had coated his skin in a thin layer of ice. The elves were resistant to the cold, but no one could survive this for long. “No, Stop, please! You’re killing him!”
The Ice Queen shifted her eyes to where the Elven Prince lay tortured on the ground. His body burnt by frostbite. She inhaled sharply and the ball of fire reformed itself, flying back into her hand. She looked amused, her eyes sweeping over him briefly before returning to me. I shivered as the temperature dropped inside my body.
“I should punish you both. That would teach you not to steal my toys,” she pouted, her comment intended for me but her gaze honed in on Tilak.
“You see, dear, I am accustomed to having my way and I have countless means to make certain I do.” The trace of a smile crossed her lips as she redirected the fiery ball of pain in my direction.
The blazing sphere of ice fire grew in size as it spun toward me. I braced myself, with eyes shut tight and my breath stopped. But when the flames washed over me, I felt a cool sensation on my face. Whatever effect had rendered Adrius helpless on the floor, I could not feel. There was nothing, just the chill of a wintry breeze. I opened my eyes, not sure what had happened.
With a huff, the witch released the flame and it careened, burning a frosty trail across the room where she sent it crashing through the wall. In its wake was the blackened debris of ashes and cinder, and the crinkling sound as a blanket of ice spread across the charred surface.
Adrius rose to his feet, his wounds already beginning to heal. He moved to my side, holding me closely. The witch looked from one of us to the other, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How interesting… Clearly there is more to this girl than meets the eye. Precious few are impervious to the flames of ice fire.”
“Enough, Octãhvia.” His deep voice resonated in the vastness. “You have what you want. I’m right here. No one else needs to suffer.”
She shook her head sadly. “Look how soft you’ve become. Does the human know what her little school-girl crush has done to you? Has she any idea she has reduced The Nevermore’s most ferocious warrior to this? And what would your father say if he knew you were fraternizing and flirting with the enemy?” A slow grin crept across her face. “What would your mother say?”
Adrius flinched slightly but managed to maintain his calm. “Leave Lorelei and my parents out of it. This is between you…and me. No one else.”
Octãhvia paid no attention to him, she was watching my expression. Savoring what must have been my easy-to-read reaction.
“Ahhh. She doesn’t know?” The tinkling of her laughter peeled through the room. This time, I cringed. “How fascinating!”
“You’re wasting precious time, Octãhvia. Every minute you squander playing cat-and-mouse is time taken away from what you really want,” he replied.
I stiffened. “There is nothing you could say to me that would change what I know. Adrius is kind. He would never hurt anyone needlessly. He’s not a sadistic monster like you.”
The ringing of her laughter filled the room, as beautiful as it was chilling, and a shower of flakes dusted over us.
“Well, no wonder the little imp is in love with you. She doesn’t know you at all.” She lifted her staff, pointing the skill end at Adrius, and looked at me. I flinched under the bitter sting of her gaze. “Who, my dear girl, do you think helped train the The Drakkon warriors? They would not have had nearly the mass destruction in the last war, were it not for their fearless leader. The numbers his armies slaughtered and left for dead were unsurpassed. Not to mention the trail of broken hearts and bodies he left behind in your world, while trying to drown his wretched memories.” She cocked her head coyly to the side, enjoying the effect her bombshell revelation was having.
I shook my head in confusion and peered at Adrius. Were these the atrocities he’d spoken of that day he found me in the keep?
He avoided my gaze. “Let’s not forget to mention who was by my side,” he said dryly. Then he sighed. “We have unfinished business to attend to. Release the fey and the girl — you don’t need them. Not now. I’ll stay willingly.”
“Of course you will, darling. I’ll let the girl go now, because she’s of little use to me in her mostly human condition. And because I know she’ll be back. That’s when the fun shall begin.”