After the debacle at the party, I spent most of the night keeping a very close watch on Queenie. She mingled as required, danced with a few clods who were brave enough to approach her, and kept a healthy distance from her sister. I asked her to make certain she was far enough away to keep the petty despot’s gaze off of her in hopes there wouldn’t be consequences for how lovely my girl looks despite the obvious effort to make her self-conscious. Even with the constraints of her bulky gown and tightly cinched corset, Q floats across the floor with royal bearing—something her sister has never achieved. It’s not something you can teach, regardless of the many human movies eschewing the notion.
Carrying yourself with the confidence and grace of a truly powerful woman is something genuine leaders are born with—no amount of personal success or financial gain can trump natural gifts.
That’s another reason I’m stuck on my theory about Queenie’s origins. She doesn’t move or think like a human, even though she’s been surrounded by them for the entirety of her life. Everything she does screams ‘square peg in a round hole’ and I believe that’s why I was able to identify a solution for her uncontrollable magic so quickly. Whatever supes she’s descended from absolutely feed off of emotions or sex or energy. The options are wide open after that because I’m uncertain if she may have more abilities. She’s never explored simply because she doesn’t know they exist.
When one of the ass-kissing court members delivered the message that we could leave the ball, I scrambled to find my charge. She was laughing softly as she spoke with someone on the waitstaff, waving her hands as she gestured around her. Trixie was perched on the table nearby, keeping a watchful eye on Queenie, just in case. As I approached, the capuchin chittered happily and my girl turned to give me a bright smile. Leave it to the former queen to be chatting up the servants rather than listen to some wealthy fuckwit in her sister’s echo chamber drone on about how well the kingdom is doing now. It hurts her to hear given that we pass the villages where the common citizens live on the way to the summer palace and they are not doing well.
We can’t do a damned thing about it, though. Her Royal Bitchiness would happily destroy Queenie’s reputation in the kingdom and across the globe if we spoke out about her abusive behavior. I’ve spun the situation in every permutation, trying to figure out how to leak the truth in a way that won’t get my girl imprisoned in some dank dungeon and my ass tried for treason. The knowledge that her sister has spies everywhere and has been playing the victim far longer than anyone could imagine limits our ability to share the authentic version of events.
Fear is her weapon despite the image she’s built in public of the delightful, kind woman who cares about all of her realm.
“Your sister behaved this evening,” I murmur to Queenie as the carriage continues towards our home.
Her smile is full of sadness as she turns away from the window to glance at me. “Her announcement will destroy all the other farmers. They cannot sell their goods and fall behind on their taxes. We both know what she does to those who don’t pay their tribute to her.”
I do, and it’s why I plan every single moment of events we attend in her presence.
“The scars on my back say I do, darling. Any dissension in her ranks, whether willful or unintentional, will be punished swiftly and cruelly.” I pause, choosing my words carefully. “Yet you struggle to hear that she’s not the sister you recall from your youth or from before the coronation.”
“I…” Queenie lifts her hands to her face and draws a shuddering breath. “I feel as though my issues are to blame for the changes in her. Dealing with me and my messes made her hard because she had to worry whether she might have to do something terrible to stop me.”
I snort, shaking my head slowly. “Fuck that, Q. Plenty of human families raise magic users without forcing them to isolate, stealing their kingdom, and threatening to imprison them with magical restraints. Since Trixie found that necklace, I’m questioning the memories you have of your childhood with her. Maybe you’ve idealized them to cope with the trauma.”
“Idealized?” Her brow furrows, and she closes her eyes, growing still. I almost ask what she’s doing, but then she finally whispers, “The day she took the necklace, I borrowed one of her dolls so I could have a tea party with mine. When she came to retrieve her doll, she was very upset. She took the necklace, saying if I took something of hers, she should be able to take something of mine. I lost control and then she told our guards that they should lock it away because it caused my magic to misbehave.”
Of fucking course she did, the bratty little snotsucker.
“Queenie, your sister took the one thing your parents gave you before they disappeared because you borrowed a toy. She made sure no one would ever give it back to you by lying about what caused your powers to flare. The Queen of the Ice Kingdom is a sociopath, and she enjoys making you and everyone else suffer.”
Tears fill her eyes and she looks out the window for a moment before replying, “I’ve tried not to see it. All I have left is my sister and when I got control of my magic briefly and ruled the kingdom, we felt so close. It was what I’d always longed for. After I gave up the throne, it was hard to admit it was all for show. She’d shown me everything she needed to in order to get what she wanted from me. Once she had it, she morphed into a person I’d pretended didn’t exist.”
I’ve never heard her be quite this honest about her sister and their past, but I think the appearance of this mystery necklace has something to do with it.
The Ice Kingdom doesn’t have magic users outside of my girl, but I’m wondering if maybe the so-called advisors and the current queen consulted one. It wouldn’t be hard to find a witch, mage, or hell, even a djinn for hire on the supe side of LinkedIn or Fiverr. Many magic users are traveling Swiss Army knives and sell their services to the highest bidder regardless of the request. Once Queenie emerged from her room and took her place as the ruler of the kingdom, they may have realized she would never allow the iron-fisted tyranny they have in place now.
“Is it possible you can see more clearly since Trixie gave you the necklace from your parents?” I ask. I know my girl isn’t very familiar with the outside world and definitely doesn’t know about the variety of supes and beings beyond the walls of her kingdom, but if I can trigger a memory about when she received it or something that was said, I might puzzle out if it really is a part of this.
“You know… things seem sharper. Like when you put on glasses and your eyes work better—or so I’m told.”
“That makes perfect sense, darling.” I tug her into my side, mulling over her metaphor as the scenery flies by. “I wonder if that has something to do with your memories and your perception of the queen being less… forgiving.”
The look on her face is one of pure horror, and it hurts my heart when the shock fades into pain. “You think she would do that?”
Hell yes, I do. That woman has probably been scheming from the second your parents went missing.
But I can’t say it that way because Queenie looks like she’s going to crumple as it is. If I’m going to propose she comes with me when I leave, I need her to be strong and determined, not struggling through the stages of grief as she admits who her sister really is. “I don’t know, pet, but I think it’s likely the necklace is tied to your wonky powers. Everything else is mere speculation.”
“What can we do? I have it back for now, but if our suspicion is true, she’ll try something else,” she whispers as she wipes the tears. “I’ll have to spend the entirety of my life locked in that castle, so I don’t give her anything to use against me.”
I’ll be damned; she figured it out on her own.
I give her a small smile and hold my fingers to my lips before I speak. “We can talk when we’re at home. I’m able to check for unwanted guests in our room—I don’t trust that spies aren’t everywhere.”
Queenie scoots closer and presses against my side. As I stroke her hair, I close my eyes and laugh internally. That I was going to find someone to care for her and go on my merry way was ridiculous. My previous cock-ups always centered on getting involved with someone and it going spectacularly wrong. I’m incapable of maintaining the emotional distance I lecture myself about internally and pretending otherwise was folly.
This woman is yours now, Jack, and whether or not you planned for it, you’re going to have a stowaway on your journey.
* * *
“Is it clear?”
I point the magic compass at the last section of the room, waiting to see if it lights up. I inherited this damn thing from a saucy pirate I had an affair with during a vacation in the 1700s, and it’s usually pretty accurate. My collection of magical curiosities is vast—I always take a souvenir of my failures as a reminder of what not to do the next time. It’s never actually helped until now, but I’ll be damned if I’m not patting myself on the back.
Story and fairytale immortals are an interesting breed. We keep the powers we had originally and gain whatever mythos the humans tack on as our story grows. Some of my former incarnations were human, and some have been magical, so I have a myriad of abilities. I couldn’t manipulate ice or snow until I came here to take up the mantle of Jack Frost.
That my name is Jacqueline has been inconsequential over the years. I’m stuck with Jack no matter what I do.
“Jackie?”
She’s the only person in history I’ve ever allowed to call me that, and it’s only when she’s worried. “It seems so, love. I’ve got Trix out scanning the castle books and crannies with my amulet. I want to know if there are rogue spells lurking about anywhere else as well.”
“We can talk in here, though?” Her brow creases with worry and I nod. “The idea of Chelle actively trying to hurt me since we were kids is… really hard.”
I tug her into my arms, tucking her head beneath my chin. Queenie is tall, but I’m half Fae, half giantess, so I’m still taller. “I know. I don’t talk about the past often, but there have been people who damaged me in that way. Jill, Galen, Natalia… all of them almost destroyed me at different points in my life. They weren’t my sister, of course, but I loved them with all of my heart and they turned out to be unworthy of that. Chelle is one of the most insidious liars I’ve encountered in a while; it’s not surprising she could fool you for so long. She used your soft heart and giving nature to her advantage.”
A sob shivers through my girl and I realize she’s at the beginning of an arduous journey through grief.
Right now, she’ll be in denial—the death of the person she believed her sister and best friend to be is hard to accept. It will be a constant source of self-doubt and recrimination in her heart and mind until something concrete makes it undeniable. Then she’ll be angry as the fire of her betrayal rages through her and once she calms, she’ll try to make a deal with the universe if she can have her back. After that will come depression and finally acceptance. I’ll need to be her support system as she runs the gamut of emotion and since I never had one when I went through it, I will make sure she never ends up in the clutches of that spiteful woman again.
“She doesn’t care about m-me. All she wanted was someone to scapegoat and beat up on until she could steal what was rightfully mine. And she doesn’t give a single fuck about our kingdom—only the power and wealth that comes with it.”
Truer words. Everything the current queen does serves her enormous and undeserved ego.
“Yes, but once we escape, everyone will see her for the fraud she is.” Q lifts her head and looks at me in confusion. “She’s a one-trick pony without your magic, my love. Chelle isn’t like you—she’s not gifted or special—when you aren’t here to support her with your magic, she’ll have to use money and fear to force people to pay attention to her. She doesn’t have friends; she only has acolytes and enemies.”
After she hiccups and wipes her nose, she shrugs and mumbles, “You mean she won’t be able to blame the bad things on me and people will see her for who she really is?”
I tap her nose, smiling fondly. “Exactly. Without you to take her fury out on, she’ll attack the minions surrounding her instead of hiding her true face. Then she’ll lose what power she has and the masses won’t be able to deny how truly despotic she is. She might even melt down in public and destroy her fake image all on her own.”
I want to be there to see it, but protecting my girl’s mental health and freedom is more important.
“How do we break free? She has spies everywhere; we can’t trust anyone to listen or help us.”
Queenie isn’t wrong—the queen holds onto her power by swindling everyone in her circle by love bombing them. It’s not a superpower, but it’s a really goddamn effective one. People will always look for what benefits them the most and her narrative has only spread since she took the crown.
“I don’t know yet, my love. I need to spin the board around for a bit until I can see the right moves. Each step must be carefully weighed and considered before we take it.”
“When do you think we’ll leave? Where will we go? I’ve never been farther than the neighboring kingdoms and they aren’t likely to cross my sister.”
Shit. Now it’s time to have a tough conversation and in her current state, it’s going to be harder than it would have been before.
“I have something to tell you.”
Here goes nothing…