Chapter 2 #2
Tess glanced my direction and I searched my sister’s gaze, looking for some sign that this was, in fact, all a cunning ploy. She’d always been cunning, even when we were younger. She could manipulate our nannies, weave tales and make them believe anything she said, could get anything she wanted.
But all I saw in my sister’s eyes was a wicked gleam that had never been there before.
No, it’s always been there, it was just hidden below the surface, a part of my mind whispered.
Hadn’t I always been afraid that Tess had darkness in her, had seen small glimpses over the years as we’d gotten older?
Those same manipulations that had seemed funny and innocent when we were young turned darker.
Cruel. Yet I’d always pushed the unease or unkind thoughts aside, refused to acknowledge them, even to myself.
Now, I understood that I’d been right all along.
My sister wasn’t who I’d always believed her to be.
And now, it would be my undoing.
Tess turned back to King Barony.
“I’m the better choice, Your Majesty. She’s weaker, will always be weaker. I understand the world better than she does.”
My sister faded away in that moment, a ruthless, terrifying stranger taking her place.
“Tess,” I whispered, a cold shiver working its way up my spine and radiating outward, filling every inch of my body.
A thin, pathetic sheen of frost coated my palms and extended to my fingertips.
Tess was right, of course: she had far more control over her power than I did.
I was honestly surprised that the King didn’t simply choose her, but he’d always eyed me with interest, knowing that my power could be great if I ever learned to channel it properly, so I suppose he was willing to see how this played out instead of choosing himself.
I think he simply enjoyed the pain he knew this game would cause as well.
Tess met my gaze again, a mirror image staring back at me. There was the tiniest bit of regret there, but mostly a terrifying cold calculation that made her green eyes look like true emeralds: Hard. Unforgiving. Beautiful in a fierce, cold way.
“I’m sorry, Tee, but I belong here.”
It felt as if I’d been kicked in the chest by one of the Northland horses, bigger than their southern counterparts and far stronger, built to withstand the harshness of the winters.
We didn’t really need them here in Lyanna, but Barony had several simply to say that he did.
I’d seen one kick right through a stall door once, turning it to splinters with ease.
That’s what happened to my heart in that moment: it was ground to splinters. Destroyed.
Tess moved to stand behind the desk next to King Barony. He beamed, staring at her like the prize she apparently was.
“But…I…”
“I’m sorry, Thea, but you must go now. I promised delivery within the month, and it is a long journey.” He beckoned at the door with two fingers and two of his guards came forward, each seizing one of my arms.
“No! No, stop this! Please!” They dragged me away as I fought and screamed.
Tears streamed down my face, my chest constricting painfully.
“Tess! Tess!!” I screeched as they yanked me through the doorway.
The last thing I saw was my sister’s cold gaze and her look of disgusted pity.
That was when I knew that my sister was gone.
The sister I thought I’d had, the one who had held me when I’d cried and promised to keep the monsters away, was dead. Maybe she’d never truly existed at all.
The guards dragged me through the palace, the hallways where I’d run and laughed and played, to the grand entrance.
I couldn’t believe it was truly happening, but I felt the truth in every breaking piece of my heart, every terrifying drum of my pulse.
They were taking me away from my home, taking me to be a slave of a ruler of a faraway kingdom to do Makers knew what.
He would use me for my Gifts, make me do whatever he pleased.
He would find a way to force my Gifts to cooperate from the way King Barony spoke of him.
I didn’t know much about King Morthan, but it didn’t matter who he was: he believed he could own people, which meant he was evil, just like the terrible king in the mountains.
Desperation clawed at my stomach and chest and I dragged my feet, trying to fight the guards, but they were too strong.
Weak, weak, weak. Tesni’s words echoed through my mind, and something shifted inside my chest, resolve I didn’t know I had buoying me in the storm.
My heart was shattered, but I thrust the jagged shards back into the forge.
I let it burn, hotter and hotter, until the pieces melted together, becoming something new, something harder than before.
I covered it in impenetrable ice, vowing to never let it be broken again.
I felt my Gift surge within me, the cold radiating through my body once more, but this time, it wasn’t just the barest frost. My skin turned to ice, so cold it burned the guards’ hands. They both gasped and released me long enough that I could stumble a few steps away.
“Grab her!” the taller guard yelled.
He clenched his hand into a fist as he lurched towards me, looking like he planned to pay me back for the pain I’d just caused.
I raised my hands to ward him off and spikes of ice shot forward from my palms. The man screamed in agony, covering his face with his hands and staggering sideways as blood streamed between his fingers.
He tripped and smashed his skull on one of the gilded lion statues set in a semicircle around the foyer, guarding the front door with watchful eyes.
My own went wide, unbelieving that I’d just hurt someone.
I’d never so much as stepped on an insect in my life.
I’d once accidentally given one of our nannies a bruised eye when we’d been playing silly games outside and though Marisol told me over and over that it was fine, that it had been an accident, I’d cried for days over it.
I’d always loathed violence and causing others pain.
Tess had always teased me, saying I was too soft hearted for this world.
Not anymore, I thought. You saw to that, Tess.
I stared in shock, willing the man to rise, terrified that he never would.
I blinked tears away, believing that if I just stared hard enough, his chest would rise.
I waited another endless heartbeat and then white-hot pain laced through my right shoulder.
I stumbled backwards, hitting the marble floor so hard my teeth clattered.
I looked up to find the other guard towering above me, a bloody blade in his hand.
I clamped my hand over the wound, blinking around tears and black spots.
I’d never been truly hurt before. A scratched knee from climbing trees, a bump on the head, a bruise here and there, but nothing like this.
I felt bile rise in my throat, but I desperately tried to keep it away as blood oozed between my fingers.
“Easy now, little one. We can do this easy, or hard, but make no mistake, you will be coming with us.”
Panic and pain fought for dominance inside my body and mind, and without thought, I threw my bloody hand out towards the second guard.
Ice flew once more, even thicker than before, the spikes more like small daggers.
One caught the guard right in the throat, and crimson sprayed in a wide arc as he collapsed to his knees.
I turned my head away but felt the blood coat my neck and chest, sticky and hot.
His hands flew to his ruined throat, trying to staunch the life flowing from his gaping wound. He tried to speak, but only sickening gurgling sounds escaped his lips. He fell forward onto the gleaming white floor with a thud and didn’t move again.
“Oh, Great Makers,” I whispered in horror, staggering away from the man until I hit the front door of the palace. Blood pooled outward from beneath his body, as if it was reaching for me. Slow, accusing fingers. Monster. Murderer.
I did vomit then, barely holding myself upright and leaving a smear of my own blood across the golden metal.
The first guard groaned quietly, and though part of me was happy that I hadn’t killed him too, I knew that he would raise the alarm—that was if other guards weren’t already on their way, having heard the shouts.
So, I did the only thing I could: I tore open the door and fled.
And I never looked back.