Chapter 24
The guards placed me on the back of a horse to take me the rest of the way, and I was grateful for every step it carried me.
Looking back at the road, there was little chance that I would have made it to the castle on my own.
The plan may not have been the safest choice, but it may have been the only way to get me to the mirror.
The guards rushed me inside, confused by whether they should treat me as a prisoner or as a royal. They settled somewhere in between, leaving me unguarded in a parlor but without the usual welcoming cup of tea or even a chance to take off my damp cloak.
The moment I was alone, I started moving deeper into the castle, closing in on the room that last served as my grave.
“I’m nearly there, Cassian,” I whispered to my ring. My legs were responding much better now that I was inside the castle walls. There wasn’t much heat to be found, but it was still far more manageable without any wind or snow.
“Have you seen Blamore yet?” Cassian asked.
“No,” I said, turning into the grand dining hall that felt like a scene ripped out of my memories. “But I’ve nearly found you.”
Everything looked the same as the day I’d died, but the stack of supplies piled around the room was much higher.
The mirrors were still covered, and the windows were dim from the clouds and frost. I relied heavily on my cane, my stomach knotting as I passed by the pillar I recalled being chained to.
Time had led me here twice now, and both times I was hanging onto my life by a thread. There were no wishes left to repair what was broken, but there was still one fire that might save at least one soul.
“I see it,” I breathed, my lungs feeling shriveled as I hobbled to the edge of the fireplace.
It wasn’t empty this time. A fresh log was crackling in the center, and the bright flames were unfathomably warm as I sat before it.
I kept my ring tucked safely in my cloak, afraid to let the fire melt my king away.
Deep within the flames, a silver sparkle reflected the light back at me, and I spotted the mirror shards that had remained here for two lifetimes now. “The mirror.”
“Finally get tired of living among the ice, Safara?” Blamore’s sharp voice startled me back from the flames, the echo of his footsteps drilling into my head.
Not yet. I need a few more minutes alone.
He pulled the doors shut behind him, his slow movements taunting me as his body perfectly obeyed his requests. I, on the other hand, was stuck on the floor. My hips weren’t responding to my wishes even though my heart was pounding like a barn door in a windstorm.
“Hello again, Blamore,” I said, doing my best to keep my tone level and calm. The last time we were in this room together, only one of us walked out alive.
“Hello, dear,” he said, calmly approaching me with that sharp click of his polished shoes. “I must say, I didn’t expect you to still be alive after that swim in the river.”
“You should know better than anyone that I die on my own time,” I said, my jab lost on him as he gave me a puzzled frown.
“I can’t say that it impresses me,” he said, pausing a few feet in front of me so the fire made his shadow dance on the wall behind him like an eerie shadow puppet.
“In fact, you do rather disgust me, Safara. Coming all this way to claim the worthless title of snow queen, only to sit in the ashes instead of at least rising to meet your prince.”
“I’m afraid rising is out of the question,” I said, my throat tight as he started to take a closer look at my limp hands and feet. “And by the looks of it, the rest of your subjects will be stuck kneeling as well.”
“I see,” he said, a curious glint catching his eyes as he pondered the thought.
It was a far different reaction from the pity he gave me in my last life.
“The poor snow queen’s heart is soon to be frozen.
How dreadful. Have you come here to beg for help?
Because I’m afraid we don’t have a cure for this mysterious ailment. ”
“I’m well aware of that,” I said grimly. “I’m here to tell you how to stop this winter.”
“Oh?” He chuckled, his eyes drifting toward the frozen ring on my finger. “And here I thought you were besotted with the chilly climate.”
“I was until the king lost control of his power,” I lied, twisting any tale I needed to get the mirror free from the fire.
“The snow king doesn’t care about me now that he knows I’m dying, so I’ve come to spend the last moments of my life being the best queen I can be, by saving the people of Averglas. ”
I could feel the ring grow colder on my finger, but I couldn’t look at Cassian now. This was the last chance I had to save him, to save everyone from the last horrors I could spare them from.
“Go on.” Blamore crossed his arms, his interest snagged as he took a half step closer.
“I know you cursed him with the mirror you gifted me,” I explained, earning a small grimace from him. “I’ve been hiding out with the mountain sorceress, Wilma, for the last few months. She told me all about everything you did and how the king’s curse works.”
“Did she now?” Blamore scoffed. “I suppose any bored old woman would spill secrets after a while. She’s lucky she and her plants are so useful.”
“Plants?”
“The silverdrop sap that coated the mirror,” Blamore said simply. “It made quite the fascinating portal, though I can’t say I was pleased when Cassian’s magic was still left loose.”
A tree’s sap was used to enchant the mirror? I suppose that made sense if it came from Wilma.
“That sap was meant to act as the lock to his door,” I explained, hoping Wilma didn’t explain every detail about the curse to the prince. “When it shattered, the lock was broken, and his presence was able to scatter to every reflection he could find.”
He pulled up a chair, screeching the legs against the floor until it was positioned in front of me. He sank down into the seat, leaning forward on his knees so he could interrogate me with a close eye. I hoped I was a better liar than I looked.
“Why would she tell you about the plant sap at all?” he questioned.
I didn’t have an answer for that. All I knew was that Wilma felt the need to protect me from Blamore, which meant that she knew as well as I did how dangerous he was.
She also knew I was dying.
“Because she pitied me,” I offered. “She knew that I was dying from blackwood poisoning and didn’t want me to die with unanswered questions.”
“Those stupid trees,” Blamore growled, his hands clenching together as he looked up and down my crippled body. “I should have known they’d be more trouble than their worth when I bought them off her.”
What?
“You...you bought the blackwood trees?” I felt my heart stutter.
“Oh? I thought you already knew everything,” he chided, leaning back in the chair with a bored expression.
“But since you’re already on your deathbed, you should know that blackwood trees aren’t a naturally occurring plant.
Wilma kindly created them for me to help numb the minds of the citizens until they forgot about the old king.
They release a pollen in the air that magically targets memories when it flutters into a victim’s eye.
Unfortunately, it seemed to have some more drastic side effects.
Causing some of the citizens to act a little more like empty shells when the memories were resurfaced, and then of course there was the nasty problem that came from boiling their sap. ”
My blood felt as heavy as that sap, my entire body threatening to fall face forward as the weight of his confession broke down the last of my strength.
“You...you brought those trees here?” I couldn’t breathe. “All to push Cassian out of people’s memories?”
“I certainly tried,” he grumbled. “But like any pollen, it affects people differently. Some don’t react to it at all, others get highly irritated, and only about half of the people react the way you expect.
Believe me, Safara, if I could go back in time, I’d dig up those blasted trees myself and find a far more effective way to be rid of that useless king. ”
“Useless?”
“That’s right.” He stood. “Cassian thought his power was enough and never dreamed to hunt for more. He was too docile to be a decent king. He didn’t even consider invading Rothen when their king died.
Just like an old hermit tucked in for the winter, he never cared to step outside his comfort zone. ”
Why would he? He already thought his kingdom was perfect... And that’s all he ever wanted, a perfect kingdom for his people.
“And now you’ve let him steal your kingdom from you,” I said, watching closely for the rise of Blamore’s anger. “His ice has taken everything, his reflection haunts you, and all you have to show for it is a broken mirror...”
I leaned to the side, gesturing the sparkling fragments of magic left in the fire.
“Sharp eye you have there,” he growled. “It’s just my luck that the magic never burned.”
“You’re right, you are in luck,” I said. “Because that mirror is your ticket to trapping Cassian for good. Stopping the winter is as simple as piecing his prison back together.”
He didn’t reply at first, the crackling of the fire filling the silence and covering the wheezing from my labored lungs.
I could tell that he had no interest in trusting me, but just like me, he was tired.
.. The weight of the winter hadn’t left him unaffected.
His frame was lighter from rationing food, dark circles traced his eyes, and his face looked more aged, making him look even more like his brother than ever.
“And what if you’re lying to me?” he proposed, his shadow growing as the fire died. “What if this is some sort of distraction while the ice monster buries my castle?”
“Then I’ll be buried with you,” I said, reaching behind me to face the fire.
With wobbling hands, I closed the fireplace flue, cutting off the fire’s oxygen until it choked out with a wave of thick smoke.
I turned back to Blamore, his features even darker in the low light.
“This room seems like a decent place to die after all.”
He rose from the chair and approached the smoldering fire.
He grabbed a brush and swept the ashes into a dustpan, causing me to cough from the stirring smoke.
I watched as sparkly fragments of the mirror were swept into the pan, until nothing remained in the fireplace except a few orange cinders that glittered like burning snowflakes.
“Do die quietly,” he said, stepping over me like I was a fallen log, his treasure in tow. He didn’t look back after that, leaving me to choke down the smoke in the cold, empty room.
“I always do,” I rasped, my bones feeling heavy as I slumped back against the fireplace, the stones still carrying the smallest bit of heat. “Goodbye, Blamore.”