Chapter 24 #2
I was just about to charge when a disturbance across the square caught my eye.
The Ice Queen entered the square, looking as arrogant as ever, sauntering as if she’d already won the battle.
She didn’t see me, however, as she held a fist aloft, ice growing around it until it was easily the size of a cantaloupe.
Then, she dropped to her knees and slammed her fist into the ground.
I felt the earth beneath my feet rock gently and had only time enough to throw my arms up to prevent a wall of freezing ice from covering me completely.
I gritted my teeth as my arms took the brunt of the attack, blinking back tears that had nearly frozen.
I shook my arms free of ice and stood, thankful I’d had the foresight to ingest a lava shard with mummy’s dust to protect myself against such an attack.
A cold fog hung over the town square now, obscuring what was going on within, but I heard Erik shouting clearly enough, his voice echoing across the open space.
I took a step into the square, where demons in various poses of reaction to the Ice Queen’s attack had been completely blanketed in ice, frozen beneath a thick layer.
The red demon nearest me was able to shift his eyes to look in my direction, but that was all.
The fog cleared enough toward the center that I was able to make out the goings-on as I approached the Ice Queen. I was lucky that her back was to me.
“I think a little farther up,” she was saying. “Yes, just like that. Splendid.”
A snowy owl draped a rope over the side of the hangman’s beam. Below, white foxes tied it quickly around a polar bear, running over the bear quickly as if it were a snowbank. Once that was secure, the Ice Queen gestured the polar bear forward.
“Slowly now,” she instructed, voice cheerful.
“We wouldn’t want the naughty boy to hang prematurely now, would we?
” She turned to address the boy in question.
Erik stood with his hands tied behind his back, a noose around his neck.
He stood on a block of ice that steamed cold.
He appeared indignant, but also scared, a cloth shoved unceremoniously into his mouth to muffle whatever curses he was trying to spew at the ice witch.
Even at the height of his power, I didn’t doubt he was the same coward as before and would run at the first opportunity that presented itself.
“There we go,” the Ice Queen nodded as the rope drew taut, as if she was simply decorating a room. “That’s perfect. Hold it there.”
She stepped up to Erik. “All those muscles and not a lick of sense.” She clucked her tongue.
“Now before long, that block of ice at your feet will begin to melt. You might have five minutes before you have to step up on your tippy-toes, but soon that won’t even be enough.
” Her voice tinkled in a laugh as she gestured up at the sky.
“Oh, and it’s nearly time. Another three minutes more, I think, and we’ll be right at the pinnacle of strength. ”
My eyes found Auggie, but he hadn’t noticed me yet. His eyes were fastened on the Ice Queen as she neared him. She picked up a ceremonial dagger from the altar and began to hum, gaze fixed skyward.
As much as I loathed Erik, I might need his help here, at least as a distraction.
I knelt on the ground and lay my hands on the ground, palms up.
Another vine broke through the flesh of my right wrist, spraying blood as it squirmed over the ground.
The vine from my left wrist joined it, stretching, as if spooling from the very earth itself, through me like a portal.
The vines veered to the left of the square and found two demons trapped within ice.
The plants wrapped around the ice and began to steam as they died, but not before they shattered the ice prisons.
I grunted as the vines retracted back into me, the dead vestiges falling away.
They had withered quickly after encountering the ice.
The demons I’d released howled their indignity and leapt into the square.
The Ice Queen sent denizens of her own to meet them.
Her attention sufficiently occupied, I sprinted on swift feet that made no noise, thanks to the jackalope antler and orc drool I’d ingested.
Erik stared down at me with bulging eyes as I approached.
I grinned at him, then lifted my hands, striking out with the remaining vines like whips to knock over the hangman’s beam.
Where the vines struck, something like blood splashed over the ground.
The polar bear roared in protest as a portion of the beam fell upon the creature’s back.
The vines had withered following this show of power, the one dangling from my right wrist losing most of its length, blood dribbling from its pulpy end as if it were truly one of my arteries. I grimaced at the pain, but I couldn’t stop now. There was no time.
I rushed to Erik’s side, making short work of his bonds with my dagger. He yanked the rag from his mouth and scrambled to his feet, turning his attention to the Ice Queen, who’d noticed the commotion.
She crossed her arms. “I thought you would be busy mourning that pet of yours about now.”
“Her name was Narcissa,” I spat. I lifted my hands and attempted to strike out with what remained of my vines, but even the left vine, still somewhat vibrant, shriveled as it neared her.
The cold was too much. They shriveled, falling from my wrists, dead.
At my side, Erik’s hands began to glow red. “Do something,” I told him.
Erik pushed his lips together. “I don’t know why you saved me, Callum, but if you thought I would be helpful in this battle, you’d be wrong. She doesn’t have blood running through her veins at all. It’s all ice water.”
I groaned. “Now you tell me.”
Erik glanced at me. “So … you have no backup plan?”
“You seem like you could get a few good hits in,” I offered.
He turned and ran.
“I knew it,” I swore.
He didn’t get far, however. Ice began to accumulate ahead of him, and he slipped, falling rather inelegantly. He spun in place as he tried to scramble to regain his legs.
“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” she told me, throwing a hand my way.
Ice clamped around my middle, holding my arms firmly in place against my sides.
I wriggled and shoved with all my might, but it refused to budge.
Blood still oozed from where the vines had snaked out from my wrists, however, warming the ice and making it slippery enough to perhaps slip my bonds.
I worked my arms within their confines as the icy prison turned crimson.
The Ice Queen had reached Erik. She stepped over the ice as if it were regular pavement, then reached down and grabbed him by his throat, lifting him up off the ground. The blood witch stared down at her with wide eyes.
The Ice Queen clucked her tongue. “And to think that Lucifer wanted to grant you absolute power over all of the other choices available to him.” She gave him a pitying look. “But then again, someone as cowardly as you would be rather easy to keep in line.”
Erik clawed at the hands around his neck. “I can work for you instead,” he insisted, words coming out in croaks as she squeezed. “I don’t mind. You’re clearly the one with the real power here.”
“Oh, no.” The Ice Queen smiled. “Not me. Not yet.”
She leaned forward and kissed Erik on the lips.
Ice raced over his face, up his hair, down his neck and torso.
His hands twitched until the ice covered those as well, his body steaming from the cold.
When she pulled back, she looked him over, and even from my vantage point, I could see the fear frozen in his face.
She dropped him and he fell to the ground, shattering into dark crimson ice shards.
As much as he deserved it for what he’d done to the people of Kingsbury, it still turned my stomach.
The Ice Queen wiped her hands, as if ridding herself of Erik.
Then she turned back toward the center of the square, where Auggie lay bound.
The Ice Queen trained her focus on the sky above. The Blood Moon seemed to fill the sky. Everything around us was suddenly bathed in a sickly, bloody hue.
The moon was at its zenith. It was time for Auggie’s sacrifice.
“No!” I shouted, struggling fiercely against the ice. “Let me go, damn you!”
The Ice Queen shot me a look as she stepped over to the bench where Auggie lay, writhing as he tried to free himself of his bonds.
I had a clear view as she focused all of her attention on the boy at her feet.
The beautiful boy I admired, who frustrated me more than no other, but who I couldn’t imagine living without.
Auggie met my eyes. He didn’t plead, didn’t cry out. He saw me and he smiled, like he was glad that I was there with him in the end.
My heart squeezed as I strained against the ice. Desperation thrummed through my entire body as I thrashed. I needed to be out there. I needed to protect him.
“Auggie!” I screamed.
Auggie’s eyes closed resolutely.
I watched, unable to look away, as the Ice Queen’s dagger slid into his chest.