Chapter 13
Christabel greets me the next morning holding a cloak draped over her forearms.
“You’ll want this.” She holds it out.
“I can’t take your cloak.”
“You’ll need it. It’s specially designed to repel snow bees,” she says.
“Then you need it more than I do.”
“I’ll have another one made. Take it. Please.”
Reluctantly, I accept the bundle. This is the second time kind strangers have given me warm clothing. I spare a silent prayer for the old farmer.
“I have more for you. Come.” She leads me to the shed where her carriage sits waiting, then outside. “This is Bae, my best reindeer.”
A magnificent creature with a rack as wide as Kai’s shoulders lifts its head. It strides over to us when she beckons. Christabel whispers to it, and I swear the animal’s gaze is filled with intelligence when it turns to me.
“He will take you through the Silverbirch Forest. Once you’re there, you’ll have to look for the entrance to the Ice Palace on your own.
I cannot give you any further guidance. The Silverbirches will know where to find it, but watch out for ogres and trolls.
” Her lips curve in a faint smile. “And wolves, too.”
I duck my chin. Heat creeps over my cheeks.
“You are too kind, Princess.”
“You are very brave, Gwen.” She digs in her pocket. “One final thing. I assume you know how to use this?”
She places a pouch in my palm. I loosen the strings to find flint, steel, and a coil of tinder.
“Fire can melt an enemy. Bring a torch. Do not take a branch from any of the Silverbirches.” She shudders. “They share a consciousness. To harm one is to harm them all, and the trees will attack if you break a single twig.”
My throat closes around words of gratitude. I lurch forward and drag Christabel into an embrace. Startled, she brings her hand to my back, then wraps her arms around me in a tight hug.
“Win, Gwen. I would like to meet you again in this lifetime.” She releases me and straps a saddle to Bae’s back. “When you’re ready, release him. He will find his way back to me.”
I ride for days, stopping only for necessity. Bae’s antlers sparkle with the same fairy lights that lit Christabel’s sleigh deer. Day shrinks until the sun barely appears over the horizon for a couple of hours, before dipping into night again. The endless midnight sky dances with colors.
By the time we reach the Silverbirch Forest, no daylight touches the sky even for an hour. I’m only able to see in the endless night thanks to Bae’s glowing antlers.
The closer we get, the more I wonder about my opponent. What drives the fae witch to steal men?
The wind dies as we approach the trees. A shimmery chiming sound carries across the snow.
“I suppose those are the trees talking?” Anxiously, I pat Bae’s neck, more to soothe myself than him. The Silverbirches are eerily stunning. It feels as though they are whispering to one another about us.
“If you can speak to one another, maybe you can also communicate with me.” Gently, I tap a leaf. It sways, touching its neighbor. The entire tree’s shimmering leaves twitch, almost like I made it…laugh?
“Can you lead me to The Snow Queen?” I tap it again, with the same result. “We’re looking for the entrance to the Ice Palace. I’m looking for my friend, Kai.”
This time the tree’s laughter takes on a mocking tone, but the leaves in all directions go still. Only a trail of shimmering sound leads me deeper into the forest.
“I guess we go that way, Bae.”
Cautiously, we pick our way forward, following the trees.
After a while, we come to the bottom of a mountain covered in snow. The tinkling chime stops abruptly. The world goes strangely still.
No wind.
No singing trees.
I’ve never heard a silence so heavy and complete.
“Something isn’t right, Bae.” The deer shakes his head and tries to turn, taking quick, prancing steps. I shift in the saddle.
Behind us, ice cracks.
Hairs lift on the back of my neck. Bae bleats fearfully. Part of the mountain shears away from the rest. A huge, snow-covered ogre rises.
“Shit,” I breathe. Icicles hang down from its body like hair. One as long as my forearm crashes to the ground near Bae’s feet. He dances backward, head shaking, desperate to run.
Behind the ogre is a cave.
That has to be the entrance to the Ice Palace.
I slip from the reindeer’s back and loop the reins on his antlers like Christabel showed me. He bounds away, halting like he’s fearful for my safety when the ogre takes a step toward me. Its teeth are jagged frozen shards.
“Go, Bae,” I shout. The monster scoops up snow with its massive paw and flings it hard.
Snow sprays down on me, forcing me to protect my face.
The reindeer takes a direct hit and thrashes free from the avalanche.
I flail through the snow toward the cave, passing too close to the ogre’s tree-trunk-thick legs.
And trip right over a sapling. Wood snaps. A deep groan goes up from the Silverbirches.
“Shiiiiiit.” I haul myself upright and trudge as fast as my legs will carry me toward the cave. The trees’ leaves quake in what I can only describe as a shrill scream. The ogre claps his massive hands over his ears. Icicles rain down. It roars in pain.
My own ears are ringing from all this noise, but the distraction gives me just enough time to get inside the cave and find my torch. The flint and steel strike and strike. Sparks land on the tinder but fail to catch. The ground rumbles with each step as the ogre turns toward me.
“Light, damn you.” I strike and strike.
Finally, a spark’s orange glow catches in the nest of tinder. I blow on it gently as the trees rain down dagger-sharp leaves. I halt, holding fire in my palms as it dawns on me what the snow bees are: bits of Silverbirch. Those things gave me the scars that ruined my appearance.
Heat sears my skin. I yelp and drop the tinder.
“No, no, no.” I stick the torch directly into the sputtering flame and pray.
The fabric ignites in a burst of flame. I hold it up with a ragged, triumphant exhale. The ogre stumbles to a halt, throwing its massive arms over its face and rearing away. It could put out my flimsy flame with one stomp. Fortunately for me, it doesn’t appear to know that.
“Get out of here,” I tell it, waving the stick. “Go. Be gone.”
The ogre lumbers away into the still-shrieking trees. I snatch up the broken sapling and add it to my makeshift torch.
Payback for my scars.
Warily, I venture deeper into the cave. Ice gives way to stone. The temperature warms, but I don’t dare remove the cloak. My shoulders ache from carrying the pack. I keep shifting it from one side to the other, until both hurt.
The branches burn down until the heat warms, then roasts, my hands. I switch that back and forth, too, and keep walking with my heart hammering like a drum. This can’t be the end. Not yet. I will not die now, when I’m so close to finding him.
I didn’t die from the wolves.
I escaped from the River Witch.
I didn’t die when I was attacked by sentient snowflakes commanded by a bitter fae queen.
I didn’t die when Kai was cruel to me in front of the entire castle, unless you mean dying inside.
I survived all these things, and I will survive this, too. I’m stronger than I ever believed.
The torch singes my hand. I drop it with a hiss of pain. The flame sputters out, leaving me in darkness.
One tear sneaks past the barrier of my eyelids, then another. My nose drips. I wipe it away. I might finally have met a challenge I can’t conquer.
There’s no turning back. I’d never make it out of the Silverbirch forest alive.
“For Kai,” I whisper, running my fingertips blindly along the walls to feel my way forward in total darkness. I shuffle along in this fashion for what feels like eons. Then my foot catches and I go sprawling against a hard, flat, cold surface. Casting about, I find what feels like a handle.
A door?
“Let me in!” I shout, pounding my fist against it. “Please. Help me. Open—”
I fall back as it moves, stumbling off the step as a rectangle of light appears, framing a man’s broad shoulders.
“There’s no need to shout, Gwen.”
“Kai?”
If I had hoped that two years with the Ice Queen had changed him, I didn’t mean it like this. His eye is entirely silver now, his jaw sharper and his body harder than ever. His skin is strangely pale, in sharp contrast with his dark hair.
“The queen has been waiting for you.” He throws open the door and gestures mockingly. “So have I.”
I gulp and step foot inside the Ice Palace wondering why I ever left Montrace in the first place, for the Kai I knew and loved is truly gone. In his place is a cold-eyed stranger.