Chapter 2
Tara stared at me in disbelief and then read the letter aloud.
“Miss Bianca Snow,
It has come to our attention that you have been creating new entities near your home on Vanilla Mountain. As you know, due to Article 12, subsection B of the Order of Mystics, all semi and fully sentient beings must be approved and registered by the Council of Sorcerers.
Since you have done neither, it is our prerogative to seize and destroy, if required, any creations you have made without the proper qualifications.
We are not sending you this in maliciousness, but in the sake of peace and order. You have ninety days to fill out the proper paperwork and/or destroy your creations, or we will do it for you. Failure to do so will result in a fine of up to five thousand gold coins for each creation and any thereafter.
Sincerely,
Argus D. Meronious
Master Wizard and Head of the Council of Sorcerers”
Sitting the letter down on the table, Tara furrowed her brows. “These are some serious accusations, B.”
“I know.” I wrapped my arms around my middle and hugged myself. “I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did.” Tara blew out a hard breath. “Okay, don’t panic. We have time. You have ninety days to get rid of them. Piece of cake. How many of them did you make?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I shifted from one foot to the other.
Tara walked toward me with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her lips. “Bianca, how many did you make?”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Forty-three.”
“Forty-three?” Tara shrieked. “Really, Bianca, forty-fucking-three? No wonder you were using so much trigglewood. But forty-three?” Tara shook her head and stared me down. “Why did you need forty-three creations? What were you trying to make?”
The thought of telling Tara the truth made me want to swallow my tongue. Or take a swim through the licorice swamp naked.
No, the thought of telling Tara the reason I made all those creatures was because I was so lonely and depressed I couldn’t bring myself to tell my only friend I made a bunch of creatures so I wouldn’t bother her. It was pathetic enough that while she was out here actually trying to get the village to like her and witches again, I was holed up in my ice house pretending not to exist.
Then again her grandmother only tried to eat two kids, mine tried to take over the world. It didn’t matter to them that my parents and I had nothing to do with it. They still killed them all the same. Tara said I was lucky to have been able to sneak away.
Yeah. I was real lucky.
I waved her question off. “That’s neither here nor there. Can you help me or not?”
Dragging hand down her face, Tara closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes. I will help you. At least we have ninety days to get it done. It’s going to take weeks to get rid of all those things.”
“Actually…” I winced and tugged on the blue strands of my hair. “We have five."
Tara’s eyes widened. “Five? As in five weeks? Please, Bianca, tell me you mean five weeks.”
I gave her an apologetic smile.
“Five fucking days, Bianca? Why didn’t you come to me with this before?”
I lifted my hands up to my sides and shrugged. “I forgot. You know how I get when I’m deep in a project. I’d gotten the notice and figured I’d deal with it when I was done, but there were complications, not to forget your candy cane curse to fix, and it got pushed aside.”
“But five days, B? It was already going to be hard to get rid of forty-three in ninety days, but now? Impossible. You’re going to need a mass explosion of some kind to get rid of them.”
“An explosion?” I chewed on my lower lip. The thought of killing all of my creations not sitting well with me. “Do we have to go that far? Can’t we just find some place they can just be free?”
Tara cocked her head. “We could but then the council might still find them. Do you really trust they’ll leave them alone?”
I sighed and shook my head. “No. I don’t.”
“And if they get a hold of them who knows what they’ll do with them. Could you really live with yourself letting them be slaves to the council or worse?”
“But an explosion?” I grimaced. “That seems a bit extreme.”
“Well do you have two hundred gold to cover them?”
I shot her an exasperated look. “You know I don’t.”
“Then this is the quickest most humane way to do it.”
Shifting in place, I crossed my arms over my chest and muttered, “Maybe I could sell some stuff. I might not get all the money but enough to cover some of them and then maybe the council would give me time to get the rest of it?”
Tara sighed. “No offense but I don’t think you’re going to make enough to make a dent in it in only five days not unless you take up prostitution.”
I opened my mouth, my brose rising.
“Don’t even think about it.” Tara cut me off with a small smile. “I’m sure your vagina is magical but not two hundred gold magical.”
“You don’t know that.” I grinned mischievously. “I could find some rich old fucker and promise he can put it anywhere and get myself a small fortune. Five minutes of degradation to solve all my problems.”
“Coming from the girl who’s only lover was a wayward traveler and her ice dildo. Right.” Tara gave me a knowing look.
I scowled. “Fine. You’re right. No old wrinkly balls for me.”
“How does an ice dick work? Doesn’t it melt or better yet hurt?” Tara continued lost in a line of thought. “I’m all for temperature play but that seems a bit extreme even for you.”
I popped a new sucker in my mouth, arching a brow. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Anyway…” Tara turned and looked around the kitchen as if searching for something. “An explosion seems like the best course of action. Besides, are you going to go one by one and slit their throats? I’m not saying it won’t work but can you really do that?”
The thought of looking each and every one of my creations in the face as I killed them, creatures I created, creatures who thought I hung the very moon, made my stomach roll. I couldn’t do it. However, I owed them a quick death not whatever the council might have in store for them.
Coming to terms with the idea of blowing them all up at once, no matter how much it made my stomach sour, I returned to the previous option. “Is that possible? Can we make an explosion like that?”
Tara moved over to the counter and pulled a thick leather bound book out of the cabinet. Flicking through the pages, she stopped on a page and peered down at it.
“Yes, I think we can.” She lifted her eyes to meet mine, a mischievous twinkle in them. “You’re lucky my family has a dark past, or you’d be fucked.”
I chuckled and stepped up so I could look over her shoulder. “Yeah, well ditto. Except my grandmother didn’t care about exploding things, only freezing them.”
The Ice Queen wanted to take over the world and freeze those who didn’t follow her lead. That gave my family an unsavory reputation, to say the least. Tara had it rough too, but at least she’d worked to repair her family’s reputation. I’d argue, though, she had an easier time of it.
Eating a couple of kids was small beans in comparison to world domination.
“Well, we all have our own family drama. Luckily, mine left us with something to save your ass. However…” Tara frowned as she trailed her finger down the ingredient list. “I have everything needed, but only enough ingredients for a moderate size explosion. Enough to maybe take out a dozen of them. We’re going to need a lot of pot ash if we want to get rid of all forty-three.”
I lifted my eyes to the ceiling and thought about how much pot ash I had at home. “I have some, but judging by the recipe, not enough to take them all out. Fuck.” I rubbed my temples and glared down at the ground. “I so don’t want to go to the outlands.”
“Well, it’s not like we have much of a choice,” Tara patted my shoulder. “We’ll get this taken care of, Bianca. I promise. Where are you housing all your little beasties?”
I leaned my head on her shoulder. “On the other side of the Raspberry crest,” I murmured.
Tara thumped me on the head.
“Ouch, what was that for?”
“For being reckless. You shouldn’t have made one, let alone forty-three. What did you need them all for?”
I ground my boot onto the floor. “You know, reasons . It doesn’t matter now, anyway. I just have to get rid of them.”
I wasn’t about to tell her. The reason was too embarrassing even for my best friend.
“Fine. You’re right. We don’t have time for the long lecture I want to give you on practicing safe, legal magic. I’ll get the other things together and meet you at Raspberry Crest in two days. Can you get the rest of the pot ash on your own?”
I shoved her. “I’m not a child. I can handle the outlands on my own. I’ll be in and out in a jiffy.”
Faking confidence was easy. Actually following through with it was another thing.
The outlands were as bad as they came. Shifters roamed the area, and you did not want to be on the wrong side of a territory war, which happened every other month. The beasts weren’t happy unless they were fucking or fighting someone. While my sexuality was as flexible as they came, I did not want to be on the receiving end of a male shifter in heat.
“Bianca?”
I reached into my pocket and grabbed another sucker to replace the one I’d finished. “Don’t worry, T. I’ve got this. You just get your side done, and I’ll see you in two days.”
“Alright, but if you’re in trouble, don’t linger. No fine is worth your life.” Tara gathered me up into her arms for a tight hug that I returned wholeheartedly.
“Will do. Bye.” I sauntered out of her store and back onto the main street.
The people were all a buzz, whispering amongst themselves while a bunch of them rushed toward the edge of town. Unable to hold back my curiosity, I grabbed one of the passing villagers. When they realized who I was, their eyes widened with fright.
“What’s going on?”
The villager, a smaller woman with mousey hair quickly braided to one side, rubbed her hands together. “There’s a beast. At the edge of the forest. They say it’s coming to eat the children.”
I snorted. That old schtick again. As soon as someone sees something out of the ordinary, they always jump to conclusions, usually the worst ones, and then some innocent creature ends up dying.
Well, not today, they weren’t.
Releasing the woman, I darted toward the way the villagers were going. I ignored the rude gestures as I shoved through the growing crowd. A loud roar reverberated through the sky, sending birds up into the air.
My fingers crackled with magic. The anguish in the beast’s roar was enough to make me want to turn every single villager in the area into a popsicle.
Shoving the anger down, I pushed my way to the front of the group.
A dozen men had a large beast with chestnut colored hair strapped down with ropes so it was on all fours. Long black claws dug into the dirt and left long gouges in their wake as it tried to get free. Dark molten red eyes burned in its head as it gnashed its sharp teeth at anyone who dared get too close.
That was Percy.
Intense annoyance filled me just at the sight of him. Percy had this way of getting under my skin. An enraging buzzing that set my nerves on end every time I even thought of the smirking shifter. Usually, he was a lot less… furry.
In his human form, Percy would make any woman in town blush and sputter over themselves like some blathering idiot. But no that wasn’t enough for him, he had to chase after Tara like some love sick puppy even though she’d told him time and again she wasn’t interested.
No other shifter was stupid enough to come this close to the city in their beast form. Probably trying to get to Tara again. The temptation to just walk away built inside of me.
And yet, another feeling creeped inside of me at the sight of my arch nemesis bound by ignorant humans. Then a thought struck me. If I saved him, he’d owe me one, and who better to keep the horny shifters away than one of their own?
I stepped up to the nearest guard and pulled the sucker out of my mouth with a loud pop. “Need some help?”
The guard half assed glanced my way and then did a double take. His eyes skimmed over my pale blue hair and attire. “Are you that ice witch?”
“If I’m not then I seriously need to rethink where I live.” I popped the sucker back in my mouth with a grin, cocking my hip to the side.
The guard snorted. “I think we have this.”
“Oh really?” I arched a pale brow. “Cause last time I checked, you’re using ropes not silver to restrain the shifter. That’s only going to make it mad. So, unless you’re into some bondage fun, I suggest you let me take over.”
“What are you going to do? Freeze it?” a villager nearby asked.
I blinked at them. “No.”
“Why not?” the guard argued. “That’s what an ice witch does, so get with the freezing?”
“And then what?” I gestured to the beast growling and snapping his teeth. “Do you want a new statue for Candiopolis, because I doubt you could move him if I did freeze him. I bet he’s about thirty stones minimum, more once he’s iced.”
Though… the idea of having a frozen Percy sitting outside my house unable to talk, completely at my mercy. My eyes skimmed over my shifter nemesis, lingering on a rather large appendage hanging between his legs.
“Alright, fine. What then?”
My eyes snapped up to the guard. “Leave that to me.” I popped my sucker once more and leisurely walked over to the front of the raging beast. A few of the women lingered nearby their lashes fluttering as they took him in.
“Did you see the size of his…?”
“Oh my gods, could you imagine?”
“Yeah right, he’d split you in half.”
The woman giggled. “But I’d die happy.”
My nose scrunched up with disgust. Turning back to the task at hand, I clicked my tongue at Percy. “You know, I have half a mind to leave you here for these idiots to put down.”
The beast stopped roaring long enough to blink at me. After a few moments, recognition came through and those blood red eyes narrowed as he growled low.
“Of course. The gods have forsaken me and now you. The frigid bitch of the north.” He huffed, his breath poofing up the dirt causing a cloud around him.
I waved my sucker at him with a grin, loving that had an advantage over him. “I could help you… for a price.”
“Fuck you,” Percy snarled.
“Okay.” I held my hands up and stepped back. “Have it your way.”
The guard walked over to me, giving Percy a wary glance and a wide berth. “You can understand that creature?”
“Sure.” I shoved the sucker back into my mouth and crossed my arms. “Understanding dumb animals comes with the territory.”
“Bitch,” Percy growled as he jerked at the ropes wrapped around his arms.
“Dick,” I quipped back with a smirk, then looked to the guard. “He doesn’t want my help, so do what you want. I’d suggest silver straight through the neck. Nice. Quick. Permanent.” I eyed Percy with an almost gleeful smile.
“Okaaaay,” the guard dragged out, then looked to another guard. “You, go to the blacksmith’s and find an ax. Make sure it’s silver.” He turned his back on me. “If that’s it, you can leave.” The guard started to direct the villagers to latch more ropes onto Percy.
“Wish I could say I’m sorry but…” I shrugged and swirled the sucker on my tongue before shrugging as I pivoted away. I hummed happily to myself as I slowly walked away.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
“Wait,” Percy roared as I pointed my finger into the air.
And we have a winner. Me.