Chapter 11
Shawna
Iturn over in bed, my jaw cracking as I yawn.
There is a delicious scent of food in the air, but there are no familiar sounds of Jak moving around in the kitchen, or the sounds of food sizzling as he readies the meals.
He doesn’t necessarily cook in the way people do, though outwardly, when he is standing at the stove, it almost resembles our habits.
But the way everything seems to come together is by the work of some kind of magic, though often accompanied by the sound of fat sizzling.
But right now, there are no sounds at all.
It doesn’t quite hit me at first, but it does not take me long to realize that the cabin is empty.
Although the atmosphere is still quite cozy, not only is it too quiet, but it seems empty of the warmth that he brings to it just by being here with me.
With curiosity and no small amount of concern motivating me, I quickly roll out of bed and begin to hunt for something warm to wear.
If he is nowhere inside the cabin, then it is most probable that he is somewhere outside, so I do not hesitate to collect and dress myself in the warmest things I can find.
Just to be sure that I am not mistaken, however, I don’t immediately leave the cabin.
Instead, upon departing my bedroom, I walk through the cabin just to be sure, though it is not like there are many places he can be.
And, as expected, every room is as vacant as the last. Upon confirming that the cabin is completely empty that I go to the door, pull on my winter gear, and head outside.
Unfortunately, stepping outside is always a shock to my body, so much so that even bracing myself for the cold doesn’t entirely prepare me.
For this reason, I wince with a tiny grimace and instinctively recoil a little when the cold air hits my face like a thousand icy shards.
It is not snowing today, but the heavy snowfall has been replaced with a sharp cold that makes me want to hurry back into the cabin.
The urge is hard to resist, but I fight it back as my concern for Jak grows heavier.
He has never just left me before. Slapping my mittened hands together to keep them warm, I crane my head as I look for him in the small clearing at the front of the cabin.
“Jak?”
No response.
The snow crunches under my feet as I leave the front step.
Despite the brightness of the sun overhead, the forest casts long, gloomy shadows over the sparkling, crystalline snow.
There is something almost menacing about their long, shadowy fingers, but I try not to overthink it as I make my way toward the tree line.
“Jak?” I call again, a pitifully hopeful note in my voice. “Please, please, don’t make me go into that forest to look for you,” I quietly beg when there is no immediate answer.
Still no response. I apprehensively walk along the treeline, hesitating to enter until a spark of some sort of melody humming through the ice catches my attention.
The air also shimmers with faint, fleeting impressions of colors that likewise seem entirely improbable, and yet these two things are drawing me to a point where the trees appear to draw back and open for me.
This is completely unnatural and should be setting off all kinds of warnings in my mind, and yet the colors and music draw me with inexplicable power.
It is not unlike the power that drew me through the woods the first time, though the merry ring of bells is notably absent.
There is no chase and lure this time. It is nothing but pure magic weaving around me and through me, drawing me step by step through the woods among the snow-laden trees, their frosted trunks and branches, and the white-capped needles of evergreens, reaching upward toward the cold blue sky.
I weave a path among them, following the twining trail of magic in front of me, dancing with its primal song, until it suddenly expands into a wash of light.
It passes through me and all around me for a moment, overtaking my world for a breath and a heartbeat before retreating and leaving a vision of only him remaining.
Jakfros. Jak. My own Jack Frost.
He stands among the trees, a picture of elegance and beauty, his pale hair fluttering with the breeze that catches it as his inhumanely pale limbs move in a graceful dance of motion.
He moves his arms like a belly dancer, as if he is gathering and moving with the magic flowing around and through him.
He is the pure manifestation of everything I just experienced, and I am held in awe as I watch his body bend gracefully with the magic flowing around him.
His body then twists at an elegant angle, his wings slowly spreading wide.
With the sun in front of him, the light pierces his wings, revealing delicate, gossamer segments within the webbing between the long joints of his wing’s fingers.
They catch the light in a soft rainbow of hues, not unlike the wings of a dragonfly, and they sparkle with magic in a way that reminds me of ice crystals catching the sun.
A sweet, pulsing hum rises from him as he twists his fingers in slow sweeps as if painting the air, his claws gliding as they cut through the frost gathering at his fingertips.
Watching him is nearly hypnotic, and it becomes increasingly more-so as the threads of icy, crystalline magic slowly bleed into reality.
It is fascinating. It is like watching panes of frost fashioning from nothing and then sliding away in fast-time, shifting through the air too quickly to follow with the eye.
I catch no more than the smallest glimpse and impression of them before they scatter into the unknown like dozens of intricate paper-cuttings cast into an ever-flowing wind.
On all sides of me, frost runs freely up the trees like streams of ice, even as it also flows outward in continuous waves reaching unseen destinations.
This is Jak’s true magic, beyond his little tricks for securing his prey.
And his magic ripples the air with fragments of painted ice rolling forward on hidden currents.
Suddenly, he goes still. His arms and hands go still, and wings freeze in arcs around him as his head tips slowly as if.
.. listening. There is something so unnaturally predatory about that stillness that my heart leaps within my chest as I choke back the fearful gasp.
.. but not enough. His head turns in my direction, his eyes blazing with icy light.
A smile stretches across his face that is something a bit closer to a snarl.
There is nothing of the male I know within that smile or within the eyes locked onto me and following my every movement.
My hand clutches instinctively above my heart, and his gaze focuses there.
His smile widens, his ears twitching as if he can hear the way my heart has suddenly sped up into a frantic pace.
Run, fool, run, I scream inwardly.
The thought is barely formed in my mind when he acts.
His wings stretch to their widest span, and they snap, propelling him powerfully through the air as he leaps toward me, those same currents of frost and magic whirling around him.
I choke on my scream and stumble so that I fall back even as he drops on me.
His weight isn’t even on me when I hit the snow, but he lands with his feet planted at either side of my hips so that all he has to do is shift his stance and he lowers himself into a crouch over me.
I stare at him fearfully, my eyes fastening on that horrifying smile on his face.
His smile inches wider, becoming more maniacal and dangerous as he slowly leans in closer, his eyes blazing with an unholy flame of living ice.
I can see it twisting like a cold inferno within his gaze, hungry to consume everything as the distance between us rapidly closes.
His nose is only inches from my own when the wind blows and the bells on his sash jingle merrily with it.
He freezes once more at the sound and his smile slips as his eyes blink rapidly, the burning light slowly fading from them.
His eyes drift shut, and a tremor runs through him.
I can barely breathe as I stare up into his face, wondering what side of the monster I will see next, but when his eyes open again, it is Jak looking back at me through them.
The corner of his mouth hitches, and he pecks the tip of my nose with a light kiss that sends an electric current through my body, straight to my toes. Moreover, my nose is stinging sharply from the unexpected iciness of his lips. Jack Frost nipping at my nose indeed!
“Good morning, precious. You should not be out here. It is dangerous.”
I stare at him in disbelief, uncertain if I will even be able to unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth to form a coherent reply.
I have a million questions running through my mind, but I cannot seem to settle on just one.
I do not even know where to begin, so I am entirely caught by surprise by what comes from my mouth.
“What the fuck was that, Jak?”
His eyebrows fly up and he gives me a mischievous smile as he straightens and extends his hand to me, helping me back to my feet with one effortless tug.
I have lost my hat, and I impatiently swipe my hair out of my face to glower at him as he bends over to pluck my hat from the snow and brush it off before returning it to me with a sheepish look.
“That... is hard to explain,” he replies apologetically.
“Try. It looked like you were about to eat me!” I snap, only to become further infuriated by his mirthful chuckle.
“Do you truly imagine that I could refrain from harming you if I lacked all control over myself?” he teases as he sets to brushing the snow off me.
I consider shoving away his hands so that he understands just how annoyed I am, but his words hook me and I frown at him curiously.