by K. K. Allen
I tug on his hand. “Did you feel that?”
He turns to face me. “Feel what?”
“The air. It was coming from the entrance.” I point to the ring of ice just as another gust of wind blows in. This time, it comes with a whistling sound and a white, powdery substance that twirls through the air. I’m completely mystified. “Is that snow?”
As I scour the room to follow the whistling noise, fluffy snow begins to fall from the ceiling. There doesn’t appear to be a snow machine anywhere in the room, so where is the snow coming from?
Johnny pulls me close so his chest presses against my back. “Is that some sort of special effect?” His question echoes my own.
I suppose Trisha could have rigged up something like that. I search for Trisha and spot her almost immediately. The confusion on her face tells me everything I need to know.
“I don’t think so,” I tell him.
Shrieks and cheers of laughter ripple through the room. The crowd is buzzing with excitement as they attempt to catch the snowflakes with their hands and tongues. The snow covers their hair, suits, and dresses, but no one complains of the cold. In ordinary circumstances, this entire scene would be a dream come true. But my gut tells me this display isn’t meant to be beautiful.
As if to confirm my fear, the snowfall begins to thicken and blow faster in a flurry of motion. The whooshing whistles of air grow strong, and the snow piles up quickly.
My eyes are wide, and I’m unable to pull them away from the surrounding terror. Shrieks of laughter turn to screams of fright.
Johnny’s arms tighten around me. “Kat, we need to go.” Even he sounds terrified.
“What about everyone else?” There’s sheer panic woven into my tone. I understand he wants to protect me, but I can’t just leave as if I’m the only one worth saving.
“I forgot how stubborn you are,” he growls. A second later, he throws me over his shoulder.
I can’t see in front of me, but I feel the chill from the ring of ice as he nears the exit. Then I hear a crunching and crack before a shattering sound pierces my ears. Johnny halts and whips around, bringing me with him, and I can tell he’s trying to find another exit.
There’s another crackle of ice. This time, though, I can see where it’s coming from. The large floating ice shelves that decorate the dance floor begin to slide along the surface, throwing my classmates to the ground. People are running, slipping, falling, and climbing. Our magical winter is morphing into a terrifying blizzard in mere seconds. To a Normal, it may appear to be a disastrous technical malfunction with the special effects, but a disaster, nonetheless.
A petrified yelp pulls my focus to the ceiling, where Brett dangles, clutching desperately to one of the nets that once contained balloons. How did he get up there?
“Do you know how to stop snow?” Johnny asks as he sets me on my feet.
Adrenaline courses through my veins as I rack my brain then shrug. “Fire.” With frictional energy, I can heat my senses to the point of starting a fire, but it’s not enough to heat the entire room. I look around, searching for a way to create a fire from thin air. The memory of Alec’s handmade fireballs from the carnival comes back to me.
“Alec!” My eyes lock on Johnny’s. “Alec can heat the source of the snow. It looks like it’s coming from the ceiling vents.” I point toward the ring of ice. “It’s coming from there too.”
I look up to see Brett still dangling, frantically trying to hang on to the rope, but it looks like he’s losing his grip. What’s more frightening is the sharp monument of ice below him. If he falls on that, he could very well die.
With a shiver, I bring my focus back to Johnny. “We need to split up. Find Alec and get him up there to stop this blizzard. Someone needs to get Brett down. And I’ll figure out how to clear the exit so we can get people out of here.”
Johnny wants to argue, but I reach for his face before he can shake his head at me. “This isn’t the time to be my hero.”
“This is the perfect time,” Johnny growls.
I lift my hand and shake my wrist to remind him of my bracelet. “I will be okay. Just please, get to Alec before all of these people get hurt. Please, Johnny. If you want to be my hero, you’ll help my friends.”
A flicker in his eyes tells me he’s considering my words. As I begin to soften my grip on him, the blizzard quickly shifts to something even more destructive. The dangling balloons are turning to solid balls of ice, and they begin crashing to the ground one by one like the weather has transitioned into some freakish ice storm.
Instincts kick in, and before I know what I’m doing, I throw my palms out to deflect the whirling gushes of wind tossing balloons of ice at our faces. Johnny follows my lead, pelting the falling ice at the opposite wall, where it shatters and falls to the floor.
The music stopped a while ago, but people are trapped on the iceberg stage as it cracks, threatening to swallow them whole.
“Johnny!” I scream, pointing to the stage. “I’m going up there.”
“No! You stay here. I’ll take care of it, and I’ll find Alec. Just keep deflecting.” He begins to run then turns around, narrowing his eyes. “Do not go anywhere.”
Icicles crack loose from the ceiling and fall to the floor like icicles, shattering and spraying ice everywhere. I nod. For once, I have every intention of listening to Johnny.
Hearing a strangled cry from the ceiling, I look up just in time to see Brett fall, the threatening iceberg sharp and jagged below him. I can’t run. My feet are planted to the floor, and I’m suddenly reminded of the devouring quicksand that kept me rooted in place at the Fourth of July bonfire.
It all happens so fast. An unexpected force throws me on my back, and pain shoots up my spine, down my legs, and into my arms. Then, as if there’s an invisible leash around my neck, I’m dragged backward, sliding through the frozen ring of icicles, screaming all the way.
My head feels as if it’s been bashed in with a hammer. My eyes flutter open, but all I see is blackness from the blow. Trying to sit up is no easy task either. I feel like I’m being weighed down by bricks, my lungs struggling for air, then everything becomes fuzzy. With a heavy arm, I reach for my face to wipe the wetness from my forehead. Blood.
“You’re weaker than I expected.” The elderly voice that speaks is unfamiliar, amused, and dripping with evil.
My eyesight adjusts from blackness to a haze, but I’m able to see a well-dressed man with a mask fully concealing his face, except for muddy eyes that glare intensely back at me. A black hood sits atop his head, but I can see that his neck extends forward, so far past his shoulders that I wonder if his head will pop off. Gangly arms hang loosely by his sides, making him appear uncomfortable in this new body.
Erebus.
“You just slammed my head against the wall. What do you expect?” I retort, trying to conceal my fear.
His mask mirrors his soul—black snakeskin with gold accents around the eyes. A permanent smile stares back at me, but it’s the head tilt that makes me shiver.
“Never mind that,” he says with a wave of his hand. “It’s good to see you again, Katrina. You look ravishing this evening.”
Surprisingly, he allows me to stand. “What do you want, Erebus?”
A cackle rings out from his borrowed body. I doubt I’ve ever seen this man before, but even if he is a stranger, it doesn’t make his impending death any more pleasant.
“Isn’t this fun? I brought you your very own winter. I know you’ve always wanted one. Consider this my gift to you—the first of more to come.” His smirk enrages every fiber in my body.
How would he possibly know of my dreams of winter? As far as I can remember, I’ve never spoken to anyone here about them.
He swirls his finger in midair, turning wind to snow as a miniature tornado that twirls above us. “I’d say your friends in there must be pretty cold by now.” Then, with a flick of his finger, the tornado bursts into small chips of ice. Snow falls aro
und us, alluding to a calm I do not feel.
My eyes start to search the area for something, anything, I can use to defend myself when he inevitably decides to attack. There’s nothing but snow and ice.
“I won’t give you my body,” I finally say, “and no one dies tonight.” I can only assume that’s why he’s here.
“Katrina.” He speaks my name with thorough disappointment. “After all this time, you should know I always leave my mark. But you’re right about one thing. No one will die tonight. That will be the fun of it and just the start to our little game.”
His indifference churns my stomach, and panic sets in. After another deep breath, I push away from the wall and toward the theater entrance. A thick sheet of ice quickly forms in the doorway, separating us from my friends. I’m trapped. They’re trapped. Before I can examine my surroundings further, a powerful force catapults me forward, smashing my body into the newly created ice wall.
As pain seethes through my body, rage sprouts from my every vein. I need to think, quickly. My first instinct is to slice a sheet from the ice wall and decapitate Erebus with it, forcing his evil eternal soul from his stolen body, but I stop myself. That’s just a temporary solution, and he didn’t come here for nothing. He’s up to something, and if I want to have a chance of stopping him, I need to listen.
I turn around, my left hand still on the ice behind me, melting it with frictional energy. I know it’s working from the pool of water expanding at my feet, but it’s not working fast enough.
Erebus charges forward. At least I’m ready for him this time. I throw out my right arm, tossing up an invisible wall to shield myself. I can fight back harder than this. He hates when he’s forced from his host body, and I could force him from this one now—but I won’t. While it takes more energy to hold back my powers and just listen than it does to melt the ice behind me, I do it because it’s better to have Erebus here in front of me than somewhere unknown, hurting someone else or possessing another body.
“What do you want?” I demand again, more forcefully than before. “Why now?”
“Katrina, honey.” His voice is sickly sweet. “Your friends and family are in grave danger. I’m here to warn you.” His expression is falsely sympathetic.
“From what?” I ask with a straight face.
He tilts his head again, his face twisting into a sinister smile, and I swear his tongue flicks between his lips like a snake’s. “From me.”
Erebus doesn’t affect me the way he wants to—at least I don’t show him the fear quickly working its way through me. I glare instead. “You came all this way to cause a snowstorm and tell me that? Your scare tactics are a bit lacking in creativity, don’t you think?” I tilt my head. “What a waste of your time. My friends and family are well protected. You aren’t getting to them. Maybe you should have just picked up the phone—or emailed.”
He tosses his head back and laughs, his voice echoing down the long, narrow hallway. “I come from an ancient world of magic. Technology is not my thing.” His laughter ceases almost instantly, and his eyes narrow. “Now hear me, little girl. If you wish for your friend in there to live past winter, then you will obey my wishes.”
My heart sinks. Which friend? My mind and insides are churning so fast, I can’t surrender a response. I desperately want to turn around and see what’s going on behind the glass of ice, but Erebus isn’t done, and who knows what he would do if my back was turned.
“That’s better.” He straightens his stance, and I can only imagine he’s referring to my silence. “My long quest is near its end. I’m close. I can feel it.” Energy radiates through his body in ripples of gold light.
“If your quest is to find the energy source, then you’re talking to the wrong person. Rose won’t tell me. She’d rather die than risk you knowing a thing.”
Erebus nods. “While that might be true, I know it’s not beyond you to figure it out. Dear Katrina, you’ve been a part of my plan since before your birth. You’re where you are now because of me. Do not test me. Do not deceive me. You will do as I say, or one by one, I will destroy everyone you love. Even you can’t protect them all.”
My body trembles. I want to scream, stomp my feet, and muffle my ears with my quivering hands. But I have to stay strong. “I already told you—I don’t have the answers you want. But why now? Why tonight?”
His chuckle is deep, yet airy, an eerie echo that comes with a gold puff of air that swirls from his mouth. “I’ve stayed away long enough, Katrina. I’m afraid my time away has made you forget your mission. And I find events like these make for a more effective way to get my message across.” He lifts a brow, only infuriating me more.
I want to tell him his theatrics do nothing but take the lives of innocent people while making the Enchanter community stronger, but I know better than to think he would care in the least. So, I take another approach instead. “Where have you been all this time?”
His eyes grow momentarily distant, then return with a blaze. “Ask your friend Johnny.”
The retort surprises me more than anything else that’s happened today. Erebus knows Johnny followed him.
He takes something from his pocket and throws it to the floor. It clatters then skids to a halt a few feet in front of me. I don’t dare take my eyes off Erebus to see what it is.
“That’s it?” I act disinterested. He can’t see my quivering insides, so I try my best to appear calm.
I can’t see his expression behind the mask, but I’m certain he’s smirking right now. “Almost. If you want your loved ones to continue breathing this wretched air, then you will deliver the energy source to me. If you don’t…” His glare glows. “People will die. And their blood will be on your hands—quite literally, in fact.”
I try to stifle a gasp. The thought of Erebus possessing me is something I fear daily. He would have total control of my body. The things he could do… I shudder. Of course, that’s only if he can gain entry.
“Did you forget?” I release the shield to hold up my wrist carrying my pendant. Erebus doesn’t waste a second to use this as an opportunity to pin me against the melting ice wall, lifting me so my feet dangle.
“I do not forget anything.” He rolls his head around his neck, making a series of cracking noises as the old man’s muscles adjust. “You will be mine. When the time is right, of course.”
I struggle against his hold, my feet kicking as a growl tears up my throat. “And how do you expect to possess me if you can’t remove my bracelet? It can only be removed by me to protect a child of mine or by my Fated.” I swallow back all the personal feelings I have on the fact that the man I thought was my Fated walked away from me, returning only for his revenge mission on Erebus.
The man sneers. “Oh, dear Katrina. There’s another way.”
My heart is crashing wildly against my ribcage. Rose never disclosed such a thing. “How?”
“You’re an Equinox, which means there’s no power than can stand in a way of you allowing yourself to be Taken. That bracelet only protects you from me taking you against your will.”
“I will never allow it,” I spit out.
The man grins. “We shall see.”
Muffled screams come from behind the thinning sheet of ice at my back. I turn to see Johnny pounding on it. Alec comes up beside him, and I immediately hear the ice begin to crack.
When I turn back to Erebus, he’s backing away, eyes focused on me. “You have your instructions, Katrina. I’ll let you get back to your friends.”
“Wait! What happens when I get the information you’re searching for? How do I find you?” I don’t plan on giving him what he wants. I’m just curious to see how far he’ll go.
He smiles. “You don’t find me. I’ll find you.”
“When?” I practically scream it.
He doesn’t respond, and he doesn’t attack me again. Instead, the Equinox man collapses to the ground, lifeless, as Erebus’s serpent form slithers away through the darkness.
> Released from his magic, I feel my knees go weak, and a loud crack breaks through the new silence. I turn to find the ice wall is seconds from shattering, but I’m too tired to move. My legs and eyelids feel heavy.
I can faintly hear my friends on the other side of the wall shouting for me to move. With a step backward, I lose my footing, and my sight goes fuzzy. Then I’m sinking into the darkness. The last thing I’m aware of is the cold linoleum floor greeting my face with a hard smack, just as the ring of ice shatters behind me.
My energy is faint, but I hear voices and feel myself being carried away.
“Is she okay?” Alec asks. It sounds like he’s running to catch up. But then who is carrying me?
“Her energy is fading. She needs to be outside to energy source.” Johnny.
I want to reach up and touch his face to confirm that he’s really here, but my arms are so heavy.
“How do you know?” Alec’s voice is strangled.
There’s silence until I hear the sound of a door opening. “I just know.”
“Where are you taking her?”
“To the garden.”
Johnny follows Alec’s lead without complaint. He keeps me as steady as possible, his strong arms hugging me tightly to his muscular frame. I’ve missed these arms.
“I can carry her,” Alec says.
“We’re almost there,” Johnny responds, not letting me go.
My eyes don’t feel heavy. I know I’m fully capable of opening them, but I keep them closed, hoping to avoid a situation where I’m expected to choose between Alec and Johnny. I need my energy back before I can deal with my emotions regarding these two.
“Hey!” Arabella’s voice rings out. “Trisha went with Brett to the hospital. He doesn’t look good.” She runs up behind us as Johnny lays me down on the grass. “How is Kat?”
With a jolt, I open my eyes and search for Arabella. “Brett is hurt? Is he going to be okay?”