The Ebb of Winter (The Seasons Book 1)

by H. E. Barnes

  “Aviva, come here,” she yelled. She kept shaking Orla waiting for her to respond, but she didn’t.

  Aviva slid next to them. She grabbed a handful of half-melted snow and threw it at Orla’s face. Orla jumped alive, sputtering and spitting. She wiped her face furiously. “Aviva?” Orla said looking at her. “Idalia?”

  “It’s us,” Aviva said with a shrug. She winced as her arm moved.

  Orla jumped up, wrapping them in a hug. Idalia closed her fist just in time to not burn them. They were plunged in darkness. “I’ve been looking for y’all,” Orla said with a small laugh.

  “Seems like you were taking a nap,” Idalia said with a small laugh.

  Orla leaned back against the tree, and Idalia lit her hand up again. “I guess I did. I don’t really remember how I got here,” she said while scratching her head.

  “There’s a town that way,” Aviva said pointing towards the buildings. “Let’s go find somewhere to sleep.”

  “And something to eat. I’m starving,” Orla said.

  Idalia’s stomach growled. She hadn’t thought about food until now, and she realized just how long it had been since she last ate.

  Aviva and Idalia helped Orla to her feet and they all hobbled to the town.

  They passed the treeline, but there was no movement in the town. No lights except for a few dimly lit lanterns hanging outside buildings. There was no one.

  “This is weird,” Aviva whispered. Idalia nodded.

  “We’re in Autumn,” Orla said. “Look,” she said pointing towards the town’s center. The white cathedral of Autumn sat proudly in the middle of the town.

  “How are we in Autumn?” Idalia asked, her voice barely above a whisper. No one answered. No one could.

  Aviva turned away, opening the door to a wooden cabin they had restored not too long ago. She stepped inside. “Guys, come on,” she called to her sisters.

  Orla and Idalia turned away from the cathedral and followed Aviva into the cabin.

  “We should stay here,” Aviva said.

  “I agree,” Orla said falling down onto the couch.

  Aviva rummaged through the kitchen and found a few snacks and drinks. She brought them to the living room and placed them on the floor in front of the couch. Idalia lit the fireplace with a flick of her wrist.

  “We’ll figure out what’s next tomorrow,” Idalia said. For now, they had food, drinks, and somewhere safe to sleep.

  Chapter 43

  Knocking woke the girls the next morning. “What is that?” Orla asked, her voice was covered in a thick layer of sleep.

  “Someone’s at the door,” Idalia said wiping her hand across her eyes.

  Aviva rolled off the mattress, wincing as her arm dug into the bed. “I’ll get it,” she said after standing up. She padded over to the door. Her footsteps were masked by the loud knocking. She opened the door, but no one was outside. She peeked her head out to look around. There was no one around. “No one’s here,” she called back to her sisters.

  Orla and Idalia slowly stood up and followed Aviva outside. They were knocked back by a hard wind. It whipped their clothes around. Their hair swirled around them, lashing them in the face.

  “Look,” Aviva said pointing to the top of the largest building in Autumn. The white cathedral overlooked the whole town. And sitting at the very top of the building was Brey and Queen Quinn.

  “Guess they want a front row seat,” Orla said. Her voice was hard. She stood rigid. On edge.

  The air took on a chill. Aviva and Orla hugged themselves to warm up. Idalia lit a flame in her hand. It threatened to burn out in the chilly wind, but it held steady giving off heat to the group.

  “So,” Aviva started, turning circles searching for something. “What do we do?”

  “There’s something coming,” Orla said looking passed the cathedral to the edge of Autumn. “The air, there’s something different about it.”

  Autumn darkened, a black cloud forming over the town. The girls looked up into the sky, seeing nothing but black clouds. As they looked up, the clouds fell, heavy water droplets pounding onto the streets of Autumn.

  Idalia’s flame sizzled out. She shook her hand out, shaking pounds of water off her. “What is this?”

  “A hurricane,” Aviva whispered. At least, it sounded like a whisper.

  A great whooshing swept through the town as the wind became harder, faster, more formed together.

  The girls still hadn’t moved out of the town’s center despite the heavy rain and wind. Their ankles were covered in rainwater.

  “There,” Orla said pointing.

  The girls looked. At the edge of town a hurricane was ripping through buildings easily. Debris flying in every direction.

  “If it’s anything like Harvey,” Idalia said mentioning the last great hurricane Texas had seen, “we’re dead.”

  “What do we do?” Aviva cried through the storm.

  “We have to work together. We have to stop it,” she said. Her voice filled with desperation as the hurricane blew through the town.

  Orla threw a hand up in front of her face. A large piece of wood, from a now demolished house, stopped in midair and dropped to the ground.

  “We gotta move,” Idalia called to Orla and Aviva. She grabbed them by the shoulders and headed in the opposite direction of the storm.

  Orla and Aviva followed Idalia, close on her heels. They made it inside the building just as a tree crashed down in front of them. Aviva jumped out of the way of the huge splash of water.

  They ran deeper into the building, looking for somewhere to wait out the storm. But there was nowhere. No shelter. No room to hide away in. Nothing to help them. And no one to save them besides themselves.

  The hurricane blew overhead. The windows shook and busted, sending shards of glass everywhere. Orla stopped them with a wall of air.

  “Eira,” Aviva called seeing Eira in the back of the building. Aviva took off after her.

  “Aviva,” Idalia yelled. “Forget about her.”

  “She’s our sister. And we need her,” Aviva said over her shoulder. She disappeared around a corner.

  Orla and Idalia looked at each other, their eyes wide. “Let’s go,” Orla said. Idalia nodded and they ran after Aviva.

  Aviva had stopped in a room far in the back of the building. Eira was on the opposite wall. Both of them had their hands raised. Water pooled around Eira and broken branches were in the air next to Aviva.

  “Quinn doesn’t want to help you,” Aviva cried over the wind and rain. “She just wants us all dead.”

  Eira ignored her.

  Orla and Idalia slid into the room. Fire erupted in the air in front of Idalia. Orla held the air in her hands, ready for an attack from Eira.

  “We’re supposed to be working together,” Orla said.

  “Brey said it was the only way we’d survive,” Idalia said, staring down Eira.

  Eira only shrugged. “Quinn told me another way.”

  “Oh yeah?” Idalia said. “What’s that?”

  “I kill all of you, and I become Queen of Season.” Eira said matter-of-factly.

  “And she’ll just kill you,” Aviva said. Her voice was raised, her mouth set in anger. But her words were drowned out by a massive spiral of wind.

  The roof shook, knocking dirt and dust from the ceiling onto the girls. They covered their eyes, momentarily forgetting they were fighting each other. A beam fell from the ceiling, landing in the middle of the room. The whole roof was torn from its hinges and thrown to the side easily. The storm was over them.

  “You really think I can’t kill her first?” Eira laughed. She shot out her hand, a wave of water followed it.

  Idalia blew her flame out from her fists and into the middle of the room. It connected with the water and a mist covered the room. Orla threw a ball of air at Eira, hitting her square in the chest and catapulting her back into the wall. Eira sent more daggers of water through the room, striking the huge log Aviva had cal
led over.

  “We have bigger problems than each other,” Aviva shouted looking up into the sky. It was pitch black above them, the wind disappearing into the eye of the storm.

  The girls tried bracing themselves, but they were thrown back against the walls. They tried holding on to something, but everything was being sucked up and spit back out by the hurricane.

  “We’re making it worse,” Orla yelled. “We have to stop fighting each other.”

  Orla grabbed ahold of the wall, using it to propel herself forward across the room. She was heading towards Eira. Aviva and Idalia looked at each other, nodded, and followed Orla.

  They made it to Eira minutes later. Their arms hurt from pulling so hard and their legs felt like jell-o. The wind was strong. But, they had to be stronger.

  Eira lifted her hands up, water swirling around her.

  “Stop,” Orla said when she was close enough. “We’re giving it power,” she said looking up at the open sky. The hurricane was still brewing. It hadn’t died down even though it had been on land for a while.

  “What do we do?” Aviva asked, coming around the other side of Eira, blocking her in.

  “Stop using our powers,” Orla said.

  “What?” Eira said, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “She’s right,” Idalia said. “The hurricane will stop if we do.”

  “It needs warm water and low air pressure. With y’all fighting each other,” Orla said looking between Eira and Idalia, “it’s getting just that.”

  “We can’t just ride it out,” Eira said. “We’re supposed to destroy it.”

  “We destroy it by knowing when to stop.” Orla stood up, wavering in the uncertain atmosphere. She raised her hands into the air and closed her eyes. She could feel the air moving all around her, through her. She pushed the air higher and higher, up into the sky. “I need cold water.”

  Eira put her hands into the water. Slowly, inch by inch, the water froze.

  Idalia and Aviva jumped up when the water turned to ice under them. “What do we do?” Idalia asked.

  “Nothing, yet.” Orla said, still concentrating and looking up into the sky.

  Moments passed with little change. “It’s not working,” Eira huffed.

  “Give it a second,” Orla said. Her arms were tired, and she wanted to drop them to her sides. But, she knew she had to hold on. Just a bit longer.

  The rain kept coming down hard. It turned to ice when it touched the cold floor. They could only hear the pitter-patter of rain droplets. No more wind. No flying buildings or crashing trees. The black clouds had lightened to a calm grey.

  Orla dropped her hands.

  “How’d you know to do that?” Aviva asked.

  “School. They went over hurricanes after Harvey. Glad I paid attention now,” Orla said. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and shook off the excess water.

  “You can stop that now,” Idalia said to Eira. She was still turning the water droplets to ice.

  “I don’t have to do anything you say,” she shot back.

  “If you hadn’t listened to us, we’d all be sucked up in a storm by now,” Idalia retorted. “What do you not understand about us having to work together?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Eira said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. “Probably the fact that there will only be one Queen of Season. Not four. One. Which means one, two, three,” she said pointing to Idalia, Orla, and then Aviva, “will be dead.”

  “Let’s just go see Brey, tell him we’re done,” Orla said rolling her own eyes. She made her way to the front of the building, through the maze of fallen walls and broken furniture. The rest of them followed her.

  The town was destroyed. There were trees and parts of buildings thrown all around. Water was standing still in roofless houses and on the streets. The girls waded through the water.

  Aviva moved dead trees with a flick of her wrist. Orla helped with the buildings. They made a large pile at the town’s center. Idalia shot a fireball to the center, and despite the water damaged wood, the pile lit. Smoke filled the air.

  Brey and Queen Quinn were perched over the railing of the tall building, untouched. They watched as the girls gathered far below them.

  Orla raised her hand in the air, waving to Brey and Queen Quinn. They didn’t respond, no matter how much she waved her arms about. “They’re not paying attention,” she said.

  “Because it’s not over,” Idalia said looking down one of the streets of Autumn. A huge wave was rolling towards them.

  Aviva raised her arms, calling the fallen trees. She pushed her arms out in front of her. Trees, branches, rocks went flying from all around. They stacked up in between the houses, making a dam. “Eira,” Aviva called behind her.

  Eira shot her hands out towards the dam. It froze solid.

  The huge wave rolled through the street, gathering up the debris from the hurricane. It crashed against the makeshift dam, sending shards of ice water all around. The girls ducked behind a wall, shielding their heads with their hands.

  The water died down and slowly disappeared from Autumn. The town was destroyed, by both the hurricane and the flood. It would have to be fixed all over again, from top to bottom. But they were alive, and that’s all that mattered.

  Orla waved her arms again, but Brey and Queen Quinn didn’t move.

  “It’s not really them,” Idalia said. She pointed to the top of the cathedral. The air twinkled in front of Brey and Quinn. “It’s like a hologram or something.”

  “So how do we get back?” Aviva asked.

  A strong force pulled the girls back, back through the town, back through the forest, and back to the Tree of Season.

  Chapter 44

  “Excellent work,” Brey said when he reached the girls at the Tree of Season. His face was lit up with joy, as if he was a proud father. And he might as well have been their father. He was more helpful than either of their biological parents. “The Trial of Autumn is complete.”

  Out of the corner of Brey’s eye, he saw Eira’s hand lift into the air. He didn’t try to stop her. He took a step back, out of the pathway of the flying ice spear.

  The spear landed squarely in Queen Quinn’s chest. Her hands went to the spear, holding it delicately in place. She tried to talk but only gurgles came out. Blood poured down her face as she coughed.

  “That’s for Kade,” Eira said going up to Queen Quinn. Eira pushed Quinn’s shoulder, and she fell onto the muddy ground.

  Brey couldn’t bring himself to say anything. No one could.

  Eira turned away from them and stormed away from the Tree of Season and through the silent crowd, all alone. Just as she was accustomed.

  “What in the -” Orla said breaking the silence.

  “You must leave,” Brey said gathering up the girls and briskly walking away from the dying Queen of Season.

  “What about Quinn?” Idalia asked, looking back at their mother.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Brey said pushing the girls through the crowd. “All you need to worry about is the next Trial.”

  Brey quickly ushered the girls inside of Conformity Castle, away from the people who had gathered to watch the Trial of Autumn.

  “Go home now,” Brey said pulling out the pendant and opening the portal. “Don’t worry about Season, I’ll take care of it.”

  Chapter 45

  In the land of Texas

  The Daughters, Princesses of Season, appeared back in Idalia’s dorm with a burst of light, a swish of air, the dripping sound of water, the smell of fresh grass, and the warmth of the sun.

  They were silent, staring at each other.

  “Well, I’m gonna go,” Eira said, standing up and dusting her pants off awkwardly. She walked towards the door.

  “Wait,” Idalia said standing up and taking a step towards Eira. Eira stopped. “Thanks,” Idalia said.

  “For what?” Eira said, rolling her eyes.

  “Quinn,” she said shortly
. Behind her, Aviva and Orla shook their head in agreement.

  “I didn’t do that for y’all,” Eira said looking at all of them.

  “Then why’d you do it?” Orla asked.

  “Because she needed to die,” was all Eira said.

  “Someone needed to do it,” Aviva agreed.

  Eira turned away from them and opened the door to Idalia’s dorm. Before walking out, she called over her shoulder, “No one’s standing in my way to be queen. Not even our mother.”

  And, then Eira disappeared, leaving Aviva, Orla, and Idalia in a stunned silence.

  “What does that mean?” Orla asked.

  “I think it means she’s the next Queen Quinn,” Aviva said, a nervous laugh erupting.

  “And she has powers,” Idalia said staring at the open door. She walked the few steps to close it and turned back to the girls. “But, let’s not worry about her right now. It’s Thanksgiving,” she said looking down at her phone. “Well, almost anyways.”

  “Yeah, I gotta get home,” Orla said. “Let’s go, Aviva.” They both stood up from the floor and walked to the door. There was a weird feel to the air around them. Something was off.

  “But hey, we made it through the Trial of Autumn,” Idalia said. “Let’s be happy about it.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Orla said faking a smile.

  “See you soon,” Aviva said with a small wave.

  Idalia watched them leave her dorm. She was alone in what felt like forever. She breathed a sigh of relief. They had passed the first test. And, Queen Quinn was dead. All was good.

  She left her dorm, headed to her car and went to see her family.

  “Oh, my girl, I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow,” Idalia’s dad said when he opened the door to see his daughter standing outside under the porch light.

  “Wanted to surprise you,” Idalia said with a wink.

  Her father opened his arms, and she stepped inside them, feeling the warmth of having a true family.