by Eva Brandt
It did not matter. For good or ill, until the day I died, I would still stand my ground and never bow in front of those who would harm people weaker than them. I’d done that as a child of ten. I could do no less today.
“Maybe I’m not an ideal ruler, it’s true. Maybe I’ve made mistakes. But I’ve always tried to do right by my people, and that’s more than I can say about you. As long as that is the case, I am the rightful queen of Tou Cheimóna and you are nothing.”
Snegurka let out an unholy screech and her magic exploded out of her in lethal spirals of black light and elemental power. Wickedly sharp icicles flashed through the air, a whirling, devastating avalanche of projectiles that threatened to end the life of every single person present.
This time, I was ready for her attack. I lifted my hands, summoning my own magic and hoping against all hope that I’d be able to hold Snegurka back long enough for my people to get to safety. The icicles crashed against my power and shattered, but the resulting concussive blast struck all of us. I didn’t lose my footing, nor did I feel any pain, but most of the nisse and several amaroks were not so lucky.
Mercifully, the damage was not too serious, and they were able to get up within seconds of being hit. Thank the gods for small mercies. I would have never forgiven myself if my rash actions led to more casualties. “Run!” I shouted. “Get out of here, quickly!”
Viveka tried to protest, despite the fact that she was shaking from head to toe. “But Your Majesty, we can’t just leave you!”
The amaroks agreed with my loyal healer. “We’ll stay and fight her!” Alpha Panuk argued as he staggered to his feet.
“That was not a suggestion!” I snapped at them. “It was an order. Go! You’re no match for her, and you’re hindering me.”
They would’ve probably still protested, but the amaroks had pups and wounded to worry about, and despite their potent magic, the nisse weren’t fighters. Away from the palace, their abilities were diminished, and they could do very little in a battle against someone like Snegurka.
Unfortunately, my firedrake soulmate was not so easy to persuade. He stepped up to me, his body already encased in a bright red glow that made the snow under our feet melt. “You know, I’ve had quite enough of you, creature. You keep making accusations about everyone else’s faults when in truth, you are the one who is inadequate. Isn’t that why we’re here, to begin with? Because your little spell went astray?
“I don’t know much about Ton Daímon magic, I admit, but I find it very interesting that the enchantment worked fine in the case of your half-brother, and not in yours. I wonder why that is. Could it be that your soul is so shattered and wicked that you do not even have a soulmate at all?”
Snegurka’s dark eyes turned toward Emmerich, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was exactly what he had intended. He was baiting her just like she had baited me. It wasn’t even a discreet method. We’d already established that the whole soulmate business was a sore point for Snegurka, and part of the reason why she had possessed Karasu was to look into the identity of my dragons.
I wasn’t thrilled with the fact that he had mentioned Jack, but he was trying to distract her, and to give him credit, it did work. It also had the unfortunate side effect of pissing her off even further.
A stream of ice magic erupted from her fingertips, this time completely focused on us. It looked different from my own, the normally ice blue strands of energy corrupted by malevolent black. I met it head on with a wave of my power, but in my state, I could not hope to defeat her in one on one combat. Snegurka’s magic crawled its way through my hastily cast enchantment, pushing me back, the dark threads of her essence flashing toward me like whips.
Before the demonic energy could hit me, a fire blast struck the whips mid-air, making them evaporate with a blinding flash. “How rude,” Emmerich drawled, tongues of flame still licking over his body. “And I thought we were having a nice conversation here.”
Snegurka looked at him once again, and some of the haze of madness cleared from her eyes. “You know, I think I like you. Yes, indeed, I think I finally have my answer.
“You’re right, firedrake. I asked myself many times why the spell did not work for me, if there was something wrong with my nature that made me incompatible with having a soulmate. But I see now that I was never the problem.”
She smiled once again, and this time, the expression almost held a degree of warmth and kindness. “It was them, all along, them stealing everything I always was from me,” she said with deceptive softness. “Even my soulmates. They stole that too. But no longer. I will take it all back today. Just like he promised.”
What was she talking about? She couldn’t possibly believe that Emmerich was her soulmate. While magic was intrinsically connected to one’s innermost self, it was very distinct from a person’s soul. I would’ve never been able to rob her of her mate or mates if they had existed. Not to mention that she had cast the spell before I’d entered the picture, to begin with.
And what was all this about a promise? Who had promised her what?
I didn’t get the chance to figure out the answer to that question. A black, formless shadow enveloped Snegurka and her body dissipated into a thick, dark mist. It swept forward like a vicious blizzard, heading straight toward me.
Too late did I realize what she intended. Too late did I understand that she had never planned on killing me, and our confrontation had only been a preparation for something far more insidious. The mist struck my chest, and pain exploded through me, sharper and fiercer than anything I’d ever experienced in my life. The last thing I heard was the sound of Emmerich’s voice crying out my name, and then everything went black.
* * *
Emmerich
Once upon a time, when I’d been only a dragonet, my father had pulled me aside and told me that there was a reason why we firedrakes acted the way we did. He’d explained that the attitude most people deemed reckless was pure and simple logic, as the worst things in life always happened much too quickly to be rationalized.
I’d never understood that better than the moment I watched my soulmate being possessed by her worst enemy. I simply stood there in helpless shock, my abilities useless against Snegurka’s strange magic.
It was over in the blink of an eye. The dark fog hit Cassia, and she collapsed, screaming like she was being torn apart from the inside. Mere seconds later, she went limp, the swirls of magic around her fingers fading like they had never been, her breath evening and all signs of pain dissipating.
She almost looked like she was asleep, but I knew better.
I still rushed to her side, unable to help myself, even if I knew in my heart that it was a horrible idea. I dropped to my knees next to her and gently took her soft, cold hand. “Cassia... Cassia, treasure, can you hear me?”
Cassia opened her eyes and blinked several times as if she was trying to clear her vision. It didn’t take her long to gather her bearings, and the first thing she did upon fully recovering cognizance was to get up on her haunches and lean against me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and shot me a seductive smile. “Of course I can hear you. You’re right here, and so am I. We’re together at last.”
Except we weren’t, because this wasn’t Cassia. I tasted bile in my mouth as the full weight of what had happened finally processed. Reminding myself that Snegurka had possessed Karasu and the tengu had shown signs of recovery before our departure, I did my best not to panic. “Get out of her, Snegurka. That isn’t your body.”
Snegurka chuckled darkly. “Of course it is. Who else could possibly own it?” She brushed her fingers over my cheek in a parody of the caresses Cassia so tenderly bestowed upon me. “Now, now. Don’t look so dour. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m right here.”
That was exactly the problem, but saying so would not help me in the least bit. Could I convince her to release Cassia? It was doubtful, but I had to try. “I can see that, but it’s not the way things are suppos
ed to be. Let her go. Please.”
“Please?” she repeated in a mix of disbelief and amusement as she crawled into my lap. “Do you think saying please will make a difference?”
Probably not. Asking nicely never worked out well when dealing with creatures like Snegurka. Nonetheless, she had not left, nor had she attacked the others, so maybe there was still a chance to accomplish something here.
“What could you possibly give me that would make me set the little half-breed free?” Snegurka mused out loud. “Oh, I know. How about... yourself?”
She rubbed her—or rather, Cassia’s breasts—against my chest and wrapped her legs around my middle. I hated that she was using Cassia’s body like this, but I couldn’t do anything to stop her. I feared that if I made the attempt, Snegurka would lash out against my soulmate. “If that’s what you want, you can have me,” I said between gritted teeth. “Just let her go. I beg you.”
“You look good when you beg.”
The whispered words were the only warning I received before Snegurka crushed her lips to mine. Stars exploded in my vision, and my awareness of the world, of everything around me, dissipated into a cloud of ice and snow. My beast roared inside me, struggling against the leash that reached into me and tried to take me captive. I mentally flailed, gasping for air, desperate to escape the trap that threatened to shatter my sanity.
The rebellious flame of my essence responded and color flooded my mind once again, bright and furious, forcing back the haze of confusion and helplessness that had almost overwhelmed me. Even so, when I recovered awareness, I found that I had not returned to the amarok caverns like I had expected.
Instead, I seemed to be in Cassia’s throne room from The Palace of Serenity. It looked a little different, sharper and colder, but that wasn’t what surprised me. Instead, what took me aback was the fact that I seemed to be seated on her throne. It wouldn’t have been the first time, as my fellow dragons and I had often convinced Cassia to make use of said seat in ways it had not originally been intended for. However, I did not remember us ever having sex in the presence of her underlings.
All of her lieutenants were lined up in front of her dais, their postures so rigid they almost seemed ice statues. Ded Moroz was by their side, along with a few others I didn’t recognize.
Anger rushed through me at the sight of the treacherous old man, but I pushed it back, struggling to focus on my priorities. What was going on? Was this a memory or something else? How had I ended up here? What effects had Snegurka’s magic had on me?
I got my answer when one of the men I didn’t know took a step forward and broke the thick silence in the throne room. “Your Majesty, with respect, I’m not sure this is the best idea,” he said. “I can understand why you might feel that we are worthy to rule The Land of Time, but our creatures aren’t truly prepared for a war against The Realm of Eternal Sunlight. It would not end well for us.”
“Is that right?” I heard myself ask in a familiar female voice. “Do you deem me so weak, that I would not be able to extend the power of winter over Bast’s territories? If that is the case, perhaps you should be serving her instead.”
The sharp cold words made realization dawn inside me, and I finally understood what I should have never missed from the very beginning. These were not my memories at all, but Snegurka’s. Now that I was paying attention, I could even catch a glimpse of her pale, long-fingered hands and her beautifully embroidered robes, visible despite the fact that the body I was in hadn’t been focusing on the detail when this incident had actually happened.
It was odd in the extreme to be in Snegurka’s mind, most of all because I could now sense her emotions, everything she experienced as she spoke to her men. Her feelings were a little muted and silent, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of the age of the memory itself, or some other reason. Still, the brutal whirlwind of her anger raged inside her, well hidden under her facade of ice, and that, I had no trouble distinguishing.
Her unwise subordinate must’ve realized the extent of her fury as well because he tried to backtrack and withdraw his previous statement. “Not at all, Your Majesty,” he spluttered. “I...”
His sentence ended in an abrupt gurgle, the thin icicle now piercing his throat eliminating both his ability to speak and his life. “How unfortunate,” Snegurka said as the dead body crumpled to the floor. “I do hate it when I get blood on the ice. It’s so messy.”
She got up from her throne and scanned the pale faces of the rest of the occupants of the room. “Any other objections? Tell me now. For the purpose of efficiency, it would be best to handle everything at the same time, so we don’t have to clean the floors twice.”
Predictably, her remaining underlings didn’t question her further. “N-No, Your Majesty,” January stammered. “We have no objections.”
“We are yours to command,” February continued, his gaze fixed on the stranger’s body like he was hypnotized by its existence.
“Excellent. Now, we shall first move against The Realm of Eternal Youth. I want our troops to be rallied as soon as possible. We...”
She trailed off and something echoed at the back of our temporarily shared consciousness, a secret knowledge nobody else could detect or grasp. I couldn’t interpret it, but she had no such problems. Within seconds, she seemed to return to herself and she let out a put-out sigh. “Oh, Jack. My dearest brother. You just had to go and do something foolish again. What a shame. You had so much potential. I would’ve preferred to keep you alive.”
The scene shifted, and in the blink of an eye, I was on a familiar river bank, in front of The Bridge of Melting Snowflakes. Snegurka was now facing off against two children, a pale, white-haired boy and a little girl who appeared to be trying to protect him. “Run, Jack!” she shouted. “I’ll stall her!”
If the earlier memory had been eerie, this was terrifying, as I could recognize my soulmate in the face of the tiny slip of a girl, and in her already existing strength and protectiveness. Physically, I could distinguish significant differences, as her hair was a deep, earthy brown, and the eyes I’d always known as blue were a bright, vivid green, a clear sign of her alignment with The Realm of Eternal Youth. Even so, her demeanor reminded me of the earlier battle in the amarok caverns, when Cassia had tried to protect me and the rest of her people from the ghost of her nemesis. Some things might have changed about my beautiful female, but her character hadn’t.
As frightening as it might have been to see Cassia in this situation, the experience turned repulsive when I starting sensing Snegurka’s hatred and anger toward my soulmate. This girl needs to die, she thought. How dare the insignificant little gnat plot with my brother behind my back? I could hear it so clearly, and everything inside me rebelled at it, at the fact that I could sense these things almost as if they were my own recollections and beliefs.
In the memory, Jack tried to argue against Cassia’s decision. “I can’t just leave you. This is all my fault.”
The irony of the boy’s words didn’t escape my notice, as the more time passed, the more convinced I became that Jack’s rash enchantment must’ve had something to do with his half-sister’s sudden ability to free herself. But as my fellow dragons and I had decided before, it was just as possible that it was indirectly our responsibility, due to the stress our parents’ arrival had placed on the wards around Chronikos. The reasons behind our current situation mattered less than finding a solution for it.
It was a little difficult to do that, though, when the fragments of Snegurka’s past distracted me so much. Cassia cast her desperate enchantment, the same one she had mentioned earlier. Pain exploded through me—or rather, through Snegurka—as the vines pierced her chest, and that was when things got even weirder.
All of a sudden, the memories started to become odd and jumbled. The strange, but fierce clarity cracked, replaced by incomprehensible images that swept through my mind at a dizzying speed. I caught a few glimpses of a man who seemed to be confronting Snegurka
, wielding magic similar to the spell Cassia had used. The memory vanished quickly as if Snegurka had deemed it unimportant.
When the strange flashes came to a grinding halt, I found myself standing in a field littered with bodies. I wasn’t unfamiliar with bloodshed, so this did not alarm me. I might have never been in a war per se, but I had still fought enough battles and seen enough violence to not flinch away from death and gore. It was more Snegurka’s attitude to it that took me aback. She stared at the body of a dead yeti, but she couldn’t seem to process what had happened to him.
In front of her, a dying unicorn let out a protesting neigh. She knelt by its side, taking in the gaping wound in its flank. With a small smile, she blew a gust of icy air over the magnificent creature. “Sleep.”
Frost settled over the unicorn and within seconds, it went limp, its life claimed by the cold hand of death. Snegurka nodded, and the sense of satisfaction she experienced at her accomplishment seemed to reach into me and freeze me to the bone. It was getting increasingly hard for me to keep a barrier between my consciousness and hers, to not be swallowed up by her mind. I held on, knowing that if I let go, I would forever lose not only my own sense of self but perhaps Cassia’s as well.
As I struggled to maintain my control over whatever part of me was accessible in this strange space, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of Snegurka. The glow was so intense it reminded me of a miniature sun, and I had no doubt that had I had a physical form, I would’ve been forced to look away.
It took me only a couple of seconds to realize this was no coincidence. When the light dimmed, a blond man dressed in ornate golden robes was standing there. The heat he emanated made Snegurka want to recoil and told me everything I needed to know about the identity of the new arrival.