Maid of Ice

by Shona Husk

  The other skaters had stopped. They were still on the ice, but they were motionless, watching her. She knew where they were, even without looking, felt the soft spot in the ice to avoid. No one else would know it was soft but she could feel the movement of the water molecules and the way they danced beneath her blades, heating and cooling as she moved.

  She pushed on, one more move, the one which she’d always shied away from because she’d fallen more than once. She’d never broken anything on the ice though. It had always been there for her, she just hadn’t let it in. She executed a perfect triple axel, triple toe back-to-back jump sequence and nailed the landing without a wobble. That would have guaranteed her gold, and it would’ve been cheating.

  Her smile fell away. She couldn’t compete ever again, no matter what her mother wanted or expected. She did a lap to catch her breath.

  A man had his phone out, recording her.

  A couple of women clapped.

  Shit. This was supposed to be a casual skate not a show-off session. Her cheeks burned. The ice warmed in response, and the surface became liquid.

  Then she panicked. She didn’t know how to refreeze it.

  The connection diminished and she landed on her butt. The ice shimmered like glass.

  She rolled her eyes. No doubt her fall would be included when the guy uploaded his video of her. Which he would. They always did. She’d come down dressed in yoga pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt so she could just be ordinary.

  That was also a lie. Nothing about her was ordinary.

  Getting to her feet was made more awkward because of her arm, but she managed. Her ass was wet and the ground was too slippery. She tried to reach out and make it freeze, but nothing worked. Carefully she made her way to the edge. A staff member came out to get everyone off the ice, blaming the machine for the interruption.

  No, it was just her screwy use of magic. Not that she could apologize for that and have people believe her. They’d all laugh at her for talking about magic. It was a secret that she couldn’t ever share. A talent that could never be revealed no matter how useful. And she was sure that it would become useful when she got better. She’d do more with her magic than win a few silvers.

  She sat and took off her skates, annoyed with herself for getting carried away, for falling over at the end and then for making the ice melt with her embarrassment. She pressed her lips together; she should try to fix it. She shoved her feet into her sneakers and walked over to the edge. She leaned on the railing and stared at the ice, willing it to harden, but it remained less than icy.

  She breathed out and tried to find a nice calm place, but couldn’t.

  “Hi.” The man who’d taken the video stood next to her. “That was amazing. Can I get your name so I can say who it is?”

  For a moment, she didn’t move, didn’t even look at him. If she asked him not to post it, he would anyway, so she might as well get the credit. “Alina Nyx. I’m a professional skater.” She lifted her arm in the cast. “Just trying not to lose it all while this mends.”

  She had been so tempted to ask Finley to show her more of his magic, but she hadn’t in the end because it didn’t seem right to ask. That and she wasn’t sure what was involved. It wasn’t really a first date kind of activity either. Maybe after a second or third date.

  “Pleased to meet you. I’m Will.” He offered his hand.

  She shook it, not wanting to be rude. “You’ll cut out my fall, right?” She laughed as though it was nothing and she didn’t care.

  He laughed too and she knew he was the kind of guy who’d post the lot. The perfect jumps followed by the fall were just too good not to put up.

  “Did you want to get a coffee while they fix up the ice?”

  Her gut did that warning twinge. She glanced up at the clock on the wall as though the time were critical. “I need to head off. Doctor’s appointment.”

  Even if she weren’t seeing Finley, Will wouldn’t have made the maybe list. Something about him made her stomach knot and her skin crawl.

  His smile slipped a little. “Okay. Maybe I’ll run into you here again.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” She turned away. She had nothing planned for the rest of the day, but suddenly she didn’t want to be alone. She needed to be with people.

  No one would be at home. Maybe she’d go shopping, or something. Finley was working and it would be far too needy to go to him.

  She’d go to the mall and waste some time, and look at things she couldn’t afford. She picked up her bag and risked a glance at Will.

  He was still watching her. Behind him the ice shimmered. The gleaming liquid surface reflected him. No, not a reflection. A vision of him and he was holding a gun.

  Her breath caught and she stepped back. The image was gone as fast as it had formed.

  It was nothing. Just fear because she’d gotten a weird vibe. Her heart was beating as though she was skating in competition and her breathing was tight. Had she just seen the future?

  Was that the reason she’d gotten the weird vibe from Will?

  She glanced at the ice one more time and saw nothing. Will smiled at her and waved. He thought she was looking at him.

  She fled the ice rink and the future she’d seen. After all the false starts last night, that had been the image that had been waiting for her. What did it even mean?

  The sun was warm outside, but she was chilled to her core. Panic fluttered in her chest like a million moths had hatched. Maybe there was a good reason she’d never accidentally seen the future. She was going to die.

  Her hand shook as the unlocked the car. She got in and locked the door, before she texted Finley.

  OMG. I saw the future in the ice when I went skating. Man with a gun.

  She started her car, hoping that he’d hurry up and reply. She was halfway to the mall when her phone buzzed. She glanced at it on the seat next to her.

  Not the future, a possibility. Do you know the man?

  A possibility. What had he said last night? Something about it being the current path, not the destination, whatever that meant. When she pulled into the parking garage she called him. Maybe he was on a break or something. She hoped he hadn’t gone back to work in the few minutes it had taken her to get to the mall. “Hey, what do you mean?”

  “What actually happened?” He sounded perfectly calm.

  “Are you safe to talk?” She didn’t want to be guessing his meaning.

  “Yeah.”

  “I was skating, because water is ice and I wanted to try some things.” She didn’t want go into the fact that all her wins were a lie, not yet anyway. “Anyway I finished and this guy came and said hi, then I got a bad feeling so I left. But I saw him in the surface of the ice and he was holding a gun.” The words tumbled out of her mouth. If these were the kinds of things she saw she didn’t want that power. She’d rather not know.

  “Maybe you need ice. That’s what you are most familiar with.” She could almost hear the cogs in his brain turning as he thought about her untapped magic.

  “Yeah, and all my skating.” The words caught in her throat like she’d swallowed steel wool. “I was using my magic without even knowing every time I skated.”

  “The magic had to go somewhere,” he said calmly, as if it were nothing.

  He didn’t get it. She closed her eyes against the heat of the tears threatening to spill and drew in a breath. What she’d seen was more dangerous, the cheating she could worry about later. “The man with the gun, is that real?”

  “It could become real. The future isn’t set. Women can see what’s most likely to happen, but it can be changed.”

  “Why did I see that particular image?” Why not something nice?

  “Because he was there and you got that bad vibe and you were already experimenting with your power? I don’t know. I don’t have that magic. All I know is
how it’s supposed to work.”

  Alina kept her breathing even. “Okay, so it’s a likely event, not a definite. How do I get rid of it? I’d never met him before today. What if he’s one of those people who hunts Albah?”

  “Did you get his name? Maybe we can find out who he is.”

  Yes, she had, sort of. “Will, that was the only name he gave.”

  Finley was silent for a moment. “Did he have brown hair, bit of a Texas drawl?”

  “Maybe?”

  “You met him at the hospital. He’s a wannabe actor who moonlights as a photographer for the tabloid sites. I’m one of his favorites. I don’t know why.”

  That meant Will hadn’t randomly turned up at the rink. He must have followed her. Had he followed her from Finley’s place? She shuddered. She’d been home in between, that meant he also knew where she lived. All of a sudden her mother’s frequent moves didn’t feel like such a bad idea.

  She tried to picture Will in her mind so she’d recognize him next time, but he had a face that was easy to forget. Nothing about him stood out. He was average. He could melt away. And she was willing to bet he used that to disappear into a crowd after getting photos. “Wouldn’t other actors hate him because he sells photos?”

  Finley laughed. “No, some offer hints about where they will be so he can be there to feed their image.”

  “And you aren’t one of them?” Finley hadn’t been happy to be photographed in the hospital, but then who would be?

  He gave a short low laugh. “No, he tried to befriend me once, just after I got the role. I didn’t like the way he wanted to be my best friend after an hour.”

  “So now he hates you, and by default, me.”

  “That’s not how he usually works. He takes pleasure in documenting my many failed relationships. That sounds much worse than it is.”

  “Uh huh.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to be part of Will’s exposé on Finley’s life. “I thought you said I should be worried about the Albah stuff, not your human stalkers.”

  “He’s not a stalker. Okay maybe he is, just a little. I never thought he’d pull a gun though.” Worry was creeping into his voice.

  Finley was taking her vision, or whatever it was seriously.

  “Maybe I was wrong and that wasn’t what I saw, or maybe it was just my imagination.” Now that she was talking about it, it didn’t seem quite real or right. The fear that had been present has subsided and left only doubt.

  Even her performance on the ice felt like a good day, not anything magical. She went to rub her forehead and smacked herself with the cast instead. “Ow.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” She was not admitting to hitting herself in the head. “I’m at the mall so I’d better get going.”

  “Alina…be careful and don’t push the magic thing too hard.”

  “Easy for you because you’ve known your entire life. I’m trying to catch up.” She needed to master this part of her. She couldn’t go around melting ice and boiling water. Someone might get hurt.

  “Come around tonight.” There was a smile in his voice.

  For a date or for magic or both? “Are we vampire hunting?”

  “Yeah, guess I’d better start doing something about that.”

  And once they had found the vampire, what then?

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she was guessing it wouldn’t be like the movies.

  * * * *

  It was late afternoon by the time Alina went home. She hadn’t bought anything while she’d been at the mall, she’d just walked around and checked out the ears of every blond she passed. That was going to become a very weird hobby. And what would she have done if she had seen an Albah? Was she going to run up and try to be their friend? No. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into, not really. Not with Finley and not with the Albah. But if she ran away, she’d never know and that would be worse.

  Her mother was still out so after carefully locking the door, Alina pulled the box of old photos from the cabinet. Her mother kept saying she’d put them in frames or albums but it never happened. She lifted layers of more recent pictures, searching for the ones when she was small. Close to the bottom she hit the jackpot.

  There she was with blond hair and folded-over ears standing in a wading pool. She must have been all of three. She ran her fingers over her ears. Her mother had said her ears had stuck out, not that they had folded over. That was a lie, not an omission. The surgeon had done his job well, leaving no trace of the fold.

  When had it been done? She couldn’t remember. Not exactly.

  A dark-haired man stood in the background. Her father? She flicked through other photos but he didn’t appear again. She put that photo to the side then went looking for when her ears had changed. She thought it might have been over summer vacation. Maybe it had been around the first time they’d moved. She’d changed schools then too.

  After a few more minutes, she found it. She still had blond hair, but it was darker. Her ears were no longer folded and she was in a sparkly blue leotard, standing on the ice holding a certificate. She didn’t remember what it had been for.

  The front door clicked, opened, and her mother walked in. Alina didn’t even try to hide what she was doing. The time for hiding was over.

  Her mother closed the door, but didn’t take her eyes off her.

  Alina didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know where to start. Her mother had buried the truth for so long. There was only one thing she needed to know. “Why?”

  Her mother stood there. Her lips moved as she tried to form another lie, but it didn’t come. She shook her head and seemed to age before Alina’s eyes. “He told you then.”

  “He did. You should’ve told me.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “I’m not a baby. I’m tired of being treated like all this is too complex for me. Or that I shouldn’t worry.” Finley had tried to explain, but he didn’t know what it was like to grow up missing half of himself. Now she doubted everything about who she was and what she could do. Was it magic, or was it something normal? Did she think something was normal when really it was her unused magic slipping through? Did everyone know for sure when it was going to rain? Could they feel the pull of the tides when they swam?

  She was guessing not. It was because she knew water in a way that humans didn’t. She wasn’t even human. How close to human was she? She had a million questions, but they couldn’t be asked all at once. She needed time to discover her own answers for some of them.

  “Your grandparents put magic above everything else. It’s no way to live, so when my marriage broke up it seemed like a good time to move on. I changed our names and we made a fresh start.” Her mother put her handbag on the coffee table, but didn’t sit.

  “So this is my dad.” She held up the photo even though he was out of focus. Her mother barely glanced at the picture.

  “Yes. He didn’t know what we were. He couldn’t put up with my parents anymore and walked out. I couldn’t deal with my father anymore either. I wanted us all to leave and start over, but by that stage the damage to our marriage was done. It was too late.”

  Alina stared at the man she couldn’t even remember. His face was blurry in the picture and in her mind. She wouldn’t know him if they met on the street. “We weren’t hiding from him, were we?”

  “No. But he left us. He didn’t want you.”

  Alina’s throat ached. She had a father she didn’t know and he wasn’t the bad person she’d imagined him to be. Her mother on the other hand…

  “Why did we have to get away from your parents?” She had vague memories of her grandparents. They hadn’t seemed evil. She remembered eating cookies at their kitchen table.

  “All they cared about was magic. I had to give up skating to focus on it. It was all they ever talked
about and I didn’t want you to grow up the way I had. I wanted you to be able to do what you wanted without magic interfering and ruining everything. I loved your father, but my parents and their magic came between us. They came between everything I ever loved, except you. I wasn’t going to let them take you.”

  “You never asked if I wanted to skate.” She couldn’t remember her mother ever asking if she wanted to move or change schools. “You never gave me the option of exploring my magic. You never explained what was going on. You wanted me to bury part of myself.”

  “But you loved it and water. You’re lucky that your element matches you so well.” Her mother looked sullen.

  “And what’s yours?”

  “Earth,” she spat. “I can grow a garden almost anywhere. It’s not very useful, but that didn’t stop my father from endlessly experimenting with what I could do. We’d go camping just so he could see if I could make a rock fall or find things he’d buried like some kind of magical metal detector.”

  That wouldn’t have been a fun way to grow up, but neither was the way she’d grown up. “Your parents must know who I am.”

  If her grandparents cared, surely they must have looked for them, unless they had just turned away and focused on their family that was interested in magic.

  “Maybe. If they do, they haven’t tried to contact me. It hasn’t been easy for me, Alina. I didn’t even get to go to my mother’s funeral. I haven’t spoken to my brother or sisters in twenty years because they’re still in contact with Dad.”

  “Maybe they like to use magic.”

  “That’s their choice. Protecting you was mine.” Her mother’s face crumpled. “I knew Finley would undo everything.”

  “You knew what he was.” To people who knew it was obvious.