Freya Snow Pup Trilogy

by L. C. Mawson

  She pulled out her water bottle.

  “See?” she said as she focused on the water within, drawing it out.

  “Freya, STOP!” Amber launched forward, leaving Ms Pearson’s body behind as she phased through the desk.

  Freya stepped back as she dropped the water, her whole body tensing at Amber shouting, freezing her still. The water she had dropped rose up around her, creating tiny tendrils that moved around her to defend her from Amber.

  Amber hesitated, stepping back. “I’m sorry, Freya,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Just, please, you have to stop using your powers. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  Freya nodded, allowing the water to drain back into the bottle. As soon she finished, she slumped forward, feeling completely drained. Her mind was numb, and her stomach queasy.

  Freya sat back on one of the desks before giving Amber a weak smile. “Yeah, I think I pushed it there. I... I didn’t realise I had drained myself so much.”

  “Of course you had,” Amber said, sympathetically, as she sat down on her own desk as well as she could as a ghost. “The first time you used your powers, you exhausted yourself, and all you did was physically control the water in the most basic sense. Today, you not only did that, but you instigated a chemical reaction with it. That takes a lot of concentration and Energy. Then you came straight here, I assume, to tell me. You didn’t give yourself time to realise how tired you were.”

  Freya nodded, feeling too tired for words.

  “I really am sorry about yelling,” Amber said again. “I just... I worry.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Freya managed.

  Amber gave her a weak smile. “I know you will, but... I’m too old. I have too many scars and have watched too many members of my family die.”

  Freya didn’t know what to say to that, remaining silent.

  “There are these beings, Angels, that are incredibly powerful. Four beings are in charge of Creation. There’s Life, Death, and Fate, the Big Three. They are in charge of all of the Humans and magical beings across the realms. And then there’s Mother Nature, who is in charge of everything else. But they hardly ever work directly with people. They use Angels as intermediaries. Reapers for Death, Oracles for Fate, Angels of Life for Life, and Elementals for Mother Nature.

  “My son was born a Reaper. And, because he got his contrary nature from me, he married an Angel of Life. They had a daughter and she... I’m not sure how, but she had the powers of both Life and Death. They called her the Angel Twilight, and she is generally considered to have been the most powerful being born in the last century.

  “Usually when a being of such power is brought into the world, it’s for a reason, and my granddaughter was no exception. But once she had fulfilled her destiny... No being can handle that much power. She tried to reject it, to ignore who she was, but the magic simply built up within her and she lost control. She accidentally killed her husband, and then, in her grief, she used her blood to scar the Earth so no more Angels could be born. Killing herself in the process.

  “Which is why I worry so much, Freya. I couldn’t save my granddaughter. I couldn’t save my son, either. Or my husband. There may not be much of a reason to worry - you’re just starting out and this is a safe environment - but I worry all the same.”

  Freya swung her legs back and forth beneath the desk as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you really think I could end up like your granddaughter? Or my mother?”

  Amber shook her head quickly. “Of course not, Freya. My point wasn’t that you’re in danger of that, it’s that I am over-reactive to such things. My granddaughter and your mother were both unique cases. With the Twilight having scarred the Earth, no more Angels can be born, so there will never be another incident like that. Your mother was stopping a war, the likes of which probably won’t be seen again in your lifetime. We’re too careful now.”

  Freya nodded, but didn’t relax. She was sure there was something on the matter that Amber wasn’t saying. Would she really be so jumpy with no reason?

  The bell rang before Freya could think on it further, signalling the end of the day.

  “Could you cover for me and Damon so that we don’t get in trouble for skipping classes?” Freya asked.

  Amber nodded. “Of course, don’t worry about it.”

  Chapter Six

  “You have paper in your hair,” Damon told Freya as she dropped down next to him.

  She sighed. “I know.”

  “Why do you have paper in your hair?”

  She rolled her eyes as she picked it out. “Michelle was sitting behind me last lesson.”

  Damon frowned. “Michelle is the ginger girl who picked on you on the first day?”

  “Yeah, how do you not know that?”

  “I have no classes with her. I only saw her the once.”

  Freya sighed. “Well, I do have classes with her. And she is constantly trying to irritate me into getting angry so she can mock me for lashing out. She’s lucky I don’t...” Freya cut herself off before she said “draw all the water out of her body and leave her as a pile of dust.”

  Damon frowned. “That seems incredibly petty.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  They fell silent as their English teacher started talking.

  “I assume you all read A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year,” the teacher said.

  Freya glanced to Damon, whose wide eyes mirrored her own.

  “I read the Tempest,” Freya hissed at him, her mind quickly running through all the ways she could deal with the situation without telling the teacher as much.

  “I did not do any Shakespeare,” he hissed back.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Where did you go to school? Mars?”

  He smiled. Accusing him of being from Mars was Freya’s usual go to when Damon lacked common knowledge, and it always made him smile, so Freya had kept it up. She found she liked to see him smile, the sight causing warmth to bloom in her chest. She had mentioned as much to Alice, who had only proceeded to tease her about having a crush. Or, at least, she thought her sister had been teasing. It was difficult to tell with her...

  Freya and Damon’s attention, however, was drawn away from each other by the teacher speaking once more.

  “Your first assignment for this module is performance. You’ll split into groups and you will be given a scene from a Shakespeare play to perform. You will also write an essay each on your scene. The essays will be due in next week, before half term, and the performances will be after. We will be doing work on A Midsummer Night’s Dream after that.

  “If you divide yourselves in groups, I will hand out scenes with the appropriate number of actors.”

  “Partners?” Damon asked, turning to Freya.

  Freya shrugged. “Sure, but we’ll probably need more people.”

  Damon’s hand immediately shot up. “Miss?”

  “Yes, Damon?”

  “Can Freya and I work as a pair?”

  The teacher hummed as she flicked through the pile of scripts in her hands. “Well, the only scene I have for only two people is the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.”

  Freya tensed up, her face immediately flushed with warmth.

  “Okay,” Damon said, as if that wasn’t even slightly a problem.

  Freya groaned as she realised why. “You have no idea what that scene is, do you?” she asked once the teacher had handed them the scripts and headed off.

  “No,” he replied cheerily. “Care to fill me in?”

  Freya sighed. “Romeo and Juliet is... Well, it’s not a romance, it’s a tragedy, but it’s got a lot a romance in it. And this scene is pretty much the romance scene between the two main characters.”

  “So?”

  Freya could feel the bright red shade she was sure her face had turned. “So, that’s... It’s... It’s weird.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re just friends.”

  “Exactly. It i
s acting. Or am I missing something here?”

  Impossibly, Freya’s face flushed further. “No, you’re not, it’s just... Are you sure you want to do this with just me? What about your friends from music? Wouldn’t you rather be with them?”

  “No. I see them enough in music. I would rather work with you.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Why not? You are my friend, Freya. Plus, it does not hurt that you are so smart.”

  Freya rolled her eyes at his joke, doing her best to let her embarrassment and frustration go. “I’m still convinced you’re as smart as me. You just refuse to put in any effort for some reason.”

  “Alright, Miss Critical,” he joked.

  She shrugged with a smile. “Hey, that’s Ms Critical. And, what can I say? I’m a bitch. Which begs the question of why you hang out with me.”

  He responded with a slight frown, his eyes looking her over in a deliberate manner that had her blush returning in full force.

  Eventually, he looked away with a shrug, leaning back in his chair. “I guess there is just something about you...”

  “That’s not a real answer.”

  “What do you want? A spreadsheet?”

  She shrugged. “Ideally.”

  He smiled, shaking his head. “Well, tough. Not everyone is as meticulous as you. Anyway, we will probably have to rehearse this after school,” he said, indicating to the script in his hand. “Do you want to come around to mine tonight to go over it?”

  Freya froze a little. Damon had never suggested they hang out outside of school before. Even if it was for school...

  She rolled her eyes as she remembered they couldn’t. “It’s parents’ evening tonight, remember?”

  He groaned. “How could I forget?”

  “Will your uncle be there?”

  “Yeah, but he is not happy about going alone. He was trying to convince Charlie to go with him, but he is out of town for work.”

  “Charlie?”

  “His boyfriend,” Damon explained. “I think Charlie was the main reason my uncle was not upset about having to stay in one place to look after me.”

  “Stay in one place? Did he usually move about a lot?”

  “Yeah, for work.”

  “What does he do?”

  “He does private security.”

  “For who?”

  “My aunt’s husband.”

  Freya frowned. “You mean your other uncle?”

  Damon gave an awkward shrug. “Yeah, but I do not really think of him like that, you know?”

  “Not really,” she admitted.

  “Well, it... He is quite powerful. And... intimidating. Plus, he and my aunt are married, but they are not married.”

  “Ohhh kay?”

  Damon sighed, picking up on her not-so-subtle confusion. “It is a political marriage. Back home, my aunt’s husband has a position of power that is inherited. He married my aunt so she could take over part of his responsibilities.”

  “Okay.” She still didn’t really understand, but Damon was shifting from side to side, looking uncomfortable, so she decided it would be best to drop it.

  PARENTS’ EVENING STARTED not long after school finished, so Freya opted to stay in school with Amber and simply wait for her foster parents to arrive.

  “Okay, check this out,” Freya said as she moved her hand over her water bottle. The water inside turned to ice. “I am going to make so many ice lollies when the summer comes back around.”

  Amber smiled. “Have you tried any other variances on freezing?”

  Freya blushed, remembering that morning when she had first turned something to ice. Michelle had been loudly telling everyone Freya was on happy pills because she was so unstable. Freya’s water had shot forth from its bottle, forming an icy spear. Freya had barely managed to smash it into the wall before anyone saw, or it hit Michelle.

  “You know, freezing tendrils and such,” Freya muttered as she picked her water bottle back up. She knew that, with a new aspect to her ability, Amber would want her to take it easy, so she wouldn’t be allowed to make any further demonstrations.

  She understood Amber’s reluctance, but that didn’t mean the snail’s pace wasn’t killing her.

  “I thought we could go over the hierarchy of Light creatures today,” Amber told her.

  Freya suppressed a groan. They’d been through all the different Light and Neutral creatures in quite a bit of detail. Amber had also promised lessons on something called Old World creatures, but she hadn’t elaborated further.

  “The Council of Light rules all Light beings. It’s comprised of democratically elected representatives for each Light species-”

  “How come you never want to talk about Dark creatures?” Freya asked. “Like Demons.”

  Amber shrugged. “I am merely working my way through all the different magical creatures in turn. There is no shortage of them, and I have seen no need to skip to Demons. Why are you so interested in them?”

  Freya didn’t really have an answer to that. Light creatures simply seemed dull by comparison.

  “Well, I was being stalked by one for a while,” Freya figured. “Know your enemy and all that jazz.”

  Amber rolled her eyes. “Demons on the whole are not your enemy. The King is interested in maintaining peace with the rest of the magical community, and in keeping magic a secret, as much as Light beings are.”

  “Wait, Demons have a monarchy?”

  “Yes, which we will get to, eventually. For now, just know that the Demon who was stalking you was doing so unlawfully and Demons will police their own. Especially those who hunt Humans. They can’t risk being the leak if magic is ever exposed again.”

  “But he wasn’t hunting a Human. He was hunting me.”

  Amber nodded. “But he thought you were Human. That’s the important thing. He probably ran after someone else and was caught. And, even if he wasn’t, your mother’s pendant is protecting you, so there’s no chance of him coming back to hurt you.”

  Freya suppressed a sigh. She still wanted to learn more about Demons...

  “Should your foster parents not be arriving about now?”

  Freya stopped herself from rolling her eyes as she got out her phone. There was, indeed, a text from Margaret, informing her that she and Ryan had arrived.

  “Yeah, they’re here,” Freya said as she put her phone back in her bag before slinging it over her shoulder.

  She headed out of the classroom, towards the main hall, with Amber following close behind.

  Margaret and Ryan were by the door, waiting for her. They looked over her shoulder, reminding her that Amber was still there.

  “Hey Margaret, Ryan. This is my RS teacher, Ms Pearson.”

  “Your daughter is a pleasure to have in class,” Amber told them.

  Freya suppressed a wince as she waited for the “she’s not my daughter” correction to come. She knew that it was often said as much out of consideration for her own feelings on the matter as her foster parents’ own, but it still hurt.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Margaret said, skipping over the correction.

  Amber nodded with a smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go, or I’ll be late for my first appointment.”

  Margaret nodded, turning to Freya. “We’d better get going too. I think your biology teacher is waiting for us.”

  Freya nodded, though she felt her shoulders stiffen as she followed her foster parents to Mr Dale’s table. She hadn’t tried reading in his class since the first lesson, when she had been caught, but she feared that incident had left a lasting impression.

  There was no surer way to guarantee being sent away than a bad parents’ evening...

  Freya sat next to her foster parents, in front of Mr Dale, as stiff as a board. He was definitely going to rat her out for her behaviour on the first day of school...

  But, to her surprise, that moment never came.

  “Freya frequently scores full marks on both her classwork
and her homework,” he informed them, showing them a row of A*s on a chart. “I have no reason to believe she won’t achieve the same in her January exams.”

  “So, is there nothing to improve on?” Margaret asked, her words acting like ice down Freya’s back. “Nothing we can do at home to help?”

  “Well... While Freya achieves high marks in her work, she refuses to participate in class. It’s clear that she knows the answer, but she never puts her hand up to volunteer it, and when I call on her, she hesitates. It’s not a problem for her exams, but I would like to see her be more vocal in the classroom.”

  Freya pulled at the sleeves of her jumper, looking down. She hated that her teacher was speaking about her as if she wasn’t there.

  Once they finished with Mr Dale, they realised the next teacher was still talking to someone else. They moved to sit on a few of the chairs in the middle of the room.

  “Well, it’s good you’re on top of your school work,” Ryan told her with a smile.

  Margaret nodded. “We had been a little worried, since you never asked us for any help or anything. We didn’t know if it was because you didn’t need any, or if you were just too shy to ask.”

  Freya shrugged. “I’m doing okay.”

  “That much seems clear now. Though, it sounds as if you’re shy in the classroom as well...”

  “Irum told you about what happened in my last school, right?”

  Margaret nodded.

  “Well, I’d just rather not draw attention to myself.”

  “Maybe that is helpful for avoiding bad things, but you might be inadvertently avoiding good things as well.”

  Freya just shrugged once more as Damon came over, having just finished with their ICT teacher. A large hulk of a man, with the same paper-white skin and jet black hair sat beside him. He was covered in black tattoos that were stark against his skin as they peeked out from under his black t-shirt.

  “Hey,” Damon greeted. “How is your parents’ evening going?”

  Freya shrugged. “Fine. Yours?”

  “Apparently I do not put enough effort into my work.”