Freya Snow Pup Trilogy

by L. C. Mawson

  She drew the water into a small puddle, getting it all in one place so she had an idea of how much water she was working with.

  As soon as he finished talking, Freya knew that she only had this one chance. She took control of the water, turning it into a tendril, and then freezing it into a spear as she threw it at his head.

  The Demon grabbed the spear out of the air, stopping it just before it hit his face.

  Freya froze once more, as he twirled the spear around, still smirking.

  “Now, this is surprising,” he drawled. “I can’t sense any magic from you. Someone must have you behind protections. And strong ones too... So, what are you? Witch? Guide? Slayer? No... This is Elemental magic. And you can’t be an Angel, but you don’t seem to have a drop of Mer blood in you...”

  Freya ignored his words, watching the spear in his hand instead. If only she could do something with it, she would have a chance to escape. But she felt his grip tighten around it.

  Though his hand was only on the very outside of the spear, she realised. And there was no reason why the rest of the spear couldn’t move.

  She watched carefully, as he twirled it in front of his face, waiting for exactly the right moment before taking control of the inside of the spear, right as the tip brushed past his eye.

  An outer shell of ice remained in his hand, as a slightly smaller spear thrust forward, right into his eye.

  “Argh! You bitch!”

  He grabbed at his eye, doubling over in pain. Freya didn’t stay to see if he managed to get it out, instead bolting out of the car park, into the high street.

  She kept running, as people around her gave her odd looks, wondering what she could be running to or from.

  They all seemed so oblivious...

  “Just get home,” Amber told her. “You’ll be safe there.”

  Freya wanted to question that, wondering how her home could possibly be safe. After all, the amulet around her neck had meant to keep her safe, and now there was no doubt that had been bull.

  But she kept running, refusing to stop, even as her throat and lungs burned, and her legs went numb.

  She fumbled with her key as soon as she made it to the house, struggling to get it in the door. She eventually managed to get it open, slamming it behind her.

  “Am I really safe here?” she asked Amber.

  “Yes,” Amber assured her. “There are protections on the house to keep it safe. The same kind that are on your amulet.”

  “My amulet didn’t exactly protect me.”

  Amber nodded. “It’s always weaker in a portable form. But trust me, you really are safe in the house.”

  Freya let out a sigh of relief at that, her every limb burning with pain as the adrenaline wore off.

  She sprinted to the toilet, making it just in time to throw up as her insides protested the sudden assault of pain and exhaustion, as well as the aftermath of her terror.

  “To be honest,” Amber started as Freya’s vomiting turned to retching, “he shouldn’t have even been able to get through the protections on your amulet. He must have been aggressively targeting you for weeks to get through.”

  Freya frowned as she finally stopped retching, her body seeming to get the message that there was nothing else to come up. “Why? Why would he be after me? He didn’t even seem to know what I was.”

  “I have no idea... If he hadn’t seemed so surprised by your magic, I would say that it was over your mother’s actions. But nobody knows that you are her daughter. He certainly didn’t seem to, otherwise he would have known about your magic.”

  “But even if he didn’t know, you still knew that there might be people after me? That people might want to attack me over things that my mother had done?”

  Amber sighed. “I wasn’t certain.”

  “But you still suspected! And you were going to let me, what? Live in ignorance until someone came after me? Leave me with no way to defend myself?”

  “I was trying to protect you,” Amber defended, crossing her arms. “I have seen too many people overwhelmed by being introduced to magic too quickly. Especially being introduced just after they were told that their life was in danger. It was how I was introduced, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. The loss of control that can lead to... I was trying to protect you...”

  Freya shook her head as she grabbed a baby wipe, cleaning her face up. “I would have preferred warning over coddling,” she said. “If I had been warned, I would have known what would happen. And you could have taught me how to protect myself, and not just how to wave some water about!”

  Freya sighed as her rant came to an end, her mind finally focusing on the real source of the twisting in her stomach.

  “Will he be back?” she asked.

  Amber grimaced. “I- I believe that he will. I don’t think that, after going to such lengths to get to you, he would simply let you go.”

  “But I hurt him,” Freya said as she threw the baby wipe away, leaning hard against the sink. “Won’t he need time to recover?”

  Amber gave a grim shake of her head. “He’ll be able to recover enough on his own to be fine again by tomorrow. He’ll need to see a healer to regain full use of that eye, but other than that, magical beings have a faster healing rate than Humans. And he’ll be looking for revenge.”

  Freya groaned, her stomach queasy once more. She gave silent thanks that there was nothing left for her to eject.

  “Isn’t there some kind of... I don’t know... Magical police or something?”

  Amber sighed. “Not since before the War. Ever since, it seems as if magical creatures focused on secrecy above all else. Large organisations don’t lend themselves well to secrecy. The only people who could be contacted to help would be the Council of Light, or the Demon monarchy. Neither of which is an option.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, with the Council of Light, I doubt they would help unless you agree to go under their protection. That would most likely be part of an agreement where you would be completely under their control. Freya, I don’t trust them. They’re the ones who sent your mother away, and I don’t think they did it just to help her. There is an organisation that deals exclusively with the Shadow Realm, and the Council of Light didn’t use them. In fact, they did everything they could to keep the fact that your mother was in the Shadow Realm a secret from everyone else. There are few reasons why they would do that, and none of them are good. They are not people you want to call for help.”

  “And what about the Demons?” Freya asked. “Surely there is someone more powerful than the Demon hunting me. Someone we can turn to. You said that they weren’t all necessarily evil.”

  Amber sighed “I- Demons are- I know I said that, but I don’t think that any Demon would step in to protect you here.”

  Freya crumpled against the sink. “So I really am alone here?”

  Amber nodded. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have done more to prepare you. I thought I was protecting you, but I see now that teaching you how to defend yourself would have been the best way to do that. I promise, once this is all done, I will teach you anything you want.”

  “But you can’t teach me in just one night, can you?”

  Amber shook her head. “No, I can’t. But there is still one way out of this.”

  Before she elaborated, the front door opened, revealing Freya’s foster parents.

  “Freya?” Margaret called.

  “In the bathroom,” Freya called back.

  “Tell her you’re ill,” Amber told her.

  “I’ve been sick,” Freya called out as her foster parents went about putting down their bags and coats.

  Margaret approached the bathroom, taking the open door to mean she could enter. She gave a quick glance into the toilet to see the remains of Freya’s stomach, before turning back to examine Freya.

  “Are you alright?” Margaret asked.

  Freya shrugged. “I don’t know, I think I might have a stomach bug. There’s been
one going around school.”

  “Did you get any on yourself? I can’t see any on you... Perhaps you should hop in the shower anyway, to be safe. That is, if you can manage it.”

  Freya gave a quick glance to Amber, who nodded.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Freya said.

  “Do you need anything?” Margaret asked. “It looks like all of your food from today is gone. Do you think you can manage eating again?”

  Freya wasn’t actually sure of that, so she shook her head. “I’ll be fine,” she told her foster mother. “I’ll take a shower and then try to get some sleep.”

  Margaret nodded. “Well, just text me if you need anything. I’m serious, if you wake up in the middle of the night or anything like that, call or text and I’ll be right there.”

  “Thank you,” Freya said, hoping that her tone conveyed the appreciation that she truly did feel at the gesture.

  Freya hurried upstairs, grabbing some pyjamas before heading into the upstairs bathroom, closing the door behind her.

  As soon as the door was closed, Amber appeared once more.

  “So, what exactly are we going to be doing?” Freya asked.

  Amber smiled. “Well, to start, you’ll have to pull a Ferris Bueller.”

  Freya frowned. “A Ferris who?”

  Amber sighed, rolling her eyes. “Okay, now you’re making me feel old. You’re going to have to pretend to be sick tomorrow to stay off school. You don’t want the Demon attacking you while you’re there.”

  “Okay, but how will I actually defend myself when he does attack?”

  “I’ll explain once you’ve had your shower,” Amber said. “It probably isn’t a good idea for Margaret to wonder why you are taking so long. She might get worried.”

  Freya nodded in agreement, and Amber left her alone once more.

  FREYA GOT BACK TO HER room to see that Margaret had brought up her backpack as well as a glass of water that was placed on her bedside table.

  She opened her bag, retrieving her phone, remembering that she had meant text Damon before the Demon had appeared.

  She felt awful. She had left Damon all alone, simply because she had been scared. And of what? A Human man? What threat could he have been to her?

  And yet she had left Damon, another vulnerable Human, alone with him, because she had been scared... What kind of friend did that make her?

  Are you alright? she sent to him, anxiously awaiting an answer.

  Amber appeared before she received any reply.

  “So,” Amber said, drawing Freya’s attention away from her phone, “I’m going to transfer some of my knowledge directly to you. The transfer will be quite a shock to your system, so it will knock you out for about twelve hours. But when you wake up, you’ll have some of my knowledge.”

  “Wait, so I’ll just know stuff that you know? Why didn’t you use this to teach me magic in the first place?”

  “Because it isn’t permanent,” Amber explained. “It’s also not a particularly pleasant process. As I said, it will take your mind twelve hours to process the new information, and you will only be able to keep it for maybe twenty-four past that.”

  “So I’ll have to stop the Demon tomorrow?”

  Amber nodded. “You may keep some of the knowledge, if you use it enough for it to imprint itself on your own memory, but it won’t be enough. And once the knowledge is gone, I doubt I will be able to use the spell again. Every time I use magic, it uses up a part of my Energy reserves, which are incredibly low now that I’m a ghost. If I push myself too far, I will lose my hold on this plane. And even if I don’t push myself that far, it will take an incredibly long time for my Energy reserves to replenish. I certainly won’t be able to perform the spell again for months, perhaps even years.”

  “So I only have twenty-four hours to get rid of him?”

  “Yes, though...” Amber sighed. “If you cannot stop him tomorrow, even if you manage to keep my memories, I doubt you would even...”

  Despite Amber trailing off, Freya could guess what she was going to say. “If I don’t stop him tomorrow, I’ll probably be dead, won’t I?”

  Amber shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “This will work. And you will stop him. Now, get into bed.”

  Freya did she was told, lying back in her sheets, giving her phone one final glance.

  I’m fine, a response from Damon said. Freya let out a sigh of relief, hoping that that meant that Gregor had gotten to him quickly.

  Amber came over to her, drawing her attention back to the moment, before kissing her gently on the forehead. As soon as she did so, Freya blacked out.

  Chapter Eleven

  Amber panted for air, holding up her hands in defeat.

  The short, skinny girl, with strawberry blonde hair, stepped back, lowering her fists. “Stopping already? I thought you were the one desperate to get better at this.”

  Amber sighed. “What does it matter? Even if I do get better, even if I do figure out how to control these powers, you will never let me go, will you?”

  The girl - Rosaline - gave her an apologetic look. “I promised I would protect you. Letting you go into a lair of people who have sworn to forcibly remove your powers from you wouldn’t be protecting you, would it?”

  “And what about my father? Is he just supposed to rot while you make sure I’m safe here?”

  “My job is to protect you, not him. And I think he would agree with me.”

  Amber’s throat stung. There was no arguing; Rosaline was right.

  “I’m going out,” Amber said.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Rosaline told her.

  Amber shook her wrist, drawing Rosaline’s attention to the bracelet on it. “I have your protection charm. No one will find me. And I promise, I’m not going far. I need to get out.”

  Rosaline, to her credit, didn’t stop her. Amber sighed. It was difficult to stay mad at her friend. After all, protecting her was her job. Amber couldn’t demand she change that, or ignore it. And Rosaline was sympathetic, at the very least, to Amber’s irritation at being locked up.

  Amber hurried, going to her usual place. She wasn’t supposed to have contact with anyone, but she couldn’t face being locked up with no one but Rosaline for company. She just couldn’t do it.

  As she approached the meeting place, she saw Sebastian waiting for her. He smiled as he saw her, but she couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t quite reach his eyes. His eyes that had dark circles around them as if something had been weighing on his mind.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked him, oddly reminiscent of the first time they had met. He had asked her something very similar as he had seen her crying. Just after she had lost her father...

  He shook his head. “It’s not something I can explain,” he told her. “I... I don’t think we can keep meeting up like this.”

  Amber frowned. “What you mean?”

  “It’s just... It doesn’t matter. It should be fine. It might be. I hope it is. But... If it isn’t... I need you to know I might not be back. Just in case I don’t return. I couldn’t bear to have left you alone. Not without knowing...”

  “Knowing what?”

  “That if I don’t return, it’s not because I don’t want to. If I disappear, Amber, I need you to know that it’s nothing to do with you.”

  “Disappear? What do you mean? What’s going on?”

  “Probably nothing. I just need you to know. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Amber said, not exactly sure what else she could say. She couldn’t help Sebastian if he refused to tell her what was wrong.

  AMBER STOOD IN THE collapsing ruin, advancing on Sebastian.

  Only, she was no longer Amber. The Ancient that existed within her, that was the source of her power, had now risen to the surface of her mind, so close it now had a name.

  Ku.

  “You betrayed me!” both Amber and the Ancient screamed at once, their voices intermingling. />
  “No, Amber, please...”

  “Amber isn’t here,” the Ancient said before throwing her arm out.

  Though her hand didn’t connect with Sebastian, he went flying back into the wall with a sickening crunch.

  Rosaline stepped forward. “Why did you do that?” she demanded. “Even you must know that, even with everything that happened, Amber still loves him.”

  Amber ignored her, turning to Scarlet, Sebastian’s mother, and the Vampyre-Demon hybrid who had killed her father.

  “You killed him,” Scarlet managed to gasp out.

  Amber glared at her. “You killed my family. You killed my grandmother, my mother, my father... Your son seemed only fair.”

  “I will destroy you,” Scarlet swore as she turned back to Amber. “I will tear that Ancient from your head and take her for myself!”

  Amber simply raised her hand before twisting it into a fist.

  Scarlet’s trachea collapsed, and she died clutching at her throat, desperate for air.

  “It’s over,” Rosaline told her. “Let Amber go now.”

  The Ancient turned to Amber’s friend. “It is not over yet.”

  “How is it not over?! You killed her, and you killed Sebastian. I may not have agreed with their relationship, but you must know this will kill Amber.”

  The Ancient rolled her eyes. “That is being more than a little overdramatic, but you do have a point. She does love the boy, and she has drawn too heavily on my power already in her vengeance. If she continues to draw so heavily upon me, there will be nothing left of her. And yet, she cannot let go. Not after everything he did.”

  “He didn’t do anything! Scarlet confirmed everything he said. Everything he did, he was forced to do, and he’s been helping Amber from the inside since day one.”

  “I am aware. And that is precisely why I didn’t kill him.”

  She walked over to where Sebastian was lying on the ground, approaching just as he groaned, attempting to pick himself up.

  “I guess I deserved that,” Sebastian groaned as he finally got to his feet.