Freya Snow Pup Trilogy

by L. C. Mawson

  “What do you mean?”

  “Can’t they enthral magical creatures?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not overriding freewill. It’s more like a confusion and mild sleep spell initially, followed by a lust spell if the eye contact isn’t broken. No thrall is required to act out their master’s wishes, but the process is just about the most addicting thing there is. It is not, however, an override of free will.”

  “Good to know,” Freya said, only shuddering a little at the fate she almost endured. “So that just leaves the power from the Ancients, right? Like Amber had?”

  “Amber? You mean Amber Cohen?”

  “Yeah. The Amber who had the Power of the Ancients.”

  “Yeah, Amber Cohen. And, no, not necessarily. The Upper council and their Angels derive their power from the same source.”

  “But there were no more Angels after the Angel Twilight died, apart from the ones we’ve already ruled out.”

  “Exactly. I’ll continue to look into it, but I’ll probably need more to go on. Give me a call if you find anything else.”

  “Will do. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Freya hung up with a sigh as she continued to wander around the trees. The park had quite a few people now and the cafe was still open.

  She wondered where she should head next. Clearly the park was a dead end. She considered heading back to the hospital where Anya had been. Hopefully, she could pick up another lead there.

  As she approached the park exit, however, she felt a sudden surge of magical energy back at the centre of the park.

  She concealed herself and shifted, hoping to finally catch the source of the enchantment.

  But, as every other time before, she shifted to find nothing. She let out a long groan of annoyance as she scouted the area, though she knew that she wasn’t going to find anything.

  “I’m never going to leave this park,” she grumbled to herself, stopping dead as her words caused everything to click for her.

  Of course she wouldn’t leave the park. She was playing Snow White. These were her woods. Snow White didn’t leave the woods to head into town; she stumbled across a bunch of dwarfs in a cottage.

  Freya traipsed back through the trees, wondering just where this cottage would be.

  She stopped dead, shaking her head. Why was she looking for it? Following the plot-line would only lead her closer to the sleeping curse, and then she would be no use to anyone. Potentially forever.

  She couldn’t decide if that was better or worse than outright dying, so she simply decided to stop thinking about it, renewing her determination.

  As she stalked back towards the exit, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Something black and fast. She stopped, extending her senses out, feeling the now familiar magic signature threading through the tree line. It was accompanied by a fog of malevolence - an intent to kill that could not be missed.

  Freya was surprised to find that it wasn’t directed at her, though she quickly realised that she shouldn’t have been. She wasn’t going to be killed outright by the spell, since the Huntsman was the only direct danger to Snow White, besides poisoned apples.

  Which meant that there was someone else affected by the spell in the park. Someone who was in immediate danger.

  Freya made her way to the path and saw the target almost immediately. A young girl with curly dark hair and a bright red coat was walking down the path.

  “Red Riding Hood,” Freya muttered to herself, supposing that the shadow she had seen had to be the wolf.

  “Hey,” Freya called to the girl, quickly trying to figure out how to not come across as creepy. She gave silent thanks for her gender. “Are you here alone?”

  “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” the girl said, watching her warily.

  “I know,” Freya said quickly as she finished formulating a lie. “But some of the teenage boys who are on holiday now have been harassing kids on the playground. Some parents ran them off, but they’re still hanging around. If they see you alone, they might decide to bother you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you want me to walk with you? I can make sure they don’t do anything.”

  She nodded. “My grandma’s house is just outside the next exit.”

  IT WAS ONLY A FIVE minute walk to the grandmother’s house, which was a relief for Freya. She didn’t want to have to keep the girl protected forever.

  “Okay, well, I guess you’re good now,” Freya said as they arrived at the front door of the grandmother’s house, eager to go as soon as possible. None of the others had been close to the source of the spell, so chances were that she would get nothing more than a greater sense of the area being affected by the spell by following her.

  Freya cursed internally as the girl’s grandmother opened the door as they were walking up the path.

  “Who’s your friend, Zoe?” the grandmother asked the girl.

  “There were mean boys in the park. She walked with me to keep them away.”

  Freya shrugged. “They were harassing other kids and I just wanted to make sure she got home safely.”

  The grandmother smiled at her, believing the lie. “Thank you, um, I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

  “Freya. And it was no trouble.”

  “Do you want to come in and see my books?” the girl asked, practically jumping up and down as she tugged on Freya’s sleeve, dragging her towards the house.

  “If you want to stay for a bit, I’d be more than happy to make a spot of tea,” the grandmother said before turning to Zoe. “But if she doesn’t, that’s okay too. She’s probably very busy.”

  Freya was about to decline but, as she got one last sense of the area to try and find out more about how the spell was spreading, she was surprised to find that the focal point appeared to be right in front of her, further in the house.

  “No, it’s fine,” Freya assured her. “I’ve got a little time, as long as it’s not an imposition.”

  The grandmother smiled at her. “Not at all, dear. Come on in and I’ll pop the kettle on.”

  Zoe took her sleeve once more. “Come on! I’ll show you my books!”

  Zoe led Freya through to the conservatory at the back of the house. Freya stretched her senses and found that the focal point for the spell was at the back of the garden, though she couldn’t see anything but greenery.

  Zoe went over to her bookshelf, which was filled with small children’s books, each one a different fairy tale.

  As soon as the Snow White book was pressed into her hands, Freya was sure that it was a component to the spell.

  “This is one of my favourites,” the girl said.

  Freya opened it up and quickly skimmed through, confirming that this was the version of the story she was living through. The step-mother was cruel to Snow because she was jealous of her youthful beauty, Snow ran away, the Huntsman caught up with her and let her go because she reminded him of his lost love, and then Snow stumbled upon the dwarfs’ cottage.

  Freya kept going to see what would happen next, only to hold back a curse, just barely remembering her company, as she read. The step-mother managed to sneak the apple in amongst the others in the house, so it wasn’t even as if Freya could just not take apples from strangers. She hoped that the ending would be based on older versions of the tale, where Snow White was only asleep because the apple was lodged in her throat, and simply dislodging it woke her up, as opposed to true love’s kiss. No such luck.

  “I also like Cinderella,” Zoe continued. “I’ve got a cousin, Bethany, she’s kind of like Cinderella. Her step-mother’s horrible.” She looked away, folding her arms as she started to whisper. “Grandma says I’m not allowed to talk about her like that but I know she agrees.”

  “I won’t tell,” Freya assured her.

  Zoe grinned back as her grandmother came into the room with a cup of tea in her hand.

  “Here you go,” she said, passing the tea to Freya.

  “
Thank you,” Freya said before sipping it tentatively. She did her best not to make a face; she really wasn’t a fan of tea.

  “You should come with me to see the fairies in the garden!” Zoe said, tugging on her sleeve once more.

  Her grandma rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. “Children and their fantasies. Though, I suppose, I did believe the exact same thing when I was her age.”

  “Come on! Come on!” Zoe said and Freya followed as her grandma returned to the kitchen.

  “I’m coming,” Freya told her as they headed out into the garden, the stench of strong magic confirming for her that these fairies weren’t just childish daydreams. This girl was interacting with something real.

  “Grandma never believes me about the fairies,” the girl grumbled. “She only stopped believing because her sister went missing when she was little.”

  Freya was only half listening, her mind instead focusing on the fact that she didn’t know much about the Fae. Did they have the same power as Angels?

  Amber appeared by her side. “Don’t let them know your name,” she warned. “Give a false one.”

  Freya gave a small nod to show that she understood as the girl led her to a secluded corner of the garden. Around the hedges, she could see small, glowing orbs flitting around.

  “Peter!” Zoe called as they approached. “Come and meet my new friend.”

  One of the orbs moved to a leaf right in front of Freya, dissolving into a tiny boy with amber butterfly wings.

  He grinned at her. “It’s always good to meet new friends. Might I know your name?”

  “Snow White,” she said, with a smug look. She wasn’t going to pretend that she wasn’t onto them. Hopefully, they would back down once they realised that they wouldn’t be unopposed.

  “Clever,” he praised with a genuine smile, confusing Freya. “But do you truly think I would not know my own blood, Freya Snow? I even know names you do not.”

  Freya raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

  “The name your mother gave you, Freya Diana Snow.”

  “Wait, I have a middle name?” Freya shook her head, trying to focus in on something more important. “Hang on, you said you knew names I didn’t know. As in, plural.”

  He nodded. “You have two more. The name your enemies gave you, and the one your father gave you.”

  She couldn’t stop the burst of hope at the mention of her father. “Tell me.”

  He smirked. “Nothing comes for free, Freya. Not even for family.”

  “Why do you keep calling me your family? I don’t know you.”

  “Your mother did. And I called her mother sister.”

  Amber spoke again at that point. “Fae don’t reproduce. They take children instead. That’s probably their plan for the girl, making fairy tales come to life to convince her to join them willingly.”

  “What do you want?” Freya asked.

  “Simply that you leave us be. We’ll convince the girl to free you from the spell and you can head on your way with enough knowledge to look for your father.”

  Freya looked over to see that other Fae were distracting Zoe.

  “And what of Zoe?” Freya asked. “You’re letting her play with magic to convince her to join you, aren’t you?”

  “Of course,” Peter admitted. “It’s what we do. We won’t take her if she doesn’t want to come.”

  “But what about her family?”

  “You mean the parents who aren’t there and the grandmother who probably doesn’t have many years left? We may have an agenda, but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t what’s best for her.”

  Freya narrowed her eyes, not buying it.

  “You know what it’s like to be an unhappy child,” Peter said. “If Fate didn’t already have plans for you, we would have offered the same thing. Would you honestly not have taken it?”

  “Don’t trust him,” Amber told her. “The Fae are tricksters by nature. Do not think that the girl has any real choice in the matter. Not to mention the harm her playing with magic she doesn’t understand is causing. Just because he can convince her to let you go, doesn’t mean someone else won’t be trapped in a sleeping curse.”

  “I’m sorry,” Freya told Peter. “I can’t let you keep playing with people like this.”

  She stood up to leave. “I need to go, Zoe. I’ll see you, okay?”

  Zoe nodded. “Okay. Bye, Freya!”

  Chapter Nine

  Freya walked straight back to the park without really thinking about it, only realising that she still had the Snow White book in her hand once she was already at the other side. As much as she felt that she should return it, she also wanted to keep it close so that she didn’t forget even a single detail of what was supposed to transpire next.

  “Did you know about Peter?” Freya asked Amber as soon as she had brought her phone to her ear.

  Amber shrugged as she appeared beside her. “What do you mean?”

  Freya rolled her eyes. “You know exactly what I mean. Did you know that I had a... a great-uncle out there somewhere.”

  “I was aware that your mother had an aunt and uncle. Peter lived with the Fae from being a child, but Tilly stayed on Earth. She raised your mother after your grandmother died.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “I don’t know. She died in the other timeline and I was never able to find her in this one.”

  “But why didn’t you tell me about Peter?”

  “Because Fae are not to be trusted.”

  “You say that about all magical creatures,” Freya pointed out.

  “Fae are different. Trust me, Freya, you don’t want to get entangled with them.”

  “I’m already entangled, remember?”

  “All the more reason to try to figure out how to break this spell.”

  Freya hummed in agreement just before hearing someone yell “Oy!”

  She was sure that they weren’t yelling at her, but when she turned to look, she saw a Dwarf standing with her arms folded, glaring at her.

  “You’re not very good at this whole Snow White thing, are you?” the Dwarf asked.

  Freya shrugged. “Not really,” she admitted. “Let me guess, you’re one of the Seven Dwarfs?”

  “Well, I’m not here to screw a rock,” she said, adjusting the strange metal contraption resting on her auburn hair. “I’m Doc. The others are inside.”

  The Dwarf led her to a little cottage. Freya wondered if it had always been there. Was it for the grounds-keeper?

  “We’ve been waiting here since yesterday,” Doc told her.

  “So are you... from the Dwarven Kingdom?”

  “Where else would we be from?”

  “I don’t know. I just... I thought that the Dwarven Kingdom had been sealed off like the rest of the Old Worlds.”

  “It had been. We have no idea how we got here. One minute we were just minding our own business, and then poof. Of course, once we realised there were seven of us, we figured that we were playing out Snow White.”

  Freya frowned. “You guys know about a Human fairy tale?”

  “It’s one of the few with us in it,” Doc told her. “The question is why and how we were brought to a world we supposedly no longer have access to.”

  “Faeries,” Freya explained.

  Doc sighed, shaking her head. “Of course. They’re the only ones with the power and selfishness to bypass the seal.”

  “Selfishness?”

  “The Old Worlds weren’t sealed off for fun, girl. The longer we’re here, the more the seal will weaken. We should be fine for the next week or so, but I don’t want to see what happens after that.”

  “Why? What will happen?”

  “The Shadows will get through.”

  “The Shadows?”

  Doc sighed. “Do they teach you surface-dwellers nothing? The Shadows come from the between spaces. Some even say they are the Creator’s first children. Or maybe one of Her past Creations became corrupted and they were the re
sult. Regardless, they seeped into this Creation, quickly consuming the Vulcan Plains. Caetlin Cohen was given the Power of the Ancients and used it to seal off the Old Worlds, trapping the Shadows. If that seal breaks, well, we won’t be the first Creation to fall to them.”

  “And the stakes keep getting higher. Great.”

  Doc led her inside the cottage and, inside the living room stood six more Dwarves.

  “I found her,” Doc told them.

  “Yeah, how did you do that?” Freya asked.

  Doc lowered the contraption on her head over her eyes, revealing it to be a bronze visor.

  “I used my HoloEye to track the same magic which brought us here. As soon as I saw you, it was obvious.”

  “How did you know I was Snow White and not another fairy tale?”

  “Have you looked in the mirror lately?” a male Dwarf with a gruff, red beard and heavy armour said, a large axe strapped to his back.

  Freya frowned, wondering what the spell had done to change her appearance. She glanced to the mirror over the mantle and saw nothing unusual. Her pale white skin was unblemished and her thick black hair was still in its ponytail.

  Ah, she thought as she realised that she more than looked the part without the spell having to do anything.

  “I suppose introductions are in order,” Doc said, moving her HoloEye back up to her hair. “That’s Warrior,” she said, indicating to the redheaded man.

  He grunted at her nodding.

  “That’s Miner,” she continued, indicating to a woman wearing overalls and a hard-hat, along with a belt with white gadgets, lined with blue lights. She looked like Bob the Builder, if he had worked for Apple.

  “A pleasure,” she greeted.

  “That’s Builder,” Doc said next, indicating to a man in very similar garb to Miner.

  “Glad you’re here.”

  “Then there’s Lawyer.” Doc indicated to the well-dressed woman sitting on the chair.

  “I hope you can get us home,” she said curtly, assessing Freya carefully.

  “Merchant,” Doc continued, indicating to the young man with purple hair and piercings.

  “Hmm,” was all he mustered, barely glancing at her.