Freya Snow Pup Trilogy

by L. C. Mawson

“I didn’t care about any of them.”

  “Then why did you go out with them?”

  “They were distractions.”

  “Distractions? From what?”

  Damon answered her question by closing the space between them, capturing her lips in his.

  If her memories from the Shadow Realm had been at the forefront of her mind before, they were as real to her as her memories from Earth in that moment. Her lips and hands moved with the muscle memory of a thousand kisses between them.

  Damon’s hands moved to the small of her back, clutching at the fabric of her top as he pulled her even closer. She let out a whimpering moan at the move, but was quickly cut off by the faint smell of burning.

  She yanked herself away from Damon to see that their clothing was singed.

  “Probably friction sparks,” she quickly said, relying on Damon’s lack of scientific knowledge to cover up the fact that she had no doubt that the damage had been caused by her magic.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, though he looked a little unwell. “Freya... I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry you kissed me?”

  “Yeah.”

  She gathered up all of her courage in order to say, “I’m not.”

  “I know,” he replied, to her surprise. “I’ve known how you’ve felt about me for months now.”

  Freya felt her insides freeze at that. Had she really been that obvious?

  “Freya, I care about you, but we can’t- There are things about me that you don’t know.”

  “We agreed that secrets were okay,” she reminded him. It had been the only reason she had managed to so easily keep her magic from him over the years. Damon’s father was a nasty piece of work, and, as a result, Damon didn’t like to talk about his past. Hence the acceptance of secrets between them.

  “Freya, I can’t be with you without telling you the truth.”

  “Did you tell the several dozen other girls the truth?”

  “No, but I care about you too much for that.”

  Freya glared at him. “Maybe kissing a girl and then telling her you don’t want to be with her isn’t the best way to cheer her up.”

  She picked her bag back up at that, and stormed out of the door, shifting away as soon as she was around the corner.

  She didn’t have the energy to process what had just happened.

  FREYA WAS STILL STOMPING her feet when she arrived home, but that had more to do with the fact that her legs seemed to have forgotten how to walk properly than anything else.

  That was becoming pretty standard fare for her whenever she was tired, along with almost permanent bruises on her hips from door handles.

  She headed straight for the kitchen, deciding that she was in desperate need of comfort food.

  Margaret, her foster mother, was was rummaging through the cupboards with a carrier bag and, as soon as she saw Freya enter, she quickly threw the carrier bag into the bin outside, as if Freya wouldn’t notice if she was fast enough.

  Freya just found it vaguely amusing. Margaret had always tried to keep the fact that she smoked a secret from Freya. She had been trying to quit for as long as Freya had known her, which meant the occasional clearing out of her hiding spots.

  Of course, it would be more amusing if Freya didn’t know why she was forcing herself through another clean out. Her foster parents were having another stab at getting pregnant, with some help from the doctor. They thought that they were being sneaky about it, but the walls in the house were paper thin and even Freya could tell that they were constantly on edge. Something that Margaret giving up smoking probably wouldn’t help.

  “You’re home early,” Margaret said as she shut the door.

  Freya gave a hum of acknowledgement as she opened the freezer and extracted a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream.

  “Something happen at Damon’s?”

  Freya nodded as she opened the tub before grabbing a spoon from the drawer and starting to eat. Nothing in Margaret’s tone suggested that she was stressed, making it a pleasant change from the new norm. Freya really wasn’t capable of tip-toeing around after the day she’d had.

  “Bowl?” Margaret said pointedly.

  “I’m going to finish it,” Freya told her, to which her foster mother rolled her eyes with a sigh.

  “Alright, seriously, what happened? Did you two have a fight?”

  Freya bought herself time by shoving a large quantity of ice cream into her mouth.

  “Kind of,” she eventually said.

  “Kind of?” Margaret asked with a raised eyebrow. “How do you ‘kind of’ have a fight?”

  Freya shrugged. “I just... He kissed me.”

  “He kissed you?”

  “Yeah. And he said that he liked me, and that he knew that I liked him, but then he said that he didn’t want to date me because he has secrets and it wouldn’t be fair not to tell me them. Whatever that means.”

  “I would take it as a red flag and stay away from him.”

  Freya grumbled at that. She knew that Margaret had a point, but it wasn’t as if she wasn’t keeping things from him as well. Not to mention, if they were together, she wouldn’t be happy about keeping her magic from him, but there was no way for her to tell him.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Freya finally said as she finished the ice cream. “I just...”

  “Really like him?”

  “Yeah...”

  “That doesn’t always mean you’d be good together.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Freya said with a sigh. “I’m going upstairs to get on with my homework.”

  “Speaking of school work, did you get your exam results back yet?”

  “Auferbulum,” Freya said under her breath, only feeling a little bad about using a memory spell on her foster mother as Margaret gave her a blank look before blinking in confusion.

  Freya just really didn’t have the energy to face talking about her results yet.

  “What were we talking about?” Margaret asked.

  “I asked what was for tea.”

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Okay then,” Freya called back as she made her way up the stairs.

  AS SOON AS FREYA MADE it to her room and shut the door, Amber appeared in front of her.

  Ever since the Human she had been possessing had died, Amber had taken to appearing to Freya as a ghost more often. Freya supposed it made sense when no one else could really see her, but it occasionally grated on her nerves as it made all of the times Amber dodged and evaded certain topics and questions all the more obvious.

  “I almost set Damon on fire today,” Freya said as she collapsed onto her bed, not worrying about her foster parents hearing, thanks to the soundproofing charms on the door.

  “Because you were upset?”

  “No, actually. Being upset was okay. He kissed me and I must have started to spark...”

  Amber sighed. “I have warned you that something like this might happen.”

  “I don’t recall you ever saying that kissing was dangerous.”

  “No, but I have warned about your ability to control your powers. They’re fed by emotion, Freya, and you have dealt with that by suppressing your emotions behind a veneer of sarcasm and mild irritation. Nothing gets more than an eye roll or groan from you.”

  “It’s worked well so far.”

  “Yes, it has, but that’s because you haven’t been faced with strong emotions outside of battle since you got your powers. Even exam stress, you vent into fighting Demons. You have no experience with reining in positive emotions of the same force. Once something gets through your walls, Freya, keeping control will not be easy. Most magical beings your age can’t handle having a Human lover without hurting them, and your lack of experience, coupled with your strength, will make it even harder for you.”

  “So you have no good news for me today?”

  “Behold, the veneer of sarcasm and mild irritation.”

  Freya sighed, grabbing her pillow and clutching
it to her chest. “It’s better than crying about it,” she muttered into the fabric as she decided to forgo Demon hunting that night.

  After all, her sister was arriving back in town the next day, and she didn’t want to be beat up when she saw her again.

  Chapter Two

  Freya made her way to the high street early the next morning to meet Alice. She quickly found the cafe she and Alice were supposed to meet at, only for Alice to step outside as soon as she arrived, holding two paper cups of coffee in her hands.

  “Good timing,” Freya noted as Alice passed her the coffee.

  She couldn’t help but almost do a double take at how different her sister looked. Before, she had been a fan of wearing leggings as trousers along with vest tops, as it was one of the only combinations of clothes that didn’t give her sensory issues.

  Plus, she then didn’t have to change for bed.

  Now, however, she was wearing a smart black dress, though Freya noted that it was still made of soft material, with an a-line skirt that didn’t restrict her legs. She had a white trench-coat over the top, with a belt keeping it cinched around her waist, and she had a pair of comfortable-looking Mary-Jane shoes on her feet.

  She was also, surprisingly, wearing make-up, but after a moment to adjust her eyes, Freya realised that it was just a glamour.

  “It’s good to see you again,” Alice said as she passed Freya her coffee. “I thought we could walk while we talked. Fewer prying ears.”

  Freya nodded. The last time she’d seen Alice, she hadn’t had the ability to sense magic, but now she did and it was obvious that Alice wasn’t Human.

  “So, your aunt,” Freya ventured. “Not Human?”

  “No. Not Human.”

  “And she came to get you just as you broke through?”

  “Yes. She and my mother were estranged. My mother had made her promise not to keep track of her in any way and she did as she was asked. She hadn’t even realised she was dead, or that I existed, until...”

  “Until what?”

  “Until things I can’t talk about. I’m sorry.”

  Freya frowned. “So, what are you exactly, if you’re not Human?”

  “What are you?”

  “That’s not fair because I don’t know.”

  Alice frowned. “What do you mean you don’t know? Didn’t Amber tell you?”

  “She said I was a mix of different things. How do you know about Amber?”

  “But you don’t believe her.”

  “What?”

  “You said that Amber said you were a mix of different magical bloodlines. But you said that you don’t know what you are. You think she’s lying.”

  Freya went to fold her arms, before remembering that she was holding coffee. She settled for clutching it protectively as she pretended to examine its temperature, buying herself time before she eventually replied.

  “Yes, I think she’s lying. Amber lies, that’s nothing new. And Mel... Her elemental power is weaker than mine because she’s only half Mermaid. And her spells aren’t as powerful as a pure-blooded Witch’s would be. So if I’m a mix...”

  “How are you so powerful?”

  Freya nodded.

  “And then there’s what your enemies call you. What they suspect you to be.”

  Freya narrowed her eyes. About nine months back, she had come across a Vampyre/Demon hybrid who had talked about an Angel protecting the city. Wondering what the hell he was on about, Freya had decided to chase up the rumours, only to find that the feats people were attributing to the “Angel” had actually been things she had done.

  “How do you know about that? Have you been keeping tabs on me?”

  “Yes,” Alice replied, as if she didn’t see anything wrong with that. “You think they’re right.”

  “They can’t be right,” Freya bit back. “The Angel Twilight scarred the Earth when she died. No more Angels can be born, remember?”

  “She scarred the Earth. You were conceived in the Shadow Realm, to another Angel.”

  Freya frowned. “Another Angel? What do you mean?”

  Alice gave her what amounted to a dumbfounded look for her, though it was the barest widening of her eyes. “Creator, she has literally told you nothing.”

  “Who? Amber?”

  “Yes, Amber. Seriously, Freya, what has she told you about your mother? About your heritage?”

  Freya shrugged. “She told me that my mother was a mix of different magical beings, like me. She didn’t tell me anything about the rest of my family until I met them. I came across my grandmother’s ghost, and Amber told me that she had died because the Ancient who used to inhabit Amber used her as a pawn. And then I met my great-aunt and uncle, and Amber told me that they had joined the Fae after my grandmother died.”

  “And that’s it? She said that Hope died because she was used as a pawn? Doesn’t that, I don’t know, seem vague to you? What does she even mean by that?”

  Freya sighed. “Alice, don’t. I know that Amber keeps things from me, okay? I know that every other thing she says is a lie or a half-truth. But the last time I confronted Amber, I accidentally banished her from Earth. I almost died, Alice. I won’t risk banishing her again.”

  Alice sighed, stopping still to face Freya. “Look, I’m telling you this because I care about you, Freya. You fall back into observation mode when you’re afraid or unsure of what’s going on around you. But it’s been years. Do you even know what you want at this point?”

  “To get through my A-levels without jumping in front of the metro...”

  “That’s not funny, Freya.”

  “It wasn’t a joke,” she muttered sullenly into her coffee. “Maybe I don’t know what I want. But I have no idea what I’m doing! I’m living two very separate lives and I have no idea how this is going to work beyond school. Amber is keeping me in the dark for a reason, which means that there is some kind of ambiguous danger out there...”

  “And you’re committing to a Human life because Amber won’t let you get too far into a magical one, or because you really want to?”

  Freya sighed. “Let me guess, you know about my results?”

  “I’m just saying, you’re putting a lot of focus on Human norms. Do you even want to go to uni? Get a Human job? You’re already making bank as a bounty hunter.”

  Freya frowned. She’d never really thought about that. Amber wasn’t happy with her taking bounty work as it was. She couldn’t imagine telling her that she wanted it as a full time job.

  And did she? It definitely sounded more interesting than slogging through five more years of education, but it would also probably shorten her lifespan.

  “What about you?” Freya asked. “Have you given up university for a magic job?”

  “Yes. There are magical beings in positions of power who know how to put our powers to good use.”

  “And by ‘good use’, you mean ‘for capitalist gain’?”

  “Have you been on the communist side of Tumblr again?”

  “I got sucked into a link-hole last week...”

  “Look, I just want you to stop shying away from getting what you want, Freya.”

  “And if I don’t know what I want?”

  “Because you don’t have enough knowledge?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Then get knowledge.”

  Freya sighed. “Why is it that you’re always pushing me to do things? It has a habit of making my life much more complicated.”

  “Because I’m your big sister and, if I don’t do it, no one else will.”

  “Fair point.”

  “Now, seriously, do yourself a favour and ask Amber about Hope. She’s keeping things from you and she has no right to. Not when you’ve spent so long looking for your family.”

  “Okay, I’ll ask her.”

  Alice nodded, taking her phone out to check the time. “I’d better head out if I don’t want to miss my train.”

  “Wait, train? You’re leaving? You just got here.
”

  Alice smiled. “Just for a little while. There’s a storm coming, and I can’t be here when it hits.”

  “Could you be more cryptic?”

  “Yes.”

  “Awesome.”

  “Amber’s right, you do rely on sarcasm too much.”

  Freya narrowed her eyes. “Let me guess, I’m going to be right in the middle of the storm?”

  “Attracting trouble does seem to be an inherited trait in your family.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ve taken the hint, I’ll talk to Amber about Hope.” Freya tipped her cup upside down to get out the last of her coffee before turning back to Alice. “So, when will you be back?”

  Alice shrugged. “That depends on you.”

  “Do you have any other advice for me? Anything else you can tell me about this ‘storm’?” She made a particularly exaggerated use of air quotes.

  “Don’t let them take your happy ending.”

  Alice shifted away at that, just as Freya remembered that she had never gotten to the bottom of what exactly Alice was.

  Her phone rang before she could think too hard on it, her screen informing her that it was Mel.

  “Yeah?” she answered, only realising that it came off as abrupt after the word had left her mouth.

  “Hey, Freya. You okay?”

  “Why?” Freya cursed herself. That wasn’t right. She took a deep breath before starting again. “Sorry, I meant to say ‘fine’. I’m fine.” After a moment, she remembered to add, “You?”

  “I’m good. I’m just calling to give you a heads up.”

  Freya sighed, assuming that this was the storm Alice had been referring to.

  When did her sister get such impeccable timing?

  “A heads up?”

  “You know how the city has a higher level of background magic than usual?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Something has tipped the scales and now there’s an excess of magic.”

  “Which means...?”

  “We’re not exactly sure. My Coven Head thinks it’ll probably be nothing, but your magic might be a little stronger for a while. It might be much easier to tap into, which might mean you’ll use it by accident. There’s also a chance that Sensitive Humans might have access to magic too.