Blinding Light: A Sleeping Beauty and Snow Queen Remix

Chapter 19

But none of that really mattered when Viviana considered who lived there.

"This is as far as I'm taking you." Ezra insisted, pointing a blue gloved hand at the ice castle in front of them. "I can't bring myself to go any closer."

Viviana hopped off the snowmobile with Preisha as Santiago and Jeanette skidded to a stop beside them, hopping off the other snowmobile. Preisha pawed at the snow, looking at the ice castle with a challenging glint in her eyes. Viviana knew her familiar was guessing whether or not she'd be able to melt the castle if worst came to worst.

Viviana was sure she could destroy the castle before Preisha even sparked.

Ezra turned the snowmobile around, about to drive away, when she stopped.

"Be careful. Ilsadora Silverstein is an enchantress, not a witch. There's no telling what she's capable of."

With that, Ezra drove off, kicking up snow in her wake as if she was trying to cover up her escape.

Viviana tugged on her hood firmly, and started walking toward the ice castle. "She may be an enchantress. But you should never underestimate a desperate witch."

***

Viviana admittedly didn't bother knocking on the double ice doors.

After scaling the treacherous slippery steps, her only thought was to get inside before she broke something.

The ice doors were surprisingly heavy. All of them had to shove on one to get it to creak open enough for them to slip through.

But nothing about the ice castle's exterior could have prepared them for the interior.

The entrance hall truly was giant, but it was also short. Viviana estimated she could cross the entire thing in thirty steps. Three more staircases branched off from the center entrance. One was straight in front of them, while the other two were on the right and left.

"Where do we go?" Jeanette asked. "This place looks empty. How are we supposed to find Ilsadora?"

To their immense surprise, Santiago shrugged. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"You have answers to everything!" Jeanette hissed, her eyes wide with panic. "Tiago!"

"It's not a wide enough area for a locator spell to work." He protested. "What do you want from me?!"

"Hush, all of you." Viviana snapped. She was already five steps ahead of them. "We go straight."

She started up the steps, ignoring Jeanette and Santiago's protests. They would never have been able to find Ilsadora. Viviana only knew where to go because of her powers.

All she had to do was find another powerful source of magic in the general vicinity, and lock onto it. Then she could follow it through the castle.

If her magic was correct, Ilsadora was on the fifth floor, right above them.

Viviana took numerous staircases, making sure to stay as close to the entranceway as possible. She took rights and lefts when forced to, but otherwise stayed as straight as possible. She knew Santiago and Jeanette were just hopelessly following her. They were lost long before she'd gone up the first staircase.

Viviana burst onto the fifth floor from a side staircase, showering herself with snow as she bumped into a frozen painting from skidding sideways.

An intricate set of frozen double doors were in front of her. It looked like Ilsadora had tacked a twisting snake in between the doors, and wound a thorny rose around it.