Cursed

Chapter 4

The fall seemed to last forever.

Winter saw her life flashing before her eyes in seconds. Every single good moment, every bad moment, every in-between moment, all of it. As soon as her foot came off the edge of that cliff, she knew that it was the end. 

A small part of her didn't care. 

Suddenly Winter heard a loud thump and a scream. It was several moments later when she realized it was her that was screaming. Her back was burning, yet it was so cold at the same time. She lifted her shaking hands to check to see if she was alive. She pinched her skin. Ouch! Yep, definitely alive. 

Winter slowly pulled herself up to see where she landed. The ground was cold - so cold - and Winter found herself shivering without her warm coat. She looked down at the ground and gasped. 

Underneath her was a giant block of shimmering ice, floating in the middle of the air. She didn't know how it got there or how it was even possible. She wiped the tiny ice cubes that were stuck to her off of her hands and pushed herself to a sitting position. This proved to be more difficult than she thought, considering the ice was freezing cold and slippery and she had just survived a massive dive off a cliff.

"Oh good, dearie, you're finally awake," Winter heard Emma's voice say up above.

"I blacked out?" Winter asked. Everything seemed to happen within a few minutes. She was surprised to hear that she had actually passed out. "I didn't even notice."

"You were out for a good half-hour," Emma said. She drifted down to stand on the ice with Winter. "Good job saving yourself, by the way. This was not the ideal way to cheat death, but I suppose it works."

"Wait," Winter said, confused. "I saved myself? I thought you helped me!"

"Oh, no, dear," Emma said, handing Winter a coat. "I can't control ice. You did that yourself. It appears that your name is very appropriate for the power you possess."

"Why did you do that?" Winter asked. "Why did you make Summer stay where she was and not be able to help me? Why did you nearly kill me to try and make me use my powers? Why were you acting like an insane person out there? You could've killed me! I thought I was going to die!"

"Winter," Emma said, "I'm not a murderer. I wasn't going to let you die. If it came to it, I would've helped you. And I made you save yourself because you were the one who didn't believing that you could harness powers. Summer has believed the whole time."

"So you were trying to get me to believe," Winter said. "Sounds like a story from a children's book."

"Yet it worked, darling," Emma said, smiling. "You wielded your power and cheated death."

"But I don't know I did it," Winter said, tears coming to her eyes. "It's great that I made this ice, but I don't know how I made it. I doubt I can do it again, at least not with the knowledge of it."

"That's your problem," Emma sighed. "You doubt yourself too much."

Winter pulled herself up to stand on the ice. "You have to help me, Emma," she pleaded. "You have to teach me to control it. You have to teach me how to do it at my will."

"Now, now, dear," the sorceress said, "we will get to that. For now you have to learn to understand your power. Learn what you can do."

Emma took Winter's arm and carried her up to the cliff edge, and then transported them back into Julian's house. When they arrived, Julian was standing there to greet them. 

"Hello, girls," Julian said, acting very calm. Almost too calm. "How was your training session with Emma?"

"I nearly died."