Iron Queen - Clan of the Rim Chronicles #3

1

As I continued to feel around my chest, my hand found Calder's pendant he'd given me which pooled tears in my eyes again. I'd forgotten I was even still wearing it with everything that had happened. The unmeltable icy snowflake made from his magic felt dull in my fingertips, not like it had before whenever Calder or the essence of his powers were near. It didn't glow no matter how much I touched it. Perhaps it was because I was so far from him now, or because...no. I couldn't go there in my thoughts. I wouldn't dare.

I began to take a slow look around my surroundings. I didn't think I would ever see this home again. How many months, days, hours had passed since I was brought to Vinter? I knew time moved quicker in the realm than it did in the human world, but by exactly how much? How long had Blane been dead now? Was he still a frozen statue upstairs? Had my 6 months in the realm been but a blink of an eye here?

I looked over at the small desk clock sitting on the hallway table, ticking away in the silence. 9:00 p.m. I remembered that at this time of night Hanir and Linnea always watched the nightly news channel.

I got up and quietly walked into the kitchen to get to the living room, stopping abruptly when I saw the yellow police tape covering the patio doors.

So time had moved at least a little. Police had found Blane's body, and I was surely now named a suspect on the run. I felt an ache in my chest for his family, his friends, what they must be going through after his murder. It was another thing that was my fault that I couldn't reverse. How long had the police been looking for me? Did they think I had killed Hanir and Linnea as well? Did they find their bodies too, or even the knights Hanir and Linnea and Calder had taken down?

I stepped into the living room and walked over to the television, hoping the power in the house was still running. Clicking the remote it glowed to life and lit up the dark room, and I closed the window curtains just in case the house was under surveillance outside.

The local news channel was the first thing to appear on the screen, the female news anchor's mouth moving silently with a generic crime scene illustration shown in a square next to her head. I shakily turned the volume up just loud enough for only my ears.

"Good evening, this is your local Channel 5 news, I'm Vanessa Lorrianne. We begin our broadcast tonight with a new update about the ongoing investigation of the murder of local high school student Blane Malcaroy. It's been three months now since the seventeen year old high school soccer player was found dead in a home on Hollow Road.

The home belonged to Harold and Linda Arnesen and their daughter Eerika Arnesen. Mr. Malcaroy had visited the Arnesen home after school on February 18th and didn't return home that evening after the snowstorm anomaly that shocked the city of Phoenix.

With powerlines down he was unable to be tracked by cell phone and was declared missing for two days before his body was finally found inside the home. Two other bodies who were mutilated beyond first identification were also found inside. They were eventually declared to be Harold and Linda Arnesen based on key features given to investigators by a close friend of their daughter Eerika."

Jessi...because Hanir and Linnea had been in hiding with me they hadn't made friendships in the city and Hanir worked from home. They never attended my school functions and no one paid attention to them in the grocery store. We had no neighbors and of course no family...Jessi was the only other person close enough to know what they really looked like. She had to be the one to identify them...I couldn't imagine how much this all had traumatized her, when I had nearly forgotten all about her while I was in Vinter. I felt sick to my stomach knowing the iron knights had done such a gruesome thing to Hanir and Linnea after Calder had rescued me.