I whipped out my ice sword, holding it out in front of me as I braced myself for the other assassin to attack. Instead, she took three steps into the motel room, her eyes glittering maliciously.
"I'm here to take you home to Your Majesty, young prince." She told Glen, her voice sneering. "Queen Titania is very worried about you."
Glen made a laughing noise in the back of his throat.
"I'll believe that when I see it, Leena." He replied. "You should tell my mother that I won't likely be home for dinner, though."
The assassin, Leena, turned to me. Her billowing red hair seemed to crackle with energy.
"As for you, knight, my queen requests to see you too. She'll greatly enjoy watching her son's kidnapper getting turned into a sprite."
I shot Glen a pointed glare.
"See? I knew they'd say kidnapping!" I exclaimed in annoyance.
Leena shrugged. "My queen also told me that if killing you was the best option, I could do so."
My wings unfurled out of the holes in my jacket, humming.
"Listen," I snapped. "You have no idea what's really going on. If I were you, I would take your little brother and leave before things get ugly."
Leena threw back her head and giggled darkly.
"Your threat doesn't faze me, little girl." She said. "I have orders. I intend to follow them or die in the process."
"This isn't going to be a good day at work, then." Glen snickered.
Closing his eyes, I watched as his entire body was engulfed in blinding light. It took me a moment to realize that Glen was morphing.
Especially advanced casters learn the art of morphing; a spell that allows them to shape shift into their animal that represents their spirit. It was one of the most complicated spells in the book, and I blinked in shock as I stared into the eyes of a majestic falcon hovering in the air once the light faded from the room.
Glen now had specked feathers and milky white wings, his pointed beak opening as he let out a shrill cry. His eyes were the same, though. Those large green orbs still glittered with mischief as he extended his talons and dove towards Leena.
Caught off guard, the assassin flailed her arms in the air trying to wave Glen off as he tried to claw her eyes out. I took that moment to lunge forward while she was still distracted. Taking one of my Cold Poison knives, I plunged it into Leena's back. She let out a blood curdling scream. I felt chills ripple down my spine as Leena's hair seemed to explode, her red curls flaming in agony. The assassin collapsed to the carpet and I pulled the blade out, trying to ignore the scarlet blood coating the metal.
She fell heavily, gasping and twitching. Glen the falcon flapped his wings over her convulsing body, gazing at me with surprised, narrowed eyes.
"Don't worry." I reassured him. "She's not going to die...I think."
Cold Poison had an interesting way of working. It was first created in the mountain of the snow witch, a mysterious sorceress. When it came in contact with any material, it would freeze it entirely in ice. Basically, Leena was going to become a faerie popsicle. I could already see the frostbite covering her fingers, turning them a frightening shade of bluish purple. Her lips were next, and the color drained from them as her teeth chattered. The assassin reached out towards me with murder in her eyes, but the ice was already working its magic. It crept up her feet and over her ankles, caging her legs.
Leena gave me a look that could kill.
"This isn't over, little girl." She seethed. "Nanos will find you and kill you. Summer Court needs its prince, and you've taken him from them."
"For the last time," I sighed. "I didn't kidnap Glen. He would be the most obnoxious hostage on earth if I did."
In response, Glen the falcon let out a screech.
Leena's whole body started shivering as the ice froze her torso. I could see her limbs frozen in place as the ice engulfed her, making its way up her neck. With one last scream, the assassin was completely trapped in ice. Her face was set in a permanent yell of rage, and through the frosted layers I could see her eyes faintly darting around. The Cold Poison had finished its task. She was still alive, but Leena wouldn't be chasing after us any time soon.
Strapping the knife back on me, I turned to Glen.
"We need to go to the woods." I told him. "The other hunter is probably after us. We can lose him in there and maybe find a clue about the sprites."
Glen's head bobbed in understanding. He opened his falcon wings and perched on the windowsill, staring at me expectantly. I tugged open the window, letting the warm summer breeze drift inside. Without hesitation Glen the falcon leaped into the night. He swooped over the treetops with a triumphant cry. I followed him, jumping out of the motel and letting my wings do the rest.
They rode the air currents perfectly, and I flapped my wings quickly, wanting to create as much distance from the motel as I could. Glen was ahead of me, cawing. We were gliding over the trees, and I tried to take a breath even though my mind was surging. Leena's brother, Nanos, I hadn't seen since he broke into the motel shop. I glanced back over my shoulder at the motel that was fading slowly from view. Where could he have gone?
Wings fluttering, falcon Glen banked right until he was flying next to me. His head was swiveling back and forth as well, and I knew that he was just as uneasy as I was.
"I like it when you're a falcon." I told him. "You talk a lot less."
I got a shrill shriek of annoyance in reply.
"Sorry birdbrain, I couldn't resist." I apologized, although I wasn't sorry at all.
I sank a little lower into the treeline, hoping that it would decrease my chances of being spotted. I was still on high alert. If searching for the sprites wasn't dangerous enough, now the faerie courts were sending hunters after us. I was still angry about Glen putting us both in danger by following me, but I knew that there was nothing I could do about it. Glen was stubborn. Probably as stubborn as me.
I weaved through the pine trees, careful not to slam into any branches. Below on the forest floor was an elegant deer that bounded away at the sight of me. Thankfully the cops were gone, and there were no patrol cars or uniformed officers in sight. I breathed a sigh of relief. Glen let out a small cry to get my attention, and I followed the falcon's gaze to the town which sat quietly nearby. We were here.
I felt my nerves buzzing, bouncing around in my insides as we drew closer.
Suddenly, I heard Glen let out a loud and frightened shriek beside me. I didn't have any time to move. I felt something heavy slam into me like a ton of bricks, and the wind was knocked out of me in a strangled gasp. It was Leena's brother, Nanos. His eyes were alight with murder, and his wings vibrated as his fist collided with my cheek.
My head was whipped to the side as tears of pain sprang into my eyes.
"That was for my sister, you witch." Nanos growled.
Struggling to stay in the air, I drew my sword.
"You know if you thaw her in time, she'll be fine," I told him. "Hopefully."
I dove at him, but my blade missed his exposed skin and collided with his golden armor. Nanos let out a roar as his armor dissolved into ice, and the shards rained down hundreds of feet to the forest floor. In the back of my mind I was wondering if this fighting would tear my short shorts.
Glen swooped in, his feathered wings slicing through the air, but Nanos backhanded the falcon easily. Spinning away with a cry of agony, Glen dropped out of view.
I knew that I couldn't fly away, surely Nanos would catch me at some point. I could only hover there, suspended in the night sky as the assassin took his bow and slammed it against my knees. They crumpled beneath me, pain jolting up them, and I let out a yell as Nanos grabbed my neck. The sky was above me, and far below was the earth. To my horror, Nanos folded his wings, and as his meaty hands were choking me, we plummeted down.
The wind was ripping through me and I couldn't breathe as the assassin and I fell towards the woods. I tried grappling with him, but he forced me down. The trees were rushing up to meet us at lightning fast speed. It suddenly dawned on me why he was doing this as my eyes locked onto his. Nanos was going to drive me into the earth, and I knew that if I didn't escape I would die instantly on impact.
Panicking, I punched him hard in the eyes but with little avail. Gravity was sucking us down, and I screamed as we hurtled past the trees in a blur. I tried throwing open my wings, but the wind tore them to my sides uselessly. The ground was getting closer and closer, and we weren't slowing down. Nanos was gritting his teeth or grinning, I couldn't tell.
Thirty feet...
Twenty feet...
Ten feet...
WHOOOSH!
My eyes widened as an arrow went through Nanos' back. I stared at it's black fletchings as the assassin let out a gasp of surprise. Blood dribbled from his mouth, droplets landing on my face like warm, red rain. His eyes rolled back in his head. Nanos went limp, and his grip on my throat lessened. I could only watch as the assassin tumbled down past me, slamming into the ground. I heard the sound of something cracking as his limbs bent in unnatural angles.
That was going to be me in two seconds.
I struggled, trying uselessly to open my wings with no results. I tumbled towards the ground, the wind blowing tears out of my eyes. I was dead already. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch the impact when it came. I tried not to imagine my entire body breaking, my bones snapping as the life drained out of me. I imagined it anyway.
Suddenly, I felt arms lock around me, embracing me from below. Someone had caught me.They broke my fall, just a little. With a grunt, my savior slammed into the ground, me landing hard on top of them. For a moment, I kept my eyes closed and lay there, gasping. I was alive. I was actually alive.
Slowly, the frantic screaming in my head subsided, and I realized that the person was still holding me tightly. I was also still on top of them. My eyes snapped open and I came face to face with a pair of gray eyes, the shade of the sky on a winter's day. My heart stopped. I knew those eyes. I would know those eyes anywhere. My gaze traveled upwards, and I saw his jet black hair, longer and more unruly than I had last seen it. His face was pale, his lips parted in surprise as if he wasn't entirely sure how he had rescued me. I noticed that there was a quiver strapped to his back, with arrows identical to the one that shot Nanos.
My eyes slowly traveled back to his face, my thoughts sluggish. He was older now, much more strong, tall and handsome than the boy that used to be my best friend years ago. The boy that took away everything that I loved years ago.
I froze for a moment, overcome with shock and grief and madness. In an instant it all came back, the memories of blood and death and screams from when I was just thirteen years old. It had all been his fault. Everything.
With a heart wrenching scream, I shoved myself away from him, and I drew my sword. I pointed it straight at his heart. The blade poked through his soft white shirt as he looked up at me, surprisingly calm. But I saw it behind his eyes. The guilt. I could sense it lingering there, but I didn't care. I never thought I would see him again, not after his fate. But here he was. Still living. Still breathing.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now, Diandre." I whispered.
He took a breath.
"You have every right to kill me." He told me softly. "But I have to tell you something first."
"No." I seethed. "You don't have to tell me anything. I still know what you did. I still hate you for it."
A flicker of hurt flashed across Diandre's face, but he wiped it away.
"Marissa, listen-"
"Why should I listen to you? What are you doing out here, anyway?"
Diandre looked around the woods nervously.
"They don't know I'm here." He told me in a low voice. "You have to be quiet."
"Who doesn't know that you're here, the monsters like you?" I spat.
Hot hate began pouring out of my mouth, dripping like acid. My hand trembled slightly as I pressed the tip of the sword against his chest. "You have no idea what you did to me." My voice broke and fell as I finished the sentence, but I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "It's because of you that I don't have a family anymore."
I couldn't block out the memories any longer. They forced themselves into the spotlight in my mind, stark and bright. I had no choice but to let them in.
I had grown up on the outskirts of Winter Court where the city and Mab's palace were out sparkling in the distance. My small home was right on the edge of the vast wood that stretched across the entire realm through both Winter and Summer kingdoms, called the Grimwood. All through my childhood I would run through the Grimwood with my brother Hall and Diandre, playing in the snow and pretending that we ruled the world. We could never venture that far, though, because we were warned that dangerous creatures were in the depths of the Grimwood.
Dinandre was always at my side growing up. I knew him better than anyone, he was my best friend for years. He lived right next door, and each day we would beg my parents to teach us how to become warriors.
My father was a retired knight that used to be Queen Mab's personal guard, and my mother was the strongest caster in the army. They were both remarkable and powerful, showing Dinadre and Hall how to practice magic and me how to fight. They were some of the most famous fighters in the realm, but their titles weren't as important to me as the one I called them: mother and father. I loved them, I loved them so much that I remember my face glowing every time that they told me they were proud of me.
Diandre and I both got admitted to Winter Academy when we turned twelve. It was the highest honor going to the most prestigious school in the land, and we both excelled in our studies our first year. Everything was perfect. But I know now that perfection never lasts long.
I had just turned thirteen when all the students were able to return home to their families for the week. I was reunited with my mother and father, and I told them all about my adventures and the obnoxious prince Glen who dropped spiders in my book bag. Hall also returned home from his training academy, a smaller one than mine, but he was different. He was more quiet, always closing his eyes and whispering to himself, but my parents assured me that he was just fighting his own battles in life.
I recall that it was a lovely evening where the sun made the snow glitter when Diandre and I ventured out into the Grimwood. Hall told us that he was too old to run around in the woods, so it was just the two of us. The sun was just starting to set, splashing light blues and pinks across the skies as I walked alongside Diandre. We were bumping shoulders, laughing about our plans to get revenge on Glen once we got back to the Academy when Diandre packed a snowball in his gloved hands and lobbed it at me.
I giggled as cold powder exploded in my face.
"You're gonna pay for that!" I screamed as I chucked a snowball back at him as hard as I could.
The fight continued for an hour as we darted through the trees, not knowing that we were going deeper in the woods. Once we had collapsed into an exhausted heap on top of each other, Diandre smiled warmly up at me, his wings fluttering. I smiled back, my heart beating strangely in my chest.
"Marissa! Diandre! Come inside!" Hall called from my house far away, his voice carried by the wind.
I stood up, brushing snow out of my hair.
"Of course Hall is getting worried as usual." I sighed. "Ever since he went off to school he's been acting all afraid lately. Puberty is making him worse than my mother."
Diandre laughed. "I bet your brother is just watching out for you." He explained. "You know how he gets, the poor guy still has nightmares all the time."
I nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just worried about him sometimes."
Behind us, a flock of birds flew squawking into the air. I suddenly felt uneasy.
"We should probably get back." I said. "I think we went a little to far away from our houses."
Diandre made a noise of agreement in the back of his throat. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he groaned to himself.
"I left my hat back by the rocks." He explained with realization. "My mother is going to kill me!"
"Of course you lost your hat." I sighed, rolling my eyes, but I was still smiling. "Do you want me to go back with you to get it?"
"I'll be fine, I know my way back." Diandre replied with a dismissive gesture. "Besides, Hall is probably ready to send a search party out for us soon if you don't go back home."
"You're probably right." I snickered.
With that, I waved goodbye and made my way through the Grimwood back to my house. But I remember how I had glanced back at some point to find that Dinadre was gone. To this day, I regret not following him.
It was that night when my family was gathered at the dinner table, laughing over stories of my mother's quests when she was a caster.
"It's true!" My mother exclaimed as she took a sip of water. "That merman was so in love with me he tried tricking me into trading my legs for a tail!"
My father snorted in his seat next to Hall. "Of course, being your mother's boyfriend I had to fight him off."
My mother made a face at him.
"You fought him, but I was the one that broke his nose." She grinned fondly.
I giggled, and even my quiet older brother surrendered a small smile. It was a family dinner just like every other ordinary family dinner, until there was a loud bellow that shook the entire house. The table vibrated, sending silverware clattering to the floor. Outside the window, the trees themselves shuddered.
My jaw fell in horror. Hall's fists clenched and his eyes filled with terror as my parents exchanged glances.
"Marissa," my father told me, turning deathly serious. His smile from moments ago had vanished. "I want you to go in the basement and stay there. Don't come out, understood?"
"Mother, father, what's going on?" Hall asked our parents frantically.
"Hall, we may need you, son." My mother said to him. "You're fifteen now, and your spells might come in handy."
"Why can't I go?" I whined, but I was interrupted by an ear shattering roar.
My entire family covered their ears.
"The city could be in danger, if this is what I think it is." My father said grimly. "We need to investigate."
My father darted into his bedroom and reappeared with his ice sword. His face was set determinedly in stone. My mother rubbed her hands together, and blue light sparkled between her palms. Hall, his eyes wide, grabbed his cloak and followed my parents out the door. The three of them opened their wings.
"Marissa, get inside." Hall ordered me urgently.
His face was vivid with fear, and I couldn't help but wonder if my brother knew something that I didn't.
I stood in the doorway, watching as my family flew towards the source of the terrible noise. Inside the house, chairs and objects were falling to the floor as the ground continued to tremble. I had no idea what creature would be large enough to create an earthquake just by walking.
I snatched up my ice sword and sprinted out of the house.
I was going to find out.
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