He leaves the sleigh by the gates as we get out. I weakly walk up to the gates.
“Let us in!” I shout.
“It’s the queen!” I heard them exclaim.
They open the gates and close them right behind us. We are greeted by a guard.
“Were is Anna?” I ask him.
“Your highness, everyone is locked in the dungeon.” He whispers.
“Then we have no time to lose.” I mutter.
We hurry to the dungeon, Hans helping me along if I need it. When we reach the dungeons, I search for the keys, they aren’t were they normally are.
I find a guard, but he isn’t one of my guards.
“Ah, the Duke’s been expecting you.” He says, taking my arm.
“Let go of me!” I order.
“I don’t take orders from you.” He retorts.
“Yes you do, I am your queen.” I hiss.
“You are not my queen.” He mutters before pulling me towards the steps.
I lift my hand and watch as ice slips onto the floor, the guard slips before dropping me. I land with a groan. Hans takes his sword out and aims at the guard.
“Where are the keys?” He asks.
“You should just kill me, I’ll never reveal the location.” The guards replies.
“Don’t think I won’t…” Hans warns.
“Do it then.”
Hans brings his sword to the guard’s arm, leaving a nasty gash.
“Let me repeat myself, where are the keys?” Hans repeats as the guard shrieks in pain.
The guard doesn’t reply. Hans stabs his hand, the guard screams.
“Where are the keys?” Hans asks again.
“I’ll never tell you anything.” The guard whimpers.
“Where should I stab him next?” Hans mutters, rolling his eyes.
“Hans…” I whisper.
I push in front of Hans gently, then I kneel next to the guard.
“I don’t know why you won’t just tell us where the keys are, haven’t you seen the damage I can do?” I ask him.
“Get away from me.”
“Look, we just want to know where the keys are. If you tell us that information, we will leave and you are free to go.” I explain. “Don’t you think that is better than having Hans stab you somewhere else?” I add.
“The Duke.” He says quietly.
“What?” I ask.
“The Duke has the keys.” I hear him repeat.
“Well, we come on.” I say.
I walk through the hall with Hans and one of my guards. We rush and look at all the cells. Most of them are empty, except for a few at the end of the hall. All the servants and staff are locked up in two cells, then in the cell at the very end Kristoff is locked up.
“Elsa!” Kristoff exclaims.
“Hey Kristoff.” I greet.
“How do you plan on getting through the gate without a key?” Hans asks.
“Like this.” I reply, bring my hands up and letting the ice slide off my finger. I watch as it hits the lock with force, freezing it. “Give me your sword.” I tell Hans.
I take his sword and bring it down on the lock. It snaps and breaks. I pull the cell door open. I go over to the other two cells and release all the staff.
“Be careful, try not to be seen. Go to the Ice Castle on the North Mountain, you’ll be safe there.” I explain to them. They nod and go off.
“Where’s Anna?” I ask.
“The Duke took her captive. She’s in the tower.” Kristoff hisses.
“Where is he?” I glare.
“He is in the Throne Room.” Kristoff explains.
“Well let’s go.” I say.
We all head to the Throne Room, Kristoff and Hans armed with swords. I stand up as tall as I can, but limp as we enter the large room.
“Release Anna!” I order as my voice echoes through the room.
The Duke looks at me with a pleased smile.
“Well, I was looking forward to when you’d gather the courage to pursue me.” He tells me.
“I’m ready to kill you. Now where is Anna!” I shout.
“Anna, oh, she’s fine. She is well guarded. No one is going to get to her, including you.” He mutters.
I am ready to kill him, but refrain. He looks me in the eyes, as if telling me to just do it.
“Release her.” I say.
“No thank you.” He replies.
“Last chance.” I warn.
“Test me Elsa. I’m ready.” He hisses.
I lift my hand to strike, but nothing escapes from my hand. I bring them down.
“You can’ use your magic here Elsa.” The Duke smirks.
I don’t know what to do. Hans walks towards me, but I just walk towards the Duke. I watch as his guard stands in front of me. I stop.
“You’re nothing now Elsa. You are nothing without your powers.” He snarls. “Take her away.” He orders the guard.
I turn and run the best I can. The guard’s hand grips my arm and I fight to escape his grip. Hans rushed to me and pulls out his sword.
“Don’t do it Hans. I’ll have her eliminated right here.” The Duke warns Hans.
He stops and looks at me. I hear the Duke clap and then laugh.
“This is precious.” He exclaims. “Don’t disappoint yourself Hans, she isn’t worth it.” The Duke laughs.
Hans glares at him as I feel my face redden. I continue to struggle against the guard’s hold, though. He simply applies pressure to my wound and I shrivel in pain. He pulls me away, out of the room. He takes me up to the tower and throws me into the top room. I hear the door slam shut. I don’t have the energy to get up, my wound hurts too much. I hear a faint groan.
“Elsa?” I hear Anna ask.
“Oh my gosh, Anna?” I reply.
“Hi Elsa.” She whispers.
“What happened to you?” I question, sitting up, despite the pain to face my sister.
Her cheeks were stained with tear streaks, but they looked more like burns. Her hair was in an extremely messy braid. My sister scared me.
“I don’t know.” She replies.
I look around at the walls of the tower, they are decorated with burns, as if a fire had occurred.
“What did they do to you?” I whimper.
“After you left, they took me up here and locked me in here. I haven’t seen daylight since.” She murmurs.
“No, what happened to your cheeks? And the walls?” I ask.
Anna’s face cringes.
“Elsa… I have fire powers.” She whispers, ashamed.
I didn’t know what to say. Anna has fire powers? How does that even work? How do I have ice powers and Anna has fire powers? I went to go over to her, but let a shriek of pain escape my lips.
“Elsa, you’re bleeding.” Anna pointed out.
I looked down. True enough, my wound had reopened and blood was leaving it. I wince with every movement. I run my hand over it, numbing the pain for now, but I was still bleeding.
“Anna, we need to get out of here.” I say.
“There’s no way out.” She sighs back.
“We have to find some way.” I reply.
“Elsa, there’s no way out. I’ve tried.” She tells me.
“Anna, help me up. We have to try.” I argue.
She walks over to me and helps me up. I walk towards the door. Anna takes her hand, a fireball appears, and she blasts the door.
“See, nothing.” She says.
I take my hand and send an ice blast at the door, freezing it. The hinges are frozen solid, if I could apply enough pressure, we could get the door open. I look at the spot where Anna had hit the door.
“Anna, do that again.” I tell her.
“Do it where?” She asks.
“Right there, on the hinges.” I explain.
She takes the fire in her hand and sends it to the hinges. The hinges snap in half and the door falls down. We walk out of the room and I head towards the dungeons.
“Why are we going here?” Anna asks.
“We have to get to Kristoff and Hans.” I say.
“Kristoff is alive?” Anna gasps.
“Yes.” I reply.
“They said he was dead.” She whimpers.
“It’s okay. He’s fine.” I tell her.
We walk all the way down to the dungeons. I find them in the first cell.
“Elsa?” Hans exclaims.
“Anna?” Kristoff asks.
I blast the gate open and watch as Kristoff embraces Anna. I watch Hans walk to me, he takes in my wound.
“Are you okay?” He asks.
“I’m okay.” I nod, looking down at the floor.
He puts his hand under my chin and has me look him in the eyes.
“Elsa?” He asks.
“Yes?” I whisper.
“Guys, come on, we need to get out of here.” Kristoff says.
Hans looks away, moving his hand. I sigh once he walks towards the steps. We all go up the stairs and leave the dungeons. We travel out of the castle, avoiding everyone. I lead us outside towards the stables. We put a draft horse on a sleigh and then are gone. We ride off over the fjord. Hans steers the horse towards the North Mountain.
“Elsa, you can build another castle right?” Kristoff asks.
“Yeah, I can try.” I reply.
“No. She’s injured. We can’t ask her to use that much energy on that.” Hans argues.
“Just go to the North Mountain. We’ll stay there temporarily and then leave.” I offer.
“Sounds like our best option.” Anna agrees.
We ride closer to the mountain and then finally find our way to my castle. The sleigh halts in front of it. The doors to the entrance are wide open. I can feel myself go wide eyed.
“Stay here.” Hans tells Anna and I.
He and Kristoff go into the castle and check to make sure no one is there. Anna helps me out of the sleigh and we walk to the entrance. I gasp at what awaits us. All the servants we told to hide here are slaughtered. I let my hand cover my mouth.
“It’s safe!” Kristoff calls.
We walked up the stairs and I showed Anna and Kristoff which room they could stay in. I went into my room, leaving the door open in case Anna needed anything. I stood on my balcony. I heard someone come in, and I expected it to be Anna. It wasn’t, it was Hans.
“Hans?” I ask.
“Elsa, I wanted to thank you.” He tells me.
“For?”
“Today, but I also wanted to apologize.” He whispers, standing next to me on the balcony.
“Why?” I question him.
“Because, it’s my fault they took you away.” He sighs.
“Hans... You don’t need to be sorry.” I promise.
“Yes I do, it’s my fault that they hurt you.”
“I was already wounded. That had nothing to do with you.” I reply. “Besides, without me being taken up to the tower, I never would have gotten to Anna.” I add, looking down at the floor again.
“Elsa, back in Arendelle, in the dungeon, I wanted to tell you something…” He starts. “I wanted to tell you, that,” he seems at a loss for words.
He takes in a deep breath and puts his hand under my chin, having our gazes meet. The gap between us shrinks, then he kisses me. When he pulls away, he turns to walk away. I grab his hand.
“Hans, don’t leave.” I plead.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” He promises before going into his room.
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There we go, the romance has finally reached a new stage. I'm in love with writing this book, I hope y'all are as happy with it as I am. The song I chose for this was A Thousand Years by Christina Perri