The Heart of Winter

"Wait a moment." His voice was soft and insistent. It seemed also that I heard the words inside my mind, their tendrils brushing gently against my consciousness.

I knew I should disobey, but my breath caught in my throat. Midnight hair fell across his temple, while eyes just as dark observed me in silence. Something smouldered beneath the surface, some otherworldly quality I couldn't name. Every instinct was screaming at me to run.

I didn't move.

*

Sixteen-year-old Frida lives in a small, isolated village. Knowing her parents would disapprove, she studies runecraft in secret. One day, an encounter with a mysterious man in the forest causes her to question everything she had always believed to be true up until now...and she discovers that her ordinary life may not be quite so ordinary after all.

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Fantasy novella, updates every Friday.
Cover image credit: Winter snow in forest by needanewname.deviantart.com
http://needanewname.deviantart.com/art/Stock-Winter-snow-in-forest-253588308