Page 23 of This Frozen Heart

Then, as I’m still trying to sort things out in my mind despite the pressure on my chest, the lack of breath, and the drip of warm blood, I hear something.

Instead of wind, there is the sound of an almost Heavenly choir. It’s still distant, but it’s growing louder.

Kay looks down at me. “You can hear that, too, can’t you? You didn’t just send me to the Third Heaven, right?”

I shake my head as I remember all the tales. One always hears the Snow Queen before seeing her. “It’s the Snow Queen. She’scoming.”

He must see the desperation in my eyes, because he heaves himself off me, knife and all. Then Kay tugs me to my feet.

My boots are barely on before he’s tugging me out the door, the cuff on his wrist but the knife still in his shoulder. As it is, I’m holding my fur cap, not wearing it.

Kay swings the door open and tugs me out. I close the door behind us, and then we’re both rushing through the snow.

I can’t see her yet, but the choir is growing louder. It is dusk, so hopefully the darkness will disguise us and our footprints until we can put distance between us and the Snow Queen. Of course, she need only take one look at her cabin to know someone owes her a debt. Mayhap she’s in a good mood tonight and won’t hunt us across the mountainside . . .

Well, if she does hunt us, I’m certainly not going to make it easy for her.

Picking up my speed, I keep pace with Kay, who seems to have forgotten all about the knife in his shoulder. We’re back to being on the same side— survival.

The choir swells into a tempo, and the wind tugs my braid and garments in every direction. Still, I run.

But I can’t help but look back.

There were many nights when one of the older kids at Granny’s insisted that they saw the Snow Queen’s ice palace glimmering on top ofSchneekonign, but she was always gone when I ran to the window. There were a few times as an adult who drank more ale than needed to stay warm when I thought I saw something that could have been the Snow Queen floating in the First Heaven but decided it must have been a star or the northern lights after I sobered.

Now I am certain I never saw her, and neither did any of the kids. There is no way they would have been giggling if they did, nor would I have so easily brushed it off if I were a witness.

Because seeing her now, a full-grown woman with flowing white hair and a still whiter gown floating at least six feet above the ground, I know one thing for certain. The Snow Queen is undeniable once one has laid eyes on her.

No,fourthings are for certain. Because with eyes so pale they’re almost translucent and a face as smooth as ice, it is clear that the Snow Queen is beautiful, too.

Also, she’s powerful, if the fact that she is soaring above the earth we mortals must tread on is anything to go by. There are no singers surrounding her unless they are invisible. The choir must come from the very wind whistling around us with greater speeds and twists than ever before. Yet not a strand of her hair is out of place.

Finally, she’s terrifying. Especially when such beauty and power is focused onme.

“I gave you the hospitality of my cabin and my stew,” the Snow Queen accuses, her voice shrill compared to the music the wind creates for her. “Yet you seek to leave without giving me my due?”

“We are both very thankful,” Kay says, fighting the elements to come stand beside where I am frozen in place. “I chopped you wood as an expression of my gratitude.”

“Chopped me wood?” She scoffs, and a pine tree is ripped from its roots and tossed to the ground at her feet. “I have no need for such paltry things! There is but one price that can repay the debt you have incurred with your theft, ingratitude, and mockery.”

“Please have mercy!” My knees buckle, like they think going prostrate on the ground would do me any good.

But I lived without bowing to anyone. I shall die the same despite these winds trying to drag me down.

“Mercy is a cool breeze on a summer day. That is not what I am.” The Snow Queen ascends higher, her blue skirts whipping at her ankles. “I am the wrath of death denied. You chose to survive my storm, and now you shall live onmyterms.”

I stagger backward, feeling the precipice Kay warned me about pulling at my back. We are up very high. She wanted us desperately.

Would the fall grant more mercy than the Snow Queen?

Kay doesn’t seem concerned at all as he glances about the snow like he’s dropped a coin.

I’m beginning to see why I succumbed to the temptation to tease him as a child. He is definitelydifferent.

“But I am fair,” the Snow Queen adds, her gaze on me. “Only one of my stews was consumed, and only one of my blankets was used. Therefore, I require onlyoneheart. Tell me, little ones— which of you will pay that price? Riddle me this. Two separate souls living by their own creeds must now choose whether to be freed or defy their codes. Whose heart will fold first, and whose shall succumb to the ice forever?”

My mouth goes dry. I should say Kay to liberate myself from both him and the Snow Queen. But now that I behold her in all her glory, I wouldn’t wish that fate on even my worst enemy. And Kay is indeed that.

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