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My flimsy plan floats to the ground in embers and I am ashamed to have ever thought it would work. She will not hear me out about those fighting against us, even if I am the princess. It’s clear to me that if I don’t kill her before I leave, then I will regret it for the rest of my life. I clear my throat and step forward.
Chapter35
She’s Powerful
NATHANIEL
If this were regular ice, I’d have melted it in seconds. But this ice, Elva’s special recipe, was designed to harden in seconds. As I melt through the surrounding walls, the steam billows up and soaks me through and through.
It’s actually terrible. The problem with this cage is that it was also designed to restrict my legs. I can’t shift into my animal form because I’m not practiced enough. She has meant to tire me out.
I wonder if she knows she could kill me with all this ice, especially if she never returns.
Pushing the thoughts from my head, I try again. I put everything I have into concentrating my heat away from my hands and on my legs. It’s yet another thing I’m not great at.
I swear, I think.This entire journey has been one big exercise in the fact that I am built for frivolity and drinking. For tricks and easy labor.
The sky crawls up the sky. It’s at once too fast and too slow. It warms the top of my head, my face, and my neck. I am grateful for the extra warmth but would appreciate it more if it would melt the ice.
Being a Summer Fae has got to be the most useless inheritance of all the species that roam this planet.
The appearance of my skin stuck in the ice resembles a raw guinea fowl. One of my favorite dishes. I stare at the shiny pinkness coating me all over and drop my hands.
It is impossible to admit that this is defeat, but my body knows what’s happening. I redirect my heat to keep myself warm in the literal ice. It helps quite a bit with the physical sensations, but once I am slightly more comfortable, the knots in my stomach twist and writhe in my stomach.
Suddenly, I am left with the harsh, cold reality. I cannot go anywhere.
Helplessness is an odd sensation for me, and I immediately try to turn it off, shove it down. Being helpless isn’t attractive, it isn’t productive.
For a moment, Lucinda’s face… Mom’s face… flashes in my mind. She holds me and my sister close as our father leaves our house for good. Trails of tears have streaked down her face, ruining her cosmetics made of minerals and fruit.
Andrius had turned back at us momentarily before leaving, for just a few moments to smile and wave before vanishing into thin air. If I had been younger, I might’ve thought he was just taking another casual business trip. His smile was so carefree, so self-assured.
That was the face of a man in control of his life.
My mom’s face, though. She looked about the same as I do right now. Exhausted, wary, and resigned to give up and devote her energy to someone else.
I think I understand her better now.
I shift my weight, realizing how energized my power feels. Emotions make these things more potent.
Wait.I shift my weight once more.
Sliding one leg forward as far as possible, I move into my stance for shifting.
I try to shift. Nothing happens.
I try again, tightening my abdomen a bit more and straining my neck.
A tearing sensation builds. I can move one leg. Then the other. I am more than happy. I let out a garbled laugh of pure joy and pull on my shift. The next moment, I’m a bird.
I wiggle my long, feathered wings through the small opening I made in the ice. They won’t recognize my bird here.
I am no longer helpless.
Chapter36
Like Mother, Like Daughter
