Midnight Frost (17 page)

She loves you. I always knew she loved you.

I know it now – too.

I could sense his joy, mixed with bitterness. Was he to find her – find her love after all these years – only to lose it with the darkening of these suns?

I could feel Logan's kiss upon my lips, but as my mind connected with Kian's I felt that kiss, too – I felt Kian embrace me in his own mind, and felt my mind meet his in that image. My lips trembled as I felt his phantom touch.

I looked back at Logan – and then I knew. As much as I loved Logan, as much as I tried to convince myself that he was the one for me, I knew my bond with Kian would always be greater. It went beyond friendship, beyond desire. It was a meeting of our souls, a bond of magic greater than anything Logan and I could ever have.

I had to choose, and I knew my choice.

But I couldn't tell Logan now. Now he needed all his strength, all his courage – as Kian did, too. They both needed to have faith in my love if they were to survive this war.

I squeezed Logan' s hand. “I will always love you,” I said. “As a friend – and as more. And for as long as we need to be engaged for the sake of this war – be it hours or days – I will stand by your side.”

We walked back to the main room. Kian and my father were poring over maps of Feyland, trying to come up with a strategy.

“But surely Delano must do something!” My father turned to Delano, who was sitting by himself in a corner of the room, a scowl on his face. “He is responsible for this mess, after all.”

“I've really had enough of this fairy gall,” said Delano. “Just because I agreed to this alliance doesn't mean I'm going to take the fall for this stupidity! Tell them, Shasta.”

All eyes turned to Shasta, whose face fell. I tensed with sympathetic fear.

It was time for her to explain.

Chapter 19

“
W
hat are you talking about?” The Winter Queen asked sharply. “Shasta, what is he talking about? Explain this!”

“Listen to me, your Highness!” Delano said. “I admit it – I told the girl what she needed to do. I gave her access to my library. I thought she'd call upon a few demons, maybe a banshee to do. I thought it would be a welcome addition to my army – her taking that responsibility for them upon herself. But I didn't expect her to break them all out of the Gorge.”

“It's not true!” The Queen looked horrified. “Tell them it's not true, Shasta.”

“You know as well as I do, your Highness, that only fairy blood can unlock the gates of the Gorge. Surely you must have wondered how it was that a pixie came to do it. After all, whatever bastard fairy blood I have the misfortune to have running in my veins was clearly insufficient to the task at hand. And even if it weren't, I'd never tap into it willingly. I'm proud of being a pixie – and proud of having little to do with the likes of those who have oppressed my people for centuries. Until now,” he concluded lamely.

“No, it was the Fey. The two of them – the Summer boy and that girl there! And some poor alchemist – poor little girl; she had no idea what the potion she was making was for. Shasta told her it was for unlocking the gates to the Crystal River, didn't you, Shasta?”

“I didn't mean to!” Shasta cried. She had never looked more like a little girl than she did at that moment, stamping her feet, tossing her long dark hair. I remembered my first impressions of Shasta: she seemed to me then to be impossibly beautiful, impossibly elegant, strong and brave and always effortlessly superior to me. Now she looked like a child, caught in its own lie. Had she changed, or had I?

“Explain yourself, Shasta,” The Queen's voice was cold. “Now!”

“I didn't mean to do anything serious. I only wanted to create a distraction – something to stop Summer and Winter from fighting each other. I thought if I could just call up one or two of the monsters from the Gorge – not anything big, you understand me – just big enough, then you and the Summer Court would have to work together and you wouldn't notice if I ran off...me and Rodney...”

“So it is true?” Kian looked at his sister with horror. “You really are responsible for the Hordes?”

“I went to Delano, told him I came in peace and wanted to look at his library of Dark Magic, since Mother wouldn't let me look at any of the Dark books kept under lock and key in Feyland.”

“Skirnismal,” Delano muttered half-heartedly.

“And he was so nice, so charming – he said that I could conjure up any demons I liked, that he'd send some of his pixie magicians to support me.”

“I didn't say she could conjure them
all
up!” Delano snarled.

“I didn't mean to conjure them all up – just one or two. A banshee or something, just to cause a distraction. To show you – to show
all
of you how stupid this war was, that there were more important things than fighting over fairy territories.”

“Well, that worked, didn't it?” Delano was vaguely sarcastic.

“You be quiet!” Kian snarled at Delano.

“But then when I got the potion and Rodney and I started chanting the incantation – they were too strong. First one demon appeared, and then another – and then I couldn't stop; it was like one of them possessed me, and I kept on chanting, naming all of the different demons, and then all the giants and banshees and the dead – and I couldn't stop myself – and Rodney couldn't stop either. It was like some ghost had possessed our voices. And then when finally Rodney and I managed to escape...it was too late. They had all vanished, gone off to fight with the pixies!”

“Did you think I was stupid?” Delano turned to her. “You let thousands of dangerous beasts loose in my land – of course I was going to try to harness them? You think I was going to let them
eat me?
”

“But you have to believe me, Mother,” Shasta was pleaded. “I didn't do it on purpose – honestly I didn't!”

The Queen's face grew cold. “Are you telling me,” she said slowly, “that you, a princess of the Winter Court, with all the responsibilities of keeping your people safe, that you
deliberately
let demons loose into our kingdom, that the very fate of our world hangs in the balance precisely because of
you
? That your selfishness, that your insistence on being allowed to marry this flame-haired boy of yours, led you to
that
?”

“It wasn't like that, Mother,” Shasta said in a quivering small voice.

“And to think,” the Queen said. “I wondered about making
you
Queen. I wondered if you were not the fit one to be my heir.”

“That's not true!” Shasta shouted. “You never wanted me to be Queen. It was always Kian – Kian whom you favored, Kian that you cared about! It's obvious, isn't it? If it had been
me
that died you wouldn't have cared.”

The Queen's eyes narrowed. “You will never be Queen,” she said. “Such dishonor as this cannot be forgiven. I can no longer extend to you the magic of the Winter Crown. From this day forth, Shasta – and who knows how many days are left on this dark earth – you are no longer Princess of the Winter Court. You are no longer a Princess at all. By the power of the Ancient Winter Queens whose voices live on in me – I strip you of your powers. I strip you of your magic.”

“No!” Shasta cried, tears running down her face. She turned from the Queen, as if to run from the room, but something stopped her.

A shimmering figure appeared in the middle of the room. It came in and out of view, rippling in the air. A Dead one? I put a hand to my sword, fear rising in my throat. But as the figure became clear, materializing right in front of me, I knew I had no reason to be afraid.

It was my mother.

She was shaking with shock and confusion. “What's going on?” She looked around. “Breena!” She turned to my father, her eyes widened. “Frank!”

“Raine!” My father rushed to her, catching her in his arms. “What happened? What are you doing here?”

My mother looked around, steadying herself against him. “I had this dream...” She sighed. “About our daughter. About Feyland. That there was danger. That I needed to come home. Come back here.”

“But how did you...?”

“It was like a trance. I got out of bed – it was like I was floating – and went down to my studio. And I started painting – but it was like I wasn't controlling the brush. Something else had taken hold of me. And it guided my hands. And I could see – beneath this very dim haze – that I was painting the palace, but I couldn't understand why or how. And then the painting started shimmering...beckoning me closer and closer....and I leaned into it.”

“And then you ended up here?” I cut in. Kian  had told me that the greatest fairy painters, those with the most consummate skill, had been capable of making paintings so beautiful that they lured the viewer deep within, serving as a portal to Feyland from the Crystal River, and vice versa. But for a human to create a fairy painting – that was unheard of!

“You're extraordinary!” My father kissed my mother's forehead. “You're an extraordinary woman, Raine.” Yet a chill that passed through the room snapped him out of his reverie. “But we need to get you out of here. There's a war on – the suns have gone out. You may not have much time.”

“If Feyland's magic called me here,” my mother said defiantly, “then here is where I shall stay. I have come to protect my daughter, Frank (and you, if you need it). I'm here to see this through, no matter what the cost.”

“The cost, I think, will be great. For you and for those you love!” A high-pitched, cackling voice filled the room. We turned to face Redleaf, perched high above us, flames glowing at her fingertips.

“You fools,” Redleaf spat. “Your spell was designed to allow the Summer Queen to pass through the gates. Well, after all,
I
am the Summer Queen. And I am here to take my revenge at last.”

Chapter 20

R
edleaf spun around to face Shasta. “Little girl!” She jeered. “Now you have been humilated in front of your family. In front of your friends. You have lost the title you held so dear. I knew that you were trouble. I felt it in my bones. And now I'm glad to see you are ripe for the picking!”

“Redleaf, stop,” I cried. “You don't want this.”

ookman tDon't I?” Redleaf laughed. “Every bone in my body – if I
had
bones any longer – cries out for revenge. My hatred for you knows no bounds, nor my hatred for everyone here. You have all wronged me. You have all humiliated me. You have all thwarted me. My husband who betrayed me with another woman. His filthy concubine who pretended that
she
was Queen instead of me. Their bastard child, born of shame and despair.”

“You stop that!” My father pulled out his sword, but she silenced him, throwing a fireball at his feet. Delano jerked him back, pulling him from the flames in the nick of time.

“The Winter Queen – who thought she would prove a better queen than me. That filthy pixie – at least your half-brother knew whom to serve. And the girl who murdered me while I was unarmed, defenseless. Coward. And now the whole world knows what a coward you are, Shasta!”

“This isn't you!” I ran to Redleaf. “Please – remember what you said in the Kingdom of the Dead. You didn't want to be this person anymore. You didn't want to be consumed by hatred any longer. You wanted me to set you free, you begged me...”

“And you did nothing to help me!” Redleaf laughed. “You just ignored me. Left me to languish!”

“I'm trying to save this kingdom you love so much. And you could save it too. You could be free of this anger the Dark Hordes have infected you with – if you'd only let go. Let go of your revenge. Then you could pass beyond the mountain – you wouldn't have to fight anymore. You wouldn't have to sully these halls...
your halls
...with blood.”