First Frost (5 page)

Chapter Four

The following morning after a quick breakfast of green tea and buttered toast, mother and daughter went downstairs. There was a corner of the basement that was covered with boxes. Some of them were full of Christmas decorations; there were at least ten boxes dedicated to that holiday alone. Rose
loved
Christmas; it was her favorite holiday. Halloween was a close second.

A few boxes were full of Bianca’s old baby clothes, and there was yet another set of boxes dedicated to David’s clothes. Bianca had asked Rose why she kept them, and her mother would shrug her shoulders and reply, “He might come back.” And they’d left it at that. A different subject they would ignore for years to come.

The rest of the basement was turned into a craft room for Rose’s little projects. Sometimes she would make wreaths and give them as Christmas presents. Or she would buy fruits and make jam. Rose spent a lot of her spare time in the basement. Bianca glanced at the table and noticed that her mother was halfway finished making a Christmas wreath. All of the materials she needed were laid out and waiting to be used: the green plastic wreath, the little bright red hollies, the yards of cranberry red ribbon, and the can of silver glitter spray. Bianca wondered who that would be gifted to.

“So, where do we start?” Bianca asked as she tied her hair into a ponytail.

“Your grandmother was the one who taught me everything I know, and she was pretty brutal when she started training me. I remember shielding myself from her spells and dodging fireballs and every other spell she felt like throwing at me that day.”

“How so?”

“She threw every spell imaginable at me until I learned how to block them and attack back,” Rose whispered.

“Whoa.”

Rose lifted her white T-shirt halfway and showed Bianca some of the scars she had on her back and stomach. She had never seen these marks on her mother before. Now Bianca understood why Rose only wore one-piece bathing suits in the summer time. And why she went to great lengths to make sure her shirt was always tucked in. She didn’t want anyone seeing her scars. Bianca gently touched one of the scars on her mother’s back. It was the size of Bianca’s fist. The scar was the palest silver she had ever seen, barely noticeable next to Rose’s alabaster skin. Angry tears shot out from her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand and tried to stop more tears from coming.

“I got that on my first day of training. I learned the hard way never to turn my back on my attacker. I never thought she’d throw a freaking fireball at me. Safe to say I never made that mistake again.”

She thought back on every conversation she’d had with Rose about Grandmother Alice. She knew next to nothing about her because Rose rarely spoke of her. She didn’t share any memories of her or quirky details that she assumed most grandmothers had. And now she had proof, right on her mother’s skin, of how far Alice’s cruelty could go. Suddenly, Bianca hated her grandmother.
How could she do such a thing to her daughter? Was she insane?!

“I swore to myself that I wouldn’t teach my daughter that way.”

Bianca thanked her mother. She was grateful that she didn’t do any of that to her. Now that she knew a little more about her past, she understood why Rose was better with healing magic.

“Let’s start with fire spells. Those are easy,” Rose suggested.

Bianca nodded. She chewed on her thumb while she waited. She had never dabbled with magic before.

What if I’m a dud? What if I completely suck?
she thought.
What if I’m the first one in the family who can’t do magic? What will happen then? Oh, God…please don’t let me be a dud
.

“All right, first rule is to relax. Fire is the easiest form of defense, but it takes a lot out of you, which is why you should learn other spells. I know it’s going to be tough to do when someone is attacking you, but you have to learn to ignore everything that’s going on around you. Guide all of your energy, every thought, feeling…everything you’ve got into your hands. Then you direct it wherever you want it to go.”

Rose demonstrated by showing her a tiny turquoise ball of fire that hovered on the palm of her hand. Rose played with it by making it dance and bounce from her right hand over to the left hand.

“Why are yours that color?”

“It depends on the color of your aura.”

“Does that mean that Lenore has a green aura?”

“Not necessarily. Lenore’s aura isn’t the green of life. It is more of a brownish green…almost sick looking, like bile. It’s her spirit rotting from the inside out.”

“Ew.” Bianca couldn’t imagine having something like that happen to her. She pictured fruit going bad. All covered in mold, wrinkled, and decomposed to the point where it was unrecognizable. She shuddered at the thought and tried to clear her mind, which was easier said than done. Bianca closed her eyes and tried to do what her mother suggested. For a long time nothing happened, until she started thinking about her father. No specific memories, just the man she remembered. Handsome, kind, always trying to make Bianca laugh. Then she felt a tingling in her fingertips.

“That’s it!” Rose beamed.

A smile bloomed on Bianca’s face when she heard the pride in Rose’s voice.

“What are you thinking about?” Rose spoke a notch above a whisper.

“Nothing,” Bianca lied.

As soon as the lie passed her lips the feeling in her hands vanished, and the magic was gone. Bianca opened her eyes. Rose’s mouth turned into a thin line.

“Don’t lie. Magic…at least good magic…doesn’t help liars,” Rose warned.

“I’m sorry.” Bianca lowered her head in shame.

“It’s okay. We’re here to learn, not judge one another. Wanna try again?”

“Yeah,” Bianca whispered.

The awkward moment passed, and they turned their attention back to Bianca’s training. She thought of her father once more. She remembered the time they had all gone to the aquarium together. She had been six years old, and at that time she’d wanted to be a marine biologist. She loved the water and stingrays. She thought they were odd and graceful. All she could see was his handsome face as he’d pointed to a stingray.

“Did you know that stingrays are usually docile and curious? They sometimes brush their fins past any new object they come across,” David said.

“Really?” Bianca replied.

“Yep.” He nodded.

“Cool.” She pressed her tiny hands on the cool glass.

Bianca opened her eyes and watched in awe as both her hands glowed bright white.

“Okay. Now direct it somewhere. Anywhere,” Rose instructed gently.

Bianca looked around and threw her fireball towards a box of old papers. She honestly didn’t think that the box would catch fire. She didn’t think her magic was powerful enough to make something burst into flames. But that was exactly what happened.

“Oh, crap,” Rose shouted. She ran upstairs, grabbed the fire extinguisher that was in the kitchen, then ran back to the basement, and put the fire out.

“I’m so sorry,” Bianca said, rooted to the spot. She was shocked. She stared at her hands as though seeing them for the first time in her life.

“No, no. That’s okay. You were great.” Rose wiped the sweat off her pale forehead.

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“When you asked me what I was thinking about earlier and I said nothing…”

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about Daddy,” she admitted.

“Oh.” Rose spoke so softly. Bianca wondered if she really heard her speak or if she had imagined it. Oh was such a small word, yet it filled the room.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re not forbidden to think about him.”

“But you always cry and get so sad when I mention him.”

“I know. I’m so sorry for that. It’s just…it’s hard living without him. God…it’s been ten years, and I still can’t get used to it. He is the love of my life.”

Bianca almost corrected her and said
was.
It was as though Rose were implying that David was still alive. But if he were alive, Bianca knew that her father would do everything in his power to come home to his family.

Where is he? Why hasn’t he found a way to come back to us?

She had been seven years old when her father had disappeared. The first year he was gone she’d cried nearly every day. With time she’d cried less and less until she had got used to not having her father around. She had become accustomed to having that huge gaping hole in her heart.

“We were trying for another baby when he disappeared,” Rose said.

“Really?”

Rose wiped away a runaway tear with her fingertips and nodded.

Wow. We’re actually talking about Dad without Mom
running away from me.

There was a question she wanted to ask. It was burning in the back of her throat, begging to be released. She almost didn’t ask for fear of her mother reverting back to her old ways and shutting her out once more, but Bianca decided to take a chance. It was now or never.

“Does Lenore have anything to do with Daddy’s disappearance?”

Rose nodded once more.

“What happened?”

Rose got a faraway look in her eyes, as though she were someplace else, in another time altogether. “Lenore turned your father into a bear right before my very eyes,” she whispered.

Bianca’s jaw literally dropped. She couldn’t believe what she heard. “When did this happen?”

“You don’t remember?” Rose asked in surprise.

“I remember coming home from school, and you sat me down on the couch and told me that Daddy was missing. But what I meant to ask was
when
, as in was it during the day? At night? Was it here at home or at the museum? Details, Mom. You’ve never given me the details behind Daddy’s disappearance.”

Rose ran her fingers through her hair and looked around the room, desperate for an answer. “How could I possibly tell you? How on earth was I supposed to explain to a seven-year-old that a witch turned her father into a bear? I couldn’t tell you then, sweetheart. And I’m sorry I kept so much from you.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Bianca replied as she nibbled on her thumbnail.

“Anyway David was working late at the museum. He had some paperwork he wanted to take care of, some tax forms or something like that. At that time we were sharing the car, so I told him to stay and wait for me to come pick him up. I needed to come home to take care of you and get dinner started. I knew he would be safe as long as he stayed inside the museum because of the wards I placed on the building.

“I left you at Ming’s house because you were spending the weekend. Then I drove up to the museum to get your dad. David came out of the museum, locked the doors behind him, and walked toward me. He smiled and winked at me like he always did every time I picked him up. That was when Lenore stepped out of the shadows and cast her spell on him, right before my very eyes. I froze. Before I could mutter a single spell, he was gone. I can still hear her laughter as she took him from me…from us.”

There was a sudden hush that fell between them. Bianca was at a loss for words.

“What a horrible thing to do to a person,” Bianca said finally.

“She said she wanted to help turn my life into a real-life fairy tale.”

“I don’t understand. Why would she want to do that?”

“You know my full name is Rose Red Frost,” she said.

“Yeah, I know. Still not getting it, Mom.” Bianca tapped on the side of her head.

“Haven’t you ever read the story of Snow White and Rose Red?”

Bianca frowned as she searched her memory for the story and vaguely remembered having read a fairy tale with those names at some point in her life. It made sense because most of the women in the family were named after a fairy tale character. “Did Grandma name you after the story?”

“Yeah.” Rose smiled. “It was her favorite story.”

“Is that why you named me Bianca?” she asked, wondering about the story behind her name, Bianca Silver Frost. Sure, it took some twisting and turning, but it was almost like being named Snow White.

“Yes. I didn’t want to go so far as to name you Snow White, I thought people might make fun of you, and I didn’t want you to go through that,” she admitted. “Anyway, Lenore thought that since our names were so similar to the ones in the fairy tale, she wanted to make it come true. She has a thing for torturing people. She wants to see what they’re capable of and how much they can withstand before finally breaking down. That’s the part she loves the most: watching someone break. I guess she wanted to see how far she could push me. I don’t know…maybe she wanted me to kill myself since she failed so many times in the past.”

Bianca shuddered at the thought of losing her mother. That was one scenario she didn’t want to imagine.

Bianca took a deep breath. “Where is he? Where is Daddy?”

“I don’t know. I’ve looked everywhere for him. He isn’t in the forest or in a zoo. I’ve tried scrying for him. I even asked the magic mirror in the museum if it knows where he is.”