Stealing Snow (35 page)

I turned away before the knife went in. Instead I searched the room for one figure: Jagger. But I found the Enforcer instead. He ruled the Snow Beasts with arms raised, conducting his symphony of pain.

Temperly made a small sound. I wondered if she had ever seen anything like this. The battle raged below. It was Robber girl versus Snow Beasts and soldiers. And the girls were grossly outnumbered.

“Hide! I’ll get the Robbers, and we can get out of here … together,” I ordered. As long as she was with me, the King couldn’t use her against me.

She hesitated, unsure … A wild thought crept in, and I wondered what it would have been like if we had been on the same side of the Tree growing up. If Mom had taken her to New York, or if we had somehow managed to hide out from Lazar somewhere in Algid together.

Temperly’s face registered what I assumed was impatience. Her eyebrows shot upward. But maybe she was anxious. I didn’t know her expressions. Another thing that Lazar had stolen from us. But I didn’t have time to make up for the time we’d lost. At least not now.

“Wait … Give me the mirror,” I demanded.

“I have to ask. Were you saving me or the mirror back there?”

I hadn’t actually thought of the mirror since Lazar had shown up until this very moment.

I said, “Can it be both?”

I didn’t know why I wasn’t kinder. We were walking into a battle. This could have been the very last conversation I ever had with my sister, and still I was cruel.

She began to hand the compact over and then she stopped to say, “Find the Witch of the Woods. And I’ll find you.”

“Temperly, I can’t promise that.”

“All of Algid is counting on you—not just your friend,” she said, pressing the compact into my palm.

I nodded.

“And they’re counting on me, too,” she added. She began to head toward the ball instead of away from it. “I’m going to help people get out.”

“You’ll get yourself killed. I can’t protect you,” I warned, not sure I could keep an eye on her and fend off everyone else.

“I don’t need you to protect me.
They
will.”

“I thought I was the crazy one. Who is ‘they’?” I asked.

Temperly leaned out on the balcony and let out a low whistle. Some of the suitors turned in unison and looked up at their
Duchess. They immediately drew their swords. One of them went for one of the Red Coats, stabbing the King’s soldier in the jugular. Another turned on a Snow Wolf and made quick work of it with a sword. Another Snow Beast rose onto his haunches, and one of the Robber girls threw a glowing dagger into his exposed underbelly.

So this was what the mysterious look had meant when Temperly talked about her suitors. She wasn’t just idly waiting for me, after all; she was building an army.

“You’ve had a plan this whole time,” I said.

“The King proposed that marriage would create an alliance between families. But I thought, why not create more than one alliance?”

“You know that a lot of those men are in love with you, Temperly,” I said lightly.

“I know. But such is war. May their hearts be the only casualties today,” she said.

But despite her bravado, despite the suitors who apparently made up her resistance, when she turned back to me, her face wasn’t filled with determination. There was fear written all over it. It was still disconcerting to see a face that looked like mine look so scared.

She was not me, I reminded myself as Temperly released me and made her way down the stairs. Whatever we did or didn’t have in common, we were both stubborn and I didn’t have to argue with her. And maybe, just maybe, it didn’t matter how you looked going into battle. It just mattered that you went.

I followed her down into the fray.

Despite what I had said about not helping her, I cleared a path for Temperly as she edged her way around the ballroom. I used my snow to knock a beast that was sniffing in her direction out of her way. Her guards did the same, taking out a Snow Lion that lunged at her and pushing another Red Coat to the ground. She opened a door in the corner of the room, and with her suitors’ help began ushering costumed ladies through the door to a safe exit.

Temperly had no dagger, no training. But she did not run away from the fight.

Her eyes met mine and she nodded.

Across the room, I saw a Snow Jackal jump on Howl. It was on top of her, its open mouth dripping ice-laden saliva. The monster leaned down to take a bite of Howl.

I pushed through the mess of beasts and soldiers to Howl.

I grabbed my knife again just as Howl twisted away from the
Snow Jackal’s jaws. The beast sank its claws into a clump of her hair.

I raised my dagger over it. When the hot dagger pierced its skull, the Snow Jackal tore apart and split into pieces.

Snow Beast guts fell all over Howl. But she grinned, happy to see me.

“We came back to save you,” she said with a smile, still flat on her back, exhaling heavily, the enormity of the close call hitting her.

“Obviously,” I said, giving her a hand up.

“How’s that dagger treating you?”

“Burns like hellfire.”

“Good! Then it’s working. Fathom will be thrilled.”

I could see Fathom across the room, disappearing and reappearing around a soldier. He slumped to the ground in her wake. He dropped without even registering a look of surprise. Fathom had moved so fast that her opponent didn’t even know he was dying.

My reunion with Howl was short-lived, as an oversize Snow Bee came at both of us. She daggered it with one hand. Then fished something out of her pants pocket and tossed a glowing blue vial at me.

“What is it?”

“You’re going to need to be a better fighter. Fast.”

“I have my snow,” I said defensively.

“Suit yourself, but everyone—even Your Highness—can use a little help sometimes.”

In truth, I wasn’t sure how the vial would make me feel. It
might make me faster, but I needed all my senses sharp when the King broke through the ice trap I’d made for him back in Temperly’s bedroom. Just like all villains, he would be back.

I took the vial and slipped it into my skirt pocket. I felt it make contact with the compact.

I heard a cracking sound upstairs and knew that the King was breaking through at least the first of the ice walls. We didn’t have a lot of time.

“Thought you could use an assist, Princess,” a voice came up behind me. He bashed the nose of a Snow Beast that had just set its sights on me. It stumbled backward and roared forward again, but in a different direction.

I knew the voice belonged to Jagger before I turned around.

“You came back! You said that Robbers never do.”

“Hopefully I will
live
to regret it.” It was meant to be a joke, but he wasn’t smiling. “The place is surrounded,” Jagger said.

“I noticed that right after I learned that the Duchess is my secret twin sister,” I whispered, waiting for the words to have their effect.

For the first time since I met him, Jagger looked genuinely surprised.

“I have the mirror. We need to get all the Robbers and go.”

Jagger’s eyes lit up, but then he looked around the room. “We can’t leave all these people to die.”

I could hear the other Robbers around me, fighting and grunting. I did not want to hear Temperly’s guests dying.

“Careful. That sounded almost noble,” I said.

Jagger caught himself, as if “noble” were the dirtiest word in all of Algid.

“We don’t have enough travel potion to take everyone back. Let’s get our people to the tree line. Margot knows a way through the woods on foot back to the Claret,” he corrected.

Before I could say anything more, the air above the ballroom began to swirl. And in an instant a spinning white funnel was heading toward me.

When I looked up, the King was on the balcony.

“Snow,” the King called my name, and it echoed through the ballroom.

Jagger squeezed my shoulder and then began throwing glowing daggers in the direction of the balcony.

I sent a tornado of my own in the Snow King’s direction. My tornado met his in the middle, and they clashed together, forming a larger funnel that neither of us controlled.

It dipped down into the center of the ballroom where I had danced with Jagger. Now the evening’s theme had changed from heist to carnage.

Amazingly, the funnel touched down in an area clear of guests. A few remaining suitors threw themselves to the ground to avoid getting picked up by the icy vortex.

Kai
, I thought. I searched for him even as I tried to wrest control of the giant tornado. I could feel Lazar’s pull on the cyclone, too, but I forced it from him and pushed it toward the stage. It tore through the wall, opening the ballroom up to the world.

Some of the partygoers saw the opportunity as a chance for freedom. They rushed for the gaping hole in the wall.

It was a fatal mistake. As the debris cleared, I could see how much so.

The field behind the castle was full of hundreds of the King’s men and even more Snow Beasts. They were waiting for us.

I watched in horror as the beasts attacked a woman in a pink dress. I tried to send snow to rescue her, but the beasts were already clamping down on her. One had picked her up and was tossing her around in his mouth like a chew toy. I recognized the woman. She was the one who had gossiped with me about Kai on the dance floor.

The sick, dull ache inside me deepened.

Behind the palace there was a field of Snow Beasts—too many for me to count. And behind them was another wave of the King’s soldiers outfitted in the same color as his armor. It was a sea of red.

I turned to Jagger and shot him a look that said maybe it was time to retreat.

He and the Robber girls had wanted to face Lazar on their own terms with the help of the whole mirror, not just the piece I had in my pocket.

“The only way out is through. By now the King’s men have sealed off the moat. The plan is to get to the tree line. Don’t be a hero, Snow.”

The other girls assembled beside me. Margot, dusting off her gown, took her place next to me.

“It’s not going to be nearly as pretty as we are,” she quipped. Not exactly a pep talk, but I assumed that was just another thing that Robbers did not do.

Jagger sprinted ahead for the gap. He was fast, not as fast as Howl, but it was as if every step had more power than the last. He got to the gap in seconds and threw something. It landed in front of one of the beasts.

The package exploded and ripped through the animal, blow-ing the snow to bits. Fragments of ice and bone flew everywhere.

Jagger smiled back at me, ever cocky, but the pieces began to drag themselves together again in his wake. And his smile faded. He jumped through the gap and raised his cuff to blast some fire over the pieces.

I joined Margot and the others in a race to the gap, but they were all enhanced by vials and they were there in seconds. Only Margot stayed beside me, perhaps protecting her investment until the mirror was in her possession.

“Thank you for coming back for me,” I blurted.

“Who says I came back for …” Margot stopped midsentence. There was a garrote around her slender neck and a soldier standing behind her pulling the wire tight.

I produced a tiny snow tornado in the palm of my hand.

“Is that supposed to scare me, Princess?” he asked.

“Just imagine what it will do when it’s inside you. Let her go, or I will tear you apart from the inside out.”

He dropped the wire and backed away.

Margot laughed.

I stared at her for a long beat. I had saved her and she was laughing.

“It’s been too long since we had a good fight,” she said thoughtfully.

I took a last look back at the ballroom, which was destroyed. The door that Temperly had disappeared into was shut, and her guard and suitors were nowhere to be found. The balcony where the King had stood was empty, too.

As Margot and I made it to the gap, a figure larger than the beasts stood imposingly in front of Jagger. It was the Enforcer. With one swift move, he knocked Jagger to the ground.

In the distance, Cadence was in trouble between two Snow Wolves.

Margot nodded at me before racing off to Cadence’s side with speed that I did not possess.

“Jagger!” I yelled. I couldn’t tornado my way to him without hurting people. I had to run and jump through the gaping hole in the Palace, just as Jagger and the other girls had.

But once I crossed into the field, a soldier was on me—his sword inches from my heart as he debated whether or not to kill me or take me back to his King.

I looked back to find the Enforcer still on top of Jagger. The Enforcer’s fists were raining down on him. Jagger had magic, I reminded myself. The Enforcer used brute force, but Jagger was quick.

Jagger dodged the Enforcer’s fists as he tried to pummel him. And without warning, he pushed the Enforcer off him. The Enforcer was thrown into the trunk of a nearby tree, which shook from the impact.

Jagger apparently had taken a strength potion. It explained how his daggers earlier had sailed such a far distance.

Undaunted, the Enforcer returned to his feet and began to make another run at Jagger as fast as the armor would allow.

The Enforcer opened his mouth, and I stopped cold. Fire blasted out of it in Jagger’s direction. Thinking quickly, Jagger grabbed a chunk of the palace wall and used it as a shield.

What was the Enforcer—part dragon? Why hadn’t he used his fire on me in the square?

I sent some snow to extinguish the Enforcer’s flames. But a sound overhead distracted me. I looked up. The King had left his spot on the balcony and was flying above me.

On his back were wings made of ice.

I shot snow arrows at the King as he came for me, but they pelted off his wings. He took a sudden dive, but it wasn’t from one of my arrows. I looked beneath him. On the ground stood Margot. Her hands were outstretched toward the King, and waves of light like the sun were radiating toward him.

She was casting a spell. She was melting his wings.

He fell to the ground in front of her.