There’s another crackle of ice. This time, though, I can see where it’s coming from. The large floating ice shelves that decorate the dance floor begin to slide along the surface, throwing my classmates to the ground. People are running, slipping, falling, and climbing. Our magical winter is morphing into a terrifying blizzard in mere seconds. To a Normal, it may appear to be a disastrous technical malfunction with the special effects, but a disaster, nonetheless.
A petrified yelp pulls my focus to the ceiling, where Brett dangles, clutching desperately to one of the nets that once contained balloons. How did he get up there?
“Do you know how to stop snow?” Johnny asks as he sets me on my feet.
Adrenaline courses through my veins as I rack my brain then shrug. “Fire.” With frictional energy, I can heat my senses to the point of starting a fire, but it’s not enough to heat the entire room. I look around, searching for a way to create a fire from thin air. The memory of Alec’s handmade fireballs from the carnival comes back to me.
“Alec!” My eyes lock on Johnny’s. “Alec can heat the source of the snow. It looks like it’s coming from the ceiling vents.” I point toward the ring of ice. “It’s coming from there too.”
I look up to see Brett still dangling, frantically trying to hang on to the rope, but it looks like he’s losing his grip. What’s more frightening is the sharp monument of ice below him. If he falls on that, he could very well die.
With a shiver, I bring my focus back to Johnny. “We need to split up. Find Alec and get him up there to stop this blizzard. Someone needs to get Brett down. And I’ll figure out how to clear the exit so we can get people out of here.”
Johnny wants to argue, but I reach for his face before he can shake his head at me. “This isn’t the time to be my hero.”
“This is the perfect time,” Johnny growls.
I lift my hand and shake my wrist to remind him of my bracelet. “I will be okay. Just please, get to Alec before all of these people get hurt. Please, Johnny. If you want to be my hero, you’ll help my friends.”
A flicker in his eyes tells me he’s considering my words. As I begin to soften my grip on him, the blizzard quickly shifts to something even more destructive. The dangling balloons are turning to solid balls of ice, and they begin crashing to the ground one by one like the weather has transitioned into some freakish ice storm.
Instincts kick in, and before I know what I’m doing, I throw my palms out to deflect the whirling gushes of wind tossing balloons of ice at our faces. Johnny follows my lead, pelting the falling ice at the opposite wall, where it shatters and falls to the floor.
The music stopped a while ago, but people are trapped on the iceberg stage as it cracks, threatening to swallow them whole.
“Johnny!” I scream, pointing to the stage. “I’m going up there.”
“No! You stay here. I’ll take care of it, and I’ll find Alec. Just keep deflecting.” He begins to run then turns around, narrowing his eyes. “Do not go anywhere.”
Icicles crack loose from the ceiling and fall to the floor like icicles, shattering and spraying ice everywhere. I nod. For once, I have every intention of listening to Johnny.
Hearing a strangled cry from the ceiling, I look up just in time to see Brett fall, the threatening iceberg sharp and jagged below him. I can’t run. My feet are planted to the floor, and I’m suddenly reminded of the devouring quicksand that kept me rooted in place at the Fourth of July bonfire.
It all happens so fast. An unexpected force throws me on my back, and pain shoots up my spine, down my legs, and into my arms. Then, as if there’s an invisible leash around my neck, I’m dragged backward, sliding through the frozen ring of icicles, screaming all the way.
My head feels as if it’s been bashed in with a hammer. My eyes flutter open, but all I see is blackness from the blow. Trying to sit up is no easy task either. I feel like I’m being weighed down by bricks, my lungs struggling for air, then everything becomes fuzzy. With a heavy arm, I reach for my face to wipe the wetness from my forehead. Blood.
“You’re weaker than I expected.” The elderly voice that speaks is unfamiliar, amused, and dripping with evil.
My eyesight adjusts from blackness to a haze, but I’m able to see a well-dressed man with a mask fully concealing his face, except for muddy eyes that glare intensely back at me. A black hood sits atop his head, but I can see that his neck extends forward, so far past his shoulders that I wonder if his head will pop off. Gangly arms hang loosely by his sides, making him appear uncomfortable in this new body.
Erebus.
“You just slammed my head against the wall. What do you expect?” I retort, trying to conceal my fear.
His mask mirrors his soul—black snakeskin with gold accents around the eyes. A permanent smile stares back at me, but it’s the head tilt that makes me shiver.
“Never mind that,” he says with a wave of his hand. “It’s good to see you again, Katrina. You look ravishing this evening.”
Surprisingly, he allows me to stand. “What do you want, Erebus?”
A cackle rings out from his borrowed body. I doubt I’ve ever seen this man before, but even if he is a stranger, it doesn’t make his impending death any more pleasant.
“Isn’t this fun? I brought you your very own winter. I know you’ve always wanted one. Consider this my gift to you—the first of more to come.” His smirk enrages every fiber in my body.
How would he possibly know of my dreams of winter? As far as I can remember, I’ve never spoken to anyone here about them.
He swirls his finger in midair, turning wind to snow as a miniature tornado that twirls above us. “I’d say your friends in there must be pretty cold by now.” Then, with a flick of his finger, the tornado bursts into small chips of ice. Snow falls around us, alluding to a calm I do not feel.
My eyes start to search the area for something, anything, I can use to defend myself when he inevitably decides to attack. There’s nothing but snow and ice.
“I won’t give you my body,” I finally say, “and no one dies tonight.” I can only assume that’s why he’s here.
“Katrina.” He speaks my name with thorough disappointment. “After all this time, you should know I always leave my mark. But you’re right about one thing. No one will die tonight. That will be the fun of it and just the start to our little game.”
His indifference churns my stomach, and panic sets in. After another deep breath, I push away from the wall and toward the theater entrance. A thick sheet of ice quickly forms in the doorway, separating us from my friends. I’m trapped. They’re trapped. Before I can examine my surroundings further, a powerful force catapults me forward, smashing my body into the newly created ice wall.
As pain seethes through my body, rage sprouts from my every vein. I need to think, quickly. My first instinct is to slice a sheet from the ice wall and decapitate Erebus with it, forcing his evil eternal soul from his stolen body, but I stop myself. That’s just a temporary solution, and he didn’t come here for nothing. He’s up to something, and if I want to have a chance of stopping him, I need to listen.
I turn around, my left hand still on the ice behind me, melting it with frictional energy. I know it’s working from the pool of water expanding at my feet, but it’s not working fast enough.