Heart of Ice (The Snow Queen #1)(68)

Footsteps crunched behind her. Trembling with fear, Rakel covered Farrin’s feet in ice. He shattered it immediately and drew closer. Rakel snapped a cage around him, using the same three-layered pattern she had used on the shapeshifter in Glowma.

Farrin stared at Rakel then swung his sword, shattering the wall. “Your Highness, you need to stop,” he said. “Give up.”

Rakel swallowed hard and backed up under the main chute. “You haven’t caught me yet.” She kept her eyes on Farrin instead of glancing at the water towers as she tapped her magic and started cooling the water.

“Because I’m choosing not to push you. If your soldiers were in the area, you would be more careful with your magic, and I would have nabbed you moments after our fight started.”

It is odd that he is so observant of me and yet missed the most important part of this plan: Liv.

Rakel threw another round of ice arrows at him, using his counter-attack reflection as an excuse to back up. The noise of the fight also covered the groans of the wood that protested as she brought the temperature of the purified water lower still. Her heart pounded in her throat as Farrin drew closer and closer, stopping when he was one step away from the chute.

One more step, just one little step! If he doesn’t take it, I’m as good as captured—and Ostfold, Steinar, the rebellion, everything will be lost!

With her resolve keeping her standing, Rakel flung a boulder of ice at Farrin while simultaneously throwing a snowball at his back. He reflected both, of course, but whirling around to parry the snowball put him smack dab under the chute.

“Now!” Rakel shouted.



Farrin blinked. Now?

There were three metallic clicks—like levers being pulled.

Farrin heard water gushing from the water towers. He looked up to see water flood the network of troughs overhead and dump down through a chute directly above him.

I didn’t know she had a water user among her allies. Did she think a surprise attack would catch me off guard? He shook his head and swung his greatsword up to deflect the pointless attack.

The water didn’t reflect at all. It splashed across Farrin’s sword and rained down on him, freezing the moment it touched his cloak and clothes. The water kept gushing until Farrin was thoroughly drenched. Not all the water froze on contact, but Farrin felt the familiar minty flash of Rakel’s magic. The air grew colder, freezing what little water there was left.

He frowned and turned to Rakel, his clothes stiff with ice. What does she hope to accomplish…he stopped thinking when Rakel reached out and touched his shoulder.

Ice grew around him like the trunk of a tree, pinning his arms to his side and his legs to the ground, and understanding finally dawned on him. How very clever.

Out loud, Farrin said, “I see. I can’t break and reflect the first layer of ice because it’s natural, not magic, and it’s reinforced by your magic. Well planned, Your Highness. There’s just one problem: I will be able to break free shortly, once my body heat melts this first layer of ice,” Farrin said.

Even so, she did well. I cannot recall the last time I was incapacitated, even temporarily.

“Yes, but freezing you wasn’t the point of this,” Rakel said, crouching next to him.

Farrin raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”



Rakel reached forward, and the ice parted for her as it had the day she built the wall. When she brushed the hilt of his sword, Farrin started struggling.

It was no use; the ice held him still as Rakel dragged his weapon away.

Rakel struggled, the muscles in her arms screaming with bone-deep weariness as she lifted the giant sword. The ice holding Farrin started to crack, but it was too late.

We’ve won.

Ice snapped up from the ground, encasing the sword in a gem-like prism. She pulled her hands loose and frosted the surface of the ice so the sword couldn’t be seen. Next, she coated it in two additional layers of ice, twirling and moving them so the ice block was positioned differently, making it impossible to guess where in the foggy block the sword was located.

She gave the ice one last swirl as Farrin broke through the ice encasing his body. Farrin wryly stared at the ice block. “It seems I haven’t given you enough credit,” he admitted. “But this won’t stop me from getting it. The sword is a tool; I wield the magic.”

“Yes,” Rakel agreed. Her elation made her lightheaded and warm. They did it! She and Liv had dealt a major blow to the Chosen colonel. Getting smacked with that curse was worth it. We’ve got his sword. “Even so, you won’t be able to reclaim it. You can reflect magic, but your sword is much sturdier than your hands. It will take you hours to smash all the way to the center to retrieve your sword, and you don’t have hours. You don’t even have minutes.”

“What are you talking about?” Farrin frowned.

A fireball popped up into the sky. Rakel shot off a storm of snowflakes in response, making a bigger cloud than she meant to thanks to the haze of joy that embraced her.

“What I mean is that we’ve won, and you’re going to be captured,” she said, smiling at Farrin as she flicked her hand, summoning a sword of ice, and held it to his throat.

Frodi, Genovefa, and a company of soldiers poured into the garden.

“Farrin Graydim, do you surrender?” Frodi demanded.

Genovefa tilted her head like a strange bird. “I would very much like to match blades with you again—though it seems you have lost yours.”