Heart of Ice (The Snow Queen #1)(9)

With a roar, Rakel’s magic flared to life. She extended her hand, and spears of ice thrust up from the ground, almost impaling the invader.

He dropped the villager and scrambled backwards. “To arms!” he shouted.

“Too late,” Rakel said as she approached Vefsna, the wind flapping her cape and wildly flinging her hair.

When the invaders ran at her, their weapons raised, Rakel attacked them with pin-point precision, covering their arms and torsos with armor-like ice at least a finger-length thick. Unable to move their arms, wrists, or weapons, they toddled, knocked off balance.

She raised a wall of ice behind them, formed thick blocks of ice and slid them across the iced ground, knocking the men into the wall. She didn’t release her magic but instead kept pushing. When they groaned and yelped, Rakel weakened the ice they were pinned against, so they smashed straight through it.

If an invader raised a weapon, Rakel formed a block of ice around his hands so he could not rotate his wrists or change his grasp. Then, she encircled the blades with massive chunks of ice that weighed them down so heavily, it yanked their owners to the ground.

“Leave this village!” Rakel shouted above the howling wind. Her cape snapped, and Captain Halvor stepped in front of her, his sword extended.

The invader that had kicked the old lady and almost suffocated the village man was back on his feet. “Regroup!” he shouted, trying to organize his battered men. When he rallied a group of ten, he led a charge, galloping towards Rakel.

Captain Halvor slid forward, intercepting the leader.

Rakel focused her attention on the other soldiers, freezing their arms to their sides. “Oskar,” she said.

Oskar smiled. “I can handle them, Princess.” He ran at the invaders, slamming into the first one—who fell straight into the next soldier, who fell into the next invader, until all of them toppled like blocks.

Halvor and the invader-leader fought. The invader snarled and leaned on his weapon, using his larger girth and height to his advantage.

Halvor resisted masterfully, looking for all the world as if he were parrying the blow of a child. As the leader strained, Halvor lashed out with his knee, hitting the man in the gut. He knocked him backwards, throwing him to the ground. His sword flashed, and Rakel hastily turned away, her stomach rebelling and her heart sickening with the necessary evil.

The invaders didn’t even call a retreat. With the death of their leader, they scrambled to leave Vefsna. Rakel kept their withdrawal smart by snapping shards of ice at their heels.

Captain Halvor ghosted after them—probably to assure that they had indeed run.

“We should work our way through the village—to make sure they’ve all left,” Oskar said.

Rakel nodded—pelting one of the last invaders in the back with a chunk of ice.

Together, they walked the perimeter of the village. They found two more invaders—both pinned by huge chunks of ice. When Rakel freed them, they ran, their eyes popping with fear when they looked back at her.

“I believe that’s all of them,” Rakel said as they lingered in the center of the road—near her sculpture of the beheaded invader.

“Well done. All that’s left is to find the children and wait for the captain to return—Princess!” The tone of Oskar’s words changed from approval into a cry of alarm.

Rakel spun around and, fearing another invader, raised her hand. A shield of ice shot out of the ground, swallowing up the dagger that a man—the same villager that the invading leader had almost killed—was attempting to stab her with.

“Monster!” the villager said, trying to pull back. It was no use; the ice shield had formed around both the dagger and his hand.

Rakel stared at him, his words echoing in her mind.

“You should have left us to the invaders—they would have been better than an atrocity like you!” he spat. When he realized the ice wasn’t going to give, he reached into a pocket of his coat with his free hand and held up another dagger.

“Princess, get back,” Oskar shouted.

Rakel didn’t hear him. She glared at the villager, her fury—and worse, her bitter disappointment—growing.

Again, they try to steal my life and gape at me with horror! I should not have to fear death from those I save. Enough of this!

Rakel raised a hand—her ice magic snapping like a hungry wolf at her fingertips. She readied herself to unleash it.

“No!” a child shouted.

Gerta and Kai skidded onto the road. Kai slipped and almost fell, but he managed to plant himself between Rakel and the villager. He held his arms up with his back to Rakel. His knees shook with fear, but he glared up at the villager. “Don’t hurt her!”

Gerta threw herself at Rakel, her arms ringing around her waist. “You’re the monster! She saved us!”

Rakel froze in place due to a combination of shock and horror. Horror because she couldn’t believe what she almost did, what she would have done if not for the children.

Monster, she thought. But even this grim musing couldn’t hold up against her awe as Gerta squeezed her, like she was afraid Rakel would run away.

For the first time since her exile, another human was touching her. Gerta’s hug was strong but foreign—better than she remembered, warmer than she remembered.

Rakel couldn’t think, but her hand hovered for a moment over Gerta’s head until she dared to smooth her hair. Gerta didn’t flinch, and instead gave Rakel a smile that used her entire body. “You came,” she said.