Sacrifice (The Snow Queen #2)(21)

Rakel tried pooling her magic on the snow sculptures again, but like the first time, they resisted.

Her actions caught the attention of a snow horse, which clumsily ran at her.

“No!” Kai screamed.

“Princess!” Oskar shouted.

Rakel quirked an eyebrow and encased the sculpture in a block of ice, stopping it in its tracks.

Kai gulped in air, and his shoulders heaved. “I want my mother!” he cried.

Rakel ventured closer and froze another statue.

He tried to run to Rakel, but a sculpture blocked him and knocked him off his feet. “I don’t want magic. This is s-scary!”

Rakel scowled in anger at the nearest sculpture. “Enough!” she shouted. She tapped her magic again and threw a flood of it at the snow, overwhelming it. The sculptures stopped their trail of destruction and exploded into fine, powdery snow.

Kai cried with relief, his face scrunched with feeling.

Rakel dropped to her knees and hugged him, pulling him to her. “You’re safe, now. It’s okay, Kai.”

The little boy clung to her as Oskar, Phile, Crow, and Gerta descended upon them.

“I d-don’t want magic, P-Princess.” Kai’s teeth chattered as shock hit him.

“I’m sorry,” Rakel said. There was nothing else she could say. “I’m so sorry.”



“What happened?” Rakel watched a servant place steaming mugs of goat milk in front of the children.

“We were playing one of the stories you and Phile told us,” Gerta said. She held Kai’s hand and shoveled toast topped with brown cheese into her mouth with her free hand.

Kai was pale and quiet. He didn’t move to take the toast or milk and sat on his cushioned chair like a doll.

“Stories?” Rakel asked, puzzled.

“When Phile reenacted your battles with your ice sculptures,” Gerta said. “We tried to make our own sculptures, but we could only get ’em as big as us,” she added, clearly sorrowful they hadn’t created the gigantic statues Phile had coerced Rakel into making. “It took us hours to make ’em and get them lined up across from each other. When we were ready, we shouted ‘Attack,’ and Kai’s snow sculptures came to life!”

Snorri rubbed the back of his neck. “He can make things sentient?”

Rakel tapped the arm of her armchair. “That isn’t quite right. They weren’t alive.”

Crow peered down his beaky nose at her. “Then, Princess, I would love to know what your definition of ‘alive,’ is, ’cause they looked awfully mobile to me.”

Kai stiffened, and Oskar patted his shoulder. “Why don’t you try drinking something?” he suggested.

Kai shook his head.

“They weren’t alive,” Rakel insisted. “I could still feel the snow. Kai’s magic was directly manipulating the snow—the way I do when I use my powers.”

“I think the key was in the words.” Phile rubbed Foedus’s edge across the pad of her thumb. “He said attack, and they did.”

“I agree,” Rakel said. “I think his magic was applied to the snow so it would do his will.”

“A second snow user? That’s surprising,” Oskar said. “Snow and ice users are relatively rare—though they only occur in the northern countries, so I suppose it is not impossible to have two such magic users in close contact.”

“I don’t know if he is a snow user.” Rakel tried to sift through her thoughts and observations. “His magic had a different flavor than mine.”

“Would it feel the same if he had snow magic, too?” Phile asked.

“No. Everyone’s magic has their individual print…but his should have been more similar to mine,” Rakel said. “I could feel a faint link—his magic had a beauty to it that mine shares—but it was different—the way a reindeer and horse are both pack animals but very different creatures.”

She glanced over at Kai and Gerta. Gerta was listening, her eyes going back and forth between Rakel and the rest of the adults as she kept eating cheese-topped toast. Kai, however, was still motionless.

“Kai,” Rakel said. “Do you know what your magic is?”

Kai took in a shuddering breath. “I-I think so.”

Phile crouched down in front of him and smiled. “Do you think you could explain it to us?”

Kai licked his lips. “If I build something, I can give it an order…and it will do it.”

“That’d be why the snow moved—the little gal said they shouted, ‘Attack.’” Crow folded his arms across his chest.

“Not sentience,” Snorri said.

“Yes. It’s more an expression of his will,” Oskar agreed.

Rakel joined Phile in hunkering down in front of the young boy. “Could you show us?”

Kai shrank back in the chair and shook his head.

“Your magic isn’t something you have to fear, Kai,” Rakel said in her most gentle voice.

“Magic is scary. It’s wrong,” he whispered. The haunted look in his eyes twisted her heart.

He knows. Though he fearlessly befriended me, he knows what having magic means. “Do you think I’m scary and wrong?”

“Of course not!” Kai gaped at her with horror.