Elara's POV
The roar came again, closer this time.
"Run!" Caelan shouted, pulling me out of the cave.
I didn't need to be told twice. We raced through the snow as the ground shook beneath our feet. Behind us, something massive was moving—I could hear trees snapping like twigs.
"What is the Frost King?" I gasped, struggling to keep up.
"Something that should still be sleeping!" Caelan's hand tightened on my arm, dragging me faster.
I risked a glance back.
A creature the size of a mountain rose from the snow. It was made entirely of ice—jagged spikes forming its body, frozen boulders for hands, eyes that glowed like blue suns. When it roared again, the sound was so loud I thought my ears would burst.
"Don't look at it!" Caelan yanked me forward. "Just run!"
The Frost King took one step. The ground cracked. Snow avalanched down nearby cliffs.
We weren't going to outrun it.
Then Caelan did something that made no sense—he stopped running and turned to face the creature.
"What are you doing?" I screamed.
"Buying us time!" He raised both hands, and ice exploded from the ground between us and the Frost King. A massive wall, fifty feet high, rose in seconds.
The Frost King punched through it like paper.
"So much for that," Caelan muttered. He grabbed me again. "Hold on!"
"Hold on to wha—"
Ice formed beneath our feet and shot forward like a frozen river, carrying us away at impossible speed. Wind whipped my face. Snow blurred past. We were moving faster than any horse could run.
Behind us, the Frost King gave chase, each step shaking the world.
"Your fortress!" I shouted over the wind. "How far?"
"Two miles! Maybe less!"
"Will we make it?"
He didn't answer. That was answer enough.
The ice river curved around cliffs and through narrow valleys. Caelan controlled it with hand gestures, but I could see the strain on his face. This was costing him.
The Frost King was gaining. I could feel its cold breath at our backs.
Then, suddenly, we shot out of a valley and I saw it.
A fortress made entirely of ice rose before us—towers reaching toward the sky, walls that sparkled like diamonds, gates that looked strong enough to hold back an army.
Beautiful. Terrifying. Impossible.
"The gates!" Caelan shouted. "They won't open in time!"
We were going to crash right into them.
At the last second, the gates swung open. We shot through and the ice river beneath us shattered, sending us tumbling across the courtyard.
I hit the ground hard, rolling several times before stopping. Pain exploded through my shoulder—the same one the wraith had poisoned.
"Close them!" Caelan yelled.
The gates slammed shut just as the Frost King reached them.
BOOM.
The impact shook the entire fortress. Ice rained down from the towers. Cracks spread across the gates.
BOOM.
Another hit. The cracks grew bigger.
"That won't hold it," I said, struggling to my feet.
"It doesn't have to." Caelan made a complicated gesture with both hands. "Just needs to hold long enough."
Blue light spread across the fortress walls, running through channels carved into the ice. Symbols I didn't recognize glowed to life.
BOOM.
A third hit. Part of the gate shattered.
The symbols flared brighter.
Then the Frost King went silent.
We waited, breathing hard. Nothing happened.
"Did it work?" I whispered.
Caelan walked to the damaged gate and peered through the cracks. After a moment, he relaxed slightly. "It's leaving. The wards convinced it there's nothing here worth hunting."
"Wards?"
"Magical protection. Makes the fortress invisible to most creatures." He turned to look at me. "You shouldn't have been able to find it."
"I didn't find it. I was following those glowing footprints in the snow, and they led me—" I stopped. "You. You left those footprints for me to follow."
"No, I didn't."
A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold. "Then who did?"
Before Caelan could answer, I felt it—that presence at the edge of my mind. The voice from the black ice room.
"Welcome home, little Winterborne," it whispered.
I gasped and stumbled backward.
"What's wrong?" Caelan asked sharply.
"The voice. It's here. It's in this fortress."
His expression went dark. "Impossible. My wards would—" He stopped, staring at me. "Unless it's not trying to get in. Unless it's already inside."
"Inside what?"
"You."
The word hit me like a physical blow.
"The magic growing in you," Caelan said slowly, like he was putting pieces together. "The blue veins. The way you found my fortress despite the wards. You're not just developing ice magic, Princess."
"Then what's happening to me?"
He studied me with those storm-gray eyes, and I saw something shift in his expression. Not quite fear. More like recognition.
"You're being prepared," he said quietly. "Shaped into something. A vessel."
"A vessel for what?"
"For the same thing that's causing the eternal winter. The same thing that nearly destroyed the continent centuries ago." He stepped closer. "The Frostbound Entity. It's not trying to kill you, Princess. It's trying to claim you."
My legs gave out. I sank to the icy ground, my mind reeling.
All this time, I thought I was dying. But I wasn't dying.
I was being transformed.
"Can you stop it?" I whispered.
Caelan was quiet for a long moment. "I don't know. Maybe. But first I need to understand how deep its hooks are in you." He offered me his hand. "Come. We don't have much time."
I took his hand and let him pull me up.
He led me across the courtyard toward the main fortress entrance. As we walked, I noticed things carved into the ice walls—not decorative symbols, but words. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, all written in the same handwriting.
I will not forget.
I will not forgive.
I will make them pay.
Over and over and over.
"What is all this?" I asked.
"Promises," Caelan said flatly. "Reminders of what was taken from me."
We reached the main doors. He pushed them open, and I stepped into the fortress.
It was even more beautiful inside than outside. Ice sculptures lined the halls. Frozen chandeliers hung from the ceiling, glowing with magical light. It should have felt cold and dead.
Instead, it felt alive. Waiting.
"Your rooms are this way," Caelan said, leading me down a corridor.
"Wait. I'm staying here?"
"You asked for my help. I'm giving it. But on my terms." He stopped at a door made of crystal-clear ice. "This is your room. Food and clothes are inside. Rest. Tomorrow we start testing your magic to see how much of you is still... you."
The way he said it made my stomach drop. "And if there's not much left?"
His eyes met mine, cold and honest. "Then I'll do what needs to be done before the Entity can use you to destroy what's left of the world."
"You mean you'll kill me."
"Yes."
At least he was honest.
He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm. "Caelan. Thank you. For not leaving me to die out there."
He looked at my hand on his arm for a long moment. "Don't thank me yet, Princess. You might wish I had."
Then he pulled away and walked down the corridor, leaving me alone.
I opened the door to my room and stepped inside.
It was simple but comfortable—a bed made of ice covered in thick furs, a table, a chair. On the table sat a tray of food and a set of clean clothes.
I was so tired I could barely stand. But as I moved toward the bed, I saw something that made me freeze.
A mirror hung on the wall. Crystal clear ice, perfectly polished.
I walked toward it slowly, afraid of what I'd see.
My reflection stared back at me. But it wasn't quite me anymore.
My eyes had changed. They were still brown, but now they had flecks of ice-blue in them. And when I moved, my reflection moved a second too late.
Like it wasn't really mine.
Like something else was looking out through my eyes.
The voice whispered again: "Soon, little Winterborne. Very soon."
And my reflection smiled.
I hadn't smiled.