Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,86
snow yanked my body, pulling me under like quicksand. I gasped, taking in a mouthful of snow, my muscles trying to fight, but darkness bled in, my body and mind too tired to struggle.
As I felt myself let go, sinking deeper, a bellow from what sounded like a monster reverberated into the night, its cry following me into the darkness, hunting for me there too.
“Dinah! What are you doing here?” Blaze’s voice had me jumping around, my long braids whipping against my puffy red jacket. Blaze’s slight form stomped through the snow to us, a frown creasing his freckled nose.
Jack huffed in annoyance at his brother’s appearance, returning to build our snowman.
“You scared me.” I watched Blaze walk up to us. He was bundled up, while Jack wore only a T-shirt and jeans. Blaze spent all his time at the beach. He hated the cold, even though it never felt really cold to me here.
“Why didn’t you come to the beach?” Blaze’s gaze darted to his brother. Looking at them, you’d never know they were brothers, let alone twins. Blaze was all light, warmth, and carefree, while Jack was dark, cold, and mysterious. Though they were both my friends, I tended to play with Blaze more. He was happy, simpler, and never could sit still. Jack was intense and could watch people without talking for hours, his eyes always taking everything in.
“Sorry, Jack and I started building a snowman.” I shrugged. Alice was with her friends, not that she would play with me anyway. Dad was at work, and my mom was downstairs busy with stuff. Feeling lonely, the temptation to visit Winterland was too strong. I loved coming here. If I could, I’d live here permanently.
“A snowman…boooorrrring.” Blaze exhaled, flopping his arms down at his sides, his jacket bouncing them back out again. “It’s cold here. Come to the beach. We can go swimming.” Blaze waved for me to follow.
“I promised I’d help Jack today. Come join us.” I turned back to the snowman, acting like everything was as peaceful as it was before Blaze showed up. The brothers didn’t get along very well, and I felt constantly pulled between them.
Blaze sighed dramatically again.
“You don’t have to stay. Go back to the beach then.” Jack stuck a branch into the side of the snowman, his lids lowered on Blaze.
Blaze glared back. “Actually, I have a better idea.” Blaze rubbed his mitted hands together, mischief glinting in his green eyes. “A fun idea.”
“What?” I knew that look, and it usually meant an adventure.
“The dungeon,” he whispered dramatically.
“Dungeon?” I straightened up. I had never heard of them having a dungeon in the fortress. Not that I went inside much, besides the room the mirror was in. “You have a dungeon?” Excitement tumbled around in my stomach.
“Mother says we can’t go in there.” Jack shook his head.
“You are sooooo boring,” Blaze whined.
“I wanna go.” I loved discovering new places, the thrill of an adventure.
“Mother will kill us.” Jack folded his arms. Blaze and Frost’s mom was strict and was always waving us outside, telling us to get out of her hair. She frowned every time I showed up, whispering it wasn’t right I was there, but Jack and Blaze always ignored her, dragging me out with them.
For some reason, even when I saw her, I could never recall what she looked like once I left. She was similar to every other older person, like a grandma, with short white hair. I knew she seemed sad and angry all the time, cold and distant. Though she always gave me peppermint candy to suck on.
“She’ll never know.” Blaze stuck his tongue at Jack. “Unless you tattle on us.”
Jack’s spine went stiff. “I don’t tattle.”
“Prove it.” Blaze folded his arms. “Dinah and I are going to find what’s in there.”
“Like treasure?” Eagerness popped me on my toes, bouncing.
“Maybe,” Blaze’s voice went low and creepy. “Whatever is down there is so dangerous we are forbidden to go near it.”
A shot of fear dropped me back on my heels, my eyes snapping to Jack. Maybe this was too dangerous.
As if Blaze could feel me changing my mind, he stepped up to me. “You gonna wuss out on me, Dinah?”
Wuss out? Never. “No way.” I held up my chin, sounding fiercer than I felt.
“Then come on!” Blaze waved me to follow, taking off jogging for the castle.
“Blaze…Dinah!” Jack called out after us, but we didn’t stop, running into their house and down the steps to the lower levels.