Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,142

it, too, was frozen over and most likely useless.

“I really don’t think we should be here…”

The firebird plopped down on the throne with its usual careless manner, spreading its wings over the armrests, and tilted its head to one side, listening.

Tala examined a scepter lying across a small table stand. “I don’t think we should be here,” she said again. “I know we have Ryker outside to worry about, but we should at least wait for the others.”

It was as if she’d never spoken. The firebird remained silent, staring intently at a small door half-hidden behind the throne.

Something seemed strange with one of the large stalagmites nearby. Frowning, Tala took a step closer. She could make out a dark and huddled shape trapped somewhere within the icy structure. She pressed herself against the cold surface, peering inside.

A face stared back up at her. The man’s eyes were open and vacant, boring holes through her own. His mouth was set in a wordless scream.

Stunned, Tala spun around, feeling sick to her stomach as realization hit. Every block of ice had people trapped inside it—servants, courtiers, nobles—their faces locked in expressions of permanent terror.

One block of ice was taller than the rest, at almost twenty feet or so. “An ogre,” Tala whispered, staring at the frozen beast encased within, arms still flung out in mid-strike.

The firebird hopped off the throne and flew straight for her, to tug at her arm and steer her toward the side door. “But why would the Snow Queen freeze one of her own nightwalkers?” Tala gasped. “This makes no sense…”

The firebird stopped. She followed its gaze and saw the shades.

They were crawling in through cracks in the ice, snarling and hissing. Crawling over frozen statues of the imprisoned as they approached, a massless sea of frothing sharp teeth and gaping black maws.

“And what do we have here? Two little younglings who’ve lost their way?”

Tala froze. She remembered that voice. The firebird tossed its head back and let out a low, angry hiss.

The ice maiden looked no different from when she had confronted Tala and Alex back in the boys’ locker room, and nothing in her flawless porcelain face bore any scars from their previous encounter. She emerged from one of the upholstered walls, pulling herself out of a large dome of ice suspended there while more crackled around the floor, forming around her bare, blue feet.

“Spellbreaker.”

“Run,” Tala told the firebird. She tried to sound tough, the way Ken or Zoe would have, but her voice warbled, thin and quavering. She drew out her arnis sticks. “Get out of here. Find help.”

It ignored her. The ice inched ever so slowly forward, toward them.

“It is not too late to join us, Spellbreaker,” the ice maiden coaxed. The ice around her rippled slowly outward to coat the floor and walls in even thicker layers as she passed.

The firebird blazed up, its feathers burning, and spat several fireballs the ice maiden’s way. The creature laughed and brushed them aside like they were of little concern. “Your fires could injure me once, little firebird, but not now. I am stronger here in the frost than I could ever be in the outlands, and I am immortal.” She drifted closer.

“Join us, Spellbreaker. We have much to offer. Riches.” Shards of bright crystals blossomed along the wall, sparkling like diamonds. “Power.” More formed along the walls, drifting above like frozen wings. “Even love.” The woman stepped closer, her pale blue eyes bright. “Join us. You will have all these and more at your fingertips. These the queen offered your father once, and now all these I offer to you.”

“My father?” Tala whispered.

“Yes. Your foolish, simpering traitor of a father. They were young once, he and the mistress, and they loved each other dearly. To save his life, the mistress took on a curse that transformed her into the powerful queen she is today. With it, she wreaked her vengeance on those who abandoned them on the Lapps, alone and unprotected. She protected Beira, and he fought with her. She gave him love, and riches, and power of his own. But your father was corrupted by the sweet lies of the outlanders, and he turned against us.”

“You’re insane,” Tala said. “Your mistress killed millions of innocent people.”

She laughed. “What is innocence, Spellbreaker? There is no such thing. The sweet babe today will be taught to hate by the world soon enough. The only difference between a harmless toddler and a tyrant are the years in