Elizabeth Frostwyn's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Elizabeth Frostwyn had loved Elijah Winters from a careful distance for two winters, and this morning a stranger in a sunhat had climbed his steps before her. She watched from the tree line, her fingers gone cold inside her blue sleeves. The woman knocked on the wooden door of the stone home. The door did not open. The woman left the hat on the step like an offering and walked away down the path. Elizabeth stepped out of the trees. Ice crackled along the grass where she'd stood too long. She had planned this day for weeks. She would bring him a small gift, say something kind, and let him see her plainly for once. She had not planned on a rival. The sunhat sat on the stone step. A blue ribbon trailed off the back. Elizabeth stared at it. Her temper rose the way it always did, quick and bright as a struck match. She could freeze the ribbon. She could crack the crown. She could bury the thing under a mound of frost and let him find nothing. "Don't," a voice said behind her. Elizabeth turned. Beth Wonders stood at the edge of the path, purple hair wind-mussed, wings folded tight. The cosmic witch had no reason to help her and every reason not to. They had never been friends. "Why are you here," Elizabeth said. "Passing through. I can feel your magic thinning the air from a mile off." Beth glanced at the hat. "You freeze that, he'll know it was you. Not the way you want him to know." Elizabeth's hand was already lifted. Frost webbed her knuckles. "He'll pick her over me." "Maybe." Beth shrugged. "Or maybe he opens the door because a hat's on his step and a woman's crying in the yard. Your call." Elizabeth lowered her hand. She hated that the answer was obvious. She hated more that Beth had said it. She took a breath, walked up the steps, and set her palm on the wooden door. She knocked three times. The door opened. Elijah stood in the dark of the entry, long black hair, red eyes flat. He looked at her, then past her at the hat. "Someone left this," Elizabeth said. Her voice held. "I thought you should know before the sun took it." Elijah picked up the hat. He turned it once in his hands. "Not mine." "I know." He studied her face. "You're the ice witch." "Elizabeth." "Elijah." He stepped back from the doorway. "Come in. Tell me who left it." She went in. Behind her, Beth was already gone from the path. The door closed. Elizabeth had wanted to be noticed first. She had not wanted to be noticed as a witness. Now Elijah wanted a name she didn't have, and the woman in the sunhat would be back.