Elizabeth Frostwyn's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The door closed behind Elizabeth. The stone home swallowed the daylight. Cold air moved along the walls, colder than her own magic, and she felt her advantage shrink. Elijah set the sunhat on a stone table by the entry. He turned to her and waited. He wanted a name. She did not have one. "Sit," Elijah said. He pointed to a stone bench near the hearth. She sat. He stayed standing. "Describe her." "Tall," Elizabeth said. "Dark hair under the hat. A blue ribbon." She stopped. Every word she added could be a lie he caught later. "I only saw her from the trees." "Then why come to the door." Elizabeth's fingers curled in her lap. Frost bloomed on the stone under her palm. She lifted her hand fast and rubbed the mark away. "Because a woman leaving a gift and not staying to give it — that seemed wrong. I thought you should know." Elijah looked at the hat. He looked at her. His red eyes held on her face for too long. "You watched my door." "I was passing." "Through the north woods." She had no answer for that. Her temper flared before she could stop it. "Do you want help or do you want to question me?" He did not react. He picked the hat up again and turned it in his hands. A small dark shape dropped from the crown and landed on the stone floor. Then another. Then six more. Inky spiders spread from under the brim, bodies like wet ink, legs moving fast toward the walls. Elizabeth stood. "Don't move." She threw out her hand. Cold rolled from her palm across the floor. The spiders froze mid-step, legs stiff, bodies dulled to gray. One near her boot cracked and split. The room went quiet. Elijah stared at the frozen spiders. Then at her. He knew now. He had always known she was the ice witch — but seeing it was different. She had used her magic in his home without asking. "They were inside the hat," she said. Her voice shook. "She didn't bring you a gift. She brought you those." Elijah crouched by the nearest spider. He touched a frozen leg with one finger. It snapped clean off. "You knew to freeze them." "I knew they'd scatter." He stood. He looked at her a long moment. "Then she isn't a friend." "No." "And you don't know her name." "No." He nodded once. He did not thank her. He did not ask her to leave either. He pulled the sunhat off the table by its brim, careful now, and set it on the bench between them. "Stay. I want to see what else she left." Elizabeth sat back down. Her hands were shaking. She had not won his heart. She had won a seat at his table, and a new enemy she had never met.