Frost Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Frost stood frozen against the sealed arch. The silence pressed in. Then she felt it — a thin tug of cold air slipping through stone. She turned and followed it. A short distance from the arch, a wall of flowers stood locked in ice. A single crack ran down its middle, thin as a hair. Frost pressed her palm to it. Cold wind whispered through. This crack ran all the way to the other side. A nearby stone pillar groaned, its icy half straining outward, as if her magic on this side already pushed against the seal. She had seconds before the crack healed. Frost lifted her hands and called her power. Blue light gathered in her palms and hardened into a blade wrapped with dark roses. She drove it into the crack. The ice screamed. The flowers shattered. The blade sank deep, wedging the gap open just wide enough. Through the narrow split, she saw him — her mortal, the scarf clutched in his hands. His eyes found hers. His lips moved. This time, the sound came through. He spoke her name. The blade burst into snow, but the crack held. Frost stepped forward, her blue fingertips trembling, and reached into the gap between worlds.