Glaciana Frostcall's Arc

Chapter 5 of 10

Coraline sat in the chair by the cold hearth like she had been invited. The pink hearts on her gown pulsed slow, in time with something Glaciana could not hear. Glaciana stayed standing. Her ache for Kristian held steady under her collarbone. That was the fact she had to protect now. "You look well," Coraline said. "Feeling suits you. Though I wonder if you know yet whose feeling it is." "Mine," Glaciana said. "Are you sure?" Coraline tilted her pink head. "He walked through your song. A siren's song leaves a thread. Pull the thread and the doll walks toward you. You have been pulling all day, sister. That is why you ache." Glaciana's hand closed at her side. That was the exact fear she had sent Kristian past the ice shelf to answer. She had answered it. The ache had held while he was gone from her voice. She knew this. Coraline was reaching for the one soft place and pressing. "You came from Vladislas," Glaciana said. "You came to measure him. Not to counsel me." "Both," Coraline said. "I am efficient. If your prince is only your spell talking to itself, he is free for the taking. If he is truly yours, he is worth more. Either way I go home with an answer." Glaciana understood then. Coraline wanted her to doubt. A doubting siren would test again, and again, and each test would push Kristian farther from the castle. Far enough for a woman in a heart-covered gown to meet him on the shelf and sing. "Get up," Glaciana said. Coraline smiled and did not move. Glaciana opened her mouth and sang one clean note. Not the pulling song. The clearing song, the one that scoured her own hall of anything that did not belong. Frost cracked along the floor from her feet to the chair. The pink hearts on Coraline's gown dimmed. Coraline stood, slow, still smiling. "You will send him away again," Coraline said. "You cannot help it. And when you do, I will be waiting past your voice. Give my regards to Vladislas's rival when you learn who that is." She walked out. The doors shut behind her. Glaciana stayed in the cold hall. The ache under her collarbone had not moved. She had chosen. She would not test Kristian again. She would tell him the truth when he came back, and she would keep him inside the reach of her voice, where Coraline could not stand between them. At the high window she saw the small dark figure crossing the shelf toward the castle. Kristian, returning. She went down to meet him at the door, and for the first time in her long life she did not rehearse what she would say.