Claus

Frost - Chapter One

Mother Winter.

All the air had been sucked out of Faryn at what had to be an awful joke. Winter couldn't really expect that shecould handle such a role, such a title. A title she had never even heard of until Moroz had said it.

Beside her, Cassian let out a soft hiss, and Faryn jerked her hand away from his. Where her fingers had been, his skin was now a bright red, particles of ice dusting his skin. She couldn't control her powers, and she was supposed to replace her grandfather who had over seven centuries of experience?

Despite the burn and the pain she knew she had caused him, Cassian didn't pull away from her. Rather he drew closer, sliding his hand along her back. The firm pressure his touch brought kept her grounded to the icy floor, to the spot where she stood surrounded by Winter's court.

Moroz, known as Father Frost, stared at her as if waiting for her to throw a fit, to cry, to scream. To do anything other than just stand there.

The air that would have chilled most Acurials left sweat forming in the places where her dress was tightest. The grand chamber full of Winter's Court seemed to shrink around her until she couldn't breathe. And yet at the same time it felt as if the columns stretched higher until she was nothing but an insignificant speck of snow. The court surrounded her and Cassian, Clíodhna, and Peter, her new friends who felt more like family than those she shared blood with. How dare any of Winter ask anything of her after they'd had her hunted across the globe; Nick and Klaus who she knew despised her; Jack, her cousin, who was the one who'd done the hunting; Moroz and his daughter, The Snow Maiden; Befana who'd attacked her in Eiraacia when she'd met Cassian; Perchta, who Faryn had been warned did not take kindly to her existence as a living symbol of Clora Claus's unfaithfulness to ol' Saint Nick; Gryla, Leppaludi, and their thirteen sons, none of whom had bothered to interfere either for or against Faryn; and lastly Aurelius—Krampus—who had turned his back on her and all their years of friendship.

Through the tightening in her chest, the strangling of her heart and lungs, she finally forced her answer out. "No. I can't."

Moroz crossed his arms, his gray eyes as hard as ice. "It is your duty."

A laugh slipped out of her. "Duty? I have no duty."

Befana frowned and no wrinkles appeared against her white skin. Only days ago on the eve of Epiphany, her body would have transformed into that of an old woman. Now she appeared no older than thirty. Behind her, the end of her broom stretched past her head. The wood of the handle was not straight like most brooms, instead it zigzagged like a bolt of lightning. At her feet, the straw bristles that were bound in brown leather brushed the frosty gray floor. "To your magic."

Faryn narrowed her eyes at the Laihr. "My magic? I can't even control it." She'd only ever been able to create ice and sleet. "I don't have all five powers that Father Winter has." Wind, snow, ice, sleet, and frost. Those were the powers the line of Jack Frost to Father Winter held. She could not fulfill a role that wasn't meant for her. A role magic had not chosen for her.

It was a role meant to be her cousin's one day.

"For once I actually agree with Faryn." Jack curled his hands into fists. "She cannot take my grandfather's place."

Befana slid her brown eyes toward him. "You will help her do just that."

Heat surged up her throat, and out of habit, she sought out Aurelius's face, but when his dark eyes met hers, she found no emotion in them.