Frozen Fear Book. 2

❅Chapter 19❅

I could do nothing but stare at the immortal lying lifelessly in the coffin - even as the fae surrounding me closed in, their fangs and claws bared.

Mab's original body.

The black hair threw me, catching me off guard. And I was tense, as if any moment she'd jump out of the wooden box and grab me, pulling me into coffin to keep her company for eternity.

"Princess," one of the brownies hissed, its voice reminding me of nails on a chalkboard."Come with us."

There wasn't a way to get out of this one - I was trapped, a mouse cornered by two poisonous snakes.

So I kneeled before them, bowing my head and offering my hands in surrender. The tight black suit that Akan had given me stretched around my body. I cast my gaze down, hoping they wouldn't attack.

One of the brownies came forward, snatching my hand in its powerful grip. It lifted me off the ground until I dangled in front of it, catching me in its powerful glare. "You killed our brother," it hissed, so close to my face I could smell its breath - rotting meat and mold.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. I'd only seen a few brownies sulking around the castle when I was a welcomed guest here not many months before, but they always avoided my gaze, seeming withdrawn and tired of life.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

They were powerful, hungry creatures that didn't loath life, but relished in it. A few of the books I read said that, depending on the court they grew up in, a brownie could be your worst enemy or your best friend. And I had to guess that sending their brother into the chasm on the side of the castle wasn't a way to make them my BFF.

It shook me, my shoulder screaming as its hand tightened around my wrist. "I wonder what your immortal blood tastes like," it buzzed, its tongue coming out to stroke the wound on my cheek. I couldn't help but flinch. My blood looked like a flower on its tongue before it swallowed. "Delicious."

"Bite?" the other brownie suggested.

The one holding me growled, its eyes flashing in hunger. "Bite," it agreed, opening its jaws.

I thrashed, striking at the powerful arm that held me suspended. I screamed and hollered, kicking at its face, but those yellow teeth kept getting closer.

"Now what good would she do me dead?"

The brownie stopped, its entire body going ridgid. As it turned, closing its jaws, it laid me on the ground gently. "Your majesty," he hissed between its teeth.

"Leave us," Mab barked. "You've done enough. There will be a reward for you in your chambers." The wound on her collarbone was completely healed, the only indication that I stabbed her was the dried blood coating her gown and throat.

The brownies growled, backing off, before they slinked across the floor on their spindly limbs, disappearing out the window once more.

And then I was alone with my mother again.

"I see you found my body," Mab murmured. She'd turned her back to me, walking across the room, and the glass, with bare feet. She didn't even flinch as her feet began to bleed a dark cobalt. "Do you wish to know what I intend to do with it?"

I swallowed around the lump that had formed in my throat. "I think I have an idea."

Mab turned to me, her eyes bright. "It'll be magnificent," she whispered. "Young fae bodies are so weak, so fragile. With my original body, I will become invincible."

But it still didn't make sense. "Foster said he watched you wither."

Mab laughed, the sound scratching across my skin, causing goosebumps to rise all over my flesh. "Oh he did, Daughter. He did. But what Foster didn't know about, was a magical land located in the Autumn Court, called Nysa."