Always You

xvii. Spellbound

Elsa

The party the next day was not the distraction I hope it would be. All I could think about the whole day was Jack; where he was, if he was mad at me, what had made him leave so abruptly. It was eating me from the inside out, and I didn't know how much longer I could deal with that stress. Not to mention the fact that we now had a week to get everything prepared for Anna's wedding. We didn't know where in the castle we would hold the ceremony. Where could hold that many people? I supposed the room we'd held my coronation in would suffice, but ultimately it was Anna's decision.

I sat on the window seat in my room, staring blankly out the window until the edges of the horizon began to turn pink. All I wanted was to be able to put the pieces of everything together, but I wasn't capable of dealing with it. The stress from Jack had me going crazy; just earlier that evening, I had stepped into my scalding bath only to have it freeze solid moments later. That was fun to undo, I recalled. 

I spent the next day in the garden, reading book after book but not remembering any of the words I scanned. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, and I could tell Anna was worried about me. I kept catching her peeking at me and then moving quickly away when she noticed my noticing. I couldn't stop it, though, because I didn't want to give up hope that Jack would return any second.

I could picture it, too. He would just fly over to me, kiss me, and make some kind of cheesy joke that would ultimately make me playfully hit him only to have him kiss me again. Everything would be fine. What if he didn't return? My subconscious taunted me, shaping my thoughts in the most negative way. He had only said he loved me, what if he was lying? I had to believe he wasn't, that was all. I knew, deep in my heart, that he loved me. 

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I paced, sighed, and neglected all of my duties for three days before Anna gave me a reality check. 

"Alright, sister, what's the deal? You are totally in a funk and Jack is nowhere to be seen. Spill." She demanded, tapping her small foot as she awaited my reply.

"Oh, I, just... Uh. He left." I said, dumbstruck. She didn't look surprised.

"Have you worked out a trade agreement with the Southern Isles?" She asked, and I felt guilty that I hadn't.

"Not exactly..." I replied, staring at my feet.

"Well, come on. We're going straight to your office and you're writing to the king." As I started to speak, she cut me off. "Nope! I don't want to hear it. Your people need you." She lead me to my office and I knew she was right. As I drafted the letter asking about trade, I thought about how grateful I was to have a sister who cared this much about me.

"There, done." I told her, and she read it over, nodding.

"Good! Now, we need to decide a location for the wedding..." The whole afternoon passed that way, Anna barking out orders and me following them and feeling the most normal I had in days.

Jack

We searched high and low for five days, never once finding a solid lead on any of the three people we were looking for. On the fifth day, by a total accident, I came across the hideout of the one and only Mother Nature.

As I and my fellow Guardians walked in, we were greeted by a small woman with unnaturally bright green eyes.

"Hello, Guardians, I was waiting for you. OH! And you've brought Jack Frost. Why? No one even believes in him." She scoffed, a comment I was starting to get really sick of.

"Actually, as if you deserve to know, Jack's been made the newest Guardian." Tooth snapped in her shrill voice, and the small woman looked at me again.

She was kind of ugly, with a snub nose and a small mouth... The majority of her round face seemed to be taken up by her enormous eyes, which darted around quickly as if she had just drank an entire pot of coffee. She scoffed before speaking.

"Typical. I spend centuries doing exactly what that damned Moon wants, breaking my back to bring around the weather, and Jack Frost gets made a Guardian." She spat at me, the venom leaving her eyes and manifesting itself in her voice.

"Enough, Mother." Spoke a girl from the couch behind her. I hadn't noticed her when we first walked in, and I wondered if she had even been there at all. In the blink of an eye, she had appeared by my side with a small snap of her fingers. She stroked my cheek with her small hand, her pine green eyes meeting my own, " Hello, Jack. I'm Holly." She introduced, her soft voice tinkling like bells. I could definitely see this girl as a mix of Mother Nature and North.

Unlike her mother, Holly was beautiful. Her green eyes were doe-like, framed by thick lashes and lined with a perfectly straight black line. Her nose was a small ski-slope smattered with freckles, her mouth a Christmas red pillow. She ran a small hand through her sleek blonde hair, turning to face the other Guardians. I couldn't look away from her; it was as if I was under a spell.

"Jack..." Bunny called out slowly, as if he were cautioning me of something. With a snap of her fingers, Holly had thrown him against the wall where he landed in a furry and unmoving lump as she advanced upon Tooth. Holding Baby Tooth in her hands, Tooth pleaded with the girl.

"Now, Holly, let's just talk about this. Do you really want to wind up alone in a cell for the rest of eternity, or do you want to stay in the Moon's good graces?" She chided the girl, but I could tell Holly wasn't listening. It seemed like she was under a spell, too, because I could see on her face how she didn't want to do this. Still, she snapped her fingers and sent Tooth's body into the hard floor.

"Stop!" I cried out, terrified for her to do something to Sandy or me, and hoping she hadn't done too much damage to the other two. She turned to me, fear written on her face before it quickly fell back into it's cool mask.

"She won't listen to you," Mother Nature cackled from her resting spot on the couch. "She's under my control." She said, as if I hadn't already figured this much out. 

"What do you want?" I asked the small woman, confused on her intentions.

"Oh, the usual, I suppose. Revenge, world domination, the elimination of the Guardians." She shrugged, like the whole prospect of it was very boring to her.

"Stop!" Holly screamed from behind me, the look on her face showing how hard she was fighting her mother's grip on her. She slumped to the floor with a glare from her mother, and I wondered exactly what kind of powers this woman actually had.

"That's a good question," She spoke, as if she could read my thoughts. Then it all went black.

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A/N: Dedicated this chapter to sanfranbrunette because she's been a really good friend to me and has always supported my works! you guys should definitely check out her fic, The Story of Winter, because it's seriously soooo good!

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On another note, HOLLY. I feel like her name is Holly Holiday. But I don't know where Holiday would come from beside the fact that her dad is Santa Claus. xD Anyway, please vote & comment! I'm almost at 2k reads and I am so happy! It means so much to me!