Frostbitten Past

X X X V I I

SHE KNEW she should have been terrified, but Andorra wasn't. She stood there, slipping back and forth between the human realm and the in-between until it was as easy as breathing. She was getting good at using the nails in her mind to scrape open a tiny sliver, just big enough for her to squeeze through.

She found that she didn't even have to use anger; it was as easy as breathing now. She had a suspicion that it was her anger that brought her to that dark place, so she didn't even attempt to use that to drag up her magic. Now, she thought happy thoughts as she slipping to the in-between.

The in-between was a strange place, mostly because it was similar to lucid dreaming. She would imagine a place and then she'd be there, the world around her glimmering and shimmering, and it wasn't until she stepped through did she finally land in reality. It was simple, honestly, and she wondered why she'd had so much trouble with it in the first place.

Right then, she was testing just how far she could go. She'd started by transporting in and out of the palace, which had shocked Oberon so much he fell out of the chair he was perched on in the study. She went in and out of rooms without taking a step, then she went to and from town, zipping all around in the in-between.

But, she wanted more. She was exhilarated with all of the traveling she'd done, and she was eager for so much more. She wanted to stretch, she wanted a challenge. So when she slipped into the in-between, she thought of her parents.

She was transported immediately to Maine, standing in her house, looking at her parents in the living room, the world around her shimmering. They couldn't see her yet because she hadn't stepped through, but there she was, watching her parents talk on the couch.

They looked normal, with the exception of the bags around their eyes - a sign that perhaps they hadn't gotten enough sleep. Andorra tried to rationalize why it was important for her to leave, why going to Anlithamy was more important than living a fake life, but it was hard. Seeing her parents was hard.

She wanted to step out of the in-between and hug them, but she forced herself back. She forced herself to stay put, using the last of her willpower to not cry, which she wanted to do so badly.

Instead, she hugged herself, hating the homesickness that washed over her, wishing not for the first time that she had just been born normal. A normal girl, living with her normal parents, having normal dreams.

That life was so easy, so in reach, but she knew she couldn't return to it.

She imagined she was back in the Palace and then she was there, still in the in-between, looking at Noah in his bedroom. She hadn't realized she'd transported to him, but then she realized that when she thought of the snow kingdom, she thought of Noah and Noah alone.

He was laying on his bed, tossing a tennis ball up above his head, catching it so swiftly there was no reason to believe he'd ever drop it. She watched the way his eyes followed the ball, his face carefully blank and emotionless.

He looked like a normal young adult then, laying on his bed like Andorra pictured teenage boys would do. She yearned to run her hands through his hair, pushing them up away from his eyes. She wanted to lay on the bed with him, in his arms, safe and sound from everyone.

She wanted it so much she found herself stepping into the real world, stumbling into his room. For a moment, nothing changed because Noah didn't even look at her. She wondered if she messed up somehow, if she'd come out invisible, but then he caught the ball and sat up, blinking at her and then at the door.

Her cheeks burned. "I uh, transported in here on accident."

A slow grin burned across his face. "On accident, huh?"