Page 16 of Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage

There was a tiny bit of petrol left, but not much, so I put the can a careful distance from my little bonfire, which was still burning nicely.

I froze as I thought I heard a creaking noise above me. Maybe it was from the heat we were creating or the noises of an old thatched house … or maybe it was the creature that had caused all this waking up and coming down. I swallowed hard and fervently hoped it wasn’t the latter.

Moving far more quickly now we had a proper path, I ran back to the elves and bent down beside Orla’s mum, Simone. I shook her gently. ‘I’ve come to get you out of here,’ I whispered next to her ear. ‘Can you hear me?’

As I shook her a little harder, desperation reared its head. ‘Can you hear me?’ I repeated.

Her large eyes blinked and fear flashed across her pale face until she focused on my face. Confusion clouded her expression, then just as quickly it was gone and the fear had returned. ‘You need to get out of here!’ she whispered desperately. ‘Leave! Hurry! Save yourself. Leave, before he comes.’

‘I’ve got you. It’s okay,’ I said firmly. ‘I’m here to help you. Who’s doing this? Can you tell me who’s done this to you?’

Her face scrunched with pain as she forced out the words. ‘He’s a… He’s in so much pain,’ she said, her forehead creasing.

It was clear that she was weak and could barely think straight. I suspected she was talking about her husband, Barrie, whose plumes of breath were growing fainter.

‘Do you have any strength left?’ I asked. ‘Any power? Any magic?’

She squeezed her hands tightly and shook her head. ‘He’s drained it all,’ she said weakly. ‘The flowers. He forced us to make the flowers. But wait… Maybe.’ Her eyes squeezed shut as though she were trying to force some semblance of magic to resurface.

‘No, don’t. Save your strength, okay?’ I said. ‘Just tell me – do you know how he’s doing this? How is he draining all your power? If I know that, maybe I can work out how to stop him.’

Her chin dipped slightly and she looked down, but all I could see was the water pooling from the melted ice. ‘It’s on me,’ she said faintly. ‘On my chest.’

As I moved my hand to her shirt, I met her gaze and she nodded, giving me permission to open it. The moment I ripped apart the fabric, I saw it: embedded in her skin directly over her heart a small stone was pulsing faintly with icy-blue light.

‘Do you know what will happen if I pull it off?’ I asked.

She shook her head. ‘No. But if you don’t, I’m as good as dead anyway.’ Her bright green eyes locked onto mine, giving me permission to try, and I knew that there was no other choice.

‘You’re Orla’s mother?’ I said. ‘Simone?’

Her lips parted in a small gasp and her brows furrowed. ‘How do you know Orla?’ Her voice trembled. ‘How do you know my baby girl?’

‘She sent me to find you.’

Tears welled in the elf’s eyes. ‘My darling. I love her. I want you to tell her…’ She choked on her words. ‘Tell her we love her so much. We should never have left her.’

‘You’re going to tell her yourself,’ I said firmly. ‘I’m going to get you out of here.’

The puppy wasn’t being idle whilst I spoke to Simone: she was trying to wake the other elves by nudging them gently with her cold, wet nose.

I turned back to Simone. Who knew if my next action would condemn her or save her? But if I couldn’t release her magic back to her, she wouldn’t survive anyway. When I raised my eyes to hers again, she nodded firmly. ‘Do it.’

I clawed my fingers around the edge of the stone, praying it hadn’t gone deep enough to kill her when I removed it. Holding my breath, I closed my eyes and, with one sharp tug, pulled the embedded stone free from her flesh.

Simone desperately smothered her gasp. Her head snapped back and for a heart-stopping moment I feared the worst – then a rush of colour flooded through her body as her skin warmed with life. ‘My magic,’ she said. ‘I can feel it. It’s coming back!’

Her relief and awe hit me with such force that I struggled to breathe. I was woefully out of practice in containing my empathy skills. In the human world I didn’t need to be careful and I’d got damned sloppy.

I sucked in a couple of desperate breaths to get my emotions under control. ‘That’s great,’ I said with a smile. ‘Let’s get the rest of them free. You help this one, I’ll go to the far end of the room and help the others. We can work our way into the middle. Just rip out those damned stones as quickly as you can.’

Simone nodded decisively and turned to the elf nearest to her, her husband Barrie. I headed for the elf at the far corner of the room. I was clasping the stone in his chest, ready to pull it from him, when a scream pierced the air. The heart-wrenching shriek was so loud that the house shook, giving me flashbacks to the demon’s final moments.

The colour drained from Simone’s face and she turned to me, eyes wide in panic. ‘He’s awake,’ she whispered in a trembling voice. ‘He’s awake, and he knows what you’ve done.’

Chapter Fourteen

‘Work fast,’ I said to Simone, trying to swallow the fear that was rushing through me, both hers and my own. It was a deadly, heady mix that risked freezing me in place so I shoved it down as hard as I could. I was raised to protect and I’d do it, damn it. ‘Get them free as quickly as you can while I hold him off.’

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