Page 18 of Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage

Vines were creeping in through the windows and under the doors, melting all the ice they touched to leave pools of water. It was mesmerising. The closer the leaves got to the centre of the room, the faster they grew and for a split second I fearedthey were going to swallow me whole. But then, I realised, they weren’t heading for me…

Several tendrils had already wrangled their way around the ice creature’s ankles and were holding him in place. ‘Let me go!’ he screamed as he realised it washisturn to be secured against his will. ‘No! Let me go!’

Ice shot from his gnarled hands but this time the elves were ready. They blocked the shards of crystalline water with great leaves that rose to protect them in an armour of greenery.

‘It’s not fair! I wants the pretty flowers! I needs them!’ The vines were up past his thighs. As I watched, they pinned his small hands to his sides.

When he was fully secure, the elves started chanting. I’d never heard a sound like it and my scalp prickled as it called to me in a way I’d never experienced before. Some of the voices were pitched so low that they resonated deep into the marrow of my bones; others were so high and ethereal that goosebumps rose on my skin.

Harmonies blended and resolved in an effortless beauty; screw Celine Dion, these elves couldsing!Every voice was unique and alluring, and I wanted nothing more than to stand there and absorb the sound deep within me.

That was when I glimpsed the ice creature standing in the middle of them – only he was no longer white and icy. Just like the elves, he was regaining colour. A pale pink tinged his cheeks and they started to plump out like a balloon being reinflated. As I watched, the elephant grey in his eyes deepened first to turquoise and then to a deep, emerald green. But it was his ears that really drew my gaze. The greying flesh coloured and warmed, and then his elven ears were restored to their usual points.

‘He’s just an elf,’ I said in disbelief. ‘A child.’

Chapter Fifteen

By the time the elves had finished their chanting, any trace of the icy creature and his frozen home had melted. Literally.

They were standing around a small elven boy, no older than ten. His glare was defiant but his bottom lip was pushed out and trembling, a sure sign of his fear. ‘I don’t understand,’ I said to Simone. ‘What happened? What happened to him? Why did he do this to you?’

As Orla’s mother turned to look at me, the elderly elf took off her cloak and placed it over the boy’s shoulders. He finally stopped glaring and started to cry. ‘We only know part of the story, what he told us before he froze us,’ she said. ‘He was on his own. By the looks of it, he’d been that way for a very long time, possibly since he was a toddler.’

‘What?’ I was horrified.

She nodded, her eyes showing gentle understanding of my confusion and distress. No child should be left alone for so long and the thought of it made me sick. I’d been raised with suchlove, and this poor boy had been raised by a loneliness so deep it was no wonder that it cut me to the core.

‘The trees and plants must have kept him alive,’ the elf continued. ‘But it changed him. He didn’t understand the boundaries in nature, let alone how to interact with his own type. He wanted to use more magic than he had the capacity for.’

‘He didn’t realise what he was doing the first time.’ It was a male elf who spoke. He must have been mid-twenties and was wearing far more human-like clothes than the rest of them: cargo trousers and a comic-book T-shirt. He was wearing a beanie, too, that hid his pointed ears; I wouldn’t have even noticed he was non-human had I not known.

He stretched out his hand. I took a moment to secure my pathetically weak mental shields, then braced myself and shook it. I was pleasantly surprised when the shields held.

‘My name is Jonah,’ he said. ‘I was the first to find him – I was hiking. He was sitting under a tree, crying. I couldn’t get much out of him but I grew him an orchid in the barren earth and he was so excited. Unfortunately, one or two orchids weren’t enough for him. With no parents, he hadn’t been shown how to control his emotions and he lashed out. It took me completely by surprise.’

He shook his head in disbelief. ‘A child like him shouldn’t know the power of heart stones! The more power he took from me, the more he wanted. When others came to find me, he captured them, too. None of us were prepared to fight a child. I suppose you know the rest,’ he added wryly.

My first thought was exactly how long had it been since Jonah had crossed this elf-child’s path and how long had he been in this icy state? Cryogenics was a thing, wasn’t it?

Orla had said that the Rollright Stones weren’t of significance to elves, so had the boy just waited here biding his time untilmore of his kind wandered through? That could have taken months – years, perhaps.

No wonder the elder elves hadn’t wanted Orla to look for her parents: they must have investigated and found out that some of their brethren had already gone missing. They didn’t want to send good elves after bad, so to speak.

What I had learned was that elves could be incredibly powerful and dangerous, especially if they weren’t shown how to use their magic. And families weren’t just important to them, they were vital; without proper care, a young elf could become a malevolent force.

‘We will take him,’ the elder elf said as she approached. ‘We have placed a bind on him for now so he cannot hurt us.’

‘What will you do with him?’ I asked. Maybe he deserved punishment for what he’d done, but how could you punish a child when he hadn’t been taught the difference between right and wrong? Nature’s definition of right and wrong was certainly different from society's; could he be blamed for not having an inner moral compass?

‘We will take him to our home,’ the elder continued. ‘They are many of us and we will work with him, teach him the ways of elves and nature. With time, I am certain he can be saved.’

I was moved by these people’s compassion and empathy. Whether he was a small boy with a sad past or not, he had nearly killed them all. While the first episode with Jonah might have been an accident, I was sure the other seven times he’d deliberately entrapped the elves to use their powers.

It was ironic; even though my magical gift was empathy and I had compassion for the young elf,myparents would have had no forgiveness for him. None. Maybe it was good that I hadn’t been gifted my family’s more deadly brand of magic after all.

As I started to fall into a pit of memories about what could and should have been, a small bark by my feet broke into mythoughts. The pup was there, sitting at my heels, her wide eyes staring directly into mine. For once her tail wasn’t wagging; it was as if she was waiting for me to speak so she knew how she was supposed to act.

I smiled at her. ‘You’re right. We should get back.’ I turned to Orla’s parents, who were holding one another very closely. ‘Are you ready to go? There’s somebody back at my flat who is going to beveryexcited to see you.’

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