Page 62 of Jack Frost
I am free.
I can go anywhere now, do anything. I can change the damn world.
The glory of it swells in my soul, too big to contain, and I sweep out of the great hall, skimming through corridors and bursting into rooms, whooping and squealing at the top of my lungs. A few ice wraiths flit out of archways to watch me pass. They're clearly startled by my appearance—I assume they usually hang around here, so they weren't among the group that surrounded Jack and me after our burning. It doesn't take them long to accept me, though, and soon they're zooming along with me, voicing tiny cheers of their own.
Finally, I slow my skating and ask them, "Do you know where Jack keeps his clothes? Or are there any girl clothes around here? Like, cool dresses or whatever?" Because I think my confrontation with Auxesia calls for a truly spectacular gown.
The ice wraiths lead me deep into the palace, to a suite of rooms swathed with indigo shadows. When I touch the light fixture in the bedroom, it flares to life, revealing a grand four-poster bed draped in lacy curtains, like flexible frost. Darting through an archway, the wraiths illuminate the space beyond, and I gasp at the treasures inside. Dozens of gowns and outfits from every era, with the most modern clothing toward the front. There's nothing newer than the late eighteenth century, but I don't mind. I can make do with these for now, and later I'll spiral home to get my things—although my repertoire of mild businesswear, jeans, and hoodies doesn't seem splendid enough for this body.
Between two sections of clothing I find a broad mirror, framed in twisting vines. Cautiously I approach it.
My face is still mine; but it has definitely been upgraded. My skin is practically poreless now, frosty and smooth. My brows are dramatic black arches, and my eyelashes are thicker and darker. I still have three studs along the edge of my left ear, and a stud and a hoop in the right one. But the tips of my ears are sharp and blue-tinted now, like Jack's. I'm firmly in faerie mode, looking like some tall elven ice queen—which means I am probably invisible to humans as well. And I have no idea how to switch to my human aspect. So I won't be talking face-to-face with Karyl or anyone else for a while.
I'll have to email Karyl after I spiral back to my place for my things. I can't text her, because my purse and its contents burned to a crisp in that Alabama field. Maybe I can tell her Jack and I are traveling the world together. She'll worry a little, but honestly she's the only one who will care that I'm gone. I can quit my job via email; the thought gives me a shiver of satisfaction.
Before any of that can happen, I need to choose a dress. This immense closet would be Karyl's dream; she'd go rabid for all the vintage fashion.
The farther back I walk in the closet, the more ancient the clothing gets. Historians would love to see these pieces. I make a mental note to talk to Jack about donating some of them to museums. I don't think he's holding onto them out of affection for Kheima; he probably just hasn't bothered to move them. Just in case, I'll approach it tactfully when I get the chance.
For a second my energy falters, and the weight of loneliness descends on my shoulders. With Jack unconscious in the regeneration room, and only the wraiths for company, I am truly alone down here, under vast layers of ice, at the world's end.
How did Jack handle the loneliness for so long?
No wonder he was so eager to have me in his life. My heart turns tender and sore at the thought of my sweet, cheerful Jack fighting alone, holding back fiery destruction with his own two hands, returning wounded and weary to these beautiful hollow halls. My fingers tighten on the crisp brocade of an Elizabethan-era gown.
He won't have to struggle alone anymore. I'm here now.
I wander further down the row until my fingers slip into the folds of a long dress—shimmery and simple, a Grecian column of white that pins over one shoulder and falls in glimmering ripples to the floor.
This is the one. I know it from the second the fabric glides across my skin, flowing into place along my legs. There's a slit up to my thigh on the left side, which is perfect for strenuous movement—like fighting a fire goddess.
I don't bother with undergarments, and I leave my feet bare.
Strength and power oscillate through my body, tangible energy welling just under the surface, chafing to be released. But I need to remember that I'm not invincible. If Auxesia is deep in some volcano, it's going to be tough to access her. If I go striding into a volcano, I'll melt, or burn to a crisp. Just the thought of heat is enough to make my skin crawl.
I'll have to draw Auxesia out somehow.
My attention swerves to the myriad of fine threads tugging at the edges of my consciousness. This is how Jack knew where the biggest, most dangerous fires were, and where he needed to introduce cold fronts to balance out extreme heat. If I can find a spot where Auxesia has set fire in motion, and wipe that entire area clean with my powers, she'll probably come to investigate, and that's when I'll get her.
I crash clumsily to earth somewhere in the middle of Saskatchewan—my chosen area for the first major test of my powers. Jack said his transformation involved a dozen wraiths, but I'm fairly sure more than that went into me. What does that mean for my power levels?
Maybe I should wait and do this when Jack awakens. But by then, Auxesia could have healed herself and burnt the world to a crisp. No, I have to act now. Fires are burning throughout the Midwest, threatening homes and crops, gnawing at beautiful old forests. For some reason the thought of those decades-old trees being charred to stumps infuriates me more than the loss of human buildings.
My new form allows me to do something about that anger. The plan is to send a cold front from Saskatchewan across the border into the Midwestern states, hopefully blotting out or reducing some of Auxesia's fires.
I leap into the sky, borne up in a storm of snow and fury. The sky around and above me soars infinite, clear and cold and borderless. It is magnificent, and I am the queen of its scope, the guardian of its future.
I am so far beyond lobbying and research and grants and benefits now.
Magic builds inside me, bright energy and purifying cold, ready to burst from my body.
Gritting my teeth and spreading my arms, I release it all.
The magic explodes from my chest and my hands, a titanic ring of icy air blasting outward. Clouds form instantly, racing away toward the south, carrying cold rain in their bellies. Frigid wind pours from me, and I close my eyes, reveling in the sensation of power, so much power—it kicks up my hair and twists through my dress, surging around my body.
The energy is leaking out too fast now—I can feel it ebbing away, and I close myself off from the flow, sinking back down to earth. My limbs are faintly weak, but I feel refreshed, too—sated, like I did after sex with Jack.
I'm not sure exactly what that release of magic will do, but it's bound to get Auxesia's attention. She'll try to find its origin. So all I have to do now is wait for her to locate me.
