Locked In the Frost.

~ Nerrissa ~

"You useless, lazy rat! Get out!"

Stepmother’s sharp voice cut through the cold air like a whip. Before I could even raise my hands to protect myself, her fingers clamped onto the fabric of my dress and shoved me forward.

My feet tripped over the high wooden doorway. I fell hard onto the stone steps of the courtyard, the rough surface scraping skin off my knees. The icy rain hit my skin instantly, freezing cold and heavy.

"Stepmother, please," I rasped, pushing myself up on trembling wrists. The metallic taste of blood was still hot on my tongue from my morning fit. "I cleaned the hall. I swept the mud just as you asked—"

"You hid in your room for hours!" Elspeth’s voice echoed from inside the dry, warm hallway. She stood right behind her mother, her arms crossed over her thick woolen dress, watching me with narrow, vicious eyes. "I saw her, Mother. She was just sitting on her bed, holding her useless rags and wasting time while the rest of us prepared the estate!"

"I was not feeling well, Elspeth," I whispered softly. The rain soaked through my thin dress in seconds, sticking the damp cotton to my chest. "I couldn't stand up. My chest hurt so badly"

"I do not care if you were dying!" Stepmother snarled. She reached down, grabbed the heavy iron handle of the manor door, and pulled it back. "You will stay out in the yard until you learn to work without complaining. Do not dare knock on this door until the sun goes down. Useless fool!"

"Wait—it's freezing outside!" I begged, taking a small step forward on the slippery stone. "My chest... the cold makes it burn—"

BANG!

The thick oak door slammed shut right in my face.

The heavy iron bolt clicked into place with a sharp, final sound. I stood there in the pouring rain, my chest heaving as I stared at the dark wood. I reached out a hand to touch the door, but my fingers were shaking so violently I couldn't even flatten my palm against it.

"Please..." I whispered to the wood. No one answered.

Through the tall glass window beside the entrance, I saw Elspeth look back at me once. She smiled, turned her back, and walked toward the Great Hall where a bright fire was roaring in the stone hearth.

I turned around slowly, wrapping my thin arms tightly around my waist to keep from shaking apart.

The courtyard was completely empty. The rain was not normal rain; it fell in thick, heavy sheets, carrying a bitter chill that smelled like wet iron and old ash. The mountain wind howled through the stone arches, biting straight into my bones.

A sharp spike of pain shot through my ribs. I gasped, stumbling backward until my spine hit the cold stone wall of the manor.

"Breathe," I told myself softly. "Just keep breathing, Nerrissa."

I forced my lungs to take in short, quiet breaths. If I let the panic take over, my lungs would tear open again, and I would be left choking on my own blood in the slush. I closed my eyes, pressing my back flat against the wall, listening to the small sounds around me to keep my mind off the biting cold.

Over the sound of the falling rain, I heard the faint, frantic voices of the courtyard guards up on the battlements.

"Look at the ridge!" a guard shouted, his voice high and thin with fear. "The clouds aren't moving with the wind! They're sinking!"

"Where are the birds?" another voice called out. "Why did the crows stop screaming?"

I opened my eyes and looked down at the muddy stones near my feet.

The guard was right. Across the entire courtyard, not a single creature was moving. The small sparrows that usually nested under the roof tiles were completely gone. Even the stray dogs that usually roamed near the kitchen doors had hidden themselves deep inside the wooden sheds, silent and still.

I looked up at the sky.

The gray clouds were no longer gray. A strange, oily red tint was spreading through the mist, bleeding across the horizon like dye in a basin of water. It made the falling rain look dark, almost like watered-down blood dripping from the sky.

A sudden shiver ran down my arms, but it wasn't from the cold.

My collarbone began to throb. Beneath my wet dress, the dragon mark pressed against my flesh, growing hotter by the second. It didn't burn like a fever; it felt like a tiny, glowing ember sleeping under my skin, waking up to answer the strange red light in the sky.

Across the yard, two manor guards stood by the heavy iron gate, their hands white as they gripped their wooden spears.

"Look at her out there," one guard whispered, glancing over at me. "Lady Verna locked her out again in this weather. She'll be dead before dark."

"Let her be," the other guard muttered, turning his face away from the rain. "The girl is cursed anyway. Have you seen her hair? No human has hair like silver frost. She’s been a ghost since the day she was born."

I heard their words clearly, but I did not look at them. I did not feel angry. I knew how I looked to them—a sickly, pale girl who offered nothing to Ashvale, a frail thing that coughed up blood whenever the weather turned harsh. They didn't know about the scrolls hidden under my floorboards. They didn't know about the strange lullabies my mother used to sing to me before she vanished into the dark. They don't even know the kind of hell I face here every single day .

I squeezed my wet hands into small fists, digging my fingernails into my palms until the pain kept me grounded.

"I won't die here," I whispered into the freezing wind, my voice quiet but firm. "I won't die in the mud just because they want me to."

My legs were numb, completely devoid of feeling, but I forced myself to slide down the wall until I was sitting on my heels. I pulled my knees tight against my chest, tucking my dress around my ankles to keep whatever little warmth was left in my body.

Suddenly, the red clouds above the outer mountains split wide open.

There was no flash of light. No strike of lightning. Just a sound—a massive, terrifying roar that tore through the sky, so deep and powerful that the heavy stone wall behind my back vibrated like a plucked string.

The air pressure in the courtyard plummeted instantly.

My ears popped violently. The air was sucked straight out of my lungs, leaving me gasping for a breath that wouldn't come. Across the yard, the two guards dropped their spears. The heavy wooden weapons clattered against the cobblestones as both men fell to their knees, clutching their heads and screaming in silence as the sheer force of the sound crushed them down.

The heavy oak door of the manor flew open again.

Elspeth and Stepmother rushed out onto the porch, their faces pale with shock as they looked up at the sky.

"Mother! What is that?!" Elspeth shrieked, grabbing onto Verna's arm. "What's happening to the air?!"

"Get inside!" Stepmother screamed, her voice cracking with pure terror. "Bar the doors! Bar the gates!"

She reached for the heavy iron handle to pull the door shut, but she was too late.

A colossal wave of pressure slammed down from above, cracking the stone flags of the courtyard right down the center. The wind howled like an angry beast, tearing the tiles off the manor roof and sending them smashing onto the ground in thousands of sharp pieces.

I buried my face in my arms, my silver hair flying wild in the storm, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.

Beneath my collarbone, the dragon mark flared with a blinding, searing heat.