Claus

Forty-Eight

She took a step back.

"Faryn?" Nick tilted his head, brows furrowed. "Where's Clora?"

She turned her back on him, her heart racing. Her eyes scanned the basement, looking for some sort of clue. Some explanation as to how he had warm food.

A crash from upstairs broke her thoughts. Clíodhna tumbled down the stairs before coming to a stuttering stop at Faryn's feet. She was unconscious.

Peter was beside her instantly, rolling her onto her back and checking her pulse.

At the top of the stairs stood her uncle. Frost swirled around him like a veil. "You want to free him?" There was venom in his voice.

Faryn tried to process what she was seeing. Who see was seeing. "I want my life back."

Cassian let out a growl from somewhere on the first floor. She couldn't see him, but her uncle snapped his arm out to the side, and frost shot out from him. Something crashed and shattered that sounded a lot like glass.

She yelled Cassian's name, but there was no response.

Her uncle began descending the stairs, and she let out a growl of her own. It didn't stop him or even cause a moment of hesitation.

"This is all really a shame, Faryn. Clora wanted a life with you, but now you'll have to disappear too."

"Just let this go, Jack." Nick sounded tired. "If Clora would just talk to me, we could work something out."

"She's been trying to for decades." Jack's steps shook the stairs. "And you've only ever dismissed her."

Peter stood, stepping in front of Clíodhna. "Clora's taken this too far. You've taken this too far. This was a private matter and now she's caused me and too many others to be dragged into it."

"Do her feelings mean nothing?"

"They do." Faryn's arms trembled. "It pains me to be rescuing him. But I'm doing this for her, for me, before this can get any worse."

Peter shot out his arm and his magic collided into her uncle's chest. He flew back, smacking into the steps. Peter used the few seconds to scoop Clíodhna up in his arms and to carry her behind an overturned table. He'd barely sat her down before ice and wind wrapped around his ankle. A tug by her uncle sent Peter slamming into the ground.

Ice, wind, snow, hail, whatever it was she could control, she needed it to spring forth from her.

That wasn't a confident order though.

She placed her hand on the ground, imagining ice racing up the stairs to her uncle. Nothing happened.

"Faryn." Her uncle brushed himself off. "If you want your friends to not come to anymore harm, give up."

She didn't come this far to just walk herself into the Frozen City's dungeons.

Her uncle started descending the stairs again. "Tell everyone you forced my sister to shield you, and your friends can go free. And if they try to say anything, well they'll have already confessed."

"Go to hell." She stomped her foot, and ice raced up the stairs toward him. It covered his feet, freezing him to the step. But almost as soon as it had settled, cracks began to form.

No. She was going to have her freedom and so would her friends.

The ice shattered, small pieces of it stabbing at her. She thrust out her arms, and then there was sleet, racing up her body and down her arms. It flew at her uncle and threw him back. He hit the stairs and toppled off the side and onto the ground.

Faryn sucked in a deep breath, feeling as if she couldn't catch it. Her head whirled and a headache pulsed between her eyes. Her body wasn't used to using her magic like this.

A wave of blue power crashed over her uncle as he began to get to his feet. He buckled under the force.

Peter kept his arms out as he walked toward him, but when he was only a few feet away, ice raced up his body, only so far as his knees. Maybe her uncle couldn't summon the full strength of his magic under Peter's power. The blue glow was starting to fade though.

With a blast of wind, directed at Peter, her uncle broke Peter's magic. Two more gusts of wind were thrown, one at Faryn that sent her crashing against an overturned table and another at Peter who slammed into the wall.

Faryn groaned, her body aching, throbbing. Snow and ice and wind whipped around her feet as she laid there. Her uncle stalked toward her.

Her arms trembled as she tried pushing herself up. She only managed to get into a crouch.

"You shouldn't have left Darhafium."

"I thought Nick was being left to starve."

White branches of magic wrapped around his wrists. Not his own magic. He was whipped away from her to face Cassian who stood on the stairs, blood leaking from a gash on his forehead.

Her uncle sneered. "You recovered more quickly this time."

Faryn grasped at the edge of the table and pulled herself to her feet. Not far from her was half of one of her grandfather's ice sculptures. It looked like it had been a deer with long legs. With her uncle's back to her, she grabbed it.

Cassian came down the stairs, not releasing his magic's hold on her uncle. "Or maybe your magic doesn't pack the punch you thought it did."

Her uncle's magic surged, forming a storm with which to strike Cassian. "Then please oblige me the chance—"

Faryn slammed the ice sculpture into the back of Jack's head. He crumbled to the ground. He didn't move or make a sound.

Faryn stood over him frozen as Cassian crouched beside him and placed his fingers to her uncle's neck. Had she—

"He's alive."

Her legs nearly buckled. She didn't know what she would have done if she'd killed him.

I can't believe we're almost at the end! So you can be on the look out, here is how updates will be until the final chapter.

On Friday I'll be posting Chapter 49. It's a short chapter.

On the 14th, Wednesday, I'll be posting Chapter 50. Also a short chapter.

On the 16th, Friday, I'll be posting Chapter 51. This is one of my favorite chapters.

On the 21st, a Wednesday and the first day of winter, I'll be doing another Story Branch because I want to be able to post the final chapter on Christmas Eve. This branch will be based on Chapter 51.

So instead of there being an update on that Friday, the 23rd, it will be on the 24th and that will be the last chapter!