Linnea: A tale of the Snow Queen

Chapter 21, No Control

It was just us now. Ingrid and I kept clashing and Lucas tried to fix it. One day we wouldn’t use words, we would use our powers. I could feel it coming. The need to end her existence. We kept Aksel, Astrid, and Markus out of it. We didn’t want them to know about what was going on. Like I said before, keeping secrets was a dangerous business. We tried to keep Filip out of it too but he wanted to help. Thankfully the castle was far away from the village. That would keep them safe from the discord going on inside the castle walls.

I knew it was going to slip out of my mouth any day now. I had killed Agnar and Agnes. If Ingrid ever knew then we would be at each other’s throats. We wouldn’t use words for that fight. Not even Lucas would be able to stop it. The three of us were in the garden one day. Ingrid and I were glaring at each other. That monstrous woman of a step-sister. She almost ruined my chance at Filip and then had the audacity to give herself powers like mine. The snow queen and the queen of summer. I sat there sipping tea from a cup. It turned to ice as I drank from it, “Linnea, look at your cup.” Lucas said
“Thank you brother. I didn’t even know that…”
“Yes you did.” Ingrid interrupted
“I didn’t realize that was happening.”
“Just like how you didn’t realize my mother was sick?”
“She’s fine, I'm taking care of her.”
“Then why won’t you let me see her? I could heal her.”
“Like you did for my father?”
“Okay, I’m stopping this here.”
“Lucas for once could you just stay out of it?”
“I agree, stay out of this.” Ingrid replied. We were both about to use our powers on each other when Lucas put himself between us. He transformed into half an ice sculpture and half a topiary. We killed him. I looked into my brother’s eyes, “Lucas, no no no no. What did you do?”
“Linnea, Linnea I…”
“He’s dead. We can’t undo this.”
“Linnea…”
“Just stop. Leave me here with him for a bit.” I replied. She did as I said and left. I looked at my brother’s eyes. One was made of ice and the other was a plant. My twin brother, dead. We had been through everything together. Now he was gone too. Tears rolled down my face. I had killed my brother. I couldn’t let the same thing happen to Astrid or Aksel or Markus. I looked at my hands and my fingertips were becoming blue, like my ice. I was in too deep. I was in pain. I was in grief. Ingrid wanted me to be a monster. That’s what she saw me as.

This one, I couldn’t cover up. No one noticed that Lucas was gone. No one had noticed that Agnes and Agnar were gone either. I told Filip what happened and he couldn’t believe I had done it for a third time. Technically speaking it was two and a half. Ingrid had assisted me by accident, “I can’t believe this happened again. What happened?” Filip asked
“It was an accident. Ingrid and I were about to harm each other and then Lucas came between us.”
“It was both of you.”
“He’s out in the garden. Half of his body is ice and the other half is a plant.”
“How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know. Filip something sinister is about to happen. I can feel it.”
“Everything is going to be fine Linnea. The important thing is that our daughter is safe. You made the right choice to send her away for now.”
“I don’t think I did.” I replied. I missed my daughter. My little rosebud. The one person who wasn’t afraid of my magic. She preferred Ingrid’s over mine though. She was a summer person. When we did play with my snow she didn’t have as much fun with me as she did Ingrid. Now it felt like I had no control over my powers. No control over anything. That would change soon though.