The Snow Queen: Jelsa *Third Book to Frozen Love*

Chapter 19

"But if you wanna leave, you can. I'll remember you." --Disney's Lilo and Stitch

Jack

I woke up in the middle of the night, cold. Yes, that's right. For the first time in my immortal life, I felt cold. My shoulders were shaking and my teeth were chattering from the relentless sensation. The cold was in my nose and my eyes, invading my very chest.
I was tired, too. More tired than I'd ever felt, like sleeping wouldn't help. I managed to stand up and look around. Where was I? Nothing seemed familiar. I felt like I was in a dream, stumbling around in a fog and reacting to it numbly. I felt my heavy feet crunch through the snow as I stumbled in an unknown direction. All I wanted was to be warm.

Elsa

The rising sun woke us up the next morning. I shaded my face in protection of the pearly light. Then my hand rested on a staff next to my makeshift sleeping area.
"Jack doesn't just leave his staff around alone," I said to myself.
"What was that, Snowflake?" Bunny sat up and stretched. I ignored the condescending nickname and showed the staff to Sandy. He nodded thoughtfully. I got up to look for him, clutching the stick.
"Jack? Jack, where are you?!" My voice grew in volume and urgency as I neared the entrance to the fortress. I felt my heart rattle within my ribs when I saw my husband curled up on the ground within the hole, his sides shivering. I tripped down the stairs, scraping up my feet but ignoring it. I fell down beside him and held his face in my hands, setting his staff down beside us. Footsteps skidded to a stop behind me. "Tell me what's wrong with him, North," I demanded without turning around.
His shadow loomed over us. He looked down at Jack, whose hair was matted against his forehead with sweat and whose eyes were sunken. His sickly appearance made me want to cry.
"I've seen it once before," North whispered. I urged him on. "He has sliver of Ursa's mirror within him. That must have been what the bear meant by 'infected'."
"It was her last act of retaliation," I said, remembering Ursa's last flick of the wrist. "How do we get it out?"
The Guardians avoided my gaze, falling silent.
"There is no getting it out, Elsa," Tooth choked out. "It's killing him."
"It's an ancient relic, and the only one I know that can sap an immortal person's life force within hours." North shut his eyes in desperation. I looked from Jack's face to North to the other Guardians, and back again.
"What? No. No!" I lay his head in my lap. "You can't just give up; you're his friends. We have to do something. Balder! Balder!" I shouted up to the surface. The wolf was down to us within seconds. He studied the scene solemnly through his glassy eyes. "Balder, do you know how to heal him? It's a shard." The wolf's nose quivered over Jack's body for a minute, then he ducked his head.
I'm sorry, Queen. Has penetrated his heart. Nothing to be done. He lay down at Jack's bare feet. I recalled my ice blast reaching Anna's heart, and how quickly she had almost lost her life.
I felt my face seize up in rage. "Don't call me that! My name is Elsa Frost, because I'm married to Jack, and...and I-I can't live without him," my voice cracked, releasing a sob. Nothing in the world seemed to exist, except for Jack's rigid body, and his pain that I couldn't relieve.
Suddenly, I straightened my shoulders and rested my hands on Jack's chest. Very carefully, a blue light pulsed from my palms, illuminating his sweatshirt. I searched desperately for the feeling of a shard. As I did, a carpet of gold spread beneath his body to cushion him: Sandy's doing. I continued.
Out of nowhere, I was knocked to the side by a blast of frigid air.
"What happened?" Bunny gasped.
"I-I almost had it!" I cried. "I could feel myself making progress!" Bunny looked to the ground with a strange look. It was the look my housekeeper had had before she told me my parents had died. "It's true!" I protested.
"Bunny and I will go see if we can get back to the Workshop. There could be something there that's useful. And Fjord may be willing to give up the globe if we go alone," North said. He made his way down a tunnel. A second later, I saw a flash of light from the portal.
Why were they all giving up? There had to be a way to save Jack, and I was going to find it.
But more uncontrollable sobs wracked my body. I leaned over Jack's face, letting my tears drip onto his cheeks. I couldn't bring myself to move, and Sandy and Tooth thankfully moved out of the throne room to leave me alone. They were both crying.
"Jack, I don't know if you can hear me, but I need you to be okay, all right? I need you to be okay f-for me," I kept repeating that, breathing raggedly in between. That's when I noticed the wedding band on my finger. I gasped, realizing something. "Jack!" I cried. "I didn't get to finish my wedding vows! Lady Pitchiner attacked, and there was no time, and I forgot, but I didn't finish them! You have to be okay, please. It's the only way you can hear them." I lowered my voice as a thin coating of frost began to crawl up along Jack's arms and legs, growing closer to his heart. Wiping it off didn't help, so all I could do was keep my hands on his limp chest and persist in my search for the shard.
"Found yourself in an awkward situation, have you?" A voice asked from above my bent-over head. Black shoes stepped into view. I looked up at Lady Pitchiner's face.
"If you don't have a way to save him, get out of my face," I snarled. She feigned surprise.
"The risk of a lost love usually does bring out the rudeness in people. But if you will insult me, I won't offer my help." She started to walk away.
"No, please! Lady Pitchiner, how can you help?" I stopped her desperately. She turned around with a look of genuine pity. Next, she knelt down on the other side of Jack.
"This must stay between us, for the Guardians would think it too risky," she whispered. I nodded; I was prepared to do anything. "All I need you to do," she told me, "is to stay with him and calm him down. Leave the rest to me. I have a way of getting rid of the shard." I nodded unquestioningly.
I looked down at Jack's pained face resting on my knees. His entire body was now coated in ice, and he'd gone completely still. I couldn't even see breath leaving him.
"Not much time left now," Pitchiner said to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. As she did, a memory came to my mind. It was when Jack had sung to me, all those months ago--or years, depending--in the middle of the night.
"Edelweiss, edelweiss, every morning you greet me," I gasped out. "Small and white, clean and bright. You look happy to meet me." More crystal-clear tears fell upon Jack's stiff face.
Then, something miraculous happened. As each tear slid down his face, the ice began to chip away; piece by piece slid off him and scattered to the floor. My heart caught in my throat. 

Soon, a burst of white light shone over Jack's heart. It grew to engulf Lady Pitchiner. I tried to focus on my lyrics, to calm myself down as well as him. But after another moment, it was gone. Pitchiner lay on the ground, and Jack's breast rose and fell with air again. "What did you do?" I asked, feeling a relieved grin tug at my cheeks. 

 However, it faded when I saw frost coating her body at an alarming rate. I rushed to her side, resting Jack's head down gently. 

 "Don't worry about me, girl," she growled, though sweat coated her face and her eyelids looked like they were struggling to stay open.

 "What. Did. You. Do?" 

 "T-True love is the only thing that can loosen a shard from a person, but once it is out it will only," she gasped for air, "seek out another host." 

 "Are you telling me that you're giving yourself up for the shard? But you'll die!" I cried, confused.

 "Oh, we both know that I can't be allowed to live. I'm too dangerous, and was never meant to be the Nightmare Queen." She tried to sit up, but stayed down in pain. 

 "Well, screw what's meant to be! You've lived for this long. Can't we find another way?" I surprised myself in how much I wanted to save this woman who had never seemed to care about anyone else. But I couldn't let another person die. 

 "No time," she grunted. "It was your love that saved him, and that's why I'm doing this. I...was once like you. I lost hope. And if...you two live, there's hope for everyone. For my husband," her voice lowered with every word, which seemed to increase the effort. 

 "Guess who we met in the...?" Tooth's voice sounded from behind me, trailing off in surprise. She and Sandy must have returned from their exploration. I ignored them.

 "But I never asked you to save us," I told Pitchiner, tears springing to my eyes. 

 "Just don't make me regret it," the words barely escaped her tired lips. Her skin was entirely blue now, looking as sickly as Jack had a minute ago. North and Bunny entered from the outside a second later. They all surrounded us, dumbfounded and speechless. I was about to fill them in, when I stopped hearing Pitchiner's breathing.