Frost at Birth (RotG)

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

*Third Person*

Abigail rushed back north to the Workshop, where she found Brandon pacing anxiously and the Guardians talking in hushed tones. There was hardly a sound made.

"There you are!" Brandon exclaimed, making the entire Pole jump in shock.

Ignoring him, Abigail set her feet firmly on the ground. "What happened when I was gone?"

"Jack came. He was...strange." Brandon supplied an answer since the others weren't forthcoming.

"Strange how?"

"He seemed to be fighting with himself to tell us that he and Pitch were coming tomorrow. He didn't say why, he was here almost ten minutes trying to make it sound threatening, but it sounded like a warning. He wanted Mom to run."

"Did she? I don't see her here?"

"No." Bunny interrupted. "She's back in one of the rooms. Said she wanted to be alone."

"Understandable."

"What'd you do?"

"Hm?" She asked distractedly, walking over to a yeti to help paint again. She wasn't interested very much in the conversation now that it had turned to being focused on her.

"With Cupid. What'd you do?"

"Oh, not much. I learned quite a bit though, from both him and Manny."

"Manny?" North asked. "What do you mean?"

"I'm half-human, thus a spirit connected to my human life, so I can talk to him. Not sure if Brandon can, I'm more connected than him."

"What did you learn?" Brandon asked curiously.

Shrugging, she withheld the personal information that she'd learned. "There are too many child spirits to count, and Manny sends them all to him since he would love and take care of them most. There are other spirits of love, though none as powerful as the original. Cupid can make two people that have hated each other for their whole lives fall desperately in love."

"Uh huh. But the man in the moon wouldn't have sent you there if it wasn't going to help us."

She shrugged again. "Abigail," Tooth said, "are you hiding something?" Abigail noted her feet planted on the ground and that her wings were slack. No fairies either. This could get very bad very soon, she concluded.

"I may or may not be one of two spirits of love whose power is near equal to that of Cupid's."

As she focused intently on the toy sitting in front of her, the others looked at each other in astonishment. "It makes sense." Brandon finally said. Abigail raised an eyebrow. "That first time you did it."

"Right, and you were stalking me."

"Yeah." He admitted. "That kid is treated like a servant in his own house, but every day since you did whatever, he's done it like he enjoys it. You told Sandy that you thought it would wear off and it hasn't."

Her eyes got wide and she looked up from her artwork, carefully laying her paintbrush down on the table. She knew what Cupid had meant when he spoke to her right before she left, but she didn't want to do anything if the effects were permanent.

"Is it--" she started, but cleared her throat. "Is it possible to have the effects last only as long as I need them to, do you think?" Suddenly her mind was drawn to the shy spirit she had helped only a few hours prior.

Brandon shrugged. "I need to go see Mom. Maybe we can help each other make sense of what's going on."

Opening the door that led to Marisa, Abigail peeked her head through. Marisa was sitting on the bed, legs tucked up close to her, completely still. Her forehead rested on her knees so she wasn't able to see her daughter hesitating in the doorway.