A Heart Made Of Ice And Fire

Chapter 2

After what seemed like three days of damp cold darkness, footsteps sounded outside my cell door; wherever it was.

    In front of me, a door appeared made of pure ice and opened with a loud thump. Three guards stormed into the cell and snatched me off the floor with sturdy hands. I didn't have the will to fight them as they hauled me into a long, bright corridor. I hissed as my still bare feet hit the cold ground made of… ice. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed the entire damned castle was made of ice; brutal unyielding ice.

As they dragged me from the depths of this icy hellish palace, I marveled at the cold terror of the spiralling staircases on the side of the many monstrous towers, piercing the sunset lit sky. they seemed to guard this castle from  any airborne enemies. The upper half was made of ice while the lower levels were made of a pale white marble that seemed too pure for the slumbering monster it was supporting.

Before I could drink in the entire view, I was thrown into a room full speculators and slid till something hard and cold hit my back.

I hissed as I tried to stand, almost losing my balance earning a few laughs from the crowd. I slowly turned realizing where I was, a throne room full of faes -all devastatingly beautiful-of different colors and species, and was facing away from the throne.

I masked my terror as I made eye contact with some of the fae, seeing many different variations of blue eyes and features. Some had pointed noses and jagged teeth, others had furs and claws, then the rest looked like they could have passed as human if they hid their pointed  ears and elongated canines.

“Kneel to your king,” a proud and callous voice called from behind me. All of the fae dropped to one knee staring at the ground. I finally worked up the nerve to turn and face the throne and realized I had slid into the dias, and from the door the guards must have thrown me a hundred feet.

I looked up and saw the person who spoke with such hate and had to fight the urge to start running. It was a woman who couldn't have been that much taller than me, with ivory skin and violet eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a jet black braid that hung down her back, bringing out her long pointed ears. she wore a violet dress -so dark it seemed black- and a permanent sneer on her face.

          “I said kneel to your king,” she growled.

          “He's not my king.”  The same viciousness laced my voice.

Before I could move, she backhanded me hard enough to knock me to the floor and moved back to her spot on the dias, next to the shadow where someone sat, where someone watched.

“I said kneel before your king, before I make you.” She spoke with an icy calm that told me if I didn’t, I could end up dead before ever laying eyes on him.

I spit out the blood that was pooling in my mouth and tried to reorganize the world around the searing pain in my cheek. I slowly stood on shaky knees and looked at her.

“He is not my king.” I said with my shoulders back and chin high. I was somewhat surprised she didn't kill me the first time, but I wasn't going to kneel to anyone, especially not a fae.

Her nails seemed to grow into raven claws as she took a step towards me. I took one step back. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea. She could kill me without a second thought and I wouldn't even be able to scream.

Before she could take another step a broad, scar flecked hand grabbed her wrist. “Enough, Delia.”

She looked into the shadows and stepped back as the king rose from his throne.

The fear that hit me was so overwhelming, that I gasped and slipped on the ice once more.

The king was the heart of this beast of a castle. He had bone white skin that brought out his icy, dead blue eyes. His hair was so black it seemed blue, with white streaks showing his age. He wore a royal blue tunic, with a royal seal over his heart and black leather boots. He wore a crown of piercing black with some kind of slumbering serpent curling around his head;  Simple yet regal.