Crown of Purple Fire (English)

~X~

Tessa felt her entire army stiffen. If her mother were here, she would have bit the old wolf's head off. But Tessa wasn't here to start a war when she was already fighting one. "I know that I have yet to sit on my throne, but we are here to—"

"That's not what I'm saying, and you know it," Efren snapped. He whispered something to a white wolf behind her, who proceeded to howl. All the wolves except Efren reciprocated the howl, and then retreated back to the land.

Tessa then whispered to Rhian, "Tell the birds to fly up and get off the ships. Take a fighting stance."

Rhian nodded, and flew away. Tessa looked back at the wolf lord. "If we could talk in a more private area, Lord Efren, it would be most wise—"

She was cut off by the fact the wolf lord grabbed her talon and Matteo's claw in his paws, and they vanished in a swirl of mist.

At first, Tessa saw nothing and felt nothing. Then, she appeared in a dark room lit up by one small torch. Efren had let go of her talon, and muttered to himself, "Phoenix filth,"

"Quit the profanities and dramatics, Efren," Matteo said at last. "Where did you bring us?"

"My castle," was all Efren said. They started following him as he kept walking through hallways.

Tessa shivered. It was the middle of summer, and yet she felt so cold. "Does your castle have some kind of cooling system?"

"With all due respect, my Queen, don't be ridiculous," Matteo offered an encouraging smile. "If such a thing exists, everyone in the land would be dying to purchase it."

"Quiet, the both of you," Efren said

"By the Faerie, why did you bring us here, Efren?" Matteo asked.

"To show your Queen what comes of traitors."

Tess's heart stopped. The dark hallways...the single torch...

"Are we in your palace crypt?" She demanded.

Efren didn't deign reply. They continued walking, and kept silent all the way, when Matteo called a stop. "Enough, Efren Perseus Laurall. I demand you tell me what in the Faerie's name are we doing in your crypts?"

Instead of responding, Efren did the abominable thing and blow out the torch.

Matteo began, "Efren, I swear—"

Suddenly, the room lit up once more. Tessa and Matteo found their selves in a crypt, all right. Statues of wolves surrounded the room, and each one had a torch in its paw. The fire was silver instead of gold, so it was much brighter than they anticipated.

But then they saw Efren.

The wolf lord was in front of them, with two smaller wolves flanking him. But they weren't soldiers or guards—no, they were hostages. The gag in their mouths made it obvious. Both had grey fur, but one had the same silvery eyes as their lord, while the other had blue pale as the daytime sky. Their expressions hold so much fear.

"Thessalyne Aschere, meet Danika and Jaime Laurall," Efren smiled. "My children."

"Let them go, Efren," Matteo commanded.

Efren began prattling on about how he had no right to give commands in his own home, but Tessa stopped listening. All she could hear were the thoughts of Efren's children.

Why is dad doing this?

Who are these?

I can't believe dad would tie us up like this. Like prisoners.

I'm ready to be killed now. Anytime soon would be okay.

Tessa's eyes teared up. She wasn't much older than them, but she immediately had some kind of maternal instinct to protect them. Phoenix mothers don't feel that way; they raise their child how they should, and then give them freedom. Thalia may have seemed overprotective when they were still in Iasshar, but even she never felt the need to shelter her always. Not the way Tessa felt now.

"They were busy trying to recruit wolves to start a mutiny," Efren sneered. "I told them I would think about it, but they wouldn't listen. They wanted me to rebel against our real queen. They didn't stop to think about the consequences—"

And that statement did nothing to help Tessa's anger.

So she unleashed it.

The gags in the wolves' mouths turned more solid, and the atmosphere went colder than it already was. Efren stopped talking, but he couldn't stop what was happening. The gags suddenly burst into translucent shards on the ground, freeing them.

The shivering hadn't come from the crypt itself—no. It came from Tessa's power and icy rage.

She had frozen the gags, and turned them into long ribbons of ice. She elevated them to face level, and hurled them toward Efren.

"Run," she commanded the wolves. "RUN!"

And so they did. The atmosphere became colder, and snow started to fall from the ceiling. She sent more long shards of ice toward Efren, pinning him to the stony wall. His teeth chattered due to the cold, and so did Matteo, but Tessa couldn't feel it—not when her blood chilled and her heart froze.

Efren attempted to escape using his shadowpath power—which was what he used to teleport them to the crypt in the first place. But shadows were no match for the coldness of the All.

He dissolved into shadows, but Tessa sent a black shard of ice to follow him—the shadow of the cold. It pieced him right in the leg, and he dissolved back into his physical form. Tessa snarled at him, "Gagging and torture is how you deal with traitors? Well, it turns out child abuse is worse of a crime."

Efren held up a paw and croaked, "Stop."

To his surprise, Tessa stopped with the ice. But the snow didn't stop falling. The wolf lord shook off the shards, and used his paw to remove the one that pierced his leg.

And then to Tessa's—and Matteo's and his children's—surprise, he laughed.