The Summer King and His Winter Bride-Chapter 44: Snow

Caroline’s chest ached with the knowledge that she could do nothing while Casimir was imprisoned. The temperature of the air began to drop making the hair on her skin stand. She had been trapped in the Evergreen Glade for what felt like weeks, isolated, watched and often alone.

Although, she was surrounded by the beauty of nature itself, it did little to ease the burden she carried. She had tried to remain calm but every hour that passed felt like she was drowning in anxiety and despair.

She hadn’t expected to hear his voice again. Not after the fear of losing him had consumed her so completely. She had felt the pull of the cord inside her like a whisper of comfort to her erratic heart and mind.

Her fingers trembled as she pressed them against the bark of a tree. The frost came without warning, creeping up her fingertips and trailing up the tree trunk like a winding vine.

She had learned to control her Winter magic but now it surged against her will, as though it recognized something she couldn’t quite reach physically.

A feeling. A voice. A pull.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Casimir.

For a moment the world seemed to stand still, as she could almost see him, hear him, feel the warmth of his presence like a distant glow in the back of her mind through the bond. Her breath caught in her throat and the snow she had summoned without thinking swirled in the air around her.

She could feel the weight of the frost on her skin as if the cold could somehow could bring the essence of him closer.

"You’re alive."

She whispered the words out loud, barely able to believe them as though saying them might make the vision fade.

But it didn’t fade.

Instead, her magic reacted stronger than ever before. Snow, thick and heavy swirled around her in a dance of frozen grace caught up in the wind. The air crackled with power with the feeling of him and the pull of something far away that she could not touch.

Caroline’s heart wrenched in her chest.

"And I’m not there."

Her voice cracked in a sob choking her throat. She had spent so much time grieving, thinking he was lost forever but now she could feel him. He was alive. Casimir was alive yet she wasn’t by his side. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She had failed him. Again.

A fierce wind shook the leaves of the tree and she closed her eyes feeling the bitter cold against her skin. The frost beneath her fingertips was spreading faster now moving along the grass like like a fire coating the green meadow in a fine layer of ice.

Her heart raced as she pressed her hands against the tree the magical current within her body seeking an outlet. It was demanding to be heard and released.

But it wasn’t just relief that surged in her chest.

It was also guilt.

Because she had been trapped in the Evergreen Glade unable to do anything and while she sat in this beautiful locked up paradise, Casimir was somewhere enduring his own torment all alone.

She had been too late. She should have fought harder to be by his side when he needed her most. Instead, all she could do was stand in this snow, lost in the feelings of their shared bond over a fragmented connection.

A crash of thunder sounded in the distance. The rains were approaching.

Her emotions swirled within her guilt, fury, and a desperate ache that threatened to consume her. She wanted to break free and tear down the walls that kept her here. As the magic inside her refused to be contained, just as her heart refused to stay still.

The winds howled louder now, rattling the branches as snow began to drift outside the Evergreen Glade blanketing the world in a sheet of cold white ice. The storm mirrored the one inside of her that had long been buried beneath layers of control and now it chose to break free.

Her breath quickened.

She could feel the familiar pull again, the faint connection between her and Casimir. It was there, lingering like the warmth of a fire she could almost touch.

But she was not there physically with him.

The snow fell in the glade and swirled in chaotic patterns until it became almost impossible to see. Her vision blurred and she was left alone with her magic, with her grief, with the aching knowledge that she had to do something.

Then the door creaked open.

She turned swiftly, magic pulsing in her fingertips, ready to strike but it was only Cyrus. He stepped onto the snow covered glade calmly, brushing a bit of snow from his shoulder as though it didn’t bother him.

"Caroline," he said gently, raising a hand. "I come bearing news."

Her eyes narrowed. "You plan to release me to help save Casimir?"

Cyrus didn’t flinch at her words. Instead, he stepped closer, his tone grave. "I am trying to keep you alive. To keep both of you alive."

Caroline blinked her breath catching in her throat. "What do you mean?"

He studied her for a long moment, then said, "Casimir is alive. He was saved by a woman wielded fire that no one could contain or stop her."

The words struck her like a lightning bolt. Her knees nearly buckled beneath her.

"Someone saved him." she whispered.

Cyrus nodded. "Yes. I do not know who she is, only that her magic burned through the Autumn Court’s defenses like paper and she vanished just as quickly. No one has seen her since."

Caroline’s heart beat faster in her chest. A woman who wielded fire... Who could she be? One of Casimir’s soldiers? A sorceress of the old bloodlines? Or someone else entirely?

Even as questions swirled in her mind.

One truth settled firmly in her heart, Casimir was alive and this calmed the storm in her soul just a little more.