I jerked my head toward the door in time to hear faint footfall – high heels on stone.

  Sudden pressure gathered in my pocket.

  Though I’d heard footfall by the door, I felt a rush of air as somebody transported. The White Witch appeared right by my side.

  I jerked back in surprise, but I managed to grab her wrist before she could grab mine.

  She was no longer in that magical white-blue dress. The cut and look of the fabric had changed – becoming more modern. She now wore a stylish pencil suit and glass high heels. At first glance, they looked amazing but not magical. At second glance, you could feel the magic rippling through the fibers.

  Her hair was caught on top of her head with a glistening clip.

  As she tilted her head to the side, strands of ice-white hair fell from her bun and dangled across her neck.

  Though I had a tight hold of her wrist, that didn’t perturb her. Her exact expression was one of ease. No, triumph. The triumph of someone who’d just won.

  “Congratulations – you managed to stop the gate opening even without my help,” she said. There was a truly easy edge to her tone as if we were longtime friends and she was discussing something humorous.

  Vali had just disappeared right in front of me, and though I barely knew much about magic, I could tell he’d sacrificed himself to close that gate.

  So I didn’t react to her tone, not even her smile. I couldn’t push away the confusion, fear, and sorrow. They swelled around me with more power than the storm had wielded.

  She tilted her head to the side, never wrenching her hand back to break my grip, though the look in her eyes told me she could at any moment. “Fear not, half goddess – you have done as you should. You managed to stop that gate from opening.”

  My whole body stiffened. First, it was my feet, then my legs, then my torso, then finally my jaw. It felt like I had to pry my lips open with crowbars as I spoke, “I didn’t close that gate. Vali did.” I choked on my words. “He sacrificed himself. Now he’s gone. Gone.” Tears touched my eyes. They swelled along my lids, trickled down my cheeks, and dashed over my throat.

  It took her a while to react as that smile pressed all the way across her ice-cold lips. “You allowed him to close it in your place. And that is still a victory. For we need you, half goddess.”

  I let my hand drop from around her wrist and took a jerked step away as revulsion and anger swelled in the pit of my stomach. “How dare you,” I spat.

  She tilted her head to one side, then the other, the ice-white hair of her bun trailing across her neck and emphasizing its elegant length. She looked like a princess from some fairy tale, like Cinderella with her glass slippers. Except this Cinderella had the coldest edge of defiance and power in her gaze – defiance and power that told me I should never have trusted her.

  “I dare, because I must. You made a pact with me, half goddess, and I intend to fulfill my side of the bargain.”

  “What?” I could barely control my lips and throat long enough to push out a breath, let alone a hiss.

  “Did you forget? I promised you could keep him.” Her voice dropped low, sounding like a blast of far-off thunder.

  A thrill charged down my back, skittered into my knees, and made me stumble. “What?”

  I remembered the pact I made when I’d seen her in my grandmother’s mansion. In return for stopping the gods’ invasion and retaking the divine realm, the White Witch had promised that I could keep Vali and that she would help me rescue my grandmother.

  My grandmother had already told me that there was no way she could be returned from the Drift. Which meant I shouldn’t trust the White Witch, right?

  Perhaps she could sense my hesitation, because she pressed forward, clasped her hands in front of herself, and smiled even wider. “He’s not dead. You’d feel it, you see. For, foolishly, half goddess, you have given him a scrap of your heart. If he were dead – if he could never truly return – you would have lost that scrap of your heart, and you would be nothing more than a soulless husk. But you stand,” she let her gaze flick up and down my form, “and you remain. Therefore, so does he.”

  I stood there, terrified, amazed, hopeful, and withdrawn all at once.

  Reason told me to reject what she was saying, but it couldn’t extinguish my hope. I pushed into my heart, letting all of my attention flow into the center of my chest as I looked for Vali.

  … Did he remain?

  Yes.

  He was still here. Trapped right inside my soul.

  I let out a shuddering breath that shook my shoulders.

  This amused the White Witch, and she jerked her head back and laughed in a lilting tone. “There, you can feel it now, can’t you? Vali remains. And I will deliver him to you – as per our arrangement. But you,” she dipped her head down low and looked at me from under her brow, “you will do as I say. You will help stop the gods’ invasion, and you will win back the realm of the divine.”

  I stood there, cold and undone. But I still tipped my head back and stared at her with all my attention and magic. Every lesson I had learned as a detective welled within me. “What do you want me to do?”

  It took her a while to answer. She was distracted by staring at me from every angle as if I were a picture she had just bought at an exhibition. No, scratch that. It was as if I were a gun she’d just purchased for some job.

  I couldn’t forget that she had referred to me as her weapon.

  A cold chill of dread sank through my stomach, escaped through the pit of my belly, and felt like it pulled me down to Hell.

  Though I had faced some terrifying magical scenarios in the past, this was the worst. For this time, I had no one to call on. I couldn’t run back to Vali’s office and throw myself into his arms.

  This time, he was relying on me.

  My grandmother’s words filled my mind. I shouldn’t trust the White Witch – she’d lied to me. I should instead follow my heart and let it decide what I believed.

  But it wasn’t that easy anymore, not with Vali on the line. Or was it? I couldn’t forget that my grandmother had told me that I must use my incredible power for good and never for selfish reasons. Allowing the White Witch to control me in the hope she would save Vali was selfish.

  I knew that. God, I knew that. And yet… I couldn’t abandon him. My heart would shrivel and die.

  She patted her lips. “I suggest you come to your decision quickly. Though you have successfully closed this gate,” she spread an elegant, long arm behind her and gestured to the point where the gate had disappeared, “there remains one more.”

  Though I hadn’t decided whether to help her, I still knew what would happen if those gates opened. I took a shuddering breath. “How long do we have?”

  “Longer than you would imagine. The gods cannot invade with only three gates. So they must now create another.”

  My brow crunched low. “Create another? How? Is that even possible?”

  “Yes. It is. But it will take time. You have a week, if I am any judge. And you must use that week.”

  I stared at her. I was dead cold, and this time, I couldn’t hide from that frozen feeling. It didn’t come from the Drift. It came from soul-crushing loneliness and the hole in my heart.

  “This is where you ask how we will stop them,” she encouraged.

  I pressed my stiff, white lips together and watched her.

  She chuckled. “We must secure the last gate. Then we must prepare the weapon.”

  “Weapon?”

  “When the gods push through and try to open another gate, it will give us a rare chance to access their realm.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Leave the exact understanding of magical dynamics to me. All you must appreciate is that it will offer us the opportunity we have waited eons for.”

  I didn’t bother to point out that I hadn’t been waiting for anything for eons and that my only concern was Vali as the memory of him still tugged at me, haunting my every cell.

  I drifted into silence, and again she tilted her head to the side as she stared at me, her beautiful blue eyes narrowing. “This is where you ask what that weapon will be.”

  Terror exploded through me, rushing and jolting through my body as it seized every muscle like an army. “What?” My mouth was dry.

  “You. Child, you will be the weapon. When the final gate opens and you are thrust through, you will kill every last betrayer in the realm of the gods, and we will finally ascend back to our true home.”

  I stopped, frozen on the spot.

  “If you don’t help me, not only will you lose Vali, but I will personally make sure you will lose everything as well. Understand I have no interest in humanity,” she spat her words through tight lips. “They are nothing more than soulless fools who do not understand their power. My only interest is in the realm of the divine. You will help me. If you don’t, everyone else will fall.”

  I stood there and stared at her as her dark promise filled the room.

  Help her or everyone would fall….

  I had no choice, did I? It was time to save the world.

  Thank you for reading The Frozen Witch Book Four.

  The Frozen Witch Book Five

  The Frozen Witch Book Five

  The time for sacrifice is upon her. Lilly will have to decide who lives and dies in the thrilling conclusion to The Frozen Witch Series. With the false gods pushing into town and Vali on the line, Lilly is thrust into the battle of her life. Lose, and everyone will lose with her….

  1

  I stood in front of the window, my hands clasped so tightly behind my back, I swore I could wrench them from my shoulders.

  I’d been standing there for the past half hour, thinking, my jaw clenched so hard, I was sure my teeth would turn into nothing but dust.

  Below me stretched the city. My city. It was my responsibility now.

  With Vali gone and six days until the fake gods pushed through, everyone’s souls were in my hands.

  I was standing in Vali’s office, his thick door closed behind me.

  Though he’d disappeared from my life when he’d sacrificed himself to close the third gate, a little of his magic remained. The White Witch – despite her deviousness – hadn’t lied to me about that. I had given a part of my heart and soul to Vali, and as a consequence, he hadn’t died. Instead he’d become trapped in that… place.

  No, I wasn’t talking about the Drift.

  I was talking about the realm in which Bradley’s mind was trapped too. Despite everything that had happened to me in the past few days, I still remembered the incident that had transpired with Bradley in the cell when Vali had explained what was happening to him. He’d called Bradley an antenna – a doorway for any vindictive god trying to push into this realm; a barometer to figure out just when their holy storm would hit. But when I’d pushed and asked if Bradley’s mind was trapped in the Drift, Vali hadn’t answered. Not exactly. I could still remember the confused yet determined look on his face.

  It made me clench a hand tightly behind my back.

  I let out a truly tense breath, ticking my gaze from left-to-right once more as I surveyed my city.

  I had six days until the end of the world. That wasn’t me being overly dramatic. That wasn’t me being pathetic, either. I’d come a long way since this journey had begun. I still remembered the determination I’d found while fighting that god in the museum. When I’d given up on my fear, I’d given up my sense of inadequacy. I’d grown past my old self. While that was monumental, would it be enough?

  I heard a knock on the door, and though it felt as if it would take a god to move me, I managed to control my muscles long enough to turn and swipe a hand to the left.

  Now Vali was gone, his power had somehow defaulted to me.

  It was enough that I could control his door and protect his tower. If I had any hope of stalling this forthcoming war – of protecting this city and the very world – I would need everybody at Vali’s disposal.

  Suffice to say, Megan wasn’t pleased. Hell, none of Vali’s senior staff could understand. But when news of the fact he’d disappeared had spread, and when I’d come striding into his offices, no one had been able to deny my power. Nor had they been able to deny the fact that I alone could control his door. I did now as my fingers tingled with magic, just the slightest charge of power escaping over the nails and sending faint wriggling symbols and runes jumping beneath my skin.

  The enormously thick, strong, magnificent door shifted inward without a sound. In walked Alice.

  I was immeasurably gladdened by her presence, and my previously tense shoulders dropped a full inch. Even her presence couldn’t neutralize all of the stress that was claiming me from the inside, though.

  If I didn’t find a way to control it, I’d die of a heart attack long before the fake gods purged humanity.

  Before she said anything, even though she was holding a thick report underneath her arm and clearly had information to impart, she tipped her head hard to the side. “This isn’t the time to think, Lilly. This is when you act. This is when you bundle up all of that hatred, all of that confusion, and all of that goddamn anger,” she said with vigor, “and you use it. You let it fuel your fire and build your magic. Because it’s the anger that can help you choose what to do next.”

  I’d confided in Alice, as far as I could. I’d told her all about the fake gods and let her know what had happened with Vali. But there were a few facts I hadn’t dared share with anyone yet – like the fact I’d met my grandmother, if only for a few seconds, although she’d been a mere shadow of her former self.

  I couldn’t get her parting warning out of my mind. I couldn’t get it out of my body, either. If I dared to focus on it too long, I swore it sent that permanent shard of ice-cold above my heart rattling as if it had the power to cut through my flesh and remove my ribs one-by-one.

  On the other side of the coin was the White Witch’s words. She’d told me that only with her help and her power would I be able to reclaim Vali.

  But my grandmother had told me never to trust the White Witch. Her final warning to me had been not to give in to selfishness. If I did that, if I usurped the sacred contract I had with the Drift and used my immeasurable power for self-gain, I would lose all, and everyone else would lose too.

  Though I was determined not to let more of my stress show, at that memory, I couldn’t stop my brow from crumpling hard and a slick of sweat from glistening over it.

  The last time Vali and I had truly talked, before he had saved me from destroying the gate seed, he’d told me that I was worse than him – or would be if I ever ignored my sacred responsibility to save everyone.

  I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

  On the one hand, my sane side told me never to trust the White Witch. On the other? My heart kept shuddering for him, every day getting colder and colder as it yearned for him. In all of reality, it seemed he was the only one who had the power to warm me up again.

  I rubbed my arms as goosebumps appeared on my skin.

  The move brought Alice’s attention to me once more, and a hard frown cut across her lips. “It’s still happening, then? You’re still getting colder?” she demanded with the severity and efficiency of an ER doctor.

  I nodded. “It’s been happening since… since….” I couldn’t say it.

  “Since Vali left? Shit. I’m sure it’s not a good sign. But do you think it will sap your magic?” she asked quickly as she darted her gaze up to me.

  Though there would’ve been a time when I would’ve done anything to hide my true power from Alice, that time was now long gone. I reached a hand casually to the side, swirled two fingers around in a circle in a practiced move, and called my Drift sword to me.

  Though the fight in the museum had taken it out of me, and the injuries that tentacle had given me had been deep, I was already mostly healed. It wasn’t because of my immune system or natural abilities – it was all the power of the Drift. I swore it was flowing into me more, as if it could sense the challenge ahead and wanted to prepare me for this final battle.

  It was Alice’s turn to let her shoulders pitch down, but the look in her eyes told me she was only barely relieved. “That’s a relief. We need to figure that out. Along with everything else,” she said curtly.

  I nodded. It wasn’t exactly news to me, but good god it was nice to have her on my side. “How’s Cassidy?”

  Alice gave a tight nod. “Much better. Should be on her feet soon. Or sooner, if she has anything to do with it.”

  “You should tell her to rest,” I commanded in a tone that would once upon a time have been so foreign to me. It was the kind of tone that wasn’t just filled with responsibility, but with competency, too. This wasn’t bluster. This wasn’t the arrogance you got just because you thought you could do a job. No, the confidence running through my tone was a power I had earned.

  Alice shrugged. “You tell her that, but she ain’t gonna listen. The world is on the line,” her voice dropped down low in a conspiratorial tone even though the door behind her was closed, “and she ain’t going to take a backseat for this one. If there was ever a time to expunge all of her sins – if there was ever a time to expunge all of our sins – it’s now.”

  I’m not entirely sure what my expression did as I stared at Alice.

  I opened my mouth, but I didn’t get a chance to say what was on my mind.

  Alice put her hand up, obviously reading my thoughts, and she shook her head in a tight move that made her bob swish around her ears. “I know what you’re thinking about, and I don’t agree. I did sin,” Alice said, her jaw stiffening until it brought all my attention to the bones pressing against her tight flesh, “and this is how I choose to repay those debts. You may not believe in what Vali taught us, but most of us do.”

  I sighed. “Fine. But what do we do now?” It was probably the wrong thing to say. I was the one who’d inherited Vali’s responsibility – I shouldn’t be asking others for help.