First Frost (18 page)

“Here, I’m in here,” the female voice said.

All of sudden a spotlight zeroed in on Bianca and temporarily blinded her. When her eyes readjusted to the light, she saw a mirror. Bianca furrowed her brows, she recognized the looking glass. It was the one they had in the museum.

Either the same one or its twin
, she thought as she took a step toward the mirror. Bianca had expected to see her own reflection in the looking glass, but instead of her face all that looked back at her was an angry beautiful face. This woman was tall and blond, her face in a permanent state of anger and anguish.

Before Bianca could utter a single word, the woman stepped out of the mirror and physically attacked Bianca. She screamed and tried to fight back, but then she remembered that it was a dream, and her magic wouldn’t work here.

Who are you?
Bianca asked herself as she fought off the surprisingly strong woman from the mirror.

“I am Queen Mirabel,” she hissed into Bianca’s pale ear.

“Impossible,” Bianca whispered as she shook her head and continued to fight off Mirabel.

The evil queen put her hands around Bianca’s throat and began to strangle her. Bianca tried to pry the queen’s hands off her neck, but all she felt was smoke.

What did I ever do to you?

“Bianca. Wake up.” She heard Terrance’s voice. It was distant but she could hear him. She struggled to open her eyes, but something in the dream continued to pull her against her will. She could feel her body fighting to wake up and stay alive.

Terrance shook her until she opened her ice blue eyes and gasped for air.

“Are you all right?” he whispered. He had a tight grip on her hands.

Her entire being shook violently. She was drenched in sweat.

She looked around. It was still dark outside; her friends and her father were sleeping peacefully beside her beneath the stars. She envied their peaceful slumber. The fire had long since died out, and all that was left of it were the soft orange embers that continued to glow despite the evening breeze. Bianca welcomed the cool wind that caressed her burning skin.

“I don’t know. I think so.” She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Your hands were on your neck,” he said.

“What?”

“Your hands were around your neck…as if you were strangling yourself,” he repeated. Terrance frowned; she could see the concern in his dark brown eyes. Bianca looked away, not wanting him to see the fear that no doubt showed on her face.

“I heard your voice. I heard you calling my name. I kept trying to wake up. I tried. I just…I just can’t believe Mirabel was forcing me to kill myself.” Bianca’s voice wavered. Never in her entire life had she ever had suicidal thoughts, even on her worst days. She enjoyed life and looked forward to the following chapter in her life. There was still so much she wanted to do, see and learn.

“Is that what you were dreaming about?”

“That wasn’t a dream; it was a nightmare,” she said very quietly, so she wouldn’t wake up David, Ming, and Ferdinand. Bianca yawned and rubbed her eyes. She was still so tired. How would she ever get any sleep after the experience she just had? She then explained her nightmare to Terrance.

“It’s Mirabel, all right,” Terrance said grimly after Bianca finished telling him about her nightmare.

“I thought Snow White had Mirabel executed.”

“Yes, but remember where you are. My world is not like yours. Magic is part of our everyday lives. For all we know she could still be out there somewhere, casting her evil shadow everywhere she can,” he said.

Bianca shuddered. Even though every fiber in her being told her that what she had experienced in her dream was indeed very real, there was a part of her that wanted to believe it was just a nightmare. The rest of her was terrified.

The cool evening breeze rustled the leaves in the trees above them. She could’ve sworn she saw something glowing in the darkness.

Bianca gasped. “What was that?”

“Shh. There’s nothing there that will hurt you,” he said, doing his best to reassure her.

“God…I just want this to be over. I want to go home.” Bianca drew her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

She could feel Terrance’s eyes upon her. She felt so incredibly small. A far cry from the confident young woman she had been when they’d been in the woods. Out there with the sun shining high above them, she had known what she had to do. She’d had the confidence to make a plan and see it through. But here in the dark? She was just a frightened young girl who needed all the help she could get.

“Don’t worry. This will all be over soon,” he said.

Bianca nodded, but wasn’t too sure she felt comforted by his words. Terrance moved to go back to sleep on his blanket when Bianca grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. The action surprised her more than it did him. She released her grip on his hand. She wrung her fingers together nervously.

“Yes, Bianca?”

“Terrance? Is it okay…could you hold me for a little while? Until I fall asleep? Please?”

“Of course, I’ll hold you all night long if I have to,” he said with warm smile and an affirmative nod. He grabbed the shirt he’d rolled up into a pillow and shared it with her.

An immense amount of relief washed over Bianca as she felt Terrance’s strong, warm arms around her waist. She felt certain that no more strange dreams or nightmares would plague her that night. And surely enough, within minutes they were both sound asleep.

When Bianca opened her eyes the following morning, she found she was still in Terrance’s arms. She was surprised that he had kept his word and held her all night long. He held her tightly against his chest. He was snoring lightly, but she didn’t find that annoying at all. If anything she thought it was cute. Bianca tried to wriggle out of his embrace, but he snorted, muttered some incoherent words and held her even tighter.

“Terrance, wake up,” she whispered as she nudged him on the shoulder with her free hand.

“Hmm? What?” He sat up still half asleep. He never relaxed his grip on Bianca.

“Terrance, I need to use the bathroom,” she whispered.

“Bathroom?” He frowned. He didn’t seem to understand the word.

What else do you call a toilet?
Bianca wondered as she searched her memory.

“I have to relieve my bladder…umm…use the latrine,” she explained.

“Oh.” He nodded, finally understanding.

“Um…you have to let me go,” she said with a smile.

“So sorry.” He blushed and finally released his grip on her.

Bianca sighed and thought that Terrance was completely adorable in the morning. She wondered if he was like this every morning, or if she was witnessing a rare moment.

She walked several feet away and stood behind a tree. She double-checked until she was sure no one could see and relieved her bladder. Ming soon followed and waited a few feet away for Bianca to finish.

“Morning, B,” Ming said.

“Morning.”

“I brought you your toothbrush.” Ming handed Bianca a purple toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste.

“Cool. Thank you.” Bianca took these items from Ming’s hands.

“So…you and Terrance were looking
pretty
cozy this morning. Anything you wanna tell me? Hmm?” Ming asked half joking, half serious. She wriggled her eyebrows up and down playfully.

Bianca groaned as she brushed her teeth. “I thought you were asleep,” she said while the toothbrush bobbed up and down in her mouth.

“I’m a friggin’ ninja, B. You know I have mad radar skills. You can’t get anything past me.” She took on a fighting stance and did a few air kicks. “Hiya!” she shouted.

Bianca rolled her eyes and spat the toothpaste foam out of her mouth. Ming then handed her a bottle of water. Bianca took it and used a mouthful of water, gargled and spat out the residue. She also rinsed her hands for good measure.

“Nothing happened,” Bianca explained and then wiped the water off her chin with the back of her hand.

“Terrance is hot. Don’t tell me you weren’t hoping something would happen.”

“I was having a nightmare last night, and Terrance woke me up,” Bianca said.

“And then?” Ming smiled. She wiggled her eyebrows, obviously hoping that Bianca was about to give her some juicy bit of information.

“He saw that I was strangling myself with my bare hands and couldn’t wake up,” Bianca admitted.

“Wait. What? You tried to kill yourself in your sleep!” Ming shouted.

“Shh,” Bianca whispered and then tried to cover Ming’s mouth to keep her from making more noise. She didn’t want anyone else to know about her dream, especially her father. The last thing she wanted to do was worry him. Ming slapped her best friend’s hands away and, just like that, her playfulness vanished.

“No! You shh!” Ming shouted angrily. “Don’t shush me. This is too much, B.”

“I know,” she replied, her voice somber.

“I can’t do this.” She pulled on the ends of her jet black hair.

“You wanna go home?” Bianca asked.

Ming let go of her hair and nodded.

“I don’t want to die here, Bianca. I mean…working in the museum is one thing, but all this craziness with evil witches and now
this?
It’s too much,” Ming admitted.

“I know,” Bianca whispered.

“Listen…I’m not going to ditch you or anything like that right now. That would just not be cool. But you gotta promise me that we’ll leave if it gets to be too much, okay?” Ming looked at her with pleading eyes.

Bianca shook her head. “I’m not leaving without my parents. But I
do
promise to find a way for
you
to go back home.”

“I can’t leave you here,” Ming argued.

“You’re gonna have to.”

Ming sighed. “I think I’m going to let Future Ming and Future Bianca handle it when the moment arrives.”

“I agree.” But no matter what they said to each other, Bianca couldn’t ignore the fact that the worst had yet to come.

Chapter Fifteen

After two days of traveling in the forest, they all fell into a false sense of security. That night they decided to settle near the mouth of a small cave. Bianca had finally, albeit reluctantly, removed Red Riding Hood’s cape for the night. She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to find the right path again. Regardless of that, she let out a sigh of relief as she felt the magic peel itself off her body.

They all sat around the crackling fire, enjoying their simple meal of smoked venison, bread, and sweet wine, when the horses neighed and whined for no apparent reason.

Bianca jumped and placed her hand over her heart. It skipped several heartbeats. “What’s wrong?”

Terrance grabbed both horses by the bridle and spoke softly to them. What he said to get them to calm down Bianca would never know, but within moments both horses relaxed. The horses had already gotten used to being around David so Bianca knew that it wasn’t because of him.

“Is there something out there?” Ming asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll go investigate. Stay here with the prince,” Terrance said.

“Wait, I want to go, too,” Ferdinand protested.

“Your Highness, please stay here and protect them,” Terrance said.

“Very well.” Ferdinand groaned.

“Be careful,” Bianca said.

Terrance nodded and faded into the darkness.

No one made a sound. All of her senses were on high alert. She paid close attention to the crackling fire and the quiet creaks and snaps made by the burning wood. The rustling of the leaves. Her father’s deep, breaths. And after what felt like an eternity, they heard the rustle of branches. Ming grabbed Bianca’s arm and shrieked. Bianca’s heart leaped to her throat when she heard her father’s snarl. All of his fur stood on end, making him look twice as large and much more menacing.

“It’s me.” Terrance stepped into the soft orange light.

“Did you see anything?” Bianca asked.