The Snow Queen's Captive (3 page)

Maybe being the snow queen would be simpler than she thought. Stick to the ice castle, hang out for a month, and drop the hero into the deepest darkest dungeon and hope for the best. Maybe she could make her ice castle more defensible. An ice maze? Who knew? Maybe she had some ice minions around her she could ask.

She…really should have asked for more details about this whole ‘ice queen’ thing before Muffin had disappeared. But at this point? Everything was starting to run together into a big blur in her mind. Her death, the weird fairy godmothers, the whole snow queen thing. Maybe that was why she wasn’t more upset about dying – none of this felt like reality just yet.

Charlotte glanced at the cobblestone path made from ice crystals. She headed toward it and the icy cobbles felt like sun-warmed brick under her toes. Kinda delicious feeling. With a shiver of pleasure, she headed toward the frosty castle in the distance, noting the defenses of this place. There was a wall surrounding the ice castle, but it seemed more decorative than anything else, a spiraling, artful lattice of ice that could probably be snapped by a single hit with a baseball bat. If she was going to do this snow queen thing, she was going to do it right. She needed a thick wall around the castle. A moat, too. Maybe some spikes.

Just as soon as she figured out how to activate her powers, anyhow.

Charlotte extended her hands in front of her, considering. Was it like Iceman from the comic books, where she just extended her hands and ice would form? She tried it…and nothing happened. There was clearly a piece of the story missing here. Maybe someone around here would have answers.

Not that she’d seen anyone since arriving. The courtyard was empty, and she could sense no one nearby. Maybe she was the only one here? That’d be lonely. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers. And she did have at least one other person here.

She set off down the icy path toward her ice castle, intent on finding her captive.

As she approached the ice castle, she was continually amazed at how beautiful it was. The building was enormous, with delicate windows made from panes of wavy glass (that she suspected were ice) and tall, fluted spires that rose and twisted high into the cloudy skies. There were multiple towers, and the entire thing reminded her of an icy cousin to the famous Russian Kremlin.

The doors opened slowly as she went up the steps, as if attuned to her presence. Inside, she still saw no one. The interior was brightly lit despite having no visible light sources, and she suspected it was due to the ice and refracting of light. Or magic, she thought to herself. It could always have something to do with magic.

The walls of the palace were glittering and smooth, though when she looked closely, she could see delicate snowflake striations carved into the ice walls. There were no furnishings other than endless ice, but the ice seemed clever and flexible enough to provide everything that she needed, which was kind of neat on its own. Charlotte began opening doors just to see what was behind them, and she even found an icy sort of ‘Snow Queen bathroom’ which amused her to no end. There was a throne room (why, she had no idea, considering that the palace seemed devoid of subjects) and the throne was composed of ice so clear and smooth that it could have been made of glass.

Her bedroom was something out of a fantasy, that was for sure. Polar bear furs covered a raised dais, and Charlotte figured that must have been the bed. There were no personal adornments of any kind, no treasures or trinkets or anything to show a personal side to whoever the ice queen had been before. That was kind of odd…or sad. Did the snow queen not bother with personal items? Or had they all been removed prior to Charlotte’s arrival? More questions that she didn’t have an answer to.

At the far end of her chambers, though, she spotted a large mirror and nearly fell over in shock at her own reflection. Stunned, she approached the mirror, her hand going to her mouth and touching it, if only to see the person in the mirror do the same and know it was her reflection she was looking at.

She was…gorgeous.

Her skin was porcelain pale and perfect. And while it was her own face that stared back at her, it was like she’d been converted into this whole ‘Snow Queen’ thing from head to toe. Her hair hung in glossy, white-blue waves and tumbled around her shoulders, and her brows were a darker bluish shade that framed her blue eyes quite well. Her lashes were long and spiky with white, and her lips held just a hint of blue tint to them. There was no longer a hint of pink in her coloring. On a whim, she tugged at the front of her icicle bodice and glanced down at her breasts.

Blue nipples.

“You have
got
to be kidding me,” Charlotte muttered aloud, and then was hit with a fit of the giggles. This had definitely crossed over into the realm of absurdity.

She admired her reflection for a moment longer, especially the inventiveness of her icicle-and-frost dress, when she noticed two small chips missing out of the corner of the mirror. Frowning, she moved forward and examined it. Broken?

As she touched the mirror, she felt a shiver of unease, as if dark things were brushing against her mind.

Startled, Charlotte jerked her hand away. What was with this mirror? She peered into it, and the longer she stared, the creepier it seemed. Her own reflection seemed to distort as she gazed at it.

Just then, she heard a low groan somewhere in the distance.

Charlotte froze and backed away from the mirror, looking around. “Who’s there?”

No response. Had it been her imagination? Maybe the ice castle was settling and the ice was groaning as it shifted? Did ice do that? She’d seen no one so far.

Of course, she was also supposed to have a guy held captive somewhere around here and she hadn’t seen him yet. Maybe this was her cue.

Charlotte gave one last uneasy glance to the mirror and examined the gleaming walls of her chamber. That had sounded awfully close, but she hadn’t seen any doors except for the main one that she’d come through. Was there a hidden chamber somewhere? She touched a wall and it felt warm, despite looking like sub-zero ice. It also felt completely smooth – if there was a door, she couldn’t see one. Frowning to herself, Charlotte moved along the chamber, her hands skimming the walls. “Hello out there,” she called. “If you can hear me, can you make another sound?”

Another groan, and this one sounded almost as if it were beneath her feet. Curious, Charlotte glanced down at the gleaming floors…and gasped. A shadow deep beneath the glassy ice moved, just a bit.

Someone was down there.

She looked around anxiously. There was an enormously large polar bear skin covering the floor next to her bed – so large that it was a little alarming to think it had come from a real animal. On a hunch, she lifted one corner of the blanket, and saw a trap door.

Not the cleverest queen out there
, Charlotte thought to herself. But she supposed that was a good thing, or else she might never have found him. “I’m coming,” she called out, and shoved the rug aside, then lifted the trap door, easing it backward. A set of glossy ice stairs met her eyes, twisting down into the bluish light of the chamber below her own.

Charlotte went down the steps carefully, wishing she had a torch for light – one pitfall of being a snow queen, she supposed. The shadows grew deeper here, the muted blues and silvers of the ice gleaming around her. Her heart began to pound furiously in her chest, uncertain at what she might find. She stepped off of the last stair delicately, her gaze going to a series of massive icy spikes forming a prison at the far end of the shadowy chamber. Oh dear. “Hello?”

“Mistress,” a voice rasped. “Please.”

Oh no. Was he being tortured? She rushed forward, unable to see anything beyond the icy barrier. Her hand went to the ice and she pushed at it, hoping for a door to magically appear and swing backward. Instead, the ice melted under her hand, flowing and ebbing backward like the tide. Was that how her power worked? She had to touch the ice and mentally demand something? Fascinated, Charlotte continued to push at the ice until she had cleared a small gateway for her to step through. Maybe she was going to get the hang of this after all.

But as the ice melted away, she caught a glimpse of the man.

And stopped in shock.

He was naked. Really naked. Really, really naked. Bronzed skin stood out like a stain against all the delicate silvers and blues of her icy palace. His flesh was rippling with good health and a thick dose of muscle. Thick, muscular arms were pinned backward and bound behind him with a pair of icy cuffs, and his feet were bound exactly the same. A delicate chain pulled between the two, more or less keeping him hog-tied in the dungeon. He was hunched over on a scatter of straw, and only the flexing of one very large bronze thigh kept her from seeing his full nudity. Black hair hung messily over his face and played at his nape, a bit longer than she was used to seeing on a man. His eyes were covered with a strip of ice that served as a blindfold, and everywhere the ice touched him, his skin was reddened underneath.

Charlotte swallowed hard. This…did not look like the actions of a very nice person. For the first time, she was starting to comprehend exactly what being the ‘snow queen’ meant. She
was
the bad guy. “Hello?”

The man’s head lifted and Charlotte got a good look at his face. Oh, sweet lord. No wonder the snow queen had stolen this man. He was the most gorgeous creature she’d ever seen. She couldn’t see his eyes underneath all that ice, but the planes of his face were well sculpted, his nose elegant, and his mouth incredibly sensual. A scruff of black beard curved his jaw, and Charlotte guessed that ‘shaving’ wasn’t a priority for the snow queen’s prisoners.

He shifted, trying to get to his feet, and landed heavily on his knees instead. As he did, she saw that he’d been bound in another way, as well. Ice covered his genitals and they had been frozen into a state of arousal. Oh. Oh dear. Boy, this snow queen was a piece of work, wasn’t she?

“Mistress,” he said in a low voice, and she watched the ice on his groin stir, as if fighting his erection. Oh, awkward.

“Um, are you okay?”

“I ache to touch you, mistress. Please, let me free.”

Uh, okay. There was something weird in his voice when he said that. Almost monotone. “You can’t touch me. At least, I’m pretty sure you can’t. I’m all icy and stuff.”

“You said the burn would only convince you of my love.”

“Did I say that?” Yikes. She moved forward, careful to avoid brushing him with her skirts, and examined his face. The ice covering his eyes was shaped almost like glasses. Could she take it off somehow without hurting him? Experimentally, she held her palm close to his skin. His rose with gooseflesh even as her own felt as if she were holding it close to a fire. Okay, that wouldn’t be good. Definitely no touching. Yet even as she did, she felt him lean toward her touch, and she was barely able to pull away before she accidentally hurt him.

He groaned when she pulled away.

This was weird. Why keep the guy captive like this if he was in love with her? It didn’t make sense. “Hold still,” she told him. She couldn’t leave him like this.

Gently, using only her fingertips, she touched the icy mask and concentrated. The ice ebbed under her fingertips, parting from his eyes and turning to liquid. It ran down his cheeks like tears and he blinked for a moment, dark, spiky lashes fluttering.

Then, he opened his eyes. They were entirely silver, gleaming like mirrors. She could see no pupils in them. How…weird.

“Hi,” she told him. “What’s your name?”

“You know my name, Mistress,” he said in that same weird tone of voice. It was almost like the words were being pulled out of him against his will. “I am Kai.”

“I’m going to free you now, Kai,” she told him. “Just stay still and don’t move, okay?”

“You will free me and then we will make love?” Those weird mirrored eyes followed her.

“Um, no?” Good lord, was this guy brainwashed? Or was the snow queen really that good in bed that this guy wanted to bang her despite her iciness? A hot blush crept over her cheeks at the thought. Yeah, she was definitely the wrong girl for this job. Every prior boyfriend had thought she was frigid. Oh, the irony. “This just looks really uncomfortable and it seems unfair to you, so I’m going to free you.”

“Yes, mistress,” he intoned.

“Stay still.”

He went deathly still, so unmoving that he could have been a statue. Yet another unnerving thing about this situation. The whole thing was downright weird. Charlotte moved forward and gently touched the cuffs at his hands, working them until she felt her fingertips tingle and the ice melted. He didn’t move even though he was freed, and she winced at the condition of his wrists. The skin there was blistered from the cold, bright red and chafed. It looked painful.

And speaking of painful…she glanced at Kai’s front, and the cock that stabbed forward, encased in ice. Yowch. That did not look like fun at all. Of course, she had to take it off of him…which meant giving him a rather intimate touch.

She glanced up at Kai’s mirrored eyes and noticed he was watching her, though he’d remained totally still. That blush she felt on her cheeks grew even hotter, and she could hear the crackle of the ice that she’d melted as it refroze. Okay, when her body temperature went up, the temperature of the air around her seemed to go down. Good to know. Even Kai’s bronze skin was dotted with goose-bumps. She forced herself to relax, and then looked Kai in the eyes. “I’m, uh, going to take care of that.” She pointed primly at his groin. “So it’s imperative that you don’t move or something might get burned, okay?”

“I will remain still,” he said, his voice husky.

“Great,” she told him, and knelt in front of him. He was much bigger than her. Now that she was kneeling in front of him, she had an idea of just how big this man was. Her head came up to his shoulder, and his torso was as big as a tree trunk. They sure grew them big around here.

Her gaze fell to the icy branch of his cock, and her cheeks flushed again. Definitely grew them big. She considered the best way to remove it without being weird about it, and then determined that there was really no way to do so. Best to just get it over with. Sucking in a breath, Charlotte laid her palm on the tip of the ice, and then encircled his thick length with her hand. She stroked downward, easing her magic through the ice.