Light from the torches glistens across the snow, and darkness shimmers beyond the track. Trees crowd the hedges, having overgrown to where they resemble arches overhead, and still snow cascades around me like a white curtain.
I pause for a moment and look over my shoulder, the castle looming in the shadows like a giant. Light beams from windows high in the towers. What would it be like to live in the actual castle? I’d hate it, I am sure of it. Eating what I wanted anytime of the day, wearing glamorous gowns, and having a hot bath. Oh, life must be so hard. I laugh under my breath.
The wind whistles in my ears, and I lower my chin against the weather. I’ll reach home soon enough and won’t risk using my ability to push the cold away.
At the age of ten, I was caught using my power to call snow on a bright sunny day. A man witnessed me and threatened to drag me to the castle to collect his reward from the kingdom. An older lady from town, Meg, came to my rescue and batted the man over the head with her broom, accusing him of drinking too much again and making up stuff.
She knows my secret, has kept it from the world, and offered me food and shelter when I lived on the streets. Now I reside next door to her. She is the closest thing to a mother I'll ever have. My mother died shortly after I was born, as did my grandmother, and a family in town took pity on me as a baby and cared for me. But when I came of age and they grew too old to care for me, I moved onto the streets. I know almost nothing about my family and I don’t even know where their bodies are buried.
Abruptly, a thundering thump erupts behind me, coming so unexpectedly, I startle.
Whipping around, I stand face-to-face with a monstrous man, towering over me, two times my width.
I stumble backward as he snorts, hot wisps of air floating from the corners of his mouth and over his tusks.
That's when I realize this isn't a man... A whimper slides past my throat, and I'm recoiling with dread chewing on my insides. I can't think straight.
He heaves for air, staring at me with large black eyes. Facial hair covers his chin, and the cords in his neck pulse from the way he clenches his jaw. He’s dressed in a black hide jerkin and matching pants.
I saw one of these creatures years ago from a distance, but now this monster stands so close I can feel the heat radiating from his body. Skin pasty with a yellow glow, he sneers, his wide nostrils flaring as he sniffs the air.
"Magic!" he snarls, sounding guttural, as if forming human words is a struggle.
I keep retreating from him when my back hits a wall... a hobgoblin wall of muscle, more specifically.
My heart stops and I can't breathe. All I can picture is being pulled apart by these creatures and eaten. They devour humans in stews, gnaw on our bones. Many females are used for rutting because their women aren't producing offspring. That's the real reason the hobgoblins want to take over the land and kingdoms.
A branch from a nearby tree swings wildly. These two must have jumped over the thorny bushes.
I scream and throw myself out of their grasp. The creature at my back slaps his meaty hands on my shoulders and he tugs me back toward him, my bag slipping from my hold and dropping to the ground. I stumble and crash against him. Hot breath flushes down my nape, and a shiver curls around my spine. "Skinny, but she’ll work," he snorts.
I pull from him, but my body doesn't move from beneath his grip. He's huge and overpowers me with a single hand.
The hobgoblin in front of me steps forward and grasps my chin. Calloused fingers scrape over my skin as a fat thumb peels back my upper lip to reveal my teeth, then pulls back one of my eyelids, then the next, studying me like I’m cattle at a market. He sneers, the disgust clear as he releases my head with a shove.
Panic slices through me, so I do the first thing that comes to mind. I stomp on his bare feet and shove my free fist against his chest, then elbow the brute behind me. A split second is all I need to slip free. Throwing myself out of their grasp, I bolt toward the castle, crying for help.
My bellows cut through the night, and I unleash my power, calling a tremendous storm to conceal me from them. “Let it storm.”
The sky roars with thunder and opens up with a wave of snow hitting the ground, making it hard to see. But I push through, even when my feet sink in the white powder.
A fist collides with my back, and pain explodes down my spine. My knees buckle out from under me and hit the ground.
I cry with agony as large hands haul me to my feet.
"She’s feisty and will fetch a high price," one of them snaps, breathing heavily.
"You’re making a mistake. I'm too skinny and I can't bear children," I lie through my teeth as fear runs in my veins while they drag me back down the track and away from the castle.
"Whoever buys you will have fun trying until they find out, won't they?"
I hear the grin in his words, and it leaves me sick. Firelight glints against his tusks that could easily pierce through my gut, and the world trembles when the storm thunders. Heavy snow blankets everything, the wind beating into us ferociously.
Regret that I didn’t run faster threads through me, and my brain screams at me to fight with everything I have, as this is my last chance.
"You're stuck with us," the second creature growls.
I look up at him and the festering scab across his nose. Bile hits the back of my throat with the stew I ate for lunch.
"Get moving," the scabbed hobgoblin blurts, shoving me forward into a hurried walk in front of him.
I wrench against him, terror turning my insides to ice. The more I tug, the tighter his grip grows.
He suddenly hauls me closer to him, his breath putrid like a skunk's spray. "You gonna give us problems? Should we be done with you here, human?"
I automatically freeze and shake my head.
"Good human," he snaps, and we head toward a tree with a huge overhanging branch. "Make a sound and I'll snap your neck."
I grew up being told to fight for what I wanted. To never let others push me around in a place where everyone wants to tear you down.
Meg’s words course over my mind. Fight, little one. Always fight, then run. There are always places to hide, but you only get one life you must protect.
The hobgoblin grabs me even tighter as we follow his friend.
I'll die before I let them hurt me. I make a snap decision and splay my fingers in both hands, and even before I think the words, icy power ripples over my flesh, lifting the hairs on my arms. All I can feel is a storm raging inside me, and I unleash the buildup.
I throw my hands up and over my shoulders. An explosive storm bursts from my fingertips.
The hobgoblin yells out and is ripped away from me with such abruptness, it leaves me stumbling. I twist away when the other hobgoblin grabs a fistful of my hair.
I cry out in pain and reach out for the skin that feels like it’s being peeled away from my skull.
He makes a guttural noise as he yanks me sideways so fast I slam into his body and gasp for air. “You will pay for that.” His threat is muffled by the growing storm colliding into us, blowing hair into my eyes and slapping snow into my face.
“Fuck you!” I spin and pummel my hands against him, a scream ripping from my lips.
Icy shards shoot from my palms, plunging into the hobgoblin, tearing clothes and flesh alike.
His eyes widen with shock as he drops to his knees. I totter away, unable to jerk my gaze from the long icicles sticking out of his chest, blood seeping out and dripping onto the white snow around him.