Snow fell as I made my way home.
​
The tears that were falling down were leaving icicle trails on my cheeks. It seemed that even the angels in Heaven were so devasted by what had happened this day that rain was not enough to represent their pain. So here was the snow, which only made me sadder. Even though I didn’t really like the snow, or the cold, he had. He had always loved the snow and he tried to get me to see the beauty in it.
I was cutting through the park, in a feeble attempt to get away from the pain that was still chasing me, even though I was blocks away from the hospital. The snow was not letting up, in fact, it seemed as if it was going to turn into a full on blizzard. So I stopped, dropped my bag onto now crystalizing ground, and tilted my head up to the dark sky and closed my eyes. I could feel the snowflakes plop against my face in a gentle, wet brush stroke. I stood like that for I don’t know how long before I fluttered my eyes open. I watched the flakes dance in the breeze that had suddenly picked up. As I focused on the flakes, I could see the dynamic differences in their particles and how individually beautiful each one was.
This is what Kace had been trying to get me to realize on all those days that I had complained about the cold walk from my apartment to campus in the winter.
Kace.
Instantly, instead of looking into a darkness swirling with tiny white specks, I was staring into fire. Flames danced in front of my eyes, while smoke wafted up into my nostrils, the heat scorching my skin. My tears dried up and my sadness spun instantly into fury. I clenched and unclenched my fists, feeling my nails digging into my palms. I knew I was cutting the skin open, but I didn’t care.
I watched for a moment as the flames climbed up the swing-set and as if it was being pursued by an accelerant, it raced down the chains and onto the swings, destroying one in a split second, but encompassing the other. It called out to me. I could hear it on the wind. It wasn’t quite a voice, more like strings on violon being called to life by the bow. The sound completely overtook me and before I knew it was standing within touching distance of the fiery swing. The sound of the stings on the wind completely blocked out the crackling of the flames.
I reached my hand out to the blazing chains, ready to grasp the swing and hop on. I knew it wouldn’t hurt me. Flames had made that much clear earlier that very night when they had decided to rip Kace away from me and leave me utterly unscathed. I grabbed the chain, and as I had suspected, I felt no pain, but the second my palm wrapped around the chain, the strings and the crackling noises that had been filling my ears vanished. I was sucked into silence until I heard my name on the wind. It was slight at first, but then I heard it again, and suddenly the flames I had been so focused on vanished and I was pitched into darkness, the snowflakes swirling around me as if almost in a panic. Confused, I dropped my hand off the swing, as I heard it again—my name, crystal clear, piercing through the night.
Slowly, I turned to the sound and muffled my cry with my hands as I saw something approaching me. In the darkness, a couple yards away from me, something, surrounded in
blinding white light, was moving closer to me. I blinked in the light as it stopped within arm’s reach of me. The light faded just slightly, enough for me so what it was that was in front of me.
My knees buckled and I felt myself start to fall to the ground, but faster than I thought was humanly possible, he reached out and grabbed my arms, stabilizing me enough for me to
stare straight into his opaque, ocean eyes.
“Kace.”
Frost and Flame
Part I
Frost and Flame
Part II
I must have blacked out…
​
Because when I blinked my eyes opened, I was no longer in the park. I was no longer staring at flames or frost. I rubbed my eyes as I leaned up onto one forearm and glanced around. The room was grand and that was putting it too plainly. It would have encompassed my entire apartment. The bed I was lying on was insanely soft and covered in silvery-blue blankets. The frame was oak that looked like it could have reached out and touched the sky, because I could have sworn that the sky was what I was looking at when I glanced up. The ceiling was a swirling design of silvers and blues that danced across it. I was entranced for a moment watching the performance. I wasn’t sure how long I had been lost in the movement when I heard a tapping at the door. As the door slowly swung open, I pushed myself back against the headboard and tugged a blanket up across my chest.
The person at the door entered with their back to me, but it only took half a second for me to figure out who it was. His onyx hair shaggily covered the back of his neck and I knew that when he turned around I would see it falling into his face, causing me to want to reach out and brush it away from his eyes. Kace. He was really here, standing only yards away from, either that or I was dreaming, or I was dead, as well. Because that’s what he was, wasn’t it? Dead? I had seen him die in front me. I had watched the small cabin we had been spending the weekend in go up in flames while we cuddled on the couch. I had seen the flames that we had been watching in the fire place jump out and spread as if someone had poured kerosene on it. Kace had grabbed my wrist and tugged me to the door as I tripped over myself. I couldn’t remember why I was having such a hard time leaving the cabin. I knew that to survive I had to get out. We had to get out. But something whispered on the flames as they began dancing around us.
Kace dragged me to the door and flung it open and in the same instance a beam fell from the ceiling. I remembered screaming as he literally threw me out the door, into the moonlight, as the beam crashed down on him. The sounds of my screams shattered through the night as I watched the flames consume the doorway and I lost sight of him.
By the time firefighters and first responders got to the scene it was too late. Whatever was causing the fire to burn so rapidly had allowed it to completely demolish the cabin. I sat in the back of an ambulance, in utter shock. I had barely heard them at the hospital when they told me what I already knew—my worst nightmare—Kace was dead.
But yet, there he was walking toward me. I felt my heart beat rapidly in my chest, so much so that I thought it might just jump right out of there. He didn’t speak me as he approached the bed, but he kept his eyes locked on me. I could still all the passion and love that we had shared for the past year swirl in those eyes. Yes. It really was Kace. There was no denying that as he sat on the edge of the bed after placing a tray that held I don’t know what, because I wasn’t paying any attention to it, on the night stand.
“Clarissa …” And that was all it took, my name on his lips. It shook me to my core and the tears that I had been fighting back just let loose.
“Kace …” I managed to choke out and he reached out for me. Without any hesitation, I lunged myself into his arms. He wrapped me up tight against his body. I could feel his heart beat in perfect rhythm with mine. His skin against mine was all so familiar and felt like home, but there was something different. The usual heat that radiated off him wasn’t there anymore. In fact, his skin felt as if it had a slight chill.
He pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. He placed his palm on my check and I turned into it. Again, where I should have felt fire, that chill was there. I reached up and took his hand and wrapped it up in my hands, letting the chill soak into my skin, where it seemed to dissipate.
I shook my head and glanced up from our hands to his face. “How?” was all I managed to get out.
He gave me that ever so wicked crooked smile.
“How much do remember about the Fey legends I told you about?”
Frost and Flame
Part III
…I sat in stunned silence trying to wrap my mind around everything that he had just said.
​
I think I had comprehended the major things. All the Fey legends that he had told me while we had watched the stars dance at night were legitimate. Through a veil that humans couldn’t see, was a completely different world where fairies and other magical creatures thrived. So while I tried to grasp that fact, Kace had thrown more at me, seeming to understand that if he paused in his explanation of what was going on, that I was probably going to lose it.
He told me about the magic, and how every fairy was born with a different skill set, such as power over specific parts of nature such as summer and winter affinities. Kace had an affinity for winter to where he was able to control winter elements such as snow, ice, frost. That was how he survived. He had called on his winter powers and shielded himself with a massive layer of ice that stopped the flames from scorching him to death. And then he vanished back through the veil. Leaving me alone, to be destroyed at what I now knew was an illusion of his death.
Suddenly, I was angry with him. Heavens knew that I was thrilled that he was alive and holding on to my hand, but the fact that he had vanished and for hours upon hours had let me believe that my entire world had been shattered and there was no longer any reason for living, pissed me off.
I dropped his hand and jump to my feet and started pacing the room. I was wringing my hands together in front of my chest. Kace didn’t say anything, but I could feel his eyes on me and I could feel him tense up as if expecting something bad to happen. I halted my pacing directly in front of him and stared into his eyes. He was scared of something. I held his gaze a little longer before it dawned on me. He was scared of me!
I took a few steps back and balled my fists at my side and screamed at him. ‘What are you so terrified of?”
Kace slowly got to his feet and took a hesitant step toward me. “Clarissa, please just take a breath.”
I could feel the anger rise in me and my body instantly felt as if it was crawling with sparks. “You’re telling me to take a breath? You died in front of me! And then just like that,” I snapped my fingers, “you’re back. But only you’re not you, you’re a fairy prince! And there’s a whole invisible realm of magic! That may be completely normal to you, but hello? For a measly human, that is a lot to take in.”
I paused and did take that breath, but only because I realized that I had stopped breathing. But before he could get a word out, I continued my rant. “And to top it all off, you are looking at me like I’m something to be scared of! Why in the hell …” I froze as it all came crashing down on me. It was like hearing a guilty verdict at the end of your own very long and excruciating trial at which you were actually innocent. But, in this case, I wasn’t innocent.
I glanced down at my fists, where I was feeling most of the heat in my body asides from my cheeks. I clenched, released and clenched them again. I knew what would happen if I focused on my hands for much longer, so I snapped my gaze back at Kace, the question I already knew the answer to written clearly across my features.
I felt a tear start to slip from my eye as Kace closed the distance between us and retook my hands in his.
“Yes Clarissa. You started the fire.”
Frost and Flame
Part IV
Kace gently brushed away the tears that were streaming down my face.
​
He didn’t say anything further. He didn’t have to. I already knew the answer, even if I didn’t want to admit it. But I knew I had to admit to get a better understanding of what I thought I knew, because right that second, nothing was making absolute sense.
I gazed up into his eyes, and let go of the breath I had been holding. Any fear I thought I was going to see there, was non-existent. But I knew that if I could look into my own eyes, I would see fear.
“I started the fire.” It was a statement rather than a question, but the question followed quickly. “How?”
Kace stroked my cheek. “The same way I control winter. You called on it. Unlike what I did, you didn’t call on it intentionally, and you have no training, so the flames took control of you, rather than you controlling them.”
In theory that made sense, but … “How exactly was I able to call on the fire in the first place?”
Kace ran his hand through his hair and avoided my gaze. Was the answer to that question really that bad? “Kace, please look at me and tell me how I did that. Please.”
He took a deep breath and returned his eyes to mine. “Because you’re a changeling Clarissa. You are part of my world, a Fey and a very powerful Fire Fey at that.”
Everything about my life started to make more sense. Why I had always been asked if I was adopted because of my intensely emerald eyes and fiery red hair that neither of my parents had. Why I had always felt like an outsider, like something was wrong with me. There was always that pit in my stomach that felt like it was preparing for a bomb to go off. I had not felt normal until I had met Kace. Something about him had been instantly soothing and insanely familiar, which was why I had fallen so fast for him.
But I knew that if I had been switched with a human infant at birth, that my parents’ biological child was somewhere in this world, being raised as fey with no magical abilities. That had to be hell on her. I was about to ask Kace about her, when he reached out and pulled me tight against his chest. I melted against him, almost forgetting everything that had just been thrown at me, as he stroked my hair.
“I know what you are thinking my darling. And I promise we will figure it all out,” he kissed the top of my head and then pulled back just enough so that he was staring directly into my eyes, his full of passion, desire and love.
“You are finally home,” he whispered. And although I had yet to see anything outside this bedroom, I knew he was right. I was finally where I belonged, and with who I belonged.
“I love you, Kace. I think I loved you before I met you.” And I knew that was true. I think in this crazy, yet to be unearthed, magical world, we had always been destined to meet. Right at that moment, it was all that matter. That he was in my arms and he was mine forever. The rest I knew would fall into place eventually.
He smiled at me, and gestured with his free hand toward the door. “Ready to go explore your world?”
I smiled back at him simply nodded. “Bring it on.”