Queen of Frost and Ice, page 1
Queen of Frost and Ice
Fantasy Romance, Volume 3
Aisha Urooj
Published by Aisha Urooj, 2022.
Also by Aisha Urooj
Divine Error
Divine Error
Divine Terror
Fantasy Romance
Queen of Frost and Ice (Coming Soon)
The Stone Mermaid
Midnight Prince
Sleeping Beauty No More
Love & Friendship
My Dear Ellie
Eleanor's Travels
Ellie's Fate
Standalone
The Nine Muses
Watch for more at Aisha Urooj’s site.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Also By Aisha Urooj
Dedication
Queen of Frost and Ice (Fantasy Romance, #3)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Also By Aisha Urooj
About the Author
Dedicated to frozen hearts and scorched minds. May love be the cure and set you free.
Queen of Frost and Ice
Copyright © Aisha Urooj, 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.
For information about the author:
https://aishauroojbooks.wordpress.com/
Chapter One
Fire and ash,
Ash and fire.
Dreams to Hope,
Hope and desire.
Jade’s house was different from the neighbors in two ways: first, it was more run down than the others, holding its shape by a miracle, and second, Kia had painted a sunflower on their front door... sunflowers being her favorite.
Her little sister, Kia, loved gardening and adored her flowers. It didn’t matter to her that they didn’t survive long. Jade, however, watched with despair when the flowers wilted with the extreme changes in weather. Their bright colorful petals grayed with the cold, or blackened to nothing with the heat.
All except the sunflowers in Kia’s small garden. As on cue, the flowers swayed gently with the breeze, bringing a rare smile to Jade’s face.
Such an odd flower, Jade thought with amusement. So resilient and cheery with their yellow crowned heads. Maybe my little sister is right to love them?
These flowers were nature’s finest apocalypse preppers.
Maybe if we all dig our roots as deep, we might stand a chance? We might win against the constant onslaught of drought, heat, and the cold?
She sighed. Who was she fooling? It was too late for the rest of them. The world she was in was taking its final breaths.
How many tears to fill an ocean? How many sighs to form a hurricane?
How many screams for the earth to shake?
Just enough, Jade thought. And we reached that point long ago.
Our world is dying. The great war threatens to kill us all.
The human world will crumble under the two titans of fire and ice. There is nothing the rest of us can do to stop them, Jade thought, so there is no point in trying.
Even if her heart pleaded to do something. Anything. But Jade pushed the thought away once more.
She stopped being affected by it all.
It was smoky that day. Jade wrapped the piece of cloth tighter around her face to stop the smoke from reaching her lungs. The small forest around her little village burned brighter and closer every day.
If it keeps up, it won’t be long before it reaches our home, Jade thought. We would have to move again.
Jade normally didn’t leave the village unless she was getting food for her family, so they wouldn't starve, but it was Kia’s birthday. She would risk going into the forest to get her little sister a present.
She ignored the warning in her head and put her hiking shoes on. At the break of dawn, Jade tiptoed out of the house.
No one else was awake at that hour, and she hadn’t heard any birds singing in months. She prayed a silent prayer that she wouldn’t hear them today.
If I am lucky, Jade thought, I could get Kia’s present before she wakes up.
If I am really lucky, I wouldn’t run into any trouble while doing so. But she wasn’t counting on that much luck, especially when danger lurked around every corner.
Her shoes crunched on the pebbles of the uneven path. Jade kept a steady pace and reached the outskirts of the forest in an hour. Her instincts warned her again to stay away, but she shook her fears and stepped inside.
It was misty. The deeper Jade went into the forest, the harder it was to see in the thick fog. After another hour of hiking, she finally reached the spot she was searching for, but her heart sank.
Jade couldn’t see any mushrooms. No umbrella caps anywhere in sight.
Not a single one.
They were the entire reason for her being there. For her, risking to venture outside of the village.
“The mushrooms are here,” Jade mumbled to herself as she searched the tree roots. “They have to be. I am sure of it!”
Jade could always count on Kia’s favorite mushrooms to be here.
She thought about going further in the forest, where she hadn’t been before, but her steps faltered and her pulse quickened at the thought.
“It is for Kia’s birthday!” Jade told herself. “I can’t leave without getting her something.”
Jade kept her ears and eyes open for any signs of trouble, but it was quiet in the forest.
Too quiet.
The eerie silence weighed like a thick blanket on all her senses, making her feel dull and lethargic.
Jade felt a strange prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Moments later, she heard a small snapping sound. She quickly took out her knife from the sheath tied to her leg. If she came across a frost soldier or one from the fire realm, her knife would be a pitiful weapon, but Jade was better trained than most.
Her heart was beating fast as she waited. She felt her adrenaline rising. An animal shot past her, bumping hard into her shoulder as it did, and nearly knocked her to the ground. Jade swore at the pain, but the animal kept running.
What spooked it? Jade wondered, rubbing her shoulder. That is when she first noticed the crackling sound.
Jade looked up to see the tree across from her engulfed entirely in flames. She hadn’t had a chance to react when one branch came crashing down on her.
The branch must have knocked Jade unconscious, because when she woke up, flames surrounded her. She coughed at the thick smoke, sweat beading down her body at the intense heat.
It is too hot! I can’t breathe...
Jade took off the cloth from her face and blindly stuffed it in her jeans’ pocket.
I have to get out of here, or the fire will burn me alive, Jade thought.
She got up on her feet and nearly stumbled with dizziness. The branch hit her head hard, but thankfully, it didn’t kill her.
Jade was having a hard time seeing clearly. She was sure she had a bump on her head. Jade touched the back of her head gingerly and it felt sore. When she looked at her hand, there was blood on the fingertips.
Not good.
She would assess her injury later, but first, she had to make it out of the forest.
I have to keep moving, Jade thought. I can’t linger here much longer.
Jade could barely see the path in front of her. All she could hear, see, and feel was the fire. The flames danced like little devilish imps all around her, trying to lick her hands and nip at her feet.
Jade stopped when she heard an animal cry somewhere to her right. Despite the danger, her feet automatically turned towards the sound of despair.
It was the same deer that had bumped into her before. The poor animal was trapped in a hunter’s net, crying helplessly.
Someone must have set up the trap earlier, Jade thought. It was dangerous to hunt large animals. The fire realm gave those caught the penalty of death. Only the royal family could hunt for sport. She doubted they needed it for food.
The hunter must be desperate, Jade thought. She knew the pangs of hunger well.
The animal cried out once more. It was a beautiful animal who looked at her with fearful eyes.
“I won’t hurt you,” Jade said softly to the deer.
She hardly saw deers anymore. It was the first one she came across in years.
“You and I are the same,” Jade whispered.
We are both creatures from the old world; she thought. One without power or magic.
We are both part of a dying species.
She used her knife to cut the ropes and set the animal free. It took a few moments for the deer to realize it had been freed before it dashed off frantically.
Jade hoped that the deer wo
Jade tried to find her path, but she was hopelessly lost. She coughed at the thick smoke. Embers floated lazily in front of her face.
The winds were picking up, blowing more hot ash and floating embers in her direction. Her eyes were burning, making it hard to see clearly, and the heat had parched her throat dry.
Jade was trying not to panic. She tried to calm her breathing.
The worst thing now would be to have a panic attack, but it was getting harder not to. She didn’t know the way out.
She had to remain confident if she wanted to survive.
Think, Jade, think. She fought to keep control of her thoughts.
Perhaps she could find the lake that was nearby? It was large enough that she couldn’t miss it.
She stumbled, fire blazing all around her. Jade reached the edge of a cliff and felt relief. The lake was just below; she remembered. It is ok, I will be safe in the water.
She peered over the edge, her eyes searching for the cool water. What she saw, however, made her heart falter.
The lake wasn’t there anymore. It was... gone.
There was a depression where the lake used to be.
She could still see steam rising from the ground, not a drop of water anywhere.
She stumbled backwards. The water simply evaporated? Jade thought, stunned. How was that even possible?
I am going to die here, Jade thought with despair, as more trees burned and crashed around her.
Jade looked for a boulder, anything that could shield her from the fire’s intense heat, but found nothing.
She couldn’t breathe in the smoke, even when she covered her mouth with the cloth.
Her throat was burning. She could barely see anymore; her tears were blurring her sight.
This was it for her.
Jade fell helplessly to her knees. This could be her last moments, and all she could think about was how she let her family down.
A single tear escaped from her eyes and fell to her hand.
She could clearly see her younger sister’s sweet face. The way Kia lit up whenever she called her name.
Jade saw her grandma. The laugh lines around her wise and kind eyes.
Jade didn’t think about her parents. She would see them soon enough.
Jade wiped her cheek. She promised herself she wouldn’t cry when she faced death. She had a lot of questions to ask... a lot of grievances to share before death's angel could claim her soul.
She saw something from the corner of her eyes; a shadow that moved like a wraith in the burning forest. Jade instinctively looked towards it to make sure.
There was a hooded stranger, metres away, walking towards the edge of the cliff. Was she imagining him? He was like an apparition in the smoke.
The forest rumbled deep with the sound of thunder, and a lightning storm erupted in the sky. The earth seemed to shake. Another lightning strike erupted a nearby tree to fire and splinters. Jade covered her ears, trying to mute the chaos.
Her senses were in a frenzy. All she could hear was the crackling of fire and boom of thunder and the pounding of her heart. Time slowed and stretched on endlessly as she watched the surrounding destruction, unable to do anything to save herself.
The hooded figure was still there, unaffected. He reached out his hand to take his hood down. Jade could see his face now. The stranger was hauntingly beautiful. He was around her age, with startling dark hair and dark eyes.
What was he doing here?
To her surprise, he brought out a violin and started playing it.
The music, oh the music. It was such a haunting melody. It brought a sharp pain to her heart.
The music was her sorrow. It wasn’t the constant dull ache she felt daily, but something intensified.
As the world burned around her, the music became her hope. It made her feel something for the first time in years, where she had only been numb before.
A tear fell down her cheek, but soon more drops started falling on her hand.
It's raining, she realized. The clouds had opened up above, and droplets were falling like tears from the sky.
Was this the music's effect? The haunting melody with the power to soothe raging fires...
The boy stopped playing the violin and faced the sky, letting the rain fall down his face. Some drops clung to his dark eyelashes.
Don't stop playing, Jade thought.
Jade wanted him to play the violin again. She could listen to him playing the music forever. But before she could call out to him, the boy disappeared like smoke in front of her.
Jade remained still, stunned by what had just happened.
Who was he? Jade wondered. Why was he playing that haunting music?
Did his music cause it to rain... and save her?
Jade’s worst fear was that she had lost her mind, that she had imagined it all, but no...
How did the fire start in the first place? And how did it spread so fast? Jade wondered. She couldn’t have passed out for more than a few minutes.
Did someone from the fire realm start the fire?
Jade heard recent reports of their erratic behaviours. That could explain the sudden nature of it, she thought.
Jade had her doubts. If someone from the fire realm lost control, they could burn a tree or two, but not an entire forest. Not that quickly. The entire lake had also evaporated, leaving behind a steaming pit.
What if it was someone stronger? She heard legends of the old fire kings and how they destroyed entire cities.
Jade’s thoughts wandered back to the lone shadowy figure that was with her in the forest. How did he disappear like that?
The entire situation was so puzzling that Jade thought her head would explode.
The heavy rain had died down to a drizzle and most of the fire was out, but she couldn’t risk staying there. The trees are unstable and could fall again. She no longer heard the crackling of fire, but a steady hissing sound as the rain put out the remaining flames.
Jade walked out of the forest in a daze, not paying attention to the path in front of her. She stumbled onto a wayward branch and crashed towards the ground. She braced her hands for the impact.
There Jade was on the ground... again. Her knees were inches in the dirt. Her hands scraped by the small sharp pebbles on the ground.
Jade cursed out loud. She had just about enough of today.
When she looked up from the forest floor, the day finally got better, as standing inches away from her face was a little wild rose-tree.
Jade couldn’t believe her luck.
The rose-tree was small, scrawny, and had no blooms, but it was the perfect gift for Kia. It was even better than the mushrooms she came for.
Jade dug up around the rose-tree with her fingertips, being careful not to damage the roots. She took the cloth she had and placed the plant in the centre.
Once she secured her little sister’s birthday gift, Jade walked out of the forest, not looking back. It was pure luck that she survived the forest today, but she wasn’t going to press her luck much more.
The mysterious stranger wasn’t there anymore to lure her with his haunting melody, but whoever started the fire could still be around.
It was a long way back to the village, and Jade wasn’t out of danger until she reached home.
Chapter Two
Jade got out of her room just as Kia woke up. She looked over her cuts and bruises, took a quick shower to scrub herself off the soot and dirt from the forest, when she heard her little sister’s voice in the kitchen.
“Where is Jade, grandma?” Kia asked.
Grandma smiled. “Aren’t you going to get your birthday hug first?”
Kia rushed in her arms, and grandma hugged her tight. “Oh my dear child, I wish your parents were here to see you. They wouldn’t have missed today for the world.”
“I know, grandma,” Kia said in a small voice.
Jade’s heart ached after hearing the sadness in her sister’s voice.
She stood at the doorway of their small kitchen. “Is the hug only for grandma, or will I get one too?” Jade asked in a bright voice.
“Jade!” Kia said. Her face lit up seeing her older sister.
Sometimes Jade wondered if Kia worried about her leaving. Every night, Kia clung to her arm while she slept, as if she was afraid Jade might disappear.
