Winter’s Ward: Frostbound Legacy, #3

By Briana Snow and Brad Knight

Previously published as Winter Bloom by Briana Snow.

 

In a world teetering on the brink of chaos, Faye finds herself ensnared in a treacherous web of darkness, her conduit powers a reluctant ally to the very demons she seeks to vanquish. This grim alliance leaves her feeling perilously isolated, a lone beacon in a sea of impending doom.

 

Amidst this turmoil, young Amelia, merely a child, is thrust into an unforgiving crucible of maturity. The weight of the world presses down on her small shoulders, a sobering realization that humanity's fate hinges precariously on her fragile existence.

 

As the demonic threat spirals towards its apocalyptic zenith, Faye stands as the last line of defense. Her journey is more than a battle for survival; it's a quest to uncover the deeper purpose of her own existence. With her niece's life and the future of mankind in the balance, Faye must confront her fears and embrace her destiny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Briana Snow
• Release date: Nov 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223089186

Briana Snow

Briana Snow writes urban fantasy. Winter Magic is her debut novel, and the first book in the Ice and Flame series. Sign up to her mailing list at BrianaSnow.com and be the first to know when new books are released. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this book. If so, could you please take a minute and write a short review. Briana reads all her reviews and appreciates getting feedback on her writing.

Book preview

Winter’s Ward

Frostbound Legacy: Book Three

––––––––

by Brianna Snow and Brad Knight

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2019.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Epilogue

Chapter 1

A swirling mass of smoke writhed in front of my eyes, deepening in density and darkness as the portal formed under the demon’s hands. I dared not breathe a word for fear that Reazur, or whatever was operating through him, might shove me into that portal. Slowly, I backed away, trying not to make any sound.

I would have turned and quietly left to hunt down Bale, but the next moment a figure appeared through the thick smoke. I let out a scream before I could stop myself. My mind refused to believe what my eyes were telling me. I had never seen a ghost before, but now I knew what it felt like.

Kenneth? My question came out as a choked whisper.

The portal vanished and Reazur rounded on me. Kaynet, actually. The look on his face was gloating and cold all at once. I barely recognized him. But what worried me more was that Kenneth—or Kaynet—was not dead. A part of me wanted to be happy, but another part of me shuddered at the implications of what this apparent resurrection meant.

Reazur turned back to Kaynet, who still showed traces of the person who had been my sister’s husband, but now had crazier tattoos than I had ever seen him sporting and wore a distracted, angry expression.

What is she doing here? Kaynet asked Reazur, talking about me as if I, in fact, wasn’t there.

Reazur smirked, but I butted in before he could reply. I didn’t understand at all what was going on. The sudden change in Reazur was already throwing me off balance, and the equally sudden appearance of a supposed-to-be-dead demon, my supposedly orphaned niece’s father, into the bargain, was too much for my psyche. I felt anger coursing through me like hot lava.

What am I doing here? I almost yelled. How about risking my butt taking care of your daughter while you float around in obscurity, pretending to be dead?!

How dare he? How dare he march in here and disregard me as if I was a fly in the ointment? I could feel my hands shaking and tried desperately to still them but I may as well have tried to freeze Hell over. Kaynet was giving me an emotionless, icy stare.

I noticed, for the first time, that his skin was pale and his hair white, just like Amelia’s, but with a faint blue tinge. His eyes were the same icy blue that Amelia’s were, but the color in the iris was so pale, it almost disappeared in the actual white of his eyes. They seemed glassy and alien.

I swallowed, suddenly realizing that throwing a tantrum in the presence of two unpredictable, edgy demons was probably not a good survival tactic. It seemed surreal. I had just gone from a fairly normal conversation with Reazur, to this bizarre interaction.

Oh, so you’re the conduit. Kaynet’s voice was emotionless.

The thought struck me that maybe he didn’t even recognize me. Perhaps he was in the same situation as Reazur. Maybe if I mentioned my sister... A pang of longing for Jenny stabbed me in the heart.

Yes, apparently Jenny knew, but never told me. I found out from Kade...

He brushed past me, the sound of his dead wife’s name not seeming to make a dent on him at all. I wanted to scream at him, at Reazur. I wanted an explanation of what was going on, but I knew, instinctively, that would be completely counter-productive.

Reazur followed Kaynet into the house, briefly taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger. Only a day ago I would have gone all warm and tingly, but now a cold hand of fear gripped my intestines. His eyes were full of lust. Where was the genuine, heartfelt affection I had sensed from him in the basement after his interrogation?

Thankfully, he passed and I shrank back into the shadows of the back porch of the farm house. Things were getting really confusing and I needed to gather my wits again.

I couldn’t let on to those two how they had shaken me up, and I had to somehow get to Bale and Wendy to warn them that something was not entirely ten four. At least, for now, they didn’t seem to be on the attack or anything. I swallowed, wondering if they could feed off of a human soul that was part demon?

Calm down, Faye, and think! I chastised myself. Now was not the time to get caught up in all sorts of disastrous imaginings. What did I know about Kenneth, sorry, Kaynet? Kade had said he had ice abilities, which was obviously where Amelia had gotten her abilities from.

What else? He seemed a far cry from the guy I had known as my brother-in-law. Even the picture Kade had painted of a demon wanting to live a normal, happy life disguised as a human didn’t seem to match up with the aura I had felt pulsating from the being who had come through the portal from who knows where.

I had to see how he would react to Amelia. That was one thing I knew about him. In all the pictures Jenny had sent me where he was present, his love for his little girl had been plastered all over his face and his eyes had shone.

In fact, I remembered being jealous, in a weird, grown-up kid kind of way, that I had lost my father and his famous bear-hugs at a time in my life when I had most needed them. My father who turned out to not even be my father. I shook my head, took a deep breath and plunged into the bright interior of the kitchen following the voices that led me to the living room.

Kade was speaking, his voice sounding reserved. It was the voice he had used when we had first made contact and he had not understood my significance in Amelia’s life. I shot a prayer of thanks, to whoever might be listening, for his presence in that room.

I don’t think we should spring this on Amelia, he was saying, his eyes alert, his face deadpan.

Thankfully Amelia was resting upstairs in her room, so she was not present to see the reincarnation of her dead father. It was obvious to me that Kade was smelling the same rat I was.

I’m her father, Kaynet insisted, his white eyes creepily cold. There was none of the anticipation, none of the care he had always radiated. Either it wasn’t really him, or something was controlling his body.

Maybe I could break it to her gently and see if she wants to come to the living room to see him? I suggested, wanting to appear as obliging as possible, more to get them on my side and trusting me, than anything else. Besides, Amelia deserved a fair warning. In every sense of the word.

I want to see my daughter! He had turned to me now, his eyes flashing.

Well, I said, keeping my cool, you have to admit it would be quite a shock on her system to see her dead father standing in front of her.

I’m not dead. His voice was low, almost growling.

True, but in her head, you still are. I willed common sense to prevail.

She has a point, Reazur said, eyeing me again with more appreciation than I felt comfortable with.

Kaynet nodded, clearly still not happy with the situation, but obviously mindful that his co-operation would get him further than his belligerence. I left, glancing over my shoulder as I did so. I’m not sure why, probably some irrational fear that one of them would come after me and scare the wits out of Amelia.

I rounded the corner looking down and almost ran right into my niece, standing in the half darkness on the stairs. Swallowing a cry of surprise just in time, I gripped her wrist with one hand, beckoning to her to follow with the other. We slunk into the nearest dark doorway.

How much did you hear? I hissed, hoping I didn’t sound too angry. I didn’t want to frighten her even more. I wished I could see her face.

My father’s alive? Her voice was trembling, and I realized she probably hadn’t heard anything after that numbing statement.

Listen to me, Amelia, I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. We don’t know for sure that it really is Kaynet... Kenneth... Your dad. I couldn’t see her face to measure her reaction, and she offered no verbal response. I plunged onward. Or if he’s been taken over by some other demon spirit.

The silence from Amelia continued. Just pretend that you believe him, and let’s see what happens. But whatever you do, don’t let him get you alone anywhere. Keep one or more of us close all the time, you hear?

Okay, she said, and my heart broke for her. To have to carry such weighty issues on such narrow, ten-year-old shoulders seemed grossly unfair. Having powers was not as glamorous as her age group might think. Even I had had no idea how drastically our lives would be changed.

She brushed past me, intent on reaching the living room. I followed nervously behind. It was one thing to be forewarned, but quite another to be completely forearmed. I had no idea how she would handle it.

We entered the living room. A thick silence hung in the air.

Daddy? Amelia said uncertainly.

Kaynet’s head snapped up and he stared at the shrinking figure in the doorway. A shadow of something passed across his face and flickered in his eyes. Was it the real Kaynet? He stood, opening his arms to her wordlessly.

Amelia let out a sob and ran to him, burying her head in his chest. I missed you, Daddy! I thought... I thought...

In those moments I knew all my warnings had been in vain. Somewhere inside this misshapen version of my sister’s husband, Amelia’s father still resided. Demon or not, nothing could replace him in her life. Anything I said against him would be hotly contested, or I had learned nothing about my niece in the last few months of our fateful journey.

My eyes were drawn unwillingly to Reazur’s stare boring into me. The smirk on his face told me everything was going according to his plans, whatever they may be. I broke eye contact, diverting my attention to Kade.

He still didn’t seem satisfied with the situation and I made a mental note to get him alone for a debrief as soon as I could. Whatever Reazur and Kaynet were up to, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. For some reason they wanted our trust.

I had been around demons long enough, by now, to understand that they operated with the best interests of their own agendas firmly in sight. Especially in the case of Reazur. It may seem strange for a half demon to speak about her own kind like that, but I had begun to face the inconvenient truth. Perhaps I was finally growing up.

Chapter 2

I lay awake, listening to Amelia tossing and turning on the bed at the other end of our shared room. I wished it could all just come to an end. Amelia and I could have been a pretty happy little family by now, if it hadn’t been for all this drama.

I got up for the umpteenth time and padded my barefoot way down to the kitchen for yet another drink of water. My head was buzzing. I never bothered switching on the lights. By now I could feel my way around like a blind man who has lived in one house all his life. I filled a plastic tumbler with a whoosh of cold water straight from the faucet and turned to the window.

I jumped, sloshing water all over the front of my pajama’s and was extremely grateful for the darkened room when I heard Kade’s voice emanating from the silhouetted figure against the windowpane.

Can’t sleep? Like me? he said, his tiredness evident in his clipped phrases.

Yeah, I answered, equally briefly.

We sat in silence for a while, each of us loathe to break the silence, to voice what we each knew the other was thinking. Thin slivers of moonlight illuminated an oblique pathway over Kade’s head and shoulders. At last he broke the ice.

What’s your take on the current situation, Faye?

The initial shock of having the immovable Kade actually ask my opinion, as opposed to barking an order, momentarily silenced me as I grappled with the best way to voice what I was sensing.

I kept my voice low as I responded, aware that the walls might have ears. I’m not sure we’re all on the same team any more.

Moonlight glimmered on my fellow half-demon’s black hair as he nodded in contemplation of my response.

How is Amelia taking it all?

Not too well, I euphemized. The uncertainty is a huge strain on her. I’m worried it might set us back in her training. Our training.

Kade nodded again. He didn’t have to express his concern about the way things had turned out. As half-humans, I sensed we both felt a much greater concern and responsibility towards the hapless inhabitants of Earth, who were all blissfully unaware of the impending Hell invasion, than any well-meaning, full-blood demon.

I sighed, feeling more helpless than I had at any time yet since Amelia’s first indoor hailstorm. If even those who were meant to be for us were really against us and serving their own agenda, what chance did we have?

Kade didn’t say anything more and I refilled my tumbler before silently ascending the stairs back to my room and clambered wearily into bed. Amelia’s steady breathing told me she had finally fallen into some semblance of sleep, although her disjointed mutterings proved it wasn’t the dreamless version.

I rolled over, covering my head with my pillow and eventually drifted off myself.

***

Morning came way too soon. I groaned as Amelia shook me awake.

Kade wants us all downstairs, she said flatly. I looked into her pale blue eyes but couldn’t read anything there.

I’m on my way, you go along, I rasped, dragging myself out from between the covers.

When I got downstairs, all the others were there, Kade looking drained, with dark circles under his eyes. The atmosphere seemed pretty grim all round. Bale nodded curtly at me as I entered the room.

Okay, Reazur, he said, as I took a seat next to Amelia on the sofa she lay back on. Go ahead and tell the others what you told me.

Reazur smiled indulgently. This is the best-kept secret of the underworld, he gloated, clamping a hand on Kaynet’s shoulder, and paused for effect while he looked around at each of our faces. This is the long-lost brother I told you about. We are both complete misfits, as far as Hell is concerned, but we’re not letting that stand in our way, are we brother?

Kaynet grunted his agreement. He displayed none of the cockiness that Reazur exuded; his eyes were glued to Amelia. I would have given my last Rolo to know what was going on in his mind when he looked at his daughter. Assuming he was really her father.

For so many years, no, centuries, demons like us have lived our peaceful lives on Earth. Now the Hell demons want to turn our adopted home into more of Hell for us.

I coughed. We know all this. What’s your point? It came out more impatient than I intended it to. Reazur looked at me, not at all fazed by my cheek, and continued.

The only way to stop them is to take over Earth first, and then we can lay claim to it and defend our home!

I wondered if Napoleon Bonaparte had looked as ridiculous as this demon did with his triumphant proclamation. Even as I thought that, the look in his eye chilled me to the bone.

We are only a few demons, Wendy reminded him, voicing all of our thoughts, if I had to guess.

Reazur winked at her, undaunted. You forget I commanded a legion back to Hell last night.

I stared at him in disbelief. You still have Nesheassa’s ability, I almost whispered.

Reazur winked again, at me this time. Smart girl.

I shivered involuntarily.

Kade cleared his throat. So, there have been some interesting developments in the last 24 hours. Not developments that we necessarily all agree upon...

Because some of us are part human, Reazur interjected.

Because some of us don’t see the sense of innocent people being killed in the crossfire of internal Hell affairs, Kade retorted. The tension was palpable. My mind reeled at the onslaught of all this new information, but Reazur wasn’t done.

My brother and I intend taking back our rightful inheritance as sons of the greatest demon lord of all time. You can work with us, or against us, the choice is yours, but as from today I call the shots here.

He turned his gaze to me, raking me with his eyes in