Four
1449 Words
Inside the palace, it was even colder than outside.
The air felt sharp, heavy with the smell of pine and smoke. Torches burned with that same strange blue flame along the stone walls. The hallway stretched long and dim, the floor covered with thick fur rugs that didn’t do much to warm my frozen toes.
The guards dragged me into a circular room with a high ceiling and icy pillars. It looked like some kind of… throne room? War room? Dungeon? I had no idea.
They shoved me into the center and locked the chains onto a metal ring in the floor. I was on my knees again, breathing hard, trying not to let the panic swallow me whole.
He walked in slowly, steps steady and powerful, and every warrior in the room bowed their head as he passed.
He didn’t even acknowledge them.
His eyes stayed on me.
“Look at me,” he said.
My head lifted on its own, like my body recognized the command before my brain did. His stare pinned me in place… cold, sharp, full of suspicion.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“M-Marlise,” I whispered.
His jaw clenched slightly. “Marlise what?”
“Winter.”
His gaze flicked over me like he was measuring the truth of the name. “And where are you from?”
“Pinehart,” I said. “A small town. I… I have a bakery there.”
He stared like I’d spoken poison.
“Pinehart doesn’t exist.”
“Yes, it does,” I said quickly. “It’s real. I live above my bakery. I’ve been there my whole life.”
He took one slow step closer.
“We do not have humans here,” he said. “Not in Frostfang. Not in any realm connected to it.”
Realm.
My breath stopped.
Realm.
Not world.
“What do you mean realm?” I whispered.
He ignored the question. “Humans cannot cross into our borders. Yet here you are. Appearing in my forest like a ghost…. with no scent.”
“I told you…I don’t know how I got here.”
“You expect me to believe you simply… appeared?”
“Yes!” I snapped, fear twisting into frustration. “Do you think I wanted to be dragged through a freezing forest and chained to a floor?!”
Shocking silence filled the room.
A few warriors stirred, watching to see if I’d just signed my death sentence.
But the Alpha didn’t lash out. He didn’t strike me. He didn’t even look angry.
He just crouched down in front of me, eyes inches from mine.
His voice lowered to something dark and frightening.
“Listen to me, Marlise Winter,” he said. “Things do not happen by accident here. If you came to Frostfang, you came with purpose.”
“I didn’t,” I whispered.
He leaned in closer. “Someone sent you.”
“No one sent me.”
His nostrils flared. He inhaled slowly.
Then his expression changed.
His brow tightened. His lips pressed together. His head tilted the slightest bit, like something didn’t make sense.
He smelled me again.
Deep, slow.
Confusion flickered through his eyes for the first time.
“What…” he muttered under his breath. “Why do you smell like…”
He stopped, jaw locking hard.
The room grew even quieter.
His warriors stiffened, watching him.
He stood up straight and turned cold again, but something lingered in his stare… something unsettled.
He snapped his fingers at the guards.
“Take her to the lower chamber,” he ordered. “Chain her securely.”
I gasped. “Wait… what chamber... Yo.. you still think I’m dangerous?!”
His eyes met mine, flat and merciless.
“I don’t know what you are,” he said. “But until I do… You will remain a prisoner of Frostfang.”
The guards grabbed me again.
I dug my heels into the floor. “Please! I’m not a threat! I’…. This is just a crazy unlucky situation.”
His eyes softened for half a heartbeat… just a flicker..before his expression hardened again.
“Unlucky?” he said quietly. “Then you should pray your luck changes before dawn.”
The guards dragged me away.
The chains clinked.
My heart pounded.
And for the first time in my life…
I wished my bad luck would stop.
Because I had a feeling this place could curse me with something much worse.
The guards dragged me down a long, cold hallway. My chains scraped against the stone floor, ringing through the silence like a warning.
I tried to stay calm.
I failed.
Every step felt like I was walking deeper into somewhere I wasn’t meant to be. The walls were carved with strange symbols that glowed faint blue. The temperature dropped with every turn we took.
“Do we really have to chain me?” I asked, my voice small.
Neither guard answered. They were huge, silent, and looked like they could snap a tree in half. Arguing with them felt pointless.
We stopped at a heavy iron door. Frost clung to the metal like tiny claws.
One guard pulled a large key from his belt.
The lock clicked.
The hinges groaned open.
I expected a dungeon.
A dirty cell.
Something awful from the movies.
Instead… the room was surprisingly clean.
Cold…yes.
Small..yes.
Uncomfortable…absolutely.
But clean.
A stone wall, a pile of fur blankets, a metal ring bolted into the floor, and a torch burning blue light. That was it.
The guards pushed me to the center and clipped my chains to the ring. The metal tightened, locking me firmly in place.
I sat on the cold floor, my teeth chattering.
“Is… is someone going to tell me what’s happening?” I whispered.
The guards said nothing. One of them glanced at me once…just once…with a look I couldn’t read. Fear? Curiosity? Pity?
Then they left, slamming the door behind them.
Silence filled the chamber.
I curled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “This has to be a dream,” I whispered. “Or a nightmare. Or a mental breakdown.”
But the cold was too real.
The stone under me was too solid.
And the chains were too heavy.
A low rumble vibrated through the wall. At first, I thought it was thunder. Then I realized—voices.
Deep, serious voices coming from the room next door.
I strained to hear.
“…her scent is wrong,” a man said.
It was the Alpha’s voice.
My breath caught.
Another voice…older, rougher…answered him. “How wrong, Alpha?”
A pause.
“She smells human,” he said, “but something else is mixed in.”
My stomach twisted.
Human.
Something else.
“That is impossible,” the older man said. “Our borders kill anything that enters without magic protection. If she crossed into Frostfang… something allowed her.”
I swallowed hard.
The Alpha spoke again, quieter, like he was thinking aloud.
“Her scent feels… incomplete.”
Incomplete?
What did that even mean?
“I want her watched,” he said. “If she tries anything, anything at all, I want to know.”
The older man asked, “What if she’s not a threat?”
Silence.
Then the Alpha’s voice slid into the room like ice.“Everyone is a threat until proven otherwise.”
My chest tightened.
Footsteps moved toward the wall… right next to where I sat. I could almost feel him on the other side, standing still, listening to my breathing.
He spoke again, voice low.
“There’s something off about her. I can feel it.”
My heart thumped painfully.
The older man asked, “Do you want her questioned again?”
“Not tonight,” the Alpha said. “She’s cold. Weak. Lost. Let her sit in the dark and feel the weight of Frostfang.”
My breath caught in my throat.
He wanted me to be scared.
He liked that I was scared.
Then his tone shifted, darker.
“And in the morning… I will get the truth out of her.”
My pulse raced.
No. No, I wasn’t staying here long enough for some “morning truth session.” I didn’t even know what that meant, but I didn’t like how he said it.
Footsteps faded.
Voices moved away.
Silence took over again.
I closed my eyes, trying to breathe. “It’s okay,” I whispered to myself. “You’ve survived a lot of bad stuff your whole life. You can survive… this.”
But deep down, a cold thought settled in my chest.
- Writer
