Johanna

The snow horses pull up to the balcony on the second floor of the ice palace. I climb out, order the goblins to carry Julian into the bedchamber and rest him on my bed. I cover him with an eiderdown blanket. It's one of the few things in the palace not made of ice and will keep him warm.

Julian stirs but does not wake. Kai stumbles in behind me, still chained to my wrist by a silver string.

"How long until he wakes up?" I say.

"Could be minutes," says the troll-goblin. "Could be hours."

"You are no help to me, as usual." Frustrated, I reach out with my mind to see how my ice cages are holding up.

"Your Majesty, we-"

"Shut up." Something's wrong. I've reached out to my cages, but I can't find them. It's like they've melted, disappeared into the ground.

Only one other person could have done that.

"Downstairs," I say. "Now."

Kai scurries to keep up with me as I approach the stairs. The goblins creep after us. I reach the landing, and my fears are confirmed. In the front hall below, I can see Queen Elsa sitting on the floor, free from her prison. The others cluster around her. Elsa looks up at me with pale blue eyes. I hate that her eyes are the same as mine, when in all other ways we are entirely different.

"I thought I got you out of the way," I say.

"You seem to think a lot of things that I don't agree with." Elsa struggles to her feet. "So the spell went as planned? Where's Julian?"

"Resting upstairs. Alive." I fold my arms across my chest. "Which no one will be able to say for you in a minute." I'm extremely irritated at her for breaking out so quickly. She's really going to make me do this.

"You have to let her go," says Kai. "You promised—"

"She wasn't included in your request," I say. "You thought she was dead."

Kai scowls and bites his lip, thinking.

The goblins whisper among themselves. "Is that Queen Elsa?" "Can't be." "Must be." I ignore them.

"The pieces of goblin glass," I tell Queen Elsa. "You took them. I want them."

"I don't know what you're talking about," says Elsa. I reach out with my mind and search her, briefly, but she's right. She doesn't have them.

"Why do you insist on making this complicated?" I sigh, exasperated. Today wasn't supposed to be difficult. "I'll just kill you and then find them."

I reach into the pocket of my fur coat and pull out a knife. A real, metal knife, sharp and slick. The handle is made of gold and decorated with strange goblin designs.

"Let's save ourselves some time, Queen Elsa," I say. I run my hand along the flat side of the blade. "I think we both know what will happen. I'm stronger than ever, while you can hardly stand. We'll fight for a while, you'll run out of strength, and I'll kill you. Let's skip all that. Let me make it quick. You know you've lost."

Elsa looks up at me. "You're right. I've lost. I've lost so, so many things. I've lost a daughter. I've lost a husband. I've lost time with my best friend and sister. I've lost the future we all could have had together, the one in which my kingdom doesn't perish in an eternal winter. I've lost the chance to see the children of Arendelle-Ciera grow up happy and safe. I know I've lost those things, and I mourn them.

"But you—you've lost everything. You don't even know what you've lost, and you're so afraid of thawing your heart that you'll never know. You'll grow old and frail and die never knowing what you're missing out on."

"Good!" I snap. A wind rises, lifting my hair, filling the room, even though I didn't purposely call it. "I don't want to know. I never want to know. You're such a fool, holding on to all these things when they mean nothing. It was stupid of you to come here. To even think you could—"

"Johanna?" says a voice behind me. The wind falls abruptly. The knife falls from my hand. The voice that calls my name is hoarse from lack of use, but I would know it anywhere.

Julian staggers onto the landing. He leans against a pillar, his legs shaking as if he has not yet gained full control of them. The rest of the room—the goblins, the children, Queen Elsa—it all ceases to matter. I run to him.

"What's going on?" he says. His legs nearly buckle underneath him. I catch him, and he steadies himself. "What are they saying about an eternal winter?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter." I touch his face. He's real. This—this is real. "You're alive."

"Yeah," Julian smiles. I can count the hours since I last saw him smile. "I guess I am.

He kisses me. I want this kiss to last forever. My heart tries to leap, but it is pinned tightly in place by the shard of goblin glass, and I wince in pain.

Julian notices. "Are you hurt?"

"No, it's nothing."

For the first time, he looks beyond me down the stairs and frowns. His hand goes automatically to the rapier at his side. "What are goblins doing here?"

"Don't hurt them. They're keeping you alive."

"Keeping me alive?"" He holds out a hand in front of his face, flexes his fingers like he's not sure how to use them. "This is a goblin spell? Isn't that dangerous?"

"It's worth the cost."

"What's the cost?"

"It doesn't matter."

"My life," pipes Kai. "She's draining my life. And she's killing Arendelle. She made a deal with the goblins. She says as long as they keep you alive, she will keep Arendelle in an unending winter—"

"Shut up, you worthless—" I raise a hand to silence him, but Julian grabs it before I can do anything more than whip up a few flakes of snow.

He stares at my hand. His fingers have traced the palm of that hand so many times.

"You were about to attack a child," Julian says.

"So what?" I say. "He deserves it."

"Why? Is he telling the truth?"

"It doesn't matter," I say again. Nothing else matters. Why can't he see that?

"Queen Elsa?" says Julian. "Is the boy telling the truth?" I turn my head in time to see Mama nod.

"Julian—" I start. I try to reach for him, but he pulls away. He looks at me, horrified. Like he's not even seeing me, like he's looking at me and seeing someone he doesn't know.

"What's happened to you?" says Julian. "Are you trying to fulfill the troll prophecy?"

"It's not about the prophecy." I'm pleading. I hate that I'm pleading. "I don't care about the prophecy."

"You should care about the prophecy. You can't just sacrifice your kingdom. That's your family down there. And draining a child's life? I'm not worth that. No one is worth that."

"But—" Suddenly I am crying, and I can't stop. I hate the way he's looking at me. I never wanted him to look at me like that.

"I don't understand," he says. He takes a few uncertain steps across the landing. His eyes scan the room, as if he'll find answers curled up forgotten in some snow-covered corner, before his gaze returns to me. "I shouldn't even be here right now. I defied every law of nature to come back when they called me, because I knew they were calling me for you. I come back and I find you like this? How? Why?"

"I don't know." My chest hurts. The tear drops turn into beads of ice that roll down my face and clatter against the floor like diamonds. "I don't know why I do anything I do. All I know is that I love you."

"You love me enough that you'd kill everyone in Arendelle just to bring me back?"

I manage to nod through my tears. My heart is straining against the glass. I'd forgotten it could hurt this much.

Julian puts a cold hand against my face and touches his forehead to mine. His eyes are green like the hillside on a summer day. When's the last time I saw a summer day? "If you love me enough to hold on like this," he says, "you need to love me enough to let me go."

Julian steps back and reaches for the rusted sword still in his holster. The world all returns at once. Aunt Anna gasps. Kai whispers, "A sword sacrifice!" and Gerda shrieks and clutches Elsa's hand. The goblins rush to my side, but I spread my arms and a gust of icy wind pushes them back.

"So this is what love gets me," I laugh sadly. "Are you going to kill me, Julian?"

"Jo," Julian says. He looks at me for a long time, the sword still balanced in his right hand. "What would I kill? You're already gone." He turns to Kai. "Unending winter as long as I'm alive? That's the agreement?"

Kai nods. Julian's green eyes meet mine. He looks frightened, but not of me this time. Then he sets his jaw determinedly, and I know suddenly what he's going to do.

"Julian, don't—"

"Let me go, Johanna."

Before I can raise a hand to stop him, he turns the sword on himself.

I think I scream his name. I think there's blood. I think a gust of wind shatters the palace walls, and I think I caused it. I think Mama rushes to my side and catches the shard of goblin mirror that flies from my heart as my entire life bursts apart. All I know is that I'm on my knees next to Julian, and his chest is covered in blood, and mine might as well be bleeding too, everything hurts so much. My hands are turning red because I'm holding onto him, and I'm shaking him, and I'm screaming, I'm screaming at him to come back.

One of the goblins approaches tentatively.

"Make him come back," I order. "Use the troll spell again. You can have my life."

"He's pierced his heart," said the goblin. "There's nothing anyone can do for a pierced heart."

"No," I say. "No."

I'm crying and I'm holding onto Julian. Mama is kneeling beside me and stroking my hair and whispering, "Let it go, Johanna. It's ok. Let it go."

The icy wind outside picks up. I close my eyes and send it swirling faster and faster, but there's nothing inside of it. It's nothing but empty air.

A/N – You guys why did you think it was ok to let me write things?! This chapter is not ok. Fuuuuuuuuuuuq.

Come back Friday, and I should have uncurled myself from a sad ball long enough to post another chapter.