The next few weeks were a blurred mess for Elsa as she tried to push everything in her mind aside and prepare for her upcoming coronation. When she wasn't speaking to Abram or performing a necessary duty around the castle, she was in her room sleeping or reading, trying desperately to push the thoughts of Aaron and the night on the rooftop out of her head and concentrate on what was important – ruling her kingdom.

Anna was the first to notice her sister's abrupt shift back to her old habits. While the twins were visiting, Anna had begun to believe Elsa may finally leave her room and she had even been hopeful that there was still a chance for their relationship. However, one morning, she had awoken to find that Aaron and Sophie were nowhere to be found.

The younger princess hurried to a high tower on the south side of the castle and peered out the window at the harbor. When she saw that the royal ship of Astor was missing, she resigned to the fact that the twins had gone home without even saying goodbye. Surprised and somewhat offended, she thought about asking Elsa why they had left, but the blonde was locked in her room once more and seemed to have no interest in casual conversation with her sister – the treatment that Anna had come to expect from the future queen.

Left in the dark again, Anna eventually let it go, although the wedge between her and Elsa grew larger and stronger with every secret she kept and every day spent without each other.

By the time the coronation came, the sisters were like strangers again. Anna didn't even see Elsa during the two proceeding days leading up to the event. By the time the 29th of July finally came around, Anna was dying for some human company and the chance to start anew.

Elsa, on the other hand, had let her fear come to its peak. She had grown fairly adept at forcing thoughts of Aaron from her mind, but Sophie's ambiguous threat was constantly in the back of her thoughts. She grew even more anxious and paranoid every second about what could happen at the coronation with all of Arendelle watching. The royal banquet had been challenging enough for the young queen, but this was even more important – this was the coming of age of a new monarch, an event that only happens once per lifetime. If she screwed it up, the history books would make it known for centuries to come. As the gates opened at precisely eight o'clock on the morning of the coronation, Elsa could only think of one phrase repeated over and over like a depressing metronome – conceal, don't feel.

There were exactly three times during the events of the Great Freeze that Elsa thought specifically of Aaron.

The first was when Anna introduced her to Hans, the man that would later become her most hated enemy. At the time, Anna was glowing, basking in the warmth of a new love (or infatuation, as Elsa saw it). When they had asked for her blessing of their marriage, she looked into Hans' green eyes and saw only Aaron in them, taunting her even from across the sea. It hurt to look at him, but what hurt even more was the fact that Anna looked so hopeful, so innocent, so completely sure that her sister would give her this chance to be happy. However, the blonde knew the consequences of rushing into love and she could tell this would only end in heartbreak for her little sister. Even if she would hate her for it, Elsa made the right decision.

You can't marry a man you just met…

The second time Elsa thought of Aaron was after the creation of her ice palace. As she stood on the balcony and watched the rising sun break over the horizon, she was reminded of her conversation with him at the banquet. He had been so gentle and calm, the kind of presence that made you feel safe and comfortable, almost to a fault. Elsa began to wonder what he would think about her ice palace if he could see it. He had been impressed by just a little bit of snow, so surely this grand feat of architecture would send chills throughout his whole body, and Elsa felt a smile pull on her lips as she imagined his reaction and what he would say. However, she only allowed that brief moment of nostalgia before casting the thought away, chastising herself for letting Aaron back into her mind after such an important breakthrough in her life.

I'm a new person now, she reminded herself. And the new Elsa has absolutely nothing to do with any prince. The past is in the past.

The third time she thought of Aaron was after her escape from the castle onto the frozen fjord. After aimlessly running in the endless white abyss for what seemed like hours, she was eventually found by Hans who informed her of her sister's death by her own hands. It was in that moment that all of Elsa's failures and all of the people she let down in her life came flooding back, assaulting her with thoughts of monster and witch and freakand Highborn.

Aaron was one of those people. While she didn't know the exact nature of his abandonment, there was no doubt it was her powers that caused it. How could it not have been? This curse had either pushed away or hurt not only every person she ever loved, but every person she ever liked in her short twenty-one years on this Earth. As she stumbled and fell to the icy ground under the weight of the realization that now she had killed her only sister, the one person that had consistently given her a chance and shown her unconditional love, Elsa was so heartbroken that she would have been okay with dying right then and there.

She welcomed the chance to finally put an end to it all; the winter, the isolation, the utter pain at never being able to get close to another person or feel their touch. As she heard the telltale whoosh of Hans unsheathing his sword to take her life, Elsa made no move to fight back.

It was over. She accepted her fate - If dying was the only answer, the only way to silence the monster she clearly was, then so be it.

But Anna changed all that in an instant.

"No!"

A crackle of ice and a desperate gasp.

She's alive.

A shatter and a rush of air. Then there was one more breath and she was gone again. If Elsa thought she was in hell before, she might have been right. But the fleeting glimpse of her sister followed by her final breath right in front of her brought Elsa to a place she never knew existed - a place far worse than hell.

But it didn't last long.

It was Anna who pulled Elsa up from that pit of depression with the simple act of standing between her and her assailant. It was Anna who showed her what it meant to be loved and made her realize that she had been loved all along. It was Anna who took Elsa's curse and turned it into a gift.

After Anna thawed and the sisters embraced, a familiar spark lit up deep inside of the queen. It was the same spark she felt that night on the rooftop as she cried into Aaron's arms – but this time it was different. This time the spark grew into a small flame, and that flame grew into a fire, and that fire raged on until it engulfed Elsa's mind and soul and made her power into something unstoppable.

The winter ended and all the ice in the kingdom flew into the sky forming a giant snowflake; a spectacular event that would later be known as the Great Thaw to the people of Arendelle. Anna would simply know it as the day she got her sister back.

Elsa took her rightful title as the Snow Queen that day and showed the world exactly what she was capable of with no shame or fear. Now, with Anna by her side and the eternal flame of her sister's love deep within her, Elsa was the epitome of strength. An act of true love was enough to thaw a frozen heart, but there is nothing on this planet, magic or no, that is now or ever will be capable of thawing a frozen fire.