Author's Note:

Again, thanks to everyone who has been reading my story. I have been greatly enjoying writing it. Please bear with me. This is were I usually start getting blocked. :) Do continue to post reviews! I love hearing feedback!

Chapter 6

Freja's head throbbed. She was surrounded only by a deep darkness, and was confused until she realized that her eyes were closed. She didn't open them. She was afraid to. Reaching a hand cautiously up to her head, she rubbed her temple, wincing. The spot felt raw and very cold. Ice cold. Gradually, she opened her eyes, trying hard to focus. Everything was blurry. There was little light, only a faint bluish glow that radiated from a strange lantern high above her head.

She sat on a cold stone floor. Her purple dress was draped stiffly behind her, and her hair, which had been in a single, long braid, was frizzy and frayed. She looked down at the braid resting on her chest and her mouth fell open in surprise. A section of her hair had turned… white? She shook her head, as if trying to clear it. What on earth was happening to her?

In a flash, she remembered Edvard standing in front of her in the library. Freja jumped up and looked around the strange room. Aside from the lantern, there was nothing. Nothing at all. No door, no windows, no furniture. The air was stale and freezing.

"Is this a prison?" she wondered aloud. She felt the baby kick in her stomach and clutched at it.

A creaking sound filled the room, echoing off the walls. A chandelier was sprouting from the ceiling, made completely of ice. Freja stared at it. It was just like the one Edvard had conjured that night in the ballroom.

The queen imagined Edvard twirling his cloak over his shoulder and carrying her limp body out of her home. Had anyone tried to stop him? Had anyone even seen him? Had Stellan discovered that she was gone yet?

"HELP!" Freja screamed, pounding her fist against the icy stone wall. But there was no sound.

"PLEASE! STELLAN! SOMEONE! HELP ME!" She was growing panicked. She had to calm down. But her breath came in quick gasps and she could feel her entire body quivering like a flag on a stormy day.

Suddenly, a shaft of light appeared above her, casting a white circle on the stone floor. A spiraling staircase crept it way down toward her, crackling into existence. Before it had touched the ground, Edvard strode gracefully down it. He smiled at her.

"Ah, my dear Freja."

"Edvard, you let me go this instant, or so help me I'll…"

"You'll what? What power do you of all people have to stop me? To stop this winter that I am going to rain down on your adorable little kingdom?"

"What are you talking about? You can't control winter."

Edvard looked quite amused.

"You want a bet?"

He waved a hand in a casual circle around his head. Without a sound, snow began to fall inside the tiny stone room. Freja shivered as snow stuck to her hair and her arms. The temperature was dropping rapidly and the room seemed to spin as the wind picked up, spiraling the snow like a miniature white twister. The queen covered her face with her arms. She was ankle-deep in it now.

Edvard smiled wickedly at her through the white-out.

"You see," he said, as the storm started to die down, "I am actually quite capable, no matter what you think of me. I will turn Arendelle into the next Atlantis! I will bury her under glaciers! I will freeze her until all that remains is you! Then I will come back, and if you are still alive, I will take you down to see your precious kingdom!"

Freja had forgotten all about her fear. She stomped forward and looked Edvard square in the face.

"How DARE you threaten my people! How DARE you kidnap me and keep me here!" her face softened, but only slightly, "You would do all this, you would kill hundreds of innocent people, children, to get back at me? To hurt me like I hurt you? Well, Finn, I'll say it. And please, please believe me when I do. I am sorry! I am sooo sorry, Finn! Please, please don't become a monster, a murderer, because of my mistake. Please forgive me!"

Edvard stared at her for several minutes. His silence was even more unnerving that his shouting. Then he laughed, and that was even worse.

"You think… I am here because of your 'mistake'? I am here for Arendelle. Although it was also motivating that you were here, too, Arendelle is my main concern for the moment. It's the perfect place to wipe clean and start again. To raise up my strength and my forces until I can move on!"

"Forces?" Freja echoed. She did not like the sound of that at all.

"Of course! No ruler can become a conqueror without an army, can he, my dear?"

"No one in Arendelle with surrender to you. No one will join your army!"

"Oh, I already know that. That won't be a problem." Edvard grinned cruelly.

Suddenly Freja shivered violently. She felt cold penetrating her down to her very core. It felt like fire was spreading through her bones.

Edvard clicked his tongue in mock sympathy. But he wasn't looking at Freja's face. He was looking at… her hair?

The queen looked down. Another large section of her braid had turned snow white.

"What did you do to me?"

"Nothing I can take back, unfortunately. I so would have loved you to see my snowman army. But, I am afraid you won't last that long. Which means my work here is done. So long, your highness."

With that, Edvard was gone, and the staircase was nothing but a pile of shattered ice.