Elsa opened her eyes. She was lying on something firm and cold. The bed. The gauzy coverlet of frost had been draped over her. She sat up, still disoriented. Her hair was disheveled, and pieces were escaping from her braid hither and thither. She rubbed her eyes. Why could she not remember coming here?

She caught sight of the door, now opaque rather than transparent and pure. "I don't remember doing that," she said aloud. Her voice sounded high and thin in the silence. She felt inexplicably frightened. She was clearly not alone here. But who else could have frosted over the door?

Then it all came back, like a series of blows. Loki. He had found her. She had struck him, killed him. No, not killed him. Killed Anna. Where was Anna? Had she really struck her? What would happen to Anna if she had? Was there a way to reverse it? Should she try to find her? But no, she was too dangerous. Better to stay here, far away from anyone.

She could still kill them. She was killing the people of Arendelle. Would more come searching for her? Her power would kill them, too. Only Loki was safe from her. Was he still here? Had he come to help her? How could anyone help her?

Elsa flung herself off the bed, just as she had thrust herself off the railing of the balcony when Loki had trapped her. There were too many questions, all of them unanswerable. No, not all of them. She could find out if Loki was still here. She needed to find out.

She stopped to rebraid her hair, using the ice as a mirror. Even so, she looked a sight. There were deep shadows under her eyes, and her dress was wrinkled, and frayed at the hem where fragments of ice had grown up from the floor and torn it. No matter, she thought. It's only Loki. It wasn't the reassuring thought she had meant it to be. Nothing I can do about it, anyway. That wasn't reassuring either.

She started down the stairs.

He was on the lowest level, near the fountain. His back was to her, and at first she could not tell whether he was in human or jötunn form. Then a grey-blue hand came briefly into view. Elsa let out a breath. He had said she could not hurt him, but she would prefer him to be in jötunn form, just to be safe. She was sure she could not hurt him that way.

But what was he doing? Shards of ice littered the floor. A wall of icicles had grown up, rough and white and wickedly sharp. Surely her power could not have created all this while she slept. But then…

"Loki, stop!" she screamed.

There was a sound like shattering glass. Loki whirled, his red eyes wide. "Elsa! What is the matter?" He strode toward her.

Elsa felt her composure beginning to snap again. She wrung her hands. "Don't you see? It's too much power. We can't use it. Look at what I've done already—"

"What have you done?" Loki took her hands. Ice flashed out from where their hands joined, but Loki held her tightly.

Elsa lowered her head. "I have destroyed my kingdom." After a moment, she looked up. She had to tell him everything. It was too late now to save Arendelle; she did not know how to undo what she had done. But maybe, if she spoke now, she could at least save Asgard from a similar fate. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Shh!" Loki threw up a hand.

Elsa swallowed hard. "Loki, I know you don't want to hear this—"

"No." He glanced at her, his head cocked toward the door. "I do, truly. But wait. Do you hear that?"

She cocked her head, too. "Voices."

Loki nodded. "One called loudly a moment ago. I think I recognized it." Before he could elaborate, there came a roar and several loud crashes.

In a movement so quick she scarcely knew what was happening, Loki drew his sword and thrust Elsa behind him. "What is that?

"Marshmallow," Elsa answered, her heart sinking.

"What?"

"My ice monster. Let me go, he'll hurt them." She tried to push past him.

He held her back. "I believe they may be here to hurt you. Stay here. Let me handle them." He began moving toward the door.

Elsa waited until it had closed behind him before rushing to the door after him.

Loki paused at the top of the stairs. This... marsh-creature really was an ice monster. It was about the size and shape of an ogre, but the long spines of ice sticking out of its white back and its sharp icy claws and teeth made it yet more fearsome. Ogres fought always in packs, but Loki guessed that the marsh-creature could do as much damage alone as an entire pack of ogres. It was fending of the entire party—nine or ten, at a guess—at the same time. Loki wondered that it had not attacked him when he came to the ice palace; perhaps he had been quiet enough not to waken it.

"The queen!" came a shout from below.

Loki whirled. Elsa was peeking out from the doorway. She met his eyes and blushed, like blood on fresh snow. He waved her back. "Go! Get inside; go to the upper levels. I'll take care of this."

She nodded. He saw a flick of her hand before she withdrew, and a tiny stream of magic flew into the battle below. Loki turned to look. The marsh-creature had stumbled and gone still, giving Prince Hans—I knew it was he—the chance to slice through its left leg. The ice monster plunged over the cliff, taking out part of the stair railing with its huge upraised hand as it fell.

Laufey take the queen's mercy, that marsh-creature might yet have saved her, Loki thought. He paused a moment. He had used a common expression, but its relevance to him had certainly changed. He shook his head. That was a question for later. At any rate, I shall hardly be more merciful than the ice monster if they have come to kill her, he thought.

The men had started up the stairs. There were nine of them: the prince, two soldiers whom he had seen with the duke of Weasel Town, and six others in the livery of Arendelle palace guards.

Loki walked down toward them. "Well, if it isn't Prince-Hans-the-Whiny-Thirteenth-Son-of-the-Southern-Isles," he called. He saw a look of fury pass across the prince's face. Then it smoothed away as Hans recognized him.

"Well, well. Loki, the Pale One in the Shadows. Have you managed to get anyone's attention yet? I should imagine not. How's your wonderful brother?"

A red wave of anger passed in front of Loki's eyes. "You dare," he whispered. Throwing up a screen to make himself invisible, he sent an illusion into the midst of them, brandishing his sword. The men scattered like checkers when the board is thrown, crying out, "Sorcery!" as they had when Elsa had shown her power. Three of Arendelle's soldiers ran all the way back down to the mountain. The duke's men ran higher, and one of them slipped over the side where the railing has been demolished, saved only by his friend's quick action.

Prince Hans slashed at the illusion, reducing it to nothing. "I know your tricks, little Loki," he growled as he turned back.

He jumped. Loki was standing directly in front of him, laughing. "Only some of them," Loki said. "Really, if you can't recognize such a simple diversion, I shall be forced to conclude that you are even more simple than Thor."

Hans gaped at him.

"Now," Loki said, his voice growing cold and biting. "Return home and abandon your designs toward the queen. You shall not harm her."

The prince seemed to gather his composure then. "I don't know what you're talking about. My men are under orders not to harm her. We only want to bring her back so she can unfreeze Arendelle. Her people are dying from the cold."

So this is what she meant by having destroyed her kingdom. Loki flashed the smile that used to melt the heart of teachers and nursemaids after every mischief and burn the conscience of anyone who tried to punish him. "Awfully concerned about Arendelle, aren't you?" he asked innocently.

Hans put a hand over his heart, as though injured by the question. "But of course. It is the home of my true love, Princess Anna."

"Is that so?"

Loki felt Hans's uneasiness under the effect of the smile. He was afraid, afraid that Loki would give away his plans in front of the soldiers. Loki had needed no confirmation that his guess had been right, but if he had, this would have been it.

"And if I may be so bold, Prince Loki—" Hans adopted the mask of honor again.

"You may," Loki interrupted impishly.

"If we are to speak of threats against the queen, it is you who have been alone with her in this secluded place for who knows how long. How do I know that your intentions toward her are honorable?" The men, who had gathered around him again, began to whisper among themselves.

The smile slipped. Loki felt anger coursing through him at the accusation, and with it, cold. Burning cold. He had never changed his form without intention before. He had to end this now, before they saw him as he truly was. His sword flashed out and pressed against the prince's neck. Hans squirmed, a different kind of fear in his eyes now. The other men lifted their swords, but they looked as ready to flee as to fight. Loki laughed. They did not know fear yet.

It was then that he realized that the duke's men were gone. He turned suddenly, realizing that they must have gotten behind him when he had come down to face Hans. The stairs behind him were empty. They must have entered the ice castle. Elsa!

"Look, men! It is not a prince, but a jötunn who threatens us!"

Loki turned back, knowing he had waited too long. Then there was a rush of warmth in his abdomen, and pain, blinding him. A ragged breath ripped from his lungs as he felt Hans pull his sword from his stomach. The last thing he remembered was Hans whispering in his ear, "No one can claim it was anything but self-defense."

Then he was falling into the abyss below. Darkness took him.