Glassborn by Peter Bunzl

Author:Peter Bunzl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd

Cora slouched along behind the others as they marched across a bare, snowy, moonlit landscape. The forest had ended a few minutes ago, and their surroundings had become a flat, barren, frozen wasteland. She checked her watch. Nine-thirty. Another forty-five minutes gone, and it felt like they were no closer to Acton!

Bram and Elle were far ahead. Cora let the space between them grow. Why didn’t they look behind to see where she was, or wait for her to catch up with them? How were the three of them even going to rescue their brother if they couldn’t stick together? Did they even care about her? If they didn’t, then she decided she wouldn’t care about them either.

She let the distance between them grow wider, until her brother and sister were so far off and so small that only their very edges glinted with moonlight, and they looked no bigger than the Red Soldier in her pocket. Or the key Acton had found, she thought angrily, or…the glass rose.

Was that really spying for the Fairy Queen, like the wolves had said? Cora still didn’t quite believe it. She had an urge to look at the rose once more. Check it again. She pulled it from her pocket and stared mournfully at it. A teardrop fell from her cheek and splattered onto its icy, frozen petals, making a ripple of magic. Suddenly she saw, not her reflection, but another. Her heart leapt to her throat as she recognized it… those hard black eyes, the silver hair tangled with horns and thorns, the cracked porcelain smile…she was once again looking upon the glamorous face of the Fairy Queen.

“Come!” the Queen whispered, in a voice like breaking glass, then she raised a hand and beckoned.

Cora felt a fuzz fill her mind. She blinked blearily and tipped her head towards the rose. She felt, no wished, she could fall into its centre and escape all this. She just had to do as the Queen commanded.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” Bram grabbed her, and tugged her away from the Queen’s image.

“DON’T!” Elle shouted in her ear, snatching the rose and throwing it down on the frozen ground.

The Fairy Queen’s eyes shone with anger beneath the rippling petals, turning the rose from white to red. “Come to me!” she called, before Bram’s big-booted foot stamped on the rose, crushing it to shards in the snow.

Cora blinked.

The spell was broken.

She snuck a guilty glance at the other two, through eyes hot with tears.

They said nothing, just turned and kept on walking, and she had no choice but to wipe the stinging shame from her cheeks and follow.

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