“Get me the fuck out of here!” I scream.
Reaching out through the flurry of snow she grabs me with one hand and Rafi with the other.
“Run!” I cry.
We rush past bewildered Witches and Warlocks, heading for the stairs and back into the HQ. I can’t see my mother, but something has definitely broken her hold over me.
I wait until we’re two floors down and nearing the main doors to the street before I allow myself to breathe.
“It worked!” I cry. “The prince did it!”
“What?” Luisa replies as we race towards the exit. “Are you saying you got the Fae to make it snow?”
Hand in hand the three of us race through the streets and I recall every last detail to them as we put distance between ourselves and HQ. But hearing myself say the words aloud sends a flurry of panic through me.
What the fuck have I done?
I need to say goodbye to my friends and get as far from Barcelona as possible before anyone realizes I’m behind it all. Then I'm going to make Jackson’s Warlock-for-hire brew me a lifetime supply of protection brew and keep it on me at all times. I’m never letting my bitch of a mother get the upper hand again.
The snow is falling so hard it’s already settling and nearly reaches our ankles. Tourists in the streets, dressed in light jackets and short sleeves, keep asking one another what the hell is happening. It rarely snows in Barcelona, let alone in late March. Luisa buys us a couple of pashminas from a flabbergasted vendor who is trying to not let his wares get soaked.
“Follow me,” Rafi shouts, pulling us forward.
He weaves in and out of mopeds stationary in the middle of the street, the riders looking up to the heavens in confusion. We slip and slide as I try to keep up in my stupid heels, the snow getting higher and higher by the minute.
Five minutes later we’re standing in front of the old Cathedral, the center of the gothic quarter.
“You want to give thanks to the lord?” I say.
Luisa laughs and pulls me up the stairs of the old church, wrapping the pashmina tighter around my shoulders. The huge main doors are shut, but huddled in the arched doorway I’m already warmer and at least we’re dry.
“This is crazy!” Luisa shouts. “When the Fae prince keeps a promise he really delivers. I can’t believe what your mother did to you, Saskia!” She pulls me to her and plants a huge kiss on my cheek. “I said to Rafi there was no way you were doing it willingly. I was so worried about you!”
Rafi has his back to us while holding his hand over the wall. Luisa pulls away from me and walks over to him.
“What are…”
Before she has a chance to finish her sentence a gaping hole appears in the stone wall revealing a neat stash of pre-rolled joints. I laugh and Luisa joins in. Rafi shields his spliff from the cold wind and lights up with a shrug.
“I have emergency supplies all over the city,” he says with a grin. “You never know when you’re going to get caught in a Fairy snowstorm.”
We’re the only ones on the steps. The square is deserted and only a few people can be spotted running home, heads bent low against the bitter wind. He passes me the joint and I take a deep drag, staring up to the white sky. I’m free. I’m actually free.
Although… am I? I shudder at the thought of the favor I promised the Fae in return. Who knows when he’ll cash that in or what he’ll ask for?
“This is the first time I’ve seen snow,” Rafi mumbles.
Luisa and I whip our heads around as one.
“How?”
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been caught in snowstorms at college in Vermont, and all those icy New York winters.
Rafi shrugs again. “I’m from northern Africa. Not exactly where you go for a skiing vacation.”
“Come on!” Luisa cries with a grin, shoving us forward. “Vinga! Both of you. Time to play.”
I run down the steps, and gathering as much snow as I can manage, I press it into a snowball and throw it at Rafi. But with a swipe of his hand, he stops it mid-air and makes it explode like an icy firework.
“You really think you can play Elsa with this Elemental?” he cries, lifting his hands and creating perfectly formed snowballs in the air. All at once, they come hurtling at me, exploding against my dress. The blizzard is so strong no one can see our magical fight.
Luisa and I keep running from Rafi until we fall and tumble into a heap in the snow.
“Snow angels!” she exclaims, lying on her back, her arms and legs scissoring open and closed until we’ve made angel silhouettes in the snow. I’m freezing, but I don’t care.
Overhead, the snowflakes swirl and gather until they are forming the shape of an angel soaring through the air above us. Rafi is taking his snow angels to the next level.
The blizzard thickens and I can no longer see him, but I can hear his faint laughter as he makes his snow angel swoop over our heads, shattering into a million particles as we reach up and touch it. I jump up and twirl on the spot, my arms stretched out, like someone in a corny movie.
“This is so magical,” I shout, spinning around and around.
The last time I saw snow I was in Moscow and I was saying goodbye to Lukka, his white eyes as bright and desolate as the landscape around us. That day was cold and bleak, but this is totally different. Luisa joins me spinning on the spot until we are both so dizzy she crashes into me.
“I know you have to go soon,” she says softly.
I swallow down the lump forming in my
