Page 14 of His Winter Wonderland

How pathetic and utterly ridiculous that a person with no skin felt he had the right to judge someone with it. Even if he did have skin, what would make the color of his any better than hers. Would his be gold? Would his be silver?

Would his be able to feed an entire village or nation? Or would it have super powers and be able to save the universe from destruction? No. Like her, he was created. Yet, for some reason, he thought the color of her skin made her inferior to him. He thought her sex increased that inferiority.

Because of his insane views, Winter wanted to make sure the last thing he saw before his soul left his body and drifted through the cracks of this plane and into the afterlife was her. She wanted her black skin to be the last skin he saw, the last skin he hungered for. She wanted the voice of a black woman to be the last voice he heard.

She wanted him to feel not only the pain of her magic, but the pain of knowing it was a magical black woman who’d destroyed him. Smiling, she tightened her grip on him. If Rhen could see her now, would he still think she was beautiful? Or would he finally recognize her for what she truly was?

A monster.

Chapter Five

Winter

“Release me,” he growled, reaching for her.

His boney fingers stopped just shy of touching the tip of her nose. His stench was no longer a problem for her. She was too high off the dark magic coursing through her veins to notice it. Her marking burned. She fought against her beast’s desire to break free. This was one kill she wanted to accomplish alone.

His fingers that were reaching for her began to fold in on themselves, one by one, breaking under the weight of her magic. Mentally, she increased the pressure. The creature cried out and his eyes bucked as she focused her magic on his skull. She squeezed her hand tighter, commanding her powers to apply more pressure.

“Obeying,” the darkness inside of her growled.

Since he’d wanted to share his thoughts on color and gender with her, she’d let him share the rest of his thoughts with her. All of them. She would coat the ground with them. He wouldn’t only be sharing them with her, he’d share them with everyone.

“Please,” he begged.

Deep within, a small part of her wavered. Maybe it was her inner beast, War, begging her to stop using dark magic, begging her to not turn back into who she used to be. Begging her to let it handle the dirty work. Or maybe it was the good side of her, pleading with her not to let a lowlife like this thief make her act in a way she didn’t want to act.

Or, it could be her subconscious trying to tell her to think of Rhen. If he could see her now, would he be happy with the person she was? She didn’t know which one it was. All she knew was that she hesitated, briefly, purposefully, just to prove a point to both herself and her inner beast. During that pause, she relaxed the pressure she had on her opponent.

As expected, the skin thief mistook her brief hesitation for a moment of weakness. Its beady eyes narrowed and it gnashed at her with its teeth. Even if she wanted to be kind and release him, he wouldn’t release her. It was either her or him, and she chose life.

“Darkie, you will die tonight,” he uttered, gnashing his teeth at her.

With a slight smile on her face, she let the darkness rise up. Winter proceeded to rip every tooth from the creature’s mouth. Its howls of pain were horrifyingly beautiful. They reminded her of the days of old. The days when she and her sisters hunted together, killed together, and basked in the joy of victory together.

Those days were long gone. That both angered and pleased her. Upset with herself because of her conflicting emotions, she took her anger out of the skin thief. Tearing him apart limb from limb was too easy. There was nothing challenging about that at all. Sure, he put up a fight. But he was no match for her.

He reached for her. She ripped his claws off, one by one. He kicked at her. She broke his ankles. Then his wrists. In dreamland, the weak version of her would’ve ran and cowered from a creature like him. In dreamland, she would’ve needed Rhen to save her. This wasn’t dreamland. There was no one who could look out for her but her.

“As it should be,” the darkness told her.

True! She’d come to depend on her dreams too much. She’d started imagining herself as the version of her in her dreams. The lines between reality and fantasy had become blurred. So much so, that for a moment, she’d almost believed her dream lover was real. She’d almost believed that he really existed somewhere in the universe.

Even if he did, what good would that do her? She was trapped in the Frostlands with only one way out. And if she took the out, she would never be able to be with him or anyone else, ever. More anger flooded her system. Anger that had nothing to do with the creature she was tearing apart.

She was tearing him apart just like the beast in her nightmares often tore her apart. And she would leave him for dead, just like the creature from her nightmares had left her for dead. And just like the weak her from her dreams, this creature was no challenge. She wanted a challenge, needed a challenge.

Part of her needed to prove to herself that she hadn’t become that weak watered-down Winter from her dreams. She was still a goddess of destruction. She was still feared by many over a vast number of realms. She was still….

“Let me do it,” War whispered. “Shut out the darkness and let me handle this. We don’t need her. Her magic will consume us.”

She knew she was almost too far gone when her spirit animal tried to calm her down and take over. She wanted to rein in her powers, but there was no stopping her now. The darkness inside of her had been let loose and it would not return to its dormant state without being sated first.

As the Goddess of War, there was only one thing her inner demon wanted, total destruction. The death of one creature wouldn’t be enough to sate it. Her demon spirit, Vicky, needed more. The spirit that dwelled inside of her needed for blood to flow like a river. That was the only thing that would calm it.

By the time Winter was done with the skin thief, there was nothing left of him. The ground was covered with his remains. His teeth were strewn all over the place. A mountain of limbs rested next to his head. His fingers were farther away from the rest of him than his toes were. Inside of her, her demon purred.

“You’ve done well,” Vicky praised her.