The Abduction of Orithyia

The snow had been very bipolar for the past several hours, acting like it would stop, but then suddenly sending buckets of it down from the Heavens. The lights flickered on and off and the windows rattled in their frames. I could barely hear Da and the other workers from where they were wrestling to grab more firewood for inside. Their voices were lost in the raging wind.

“Back from the window, Orithyia,” Ma said, hustling me away. The drapes slid back into place, smoothly covering the angry storm.

“Is Haimos going to fall?” I said, letting her pull me out of the front room and into the bedroom. If the mountain fell, more than three hundred of our people would fall as well. And if the mountain crumbled, everyone within a two-hundred kilometer distance would immediately perish as well. Thrake would be destroyed, ruined, and nothing would remain, as if it never existed in the first place.

The door burst open before Ma could respond, revealing my older brother’s snow-cold face, flushed like he’d just ran a marathon.

“Ma,” Eupalamus panted from the doorway, one gloved hand on the knob slick with condensation. “Fa needs help digging the snow from the pipes to let the water back in.”

She nodded, shooting me a glance. “Orithyia, stay here.” I watched her leave, hurrying after my brother back into the icy storm.

I went back into the front room, drawing back the curtain again to look back out. Being the only female in my family came with its pros and cons, one of them being that the men in my family were a bunch of sexist pigs and apparently if I wasn’t Queen Praxithea and able to actually kill a man, then I had to stay behind in all “life-threatening” scenarios.

Bullcrap, that’s what I thought of it.

Something further along the normally-crispy golden fields, there was movement, as if someone was moving down by the river Erginos. I squinted my eyes, my breath fogging up the glass window even more, and was able to make out the shape of a-

A horse?

I hurried into the closet in the hall, tripping over my cotton shift dress. My bell-shaped sleeves tangles in the jerkin I tried to pull on, stuffing my always-freezing feet in my leather boots before grabbing one of our less-bruised apples from the kitchen before slipping out the back door.

The terrible ice-storm had been raging for five days now and we all feared the cabin-or the mountain- would come crumbling down. The icy weather showed no signs of slowing as the days progressed, and we had tried to harvest all that we could from the field, but that would only last so long in a house full of nine other children. Thankfully, the three eldest had moved to live somewhere else in Athens as soon as they could, and me and Eupalamus were now the eldest. But there were still mouths to feed, and the snowstorm was growing worse and worse.

The wind tore at my face, my blond locks whipping about my face like it’s own tornado. In a matter of seconds of being outside, I was frozen to the core, my breath coming out in harsh puffs, a cloud forming from it. My eyes watered from the fierce wind and my nose quickly grew numb.

Glancing over my shoulder every few moments to make sure no one saw me, I could see my parents and six of my siblings surrounding the pipes near the edge of the front porch, too distracted to notice their daughter sneaking out. Just the way I liked it. My little sister was still asleep inside her bed, barely able to stay awake more than a handful of hours.

If I could lead the horse back to the house, we could probably have a way to trade it for more food or warmer clothing, or maybe be able to get some food for a few more weeks, enough for the storm to calm. At least, that was what I hoped for.

The snow turned into a mix of flakes and rain, something never experienced before, and I looked up, letting the water wash my face, soothe my muscles. Maybe it was a sign, a sign that everything would be okay.

I stepped closer to the horse, I saw it was as white as snow, making it a miracle I was even able to spot her in the first place. She was all saddled up too, and I looked around at the trees surrounding the river, wondering if her owner was in there, when a rough hand clasped over my mouth, muffling my scream.

I was whirled around and found myself staring into the face of my tormentor- Boreas, the North Wind, the Frost King, one of the Anemoi.

The cruelest of the brothers.

And my secret admirer for years until Da had banished him, ripping him away from Athens.

Except... He was back, but how? And why? Because of me? Because of his exile?

His wild eyes that seemed like fiery embers lived in them were the only things that hadn’t changed in the eleven years of his banishment. He had grown bigger, broader.

Scarier.

“B-Boreas,” I managed to say, my frozen lips cooperating thankfully. “What are y-you doing here? Aren’t y-you supposed to be...” Exiled? Gone? Dead?

His appearance wasn’t the only thing that had changed. He wasn’t the talkative, energized kid I had rejected and bullied all those years ago when I was ten and ignorant.

A lot can happen in eleven years, I found out.

His black hair had grown out, draping in his eyes, stubble growing on his jaw. I couldn’t help but remember the dimple that would pop out from his cheek when we were kids; he was always smiling around me, always flirting, always cheerful.

Until I broke him.

The man standing in front of me was the product of my cruelty. He had been cut and sewn back together too many times to count, his face expressionless, power in his muscles. I had no reason to believe he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

Yet, he made no move to. Instead, his eyes bore into me, as if searching for something, maybe the same obnoxious girl I had been. But no more.

I tore away, turning to run back to alert Fa, but Boreas appeared in front of me, a blockade, and this time, he had a sword in his hand, blue and silver, etchings carved into the hilt, too indecipherable for me to understand.

“B-Boreas,” I said, stumbling backwards. My feet sunk into the snow, the boots soaking through. “P-please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”

He came at me, his face grim, and I screamed, ducking back to avoid his grasping hand. As I dove past him, he paused, perhaps in shock. The old me would’ve fought, yes, but that wasn’t who I was anymore. This girl fled and screamed, stood bye while others were in need... The same day Boreas had been exiled was the same day that girl died. I just didn’t know it then.

"Father!” I screamed, sprinting back the way I’d come. “Father, help!”

My brothers were the first to hear me, Fa nowhere to be found. Pandorus shouted, drawing his own sword as he charged towards us. I tripped on a protruding root, my knees scraping against a stone someone forgot to pull out. Metal met metal in a screech of violence, and I flipped over onto my butt, staring as Pandorus swung again, his sword intending to cut through Boreas from waist to waist, but he twisted away, his own weapon singing as it arched down at Pandorus. His face was determined, filled with rage unlike when he’d caught me, and when he cut my brother in half, there was no remorse.

Blood splattered onto the crystalized snow, hitting my boots, my shins, but there was no time to dwell on it as suddenly, everyone was there, scream of vengeance, bellows of pain, it all echoed in the frosty mountain air.

Someone grabbed me under the arms, lifting me to my feet. Eupalamus.

“We need to go,” he said, pulling me toward the house. “Mom is grabbing Pandora-”

“Why is he here?” I cried out, staggering after him. “He was supposed to be gone! Banished!”

“No one in Athens stays banished for long,” he panted, breath puffing into the air as we reached the porch. “Come, sister. Fa had to go in town.”

We rushed inside, encountering Ma with a wide-awake Pandora cradled in her jerkin-cladded arms. “Ma-”

“Come.” She hurried through the side door, the one leading out into the pasture. We’d have to take the horses and skip the saddles if we wanted to make it.

“Do you think they’ll be able to stop him?” I forced my stiff legs over Feyra, settling uncomfortably over her back.

“No,” my brother said honestly, looking frightened. “I do not think they will.”

I reached a hand down to him as Ma got her and the baby on her stallion. “Hurry!”

Smiling sadly, he shook his head, stepping back. “Fa always told me to protect you and Ma. Now go, so I can say I did, and when I message you, telling you we defeated Boreas and burned his corpse, come back home. But then and only then, otherwise, stay. Away.”

He hit the rump of Freya before I could react, and the horse jumped forward, following after Ma’s as they took the trail near the forest, heading into town.

I whipped my head back, staring at the fading figure of my brother. The image of him standing bravely as Boreas appeared before him would haunt my nightmares forever.

But after fifteen minutes off galloping, the horses slowed down, the sky growing dark. I couldn’t feel my body at all anymore and was two seconds from falling from Freya when Boreas materialized in front of us fifty feet from the city proper, his mighty sword in hand, dripping blood. The copper decorated it like some kind of gruesome ornament. I was scared to think who’s blood it was.

“Did you know,” he said, voice thick with resentment, “that I’ve been waiting for this day for ages? The day where I took the hearts of this whole damned family?” I didn’t answer, and he continued, pacing in front of me, swinging his sword as casually as a man with a cane would.

“You didn’t know, don’t know, do you?” Swing, swing, swing. “How could you when everyone’s been lying to you? You think Pandora is your sister? Lies. No, it turns out that Praxithea was quite promiscuous in her younger days.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Your parents who were too scared to let you be with a god. They should’ve listened to me, they should’ve took my father’s warning seriously.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was unhinged, stretched to his breaking point, insane.

“Gods have mates,” he spat suddenly, coming to a stop in front of me. “Gods have mates and if they don’t claim them before eighteen, everyone the god loves will die. That is our burden, that is our curse. So I repaid your family back- by taking away everything they ever loved.”

“Boreas,” Ma said weakly. “Please. We didn’t-”

“Didn’t what?” he snarled. “Didn’t care? Didn’t realize that my whole family would perish because you denied me her?” His sword swung right at me and a small scream escaped my lips. “Where is he?” he spat, his voice rough, scraping against my skin.

“W-who?” I gasped, Ma halting behind me, Pandora hiding inside her jacket, keeping warm thankfully.

“The man who cursed me. King Erechtheus. Your father."

Freya cantered back a few feet, ears tilted back in alarm. I could barely see Boreas’ face; it was casted in shadow. The wind and rain picked up, my hair yanking at my scalp. A figure moved behind the god.

“Behind you,” I said.

He turned, grinning as he met Fa’s sword against his. Metal pealed out in a horrible song, clashing over and over again. A god against a king. I knew how this was going to end, yet I prayed, I prayed and prayed to Zeus to spare my father, yet when he answered, it was to say no.

The Frost King’s sword stuck through my father’s stomach, and he drew it back before any of us could react, slicing his sword over his throat and cutting his jugular. Blood spouted out like rain, staining Boreas’ jacket, and me and Ma screamed, watching Fa’s body fall as if in slow motion. I was barely aware of Ma jumping down next to him, barely even there. I wasn’t just numb on the inside anymore, no. I was numb inside too, unfeeling.

Destroyed.

As he lifted his sword again, his eyes laser-focused on my mother’s unprotected back, I found myself able to move. If Pandora died... If Ma died...

I couldn’t allow that.

“Stop!” I screamed, hopping off Freya and running to stand between him and Ma. “Stop, stop!”

The god of the North Wind stared down at me, his eyes glowing even brighter, as if there were living coals in them. His sword dipped, the bloody edge, soaked with the lives of my siblings and father, rested on my collarbone. The edge was so sharp, so used to taking a whetstone to it, that it cut a bit, the wind stinging it, freezing the blood to my pallid skin.

“I’ll go with you,” I choked out, the words turning to poison in my mouth. My stomach twisted, my vision growing blurrier the longer I stared into the hard face of my mate. “I’ll go.”

His sword disappeared as quickly as it had come, vanishing into midair. His large hand, rough with calluses, grabbed me by the forearm. He started pulling me closer to the cause of my fate- the damned horse.

“Wait!” I cried out, digging my heels into the rocky soil. “No, let me say goodbye at least. Please,” I added when he hesitated. With a clenching of his jaw, he released me, narrowing those abnormal eyes of his at me as if to say “Don’t dare run off, or you know what’ll happen.”

I did know. How could I not after the horrid slaughtering of my family?

I slowly went back to where Ma knelt next to Da’s cooling body, already stiff thanks to the cold. His eyes, which had been open when he was killed, were closed now thanks to Ma. She sat there, head bowed, tears dripping from the tip of her nose.

“Ma,” I whispered, my voice breaking. Sobs threatened to break free, the tightning in my chest throbbing painfully. “Ma.”

She looked up at me, her eyes red, cheeks flushed and soaking. “He’s gone.”

I crouched next to her, snow immediately soaking through my shift. “I’m sorry.” More than I can say. “I have to go.”

She nodded, slowly, then more fiercely. Shooting a glance to where the Frost King was saddling up his horse, she leaned closer to me, her raspberry breath blowing in my face, partially warming my cheeks despite her next words.

“You go with him, Orithyia,” she said quietly, a spark lighting up her eyes- our eyes. “You go with him, you do everything he wants you to do- and then you destroy him." Please, her eyes said. Avenge them.

My lips clenched together as I made to stand, conveying without words that I would. I would avenge my fallen brothers and sisters, my father, and us. Boreas might’ve been my mate, but I didn’t choose that. I didn’t choose to have a psychopathic god as a mate.

But before I could fully stand, she yanked me back down to her, holding me closely, my knees thudding softly into the powdery snow. I felt her hand slipping between my jerkin, tucking something into the inner pocket, before Boreas suddenly appeared, pulling me back, pulling me toward his horse.

“I love you!” Ma cried out, tears now falling freely from both our faces. “I love you!”

I love you too.

And then Boreas, the god of the North Wind, the brutal Frost King, took me away, making me leave behind my siblings, my parents, my home-

-And everything I’d ever known.