Iced sculptors of angel's glimmer by a small sparkling light of the faint sun behind the clouds, the scene is as if I stepped within heaven, natures dream. Aesthetics white padded snow cloaked the trees with sparkly white flakes. The sky wept white ice and the cold chill nips at my naked shoulders until Nasir draped a warm thick jacket around me. My breath fogged in the wind as it was stolen from my lungs when I peered high to the mountain like castle, the electric blue walkway frozen and white sketched designs of large snowflakes.

Our arrival cued a sudden chiming bell from above, it follows by a whistle that crescendos into the open air, vapors of thick white fog was drag behind the orange sparkling missile and the white sky erupted with fireworks. The thick ice we stand on rumbled, and I could hear angelic choirs.

If it's one thing this couple had in common with Adonai, it was 'go big or go home'.

Nasir aids me down the steps of the plane as the pilots unhauled our luggage, their fingers violently jittering to the frigid temperature.

"Please go back in the plane. Thank you." I dismissed. With only a bow they carefully race back up the boarding walk of the plane, as Nasir behind me fits the jacket around my body, pulling my tucked hair, before coming around and wrapped the scarf up to my nose.

His massive frame redirects the blows of the harsh wind from my face, and I look up to him through the wet blur of my eyes, with the press of his thumbs he smears the cold flakes that involuntarily slipped down my cheek by the warmth he exuded. His curls freely bouncing over his shoulders as the torrent wind tousled behind him, a few dark ringlets hover in front of his eyes, and it severs our gaze. Suddenly in the howling breath I picked up the sounds of a trotting horse and my blood suddenly felt unease. After what happened back in Adonai's estate I didn't want to gaze at another horse for a while.

Nasir, who was heedful of the approaching commotion, cautiously stepped from my sight just as the voice of a man called to our frames.

"Stand your ground Tiana." Nasir says to me, his voice a pitch lower and more velvet than usual and he stood behind me on the side.

An all-white Chariot trotted into the scene, the rolls of the wheels glide swiftly over the textured glass, and I gaze up stoically to two long faces of horses, hitched side by side.

I shriveled. Deja vu.

A coachman in white tugged the reins and the horses redirect to the side, conveying the face of the chariot, the white door is clicked open, I follow the slow opening door, under the seam of fluffed feathers a silk of a gown pools downwards sheen ground.

"Keep your head up." Nasir reiterates aside me. And I realized than I lowered it and aligned myself straight.

My heartbeat accelerating as the heels of woman leisurely stepped off the high chariot, the end of the heel clicked lightly as it met the ground, and my eyes rake her body up slowly

A Gunne sax inspired white gown, and platinum hair, her eyes cold and metallic and wrinkles lined her face, her lips, rosy pink were carved into a smile when she stepped from the chariot and now it falters as our eyes clashed together. Seventeen years since I have last seen her, and since than she defied the laws of time, and remained in the cold to keep herself young, or whatever she believed would keep anyone from questioning how old she truly was.

60. If I am not mistaking.

There was nothing in our eyes that held any sentiment, in fact she seemed more so unpleased to see my face.

"Dear, don't you just stand there, Cordelia." A suave voice of a man swept through the silence between us, the door behind her lightly opens and Mr. Ardenwood stepped down from the Chariot. His white dress shoes crisp and the white dress suit to match it and a white cane. His height towered her but just an inch shorter than Nasir. His icy blue eyes swept from his wife, before they drifted up to me, and his smile as well faltered, like hers.

"Queen Tiana?" He questioned, his brows furrowing.

I forced a smile. "King Ardenwood,"

Neither one makes a move to properly acknowledge me, gazing at me as if I were alive from the dead. Their eyes scrutinize me with pure distain, and I bite my tongue.

"It had been years since I saw you. Uncle. And Aunt." I emphasize each word. "I figured our reunion would be much more ecstatic, don't you think?" My eyes never faltered from theirs.

"We weren't expecting you." Mrs. Ardenwood said, her tone Callous and low and her eyes leaked distain.

It all amuses me, and I huffed, "Ah, I see, you two were expecting my husband?"

In that timeline of settling silence there was a sudden sound of a low, rumbling growl that shook my bones, and it follows by the waves of a misty heat that warmed my backside. The delicate scenery of crystalized snowflakes that covered the landscape now felt gloomy. I wasn't alone in that moment that felt unease, Nasir's silent anger outstretched to the Ardenwood's and Cordelia drew in her shoulders and gazed back to her husband.

His brows were drawn together, but his eyes drifted cautiously to Nasir and cleared his throat. A chilled wind gusted through our frames; the shards of the freezing temperature was a pinch to my chest.

"Please, my Queen." Mr. Ardenwood said, the cold weather made his voice raspy. "Join us in our chariot." His smile to me was plastic, and when that soon diminished, he shot a glare towards the henchmen, and the little, hefty man scurries off the seated cushion, his face beet red as he rushed over to carry my luggage.

"And do make space for the queens guard," Mr. Ardenwood added.

I stilled in my steps, "I actually prefer it, if my guard was aside me." I beckoned

He looked at me as if I were silly, the two froze midway and glanced back. "The guards never ride within the carriage?" Cordelia imputed.

"My guards are like family." I smiled, the vaporing cold drying my eyes.

Mr. Ardenwood remained quiet, his gaze at Nasir is observant as h raked his form down.

She scoffed my request. "It is a violati-"

"Cordelia!" Mr. Ardenwood shouted, interrupting her midway. "Queen Tiana is our guest for the month. What she says -" His voice drawled in tone, and the narrow of his sparked something sinister within the corners. "We shall deliver."

In the somber silent of what befell between us all, the small henchman completed his task as Mr. Ardenwood held the door for his wife.

Nasir rounds to aside me, his eyes blank and dark as he reached out his hand to me, I treaded not to speak a word to him, especially not under the gaze of Mr. Ardenwood who had a keen observation on us, I slithered my gloved hands over his and he cautiously guided me over to the carriage. The ice under my feet were slick, a thick pile of snow tumbled down from the thin branch from the trees in the distance, the landscape is quiet but the low clicks of Nasir's dress shoes and my boots.

The distance between us shortened, and now we were face to face with Mr. Ardenwood, or so he is named Augustus. His cold glare keen on Nasir and then he gazed down to me and it lightly softened.

"Dearest Tiana." he says, he extended an arm, while the arm held the cane to the ground. "It has been far too long."

His entire tone was insincere, but I stepped within his open arm and we embraced, an acidic scent instantly burned my nose and it's sting blisters something within my body, and i stepped away.

"Please." he sung, his grin pulled wider, and pushed the door open, "Come and sit."

***

Not a word was spoken in the beginning of the venture back to the estate, a warm aroma of baked cookies hovered in the small compartment as our frames are rocked by the trotting horses. It was awkward, the type of silence where you can hear your most darkest inner thoughts. And mine spoke loud and clear.

The only feeling of any life form between us was the intense gaze of the Ardenwood's that sat directly across from us. The burn of their eyes searing through my bubble and prods my soul. I pulled my gaze from the oval shaped window just as we passed by a frozen icy blue lake in between clumps of snow.

Their stern glare were equal, but then repelled their gaze from mine as I clashed my eyes to the two. Like the pull of a magnet, the silence weighed heavy and the tension thick.

"It has been too long indeed, dear Tiana." Augustus rasped, his sudden voice thankfully ripping the tension. His cane clinking against the door. "I take it your new responsibilities that follow have fared well?"

His hidden undertone makes my eye twitch, but I cleared my throat. "Well, the journey indeed has not been easy. But thanks to my youth, I am sure I will tackle my new obligations in no time." I sneered.

Steadily he drew in his shoulders, and his smile falters in the process.

The horses that haul the chariot nicker and grunt while their hooves click to the icy ground from the outside. In that silent stare down I turned my gaze downwards to his wife, and my own smirk skews. Cordelia's eyes had moved from my frame entirely and now she hovers those metallic orbs towards Nasir on the side of me, her expression languid, taking her time to drag her eyes over every detail of him.

"Guards are typically not allowed within our chariot," she mused lightly, her voice mellow. "However, the Queen finds your presence essential, despite our long history, hmm, Queen Tiana." Her head angles back to me and my jaw clenched as the mild steam broils in my nerves. "Gunter stated you had a favored employee, so favored in fact there were forbidden instances between you two."

The blunt accusation is threaded into her words. It has not even been more than an hour, and the idea of shattering their heads in two became to tempting, I am cautious not to gaze to long at the clinking cane not too far from me.

I follow the tap of her finger against the sill of the window, her eyes narrowing into mine and her lips curved. "This employee, could he be the same one that is responsible for the massacre a couple of years back?"

Augustus only tilted his head towards his wife, a ghost of a smirk playing upon his lips, and his eyes gradually darkened.

Reign in your anger, Tiana. Breathe. And with the three small crisp breath I swell in my lungs, I forced the anger in me to compose, just long enough to answer, and then I pursed my lips, "It saddens me truly. Here I sit before you both after many years. I figured our reunion would be one of the best, considering you were both attendees in almost every event that pertained my family. And yet, none of you were remotely happy to see me, not even the slightest, and now the first thing you do is worry about my guard?"

Cordelia's body molted into the seat as her stiff shoulders gradually loosened, but it was Augustus that stepped in on her behalf. "If we offended you in anyway, please forgive us your majesty. We just weren't expecting you for another couple of week is all."

"And yet, you seemed thrilled before, that is until you saw my face. Were you expecting my hus-" I stilled my words, a dark feeling wafted through me, beckoning me to tread cautiously on finishing the rest.

The Ardenwood's crooked their brows in question when I froze midway, and I fight not to look at the large scary man aside me. "Gunter." I fidget in my seat, feeling a sense of relief by my choice of words.

"You mean your husband, King Gunter?" Cordelia reiterates.

I throw my eyes to the window, a faint ray of sun speared through the thick white blur above in the sky, casting a luminate glow over the white frozen shards of crystals. "Correct."

"I see. To be quite fair your majesty, King Gunter has visited us once before." Augustus said.

I know he did. I say to myself.

And he continued. "And he is forever welcomed back in our home. However, there were things we have learned by him that gave us a quite a shock."

"You are easily moved by the word of mouth I see." I retort. "Anyone can describe a picture to you and give you a thousand different narratives and depictions about how they view and feel about it and you will believe everything without ever seeing it for yourself."

I had the urge to defend my image, Gunter's rumors painted me as a monster.

"Then has Gunter only painted a picture of you?" He questioned.

My brows softened. "It depends on how he described me."

He elevated his chin, our eyes leveled as he lounged on the cushioned seat with laxed grace. "Nothing much that were good,"

I mirror his gesture, hauling a leg over the other. "That would be for you to decide for the next month."

His eyes lewdly raked over my leg and demeanor and he leans forwards. "And tell me why would you need to prove to me that you are a gracious Queen?" he mused.

I reciprocate. "With all due respect, I have nothing that I need to prove to you at all, I think we both know our roles in this matrix." I winked.

A fiendish mask fabricated over his face, as I spat on his mothers grave, and I watched the malice inked gleam swallow his eyes, threading over the line of madness but he restricted himself and cleared his throat. Cordelia settled her palm over his thigh and he leaned himself back.

"Hush now, my love. We know better than to test the daughter of the great King Abrafo." she snarled. "Due forgive us, when you grow older, things just slip out involuntarily." she cheesed, making light of the dark mood.

I looked to her, and I nodded, knowing I had garnered the upper hand. But than she opened her mouth again and I froze.

"Adonai must have had his hands full." She grinned ever so wide, and ever so sinisterly, her pearly whites eerily sharp.

Something electrical zips down my muscles at nauseating speed and I felt lightheaded, and my lip twitched.

"How is he by the way, I have been needing to reach out to him."

My mouth readies to speak a lie, when the coachman luckily halted the chariot. Nasir's arm braced over me protectively, my arms instinctively reached to him for comfort.

"Gabriel If I have to haul this myself I will!" Augustus roared, his voice a loud bass that rung my ear canals.

Cordelia attempts to put him at ease, and as the two murmur lowly I look to Nasir, who eyes stayed blank for the entirety.

"Nas?" I whisper, "What's wro-"

"Welcome, to our estate Queen Tiana." Augustus said proudly.