The Frozen Beginning (Elemental Diamond Book 1) by Daphne Robynson Page B

side and realizes that Brink has moved to stand back from the front of the stage, looking out onto the audience with indifference. His eyes train to her as she steps up to the front of the stage, his blazing eyes drinking her in.
    Once Glacier stands where Brink had been, she notices the cement bowl is now gone. She looks over to where Karn and Emilia are standing nearest to her. Emilia watches her with curiously kind eyes, with a sliver of sadness turning her smile down at the corners.
    “Glacier’s ability is equally as extraordinary, but we have been advised that for our protection, we must encase her.”
    Encase me? What does he mean ‘encase me’?
    Suddenly, a large clear box with a long tube at the top is lowered from above the stage, much too quick for her to move away. Within seconds, Glacier is trapped in the transparent square container, with small grouped holes for air to flow through the glass. Glacier rushes forward, hitting the glass with her palm as heavy panic begins to settle in her chest, but she is zapped. Gazing down at her hand, she is surprised by brief numbness lingering across her fingers. It was only a small shock, echoing for a few seconds longer in her fingertips before it disappears.
    Shaking her hand to rid herself off the uncomfortable feeling, she then looks back through the clear glass to the stunned audience. Glacier notices that where her hand had touched the glass, now has a small handprint surrounded by a thin layer of ice, like a splash. The glass muffles the gasps from the audience, as the camera zooms in on the ice handprint.
    Glacier gazes around the box curiously, interested by what the tube will be used for before looking back out to where the Pyre team stands at the bottom of the stairs.
    She finds four of them staring at her with their jaws slack; the one on stage with her has a disinterested curve to his brow, and the last with eyes unforgettable and fearful. His hand is in his hair, tugging it from its groomed form with worry.
    Please don’t be scared of me…
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” Glacier looks at Karn; he gestures to her with his extended arm, his eyes on the anticipating audience, “Glacier Wardgrave.”
    The audience is silent as she stares back, waiting for something to happen. A few more seconds pass, and Glacier is still standing at the centre of the box with her fingers thrumming against her thigh in anticipation. A sick, heavy fog hangs in her chest as she fears the worst.
    A sudden bolt of thunderous pain shivers up her spine like a torturous spasm. Glacier screams out in agony, before the white cloth cloaks her. The same cloth Glacier had felt at Mr Michaels' house.
    The veil shields her for a moment, her silent ears blocking her cries, before it is abruptly ripped away, replaced by immense pain. She can smell burning flesh before she feels it, as her back blisters where the chip sits buried in her skin. Glacier can feel the pulses of electricity though her muscles; seizures shake her body as she hears a series of loud cracking and snapping, followed by a strong whoosh of air.
    The memory of Mr Michaels suspended in the air, impaled on an enormous ice shard has her terrified to open her eyes.
    I killed him! I killed him!
    Another scream rips though her throat, this time from fear.
    I killed him!
    Glacier thrashes around on the ground as the currents slowly dull to a lingering throb.
    Where is Castor? I need to protect him …
    The grain of the hard wood beneath her cheek draws her away from her memory and back to the stadium. Her skin feels tight, her mind foggy. All she can think about is the aching pain in her limbs and her burning skin on her lower back. Glacier can barely hear the loud roaring of the crowd.
    They all shout more questions. ‘How can she do it? Is she dangerous? Isn’t she an unfair advantage?’
    No one asks about why she is quivering on the ground uncontrollably. No one asks about her screams. No one asks if she is all