My name is Margo Netterfield, and I just realized I was one of the Inheritors. The previous holder of the Chill had been a woman named Adelaide Summers, which I always thought was funny, on the off chance I happened to think about her. She was an important person, but it's not like she was a celebrity or anything. I just knew about her because I read her name on wikipedia once or twice, and thought her name was strange, given her power. That was the only reason she could be memorable. I don't know if she had any personality or did anything important. Well, anything important besides dying, because when she died, I got stuck with her responsibilities.

I tried to keep it a secret at first. I'm not stupid. Everyone knows the Inheritors are too dangerous to be a part of civilized society. But it was difficult. The power was new to me, and seemed completely untameable. The same night I froze the top of my supper, I slept under five blankets, to keep the chill away. I failed, and I woke up that morning with frozen-together eyelashes, and my bedside glass of water a chunk of ice. The worst part of that ordeal was that I still felt cold. I figured, if I was cursed to be an Heiress I would at least gain immunity to my element, but the Chill was uncomfortable.

I consoled myself with the thought that it would probably get better with time. Of course, the thought of time also frightened me.

I looked up on my phone (in an incognito browser: hopefully they wouldn't track me that way) whether Inheritances were possible to get rid of. Credible research was scant of course, since no one wanted to get near them - er... us - but there were plenty of randos posting their opinions on how Inheritors should just turn it off. "It couldn't be that hard" and "Why do they even bother" and "Well they could kill themselves and pass it to someone else."

That last thought caught my attention, because that was a known fact, not a speculation, but death wouldn't accomplish much. I could escape a life trapped by my Inheritance, but I would also be forfeiting my chance at a normal life, which is what I want. Not that my life is remarkably pleasant, but still. It's ordinary. It's what I'm used to. It's not what I want, but it's certainly better than the Unknown of being an Heiress. I had a life here, in Townstead. Family. Friends, kind of.

Speaking of friends, the next day at school went terribly...