Page 41 of A Lord of Snow and Greed

He already had. So many times. And yet, I had no doubt that in this matter, Prince Vale would be as helpless as me.

Still, the way he stared at me with those bottomless brown eyes softened my resolve. What was the point of keeping my deal with Roar a secret now? Vale knew so much else, and I was certain he hadn’t been the one to break the vials. He knew of my fake relationship with the Warden of the West, and now it was time that I told him all that had transpired between Roar and me.

“Roar and I weren’t just playing at being engaged so he could avoid being matched. We made a deal. I was to play the role of his fake fiancée while at court, and when we returned to Guldtown, he’d give me safe passage to the Kingdom of Summer. That way, I’d be as far from the vampires as possible.”

He nodded, perhaps already intuiting that if I’d gottenmyself into the mess I’d made that I’d also agreed to some sort of deal regarding the vampires. “Go on.”

“We sealed the deal in blood and magic.” I gestured to the pools of blood. “If one was betrayed by the other, they had to drink the betrayer’s blood.”

“Ah.” Vale sucked in a breath. “And what would happen to the person who broke the deal?”

“Crippling pain.”

“I see.” Vale’s nose wrinkled. “Warden Roar still has help in the castle. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to buy a favor, as he’s the richest fae in the kingdom.”

“But breaking intoyoursuite!” I sniffed. “That’s beyond brave.”

“True, but many people heard my father order me to the docks. It wouldn’t have been illogical for them to think I was taking the knight guarding my room too. This might have happened hours ago.”

I gazed down at the blood spilled on the ground. It looked dry.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t careful enough with my security,” Vale said. “That this happened to you. Had I known, I would have helped you take greater precautions. I will from now on.” His face twisted. “The warden is a snake, Neve. Put nothing past him.”

My teeth dug into my bottom lip. This was so reminiscent of when Roar warned me about Vale. Of course, now I had enough information of my own to make a judgment, but I still had questions.

“Why do you hate him?” I asked. “What exactly happened?”

Vale blinked. “Excuse me?”

I exhaled a long, shaky breath, trying to calm my nerves. “Roar told me why he dislikes you, and Saga mentioned something happened between you two that made you despise him as well. I’m curious to hear your side of the story.”

Vale’s eyebrows shot up. “What did the warden tell you?”

I swallowed. Before I came to court, this story had colored so much of my perception of Vale. Now that I knew him better, I suspected he’d be ashamed of his past actions. I didn’t want to make him feel bad for abandoning his soldiers, but I desperately wanted to know his side.

“You and Roar were fighting against orc tribes, somewhere in the Ice Tooth Range. He did say that you weren’t friends, even then”—I paused—“but he also said that you left his forces to fight and die in a valley. They were losing, and you looked down from a peak and didn’t help them. Why?”

Vale’s lips parted. “I remember that. We were twenty turns.”

“That’s what he said.”

The prince’s face hardened. “And did he tell you the reason I left his forces in the valley?”

What had Roar said? I was certain I’d asked why Vale had done that and . . . The memory clicked, like a match struck in a darkened room.

“He said he wasn’t sure,” I replied.

One corner of Vale’s lips lifted in annoyance. “Oh, hedid. Just not at that moment. He found out later that there was an even larger host climbing the mountainside. My soldiers and I returned down the slope to hold them at bay and finish them off.”

My throat tightened. Roar had, once again, omitted information. My fists clenched. When I’d asked him about that day, I’d been too new to the fae way of skirting the truth to realize. Later, I’d learned, though. After I found out that Roar neglected to mention he’d been secretly feeding me a potion to protect me from the queen’s mind-reading abilities. Had he asked, I would have accepted the potion, but he hadn’t asked. He’d acted like the vampires who’d owned me, assuming he knew what was best for my body. Since that day, I’d become more wary around the Warden of the West.

“I take it Roar left that out?” Vale prompted me out of my rising anger, back to the moment.

“He did.”

Vale’s eyes sought mine. “I may dislike the Warden of the West, Neve, but I’d never leave Fae of Winter in a bind on the battlefield. Not as long as I can swing my sword.”

“I believe that. So you fought down the mountain, fought oncoming forces and won, and that was it?”

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