Page 41 of This Frozen Heart

“If you knew about this shortcut all this time,” Prince demands, “why didn’t you take me with you?!”

“BecauseI’mabove such things.”

I gesture at Prince to silence himself before he can ruin my best chance of rescuing Kay from the unreachable summit ofSchneekongin. “So, you’ll lead Prince and me up this shortcut?” I ask.

“Even better— I’ll go with you.” Wolf shrugs a shoulder. “If I can’t get her to ally with us, then I’ll just undermine her just like we do with Constantinium.”

Nodding, I glance between the besotted fool and the crazed rebel. “We have a good team.”

Smalls sighs. “It won’t just be you, Prince, and Wolf, Gerdie.”

I glance up at him. “This isn’t one of our usual missions, Smalls. I expect nothing from you— fromanyof you.”

“But you think this enemy invader will make you happy. Can’t say I understand it, but . . .” Smalls pats my shoulder and nods once. “I haven’t braved cold and hunger by your side all these years just to turn my back on you now, sister of my heart.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say Kay can make me happy, but I know I won’t be happy until he’s free. And—” Overcome with emotion, I throw my arms around Smalls even though I can’t even wrap my arms fully around him. “Thank you.”

Prince turns to Biggs. “What about you?”

Biggs stares back. “What about me?”

“Are you coming?”

“Well, obviously. I’ve got nothing else. Lost contact with everyone else I knew during the Night of the Broken Walls, so I might as well stick with you lot.”

I smile. “Then I suppose it will be like one of our usual operations. Except for the part where it’s a palace instead of a caravan, and the Snow Queen instead of Constantinium.”

Biggs nods. “Just minor differences like that.”

“In that case, I’ll finish cooking breakfast,” Smalls announces. “The rest of you pack up with the knowledge that the Imparias might raid while we’re gone.”

Ignoring him, Prince tugs at the tips of his hair. “I think I might need a trim. Andyourhair needs a good brushing, Gerta, if you want to win that true love’s kiss.”

I laugh, but the sound comes out a little more nervous than I mean. “True love’s kiss . . . What if we don’t have that? True love, I mean. I’m not even sure it exists. And even if it does, we were enemies—”

Wolf snorts as Smalls strides past her toward the firepit. “I think you’re well beyond that now.”

“The look in his eyes when he left me for the Snow Queen, though . . .”

Prince clenches his jaw.

Biggs pats his shoulder and turns to me. “His heart was frozen. A kiss is sure to fix it.”

“Only if it’struelove! But you see, even before we were taking turns abducting each other, I was his childhood tormentor.”

Smalls whirls around. “Kay was that scrawnydummkopfthat got adopted out of Granny’s, wasn’t he?”

I nod.

“Iknewhe looked familiar.” Shaking his head, Smalls hurries back to the firepit before the food can burn.

“See?” I stare at Wolf bleakly. “It’s doomed!”

Prince, however, is the one who grips my shoulders and makes me look him in his eyes. “Did he or did he not take a blow to his heart for you?”

“He did . . .”

“And are you or are you not willing to face the elements to save him?”

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