Page 20 of This Frozen Heart

Her tiny hand grasps my face, and I freeze as certainly as if she were the Snow Queen. Then she twists my face so I’m looking upward.

The wooden rafters are perfect, with no sign of decay except for the hole in the roof above the rafter. Strangely enough, even though there is smoke billowing through the hole, there is a perfect formation of icicles hanging from it, each one exactly the same length.

However, it seems to be the glowing form of a snowflake engraved into the wood next to it that Gerta is pointing to.

That is not my concern, though. I wrap my arm tighter around Gerta and tug us both farther away from the fire where an icicle could stab us.

“This cabin has always been marked by her,” Gerta whispers. “She’s going to demand a price from us for using it. There is always a price with her.”

“What kind of price?”

“Your heart.”

I frown. “She kills those who owe her a debt?”

“Notkills. Enslaves.”

Her words summon a fuzzy childhood memory, but such a thing sounds too outlandish to be true. Whatever tale I was toldwhen I was young, I must have dismissed it as folly. “I don’t understand; you said she takes their hearts.”

“She does.” Gerta places a finger over the left side of my chest and draws a circle on my skin. “It remains in your body, but frozen and under her control. The Snow Queen is no fool; she knows that what controls the heart controls the person, so by demanding the heart, she gains all of you.”

I snort, which almost sounds like a choke as I try to ignore how much I like the sensation of Gerta drawing on my skin. “That is nonsense; it is the mind that governs the body, not the heart.”

“Well, mayhap for a heartlessImparianlike you, that may be true. But the rest of us find ourselves strongly manipulated by our hearts.”

“That seems less than wise. Hearts are easily fooled into believing whatever makes them feel good.” For instance, mine currently thinks Gerta feels good and has forgotten all about her being a dangerous hostile.

“And minds can never be manipulated.” Gerta rolls her eyes. “You must have been so popular in your uppity social circles.”

“Quite the opposite, actually.” I frown, not sure why I’m clarifying that since she is, as I just reminded myself, adangerous hostile. Then again, she may be less likely to thrust a dagger through my heart if I humanized myself to her, so I suppose there is no harm in elaborating on my past. Unless all Gertas are equally cold-hearted. “I was ostracized at a young age.”

“Ostracized?” Gerta blinks, seeming more bewildered by my use of the word than my confession that I wasn’t popular— it’s almost like she didn’t actually believe I was well-received to begin with. “That’s a tad extreme. What did you do to make yourself a pariah to your own people?”

“Nothing that I can pinpoint. I believe it was my personality that was deemed unfashionable.”

“Let me guess— they called you an ‘ice king’ or some such?”

I stare in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I— um— lucky guess.” Flushing, Gerta glances away.

“Very lucky.” I study her as all the things that don’t quite fit together with what I know of her tumble around in my mind.

“I may or may not have teased a boy with that same nickname when I was a child who didn’t know any better.”

Stiffening, I pull back a bit. “You . . . did? Who was this boy?” And why do I imagine my childhood tormentor with Gerta’s same eyes?

“Just another orphan under Granny’scare. He was lucky enough to get adopted out, though, so I suppose things turned out all right for him. Something about possessing one of the rarer Bloodline Magics . . .” Gerta’s gaze darts to mine. “You weren’tadoptedinto that wealthy family of yours, were you?”

“I was, for exactly the reason you gave. I was born in Gaelia and spent the first year after I was orphaned under the care of a Granny Bae.”

For a moment, we just stare at each other. Then I glance down at how close we are lying despite the distance I created. “I fear Granny would be mortified.”

“That you betrayed your people?” Gerta’s eyes flash with rage. “Yes, she would.”

“I’m not betraying my people. I came back so I could help them. Peace is the best option for Gaelia while we depend on others for basic resources like grain and produce.”

“That’s what Ehyptio is for. They like our furs and minerals just fine.”

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