Page 29 of The Winter Prince

His mouth tightened. “You are homesick?”

“Yes,” she admitted, her hands stilling. It was like him speaking the word allowed something in her to loosen, to grieve.

Shewashomesick.

The prince’s eyes tightened. “I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. If anyone could understand her desire to be free, it would be him, her fellow prisoner. “In general, it’s lovely here, really. It... it just isn’t home.”

He shook his head. “What you’ve seen of the Winter Court in the waking world is a mockery of what it’s supposed to be like. The Court I grew up in is so much more than this wasteland we have now. There was nearly always snow, and the cool crispness in the air was the perfect contrast to the pale winter sun. Everything glistened like jewels, and fires filled our hearths, giving us a place to warm ourselves, to gather together after a day spent in the cold.” His voice, which had grown impassioned with his words, dropped. He curled his hands over the back of the chair he stood behind. “That was home.”

His words resonated in her, calling forth memories of sled rides, of building snow angels and snowmen, of the perfect crystalline stillness in the forest in winter.

“I would have liked to see that,” she said softly.

He cast a sideways glance at her. “If you truly mean that… I could show you.”

She made a face at him, wrinkling her nose. “I do not say things I don’t mean, good sir.”

A flicker of a smile graced his face, and he held his hand out. “Come with me.”

She didn’t hesitate to put her hand in his. His fingers curled around hers, rough and warm and strong.

And then he was pulling her toward the doorway. He stopped on the threshold and glanced back at her. “Close your eyes.”

She obeyed, pressing one eye shut at a time. The action earned her another quirk of a smile on his face before she could no longer see him. His fingers tightened on hers, and she could almost feel an exhale before he whispered a word in Elyri she hadn’t learned yet and pulled her through the door.

A gust of cold air kissed her face, pushing her hair back with enough force that she gasped at the shock of it. Her eyes flew open.

Everywhere around them was glistening white. She spun in a circle. Her dream cottage was gone; instead, behind her stood the Winter Court castle, its roof covered in snow, with beautiful, proud evergreens guarding its perimeters. Around her, impossibly, was a garden in full bloom. Silvery flowers, blue flowers, light pink flowers edged in white, deep green bushes, and trees rustling with needles. She had never even seen most of these plants, but clearly they thrived amongst the snow and the ice and the frost that glittered on their leaves and petals.

“Come.” The prince tugged her forward.

She let him pull her along as she drank in her surroundings. She no longer wore one of her summer dresses; she was cloaked in layers of wool, softer than anything she’d ever worn, with a simple, elegant wooden brooch clasping the outer cloak. They followed a path cleared of snow around the side of the castle. When they came to the back, he tugged her off the path, their boots crunching and leaving two sets of prints behind them as they went. It was the same path she and the beast had taken once before, near the beginning of her stay at the Court.

He wove between bushes until he came to one that she recognized in full, glorious bloom, though it looked different surrounded by vitality beyond its own.Thisflower she knew well: the frostrose her father had taken, the flower that had led to the bargain that had paused her life. The ones the beast had shown her that day in the gardens. Each of them was just as magical, silver, and glittering as they’d been when she’d seen them that day.

He slowed there but didn’t stop, the fingers of his other hand brushing against one of the roses even as he continued onward. The ground started to slope down, and finally they reached her companion’s destination: a pond entirely frozen over.

Kienna hesitated even as the prince continued forward. At the resistance, he stopped and looked back at her.

“Is that safe to walk on?” She tried to keep her voice light but failed entirely. Her gaze flicked back and forth over the ice.

“Of course.” His eyes softened. “Even if this were not a dream, I would ensure that it would be no threat to you.” He squeezed her hand and gently tugged it, not demanding but inviting. “Trust me. I’ll protect you.”

Kienna stared out at the blue-white ice covering the small pond. She had heard of ice skating, but she had never done it herself. The idea of the ice breaking and being swallowed into the freezing water belowterrifiedher. She took a step forward, and then another, until her side brushed her companion’s.

He squeezed her hand again and moved forward, wrapping his other arm around her shoulders and pressing her against his side as they moved.

It felt good there. Safe.

On the next step, she looked down and realized she was wearing skates with a blade along the bottom of each sole. Her grip on her prince tightened.

“I’ve got you.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Move like this.” He pushed one leg out, and then the other, showing her how to glide across the ice. Where he was sure-footed, she wobbled, but he was patient and sturdy, keeping her from falling as they moved together.

After a while, he released his grip on her shoulder and held her elbow and hand instead. She immediately missed the comforting weight of his arm around her, but he kept murmuring soothing words of encouragement, and the longer they skated, the more her confidence grew.

They circled the pond several times before coming to a slow stop where they had begun. Kienna was breathless. Her cheeks and nose stung from the cold, but a joy had built in her chest. A joy for this place. Of being with him.

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