Page 16 of Heart of the Summer Queen

“I thought he’d killed my sister,” I say, the truth tumbling from my lips faster than my mind can realize. “All this time, I believed he’d murdered my sister in cold blood and disposed of her remains so no one could find any trace of her. But I was wrong. She was here all along.”

Kassia clasps her hands and lowers her head. “We should have told you the truth.”

“The king gave us strict orders not to allow you into that chamber or reveal its contents,” Elona says. “But if we’d known at the time of your intentions to kill him, telling you the truth would have been for the best.”

“Not just for the king,” Kassia adds. “You deserved to know your sister’s fate.”

Elona hums her agreement.

“We failed you, milady,” Kassia says.

I shake my head. “I shouldn’t have blamed either of you. It isn’t your fault.”

It is mine.

I almost killed an innocent man. Well, maybe not entirely innocent. Even if he has murdered no one, it doesn’t change that he stole all those girls. That they may never be revived.

But if my speculation is correct, and he needs me—his Summer Queen—to free all those girls, then it means the tradition I’ve always abhorred isn’t just a senseless cruelty. To release them, he needs a Summer Queen but finding her meant freezing more brides. My sister was just another failed attempt to achieve that end.

Remorse slams into me, and I crumble into my pillows.

All this time, I’ve been so stupid. If I’d concentrated on my sister and discovering the truth behind her disappearance ratherthan on the king and ending his reign, I’d have learned of her fate sooner and would be closer to freeing her.

My maids sit beside me on my bed and draw me into their arms, holding me tight.

“I’ve made so many mistakes.” My breaths are uneven as I speak. “I’m a terrible, wicked person, and I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“You’re not wicked, milady,” Elona says gently. “Just hurt.”

I should have stopped to consider everything instead of fixating on killing the king. Deep down, I knew the chamber contained the answers I sought, and yet I didn’t bother to pursue it again after he caught me trying to break into it, fearing another attempt would cause him to suspect my intentions. But maybe being caught again would have been for the best. Maybe if he’d known how distrustful I was of him, how I couldn’t forget my sister so easily, he’d have shown me the truth rather than believing I’d forgive him in time.

This entire mess could have been averted.

“You never knew what happened to your sister,” Elona says, squeezing my hand. “It’s natural you assumed the worst in the absence of truth.”

“Before I served here,” Kassia adds, “I never understood why the king insisted on taking a bride every summer. I too believed he killed them, sacrificing them to further his power. I have a younger sister, and I feared for her when she danced at the Midsummer Ball. When he called another name, I fell to my knees in relief, even though that night someone else’s sister was stolen.

“The king didn’t take my sister but if he had, I too would have wished great pain upon him. Maybe I would have even dreamed of driving a dagger through his heart myself but unlike you, I would never have been brave enough to try it.”

“Not brave,” I mumble. “Foolish.”

Foolish for so many reasons. For not exploring the truth. For believing I could kill a man whose heart is made of ice.

I swallow down hard.

It’s fortunate I failed. Not only would I have become a monster, but his death may have caused my sister and the other girls to be eternally trapped in frost. Maybe their bodies would have shattered into thousands of tiny shards, never to be restored.

I’ve never been more grateful for failure.

“What will you do now, milady?” Kassia asks, tearing me from my thoughts.

“Free my sister,” I say without hesitation. “What do you know of the spell afflicting them? Of the source of the king’s magic?”

“Well, it must be a curse,” Kassia says, “like in fairy tales. The king seeks his true Summer Queen, and all those who are not her—who aren’t you—will be frozen by his touch.”

A curse. Of course. Kassia has given a name to that which I already suspected. And now she’s called it a curse, I can’t believe it to be anything but that.

“Do you know how the curse can be broken?” I ask.

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