Page 2 of The Snow Queen

Disastrous as her attire could be, it wasn't the worst of it, because more pressingly at the minute, there was a bear close to her; a live wild, enormous bear, and she didn’t even seem to see it.

He cursed under his breath.

That this set-up might be some sort of trap crossed his mind, but he wasnotleaving her there. It wasn't the way Kai had been raised. Like it or not, he was the one who cared for, fed and protected the weak.

For the first time, he understood those who called him Prince, aloof and unenthusiastic as he might be. It wasn’t because he was the heir to a throne he, like all his fathers before him, would never sit on, but it might have to do with the fact that he just couldn’t help acting the part.

Another man might have turned around rather than face one of the most ginormous bears he’d ever come across in his life, but with or without a crown, princes did not condemn women to their death.

Chapter Two

The previous day, Jereena

She didn’t dislike the child; her youthful vigor entertained her.

You’ll be just like me in half a millennium.

Her thought felt bitter to her own ears; truth was, she knew the child would be nothing like her.

Because contrarily to Eira, Belle Archer wasn’t alone.

Belle begged her to help her understand her own existence, and Eira didn’t exactly have a busy schedule – given the fact that everyone she’d known was either dead or stuck in another dimension – so she stayed.

After two seasons, though, she couldn’t deny the prospect of leaving her bed grew more and more painful everyday.

She was bored and the boredom would soon make her sleep.

“You can’t leave!”

Belle could pout and beg and give those puppy dog eyes all she wanted; Eira wasn’t born yesterday. Or the century before. Or the millennium before that, to tell the truth.

She needed to go, now, before it was too late.

She knew she’d start hibernating eventually, and that could not happen in Jereena, or anywhere near mortal civilization.

While Eira couldn't actually think of one reason why, she was rather attached to her life – which meant that she wasn't letting a coward behead her in her sleep.

“I have to; and soon. Tomorrow, in fact.”

It wasn’t only her fear of sleeping in this vulnerable place, something called her back to her home; a strange feeling whispered that she was needed there.

“You’ll come back for the christening?” Belle tried, when everyway she’d begged her to change her mind had failed.

Eira glanced down to the stomach which had been flat when they’d met; there was a little bulge now.

The answer should have been “no,” or a noncommittal shrug, at least, but when she talked, it was to say “yes, I think I might.”

Strange. It didn’t even feel like a lie.

Despite the complaints, Eira left first thing the following morning: it would be a long journey, and she had no intention to start it in the dark.

While most of the distance could be covered travelling with the wind, she knew the road to her home wasn’t going to be an easy hike.

She disappeared from her room in the Jereenan palace, and followed the winds to the border of the Northanger Peaks.

The kind of wards she'd place on her domain meant that no one – her included – could enter it anyway but by foot.

Eira grumbled on her way up; why the shit had she come up with that stupid rule? Or was it “why the hell”?

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