Page 2 of The Prince and the Ice King

“Sea of white could be… a shroud. I meancloak!” Barclay corrected.

Reardon groaned. He would be old and creaking before he found true love. He’d lusted before, many times, what little good that did him, but he’d never found anyone who captivated him the way tales of love described it. Not how his father had loved Reardon’s mother, Queen Reagan, before she died. Not anyone Reardon couldhave, anyway.

There had been whispers that magic might have saved Reagan where alchemy had failed, while others insisted that hidden magic within the castle was what made her ill. Neither theory changed that she was gone.

“Don’t fret so much,” Barclay said, pouring the steaming water into their mugs for ginger tea. “It’ll be all right.”

“How? I’m twenty. Father will have me married by twenty-two to some noblewoman or princess I’ve never met, and I’ll only ever know true love in secret.”

“And what do you think will change if you find love before your twenty-second year? That you’ll run away with whatever man steals your heart?”

“Maybe….”

Barclay reclaimed his seat, setting the mugs between them, and reached for Reardon’s hand. There was only friendship there. Barclay fancied women, and Reardon didn’t see his friend that way, but the love they shared was strong because they knew each other’s deepest secrets, secrets that would strip Reardon of his crown and risk Barclay being imprisoned or chosen for that year’s sacrifice.

Don’t steal, don’t cheat, don’t injure or kill. Most laws were just and sensible. But to love someone of one’s own gender was corruption—and so was magic.

Barclay hadn’t chosen to see visions. It was something that started happening when he hit adulthood, and if anyone else in his family experienced them, no one talked about it. He had no control over what he saw, just as Reardon had no control over what he desired.

“You’ll find love someday.” Barclay smiled warmly. His magic required touch, so Reardon felt comforted by the gentle squeeze Barclay offered, since Barclay would be able to see if that wasn’t true. “Whatever else my vision means, I’m sure of that.”

He squeezed once more and then pulled away to add a dab of honey to his tea.

Reardon added two dabs—more like three—and took a long, calming sip. It may have only been the ginger’s natural properties that comforted him, but he imagined there was some soothing potion added. Whether that was true or not, it made him think, however fleetingly, that maybe Barclay was right.

He would find love, even if all he got to know of romance were stolen moments in the night with a man he had yet to meet.

Barclay’s vision couldn’t meanthis, but it was all Reardon could think about as his hand slackened on his sword.

“Is that cowardice? Or fear?” the Ice King boomed, moving fast and powerful like a hulking behemoth that shook the chamber with each stomp forward.

Reardon stumbled, still trapped by the Ice King’s eyes—his blue human eyes—and slipped on the icy floor to land hard on his back and the edge of his sheath. He hissed but had precious little time to react before the Ice King was upon him, falling to all fours to claw closer, mere inches from touching Reardon as he’d threatened.

“Perhaps both,” the Ice King growled, hovering over Reardon like an avalanche about to crash down upon the side of a mountain. “Not much of a hero if you can’t even slay the beast…little prince.”

“H-how…?” Reardon quivered, teeth chattering from the proximity of the Ice King’s frigid form.

“As if your finery wasn’t enough? Only the House of Thom that rules the Emerald Kingdom has eyes as green as yours.”

Heknew. He knew exactly who Reardon was. “My mother….”

“So a queen sits on the throne now?”

“She died. My father is King Regent until I marry.”

“Is that what this is about?”

Reardon gaped.

“You’re looking for a boon or trophy to gift your betrothed?”

And then he exhaled, feeling very foolish, yet grateful that the cold kept his cheeks from flushing. “I have no betrothed. I came here for my friend.”

“You can’t be serious! It’s Barclay!”

“You know what happens if we do not give the Ice King his tithe.”

“No, I don’t. And neither do you! What does everyone even fear? An army on our doorstep? A plague?”

---