Page 105 of The Prince and the Ice King

Reardon pulled back, shrinking away from her and turning to look upon her form once more. “You’re not real?”

“I’m real. Think of it as a long-distance conversation with a nicer view.”

“Why can’t you leave the valley?”

“I can’t tell you that, I’m afraid.” She cringed. “Magic has its rules. But I can tell you to not give up. This kingdom, yours, and mine all have something to gain. King John told you the words of the curse?”

Reardon’s heart was still racing from the rush of all he had seen, and he was skeptical that he could trust the source of all this misery. “Yes. I don’t remember exactly, but… I know he said you told the others that when his heart melts and he is a true king, the spell will be broken.” He felt his anger resurface at the memory and spat back at her, “Is loving me not enough to prove his heart has melted?”

“Toward you?” she said, soft and compassionate. “Toward his people, his family, and friends? Of course. But a true king sees value in himself too.”

“He… he loves me, and he is a good king, but he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of either. I should have known. The ice that remains is because he has yet to forgive himself.”

“Yes.”

“Then I will continue to prove to him that he is wrong.” Reardon squared his shoulders before the Fairy Queen—Mavis. “But that does not absolve you. This curse is cruel and unfair.”

She tilted her head, a sad smile upon her lips. “You keep looking for a hero in this story. We simply all made choices, and I do not regret mine.”

“Then hero or no hero,youare the villain,” Reardon snarled. “Jack is a good king, but you trapped him in a life he never wanted.”

“He had to accept responsibility. After his father died, as the new king of these lands, he could have changed anything he wanted. He could have taken a prince, if that was his desire, changed the laws to pass his kingdom to his sister, renounced the throne for another leader to take his place. Instead, he chose to be carousing, irresponsible, and apathetic, and he has paid for it.”

“And his sister and friends and far too many others paid for it too!”

Still, she did not rise to Reardon’s challenge, her voice calm. “Are they so miserable, or have they each found their own happiness?”

“That isn’t enough. What of those who died unjustly? The accidents? What of all the years lost? What aboutmykingdom? All this only perpetuated a fear of magic and the idea that people are disposable.”

“Those choices are the responsibility of those who made them, but not everything is as it seems, Emerald Prince. This was never meant to have gone on for so long.” Again, she looked sad, even though she said she wasn’t regretful. “My magic is not infallible. I cannot explain everything, but I came to tell you that the curse can be lifted. You must do what the Sapphire King could not and trust—”

“Reardon!”

Reardon’s attention snapped away from her toward Oliver, racing from the castle, followed by a dozen of the strongest fighters Reardon knew, all armed, with Barclay trailing behind in a hurry.

They must have seen—

He startled when he turned back to Mavis, because she was gone, and he somehow knew that if he told the others about his audience with the Fairy Queen, none would say they had seen any sign she had been there.

Trust? Trust what?

Trustwho?

“What’s happened?” Reardon asked of the others when they joined him at the west gate.

“Emerald banners,” Oliver said with a hard edge, bow in hand. “There is a platoon approaching the castle.”

“It’s Lombard,” Barclay panted. “He’s leading them. The soldier must have told Lombard the truth, or he didn’t believe him.”

Reardon had known it was only a matter of time, but he hadn’t believed Lombard would bring fifty men to counter the initial two.

“If they try to get in, we’ll have to open fire,” Oliver said. “They won’t understand. They expect monsters here, and honestly, we need them to believe that. If they find only a hundred simple people trying to live their lives, and five poor cursed souls, they’ll wipe us all out as easily as they sent us here as sacrifices.”

They would. They would assume everyone here was bewitched, the elves and half-elves worthy of death simply for what they were. Reardon had only been thinking of Barclay when he came here, but he had stayed for selfish reasons, and now, disaster was at the gates.

“I’ll talk to them.”

“You can’t.” Oliver grabbed Reardon’s arm before he could move past them. “I promised the king I would never let anything else happen to you.”

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