Page 11 of Fated to the Frost King

Then, the world vanished.

There was only him—the Frostgrave King. His breath, his blood, his presence crashing into mine like a tide of winter.

Our blood mingled in midair, drops spiraling into one another until they fused and were indistinguishable. Manaseized them and spun them through the air, forging them into something new. Something deadly and, somehow, still delicate.

Two rings.

One slid over my finger, a delicate band of silver with jagged diamonds that branched out like a starburst, while the other claimed the king.

His frozen, merciless eyes locked onto mine just as frost spread over the cuts in our palms, sealing our skin with ice.

I waited for the ceremony to call upon my mana, to falter before it could take hold, but something powerful and ancient snapped into place between us. There were no spoken vows, just a silent promise carved into the marrow of our bones and sealed with our blood, carried on the mana of the land itself.

I drifted closer to him, pushed by the raging winds, or pulled by death’s enigmatic lure, I couldn’t be sure.

My heartbeat drummed a furious rhythm as the Visionary continued speaking. Pressure built behind my chest, beneath my skin, filling every part of me until I was sure I would combust.

It was different from my usual panic. It was more, so much more than that–like every part of me was reacting to every part of him. As if the blood in my veins flowed toward him now. As if my heartbeat was changing to an unfamiliar rhythm, one that matched the furious beat of his own.

Startlingly warm fingers slid in between mine, and my gaze snapped up to meet the king’s. The shock of his touch pulled me from the endless questions flitting through my mind, and all I could feel, all I could focus on, was the solid weight of his hands, and the callouses I wouldn’t have expected from a king.

He tugged me closer, and the breath in my lungs seized as my body pressed against his.

He wasn’t supposed to feel like this, to feel so…mortal. Not when he was a monster. A murderer.

Then he was lowering his face to hover just above mine. My breathing hitched as his breath ghosted across my lips, warm and more inviting than it had any right to be.

His gaze dropped, fixating on my mouth, and there was nothing polite in the way he looked at me.

It was territorial. Predatory. As if he was already imagining how I would taste. He closed the gap between us, pressing his mouth to mine.

My mind went blank as the soft curve of his cruel lips wrapped around mine, moving in an unspoken command that I was powerless not to obey.

Every instinct that had kept me alive for so long betrayed me in this moment. My eyelids fluttered shut as I melted into the kiss, intohim.

Shivers raced through me, chased by a heat I didn’t want to name, a stolen warmth that seeped into the cracks of carefully held walls.

I didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. A breath. An eternity. Long enough to forget, for one shards-damned moment, who he was.

It took more effort than it should have to step away from him. His eyes flared in response, his pupils blown wide like twin pools of obsidian.

Bright light burst from the horizon, igniting the sky in a white glow that glinted off of every surface of the palace. It surrounded us, even blinding us, before wrapping us in the gauzy haze of dawn.

And just like that, the solstice was over, the longest night of the year fading like an echo with the break of day.

I glanced back at the Frostgrave King—myhusband—wondering if he too had just felt the weight of the world shift on its axis.

And if it felt as ominous to him as it did to me.

Chapter 5

Everly

The sound of applause drifted up to the balcony as the king turned me to face the crowd.

“Smile,Wife.” His tone was mocking. “Our people are watching.”

I watched him posture for the projection, acting for all the world like this was what he had wanted all along. Between his smarmy grin and infuriating tone, it broke the spell that the bond had temporarily placed on me.

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