Page 18 of Fated to the Frost King

For the second time in as many days, I was caught off guard. I was too used to being alone, andsafe, to remember the kind of vigilance I had been taught as a child. I spun around only to freeze when I realized who it was.

The Visionary.

She looked much the same as she had in the throne room. Her pale skin shimmered like moonlit frost, and her hair fell in iridescent waves down her back, the front pieces braided back with strands of silver and crystals.

Her eyes were different today. More…still than they had been in the throne room. Her expression, too, was slightly less guarded, though no easier to read. It made me realize how young she looked, not much older than my twenty-two years.

She held her staff in one slender hand, an artful twist of silver and pearl. A pale pink crystal rested in the twisting metal at the top, several shades lighter than her gauzy gown.

“Youryetis certainly inspiring,” I responded after the silence had stretched for too long, wondering if she hadSeenthat things would get dire or was merely being conversational.

“But no,” I added, dusting the snow from my skirts. “I wasn’t thinking of jumping.”

Her lips curved, not quite a smile. More like amusement threaded with something I couldn’t name.

“Is there…something I can help you with?” I tried not to sound rude, but I couldn’t deny that her presence unnerved me.

I had secrets. She had a gift for unearthing them. We weren’t exactly a friendship waiting to blossom.

She raised her eyebrow like she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“His Majesty has arranged your schedule. I’m here to ensure you keep it.”

Shards.

I had assumed he would send another guard. Was her Sight stronger with proximity? Did I have a way to politely ask for literally anyone else to accompany me?

“Do you usually act as a palace escort?” I hedged.

In addition to your roles as wedding officiant and execution advisor.

She let out a small huff of air like she had heard what I didn’t say.

“Well, we’ve come a long way from my ancestors locked away in a tower to save the fragile nerves of the court from the horror.” She gestured to her eyes. “So when I’m not roaming the halls making ominous predictions at random, just to watch them scramble, I do occasionally enjoy taking on a more productive task.”

She smiled sharply, leaving just enough doubt as to whether she was joking.

I felt an unexpected, and entirely unwanted, twinge of sympathy. She wasn’t a Hollow, but she wasother, nonetheless. Chosen at birth to be tied inextricably to the king, treated asotherby her own people, her life was not so different from mine.

Still, I couldn’t quite trust her. It wasn’t just her powers or even her ruthlessness in the throne room. She reminded me a bit too much of the mages, somewhere in her unreadable expression and the faintly glowing crystal embedded in her staff.

The scars along my back prickled uncomfortably, but I didn’t see another option outside of outright offending one of the most powerful fae in the palace.

“Fair enough,” I tried to inject some measure of warmth into my tone, telling myself this could be for the best.

Hadn’t I just been thinking that I needed information? No one in the kingdom knew more than the king’s seer.

Something subtle shifted in her eyes, reminiscent of the throne room, like stardust churning through frost-smoke. She nodded, more to herself than to me.

“A wise decision. You have plenty of enemies already.”

I froze, waiting for her to expound, but she left me to ruminate in my own head.

Did she mean in the court? Or someone more dangerous…like the uncle I had fled a decade ago. But he would never think to look for me in the shards-damned Winter Palace.

So she couldn’t mean him. I tried to think of a way to make her expound without it sounding like an interrogation.

“Yes, I’m sure there were plenty of females unhappy when I was chosen.” It wasn’t subtle, but it was the best I could come up with.

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