Page 68 of Fated to the Frost King

Right along with mine.

Chapter 24

Everly

The cold pierced into my skin the moment we stepped outside.

It was just past first light, but the sky hadn’t yet bothered to shift from shades of sapphire and green to silver. Pale blue shadows clung to the snow-draped path winding up the mountainside.

Batty huddled beneath the hood of my cloak, tucked against my neck like a trembling scarf. Lumen padded beside me, his pale fur dusted in frost, ears twitching at every gust of wind.

Draven was as unaffected as always. Even his cloak scarcely dared to rustle in the wind, the heavy fabric falling gracefully to his feet. He gave a sharp nod to the stablemaster, then turned up the trail without so much as a backward glance.

After last night’s shared nightmare-scape, neither of us had found the words, or the desire, to speak. We had moved through the morning like icebergs drifting across a lake, careful not to touch, careful not to break the silence that had frozen solid between us.

Draven let out a low whistle, and his wolves bounded ahead, melting into the white landscape like shadows made of frost.Lumen lingered, casting a long look in my direction before letting out a soft, imploring whine.

All right, ridiculous mutt.

I sighed, my breath curling in front of me like smoke, and pulled my cloak tighter. As much as I wanted to drag my feet in protest, this wasn’t the place. Not up here, far from the protection of walls and firelight. Not where monsters could pick off stragglers with silent precision and leave nothing behind but a crimson stain in the snow.

I shivered, forcing away images of the Mirrorbane. The mages were a terror in their own right, but my survival instinct won out.

And the safest place on this shards-cursed mountain was behind the most terrifying monster of them all.

I jogged to catch up.

The trail narrowed quickly, becoming less a path and more a suggestion. The wind barreled through the peaks, tearing through my layers and howling in my ears.

I slipped.

My boot lost purchase on a patch of ice, and my balance went with it. My heart lurched as the world tilted sideways, a sheer drop yawning wide to my right.

A strong hand caught the back of my cloak, yanking me upright with enough force to snap the breath from my lungs.

“Are you trying to die?” Draven’s voice was a rasp of fury and frost at my ear, his hand still gripping my hood.

“Denying you the fun of killing me does have its appeal, but no,” I wheezed. “I’m afraid this is rather less intention—” I cut off with a yelp, stumbling forward as another gust of wind whipped through the mountains.

He glared at me like I’d done it just to spite him. “Just get in front of me.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he stepped around me, blocking my access to the cliff.

“If and when I decide to kill you, Wife, both of those things will be at my command, not because you were too stubborn to avoid falling down a ravine.”

Heat rose up my neck, biting into the frozen skin of my face.

“You cannot command what you don’t own,” I shot back.

He raised a brow. “It is fortunate, then, that youdobelong to me, bound by mana and law and the Shard Mother herself. So…” he gestured pointedly to the path in front of him.

It was tempting to stay behind him just out of spite, but then he would only use his mana to drag me in front of him anyway. I had nothing left to cling to but my dubious dignity at this point.

So I muttered a few choice insults under my breath and stomped past him, the snow crunching beneath each step. My legs were already screaming from the incline, my lungs burning with every breath. My gown stuck to my back with sweat, and my gloves had long since stopped keeping my fingers warm.

We continued on like that for what felt like hours but might have only been a few minutes. My irritation grew each time my steps faltered andmy husbandhovered at my back.

Then, something in the air shifted. The wind quieted, almost as if suddenly deciding to hold its breath. Batty shifted restlessly inside my hood, curling tighter against my neck.

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