Page 7 of Fated to the Frost King

There was no warmth in the enormous room, nothing to stop my shivers or lend a shred of comfort. Just towering ceilings and a laughably small fire and endless shades of white. The walls were cream, the floors were white marble, and the armchairs were a shade lighter than beige. There was, at least, a rug—silvery bearskin, of course—but nothing else at all that lent itself to warmth.

A crystal chandelier hung overhead, sparkling like the icy pieces of the Nivhallow heiress as they slid across the floor.

I squeezed my eyes shut, only to picture my body in her place. How did the king execute Hollows? With mercy, as he has the second traitor? Or would he make it painful?

I wrenched my eyelids back open.

Breathe. In. Out.

It wasn’t helping. Tremors racked along my spine, spreading to my whole body. I stumbled closer to the fire, nails biting fiercely into my palms. Still, my chest seized, sending a stab of pain straight through to my back until it felt like it was cracking right down the middle.

No. No. No.

I sank to my knees on the bearskin rug in front of the flames, running my fingers over the pale tufts of fur like it might tether me to something real, something solid. Something that wouldn’t fracture under pressure.

I was so focused on calming my breath, my body, that I hardly registered the click of the door. It was dangerous, letting myself be caught unawares, but then again, wasn’t all of my life dangerous right now?

I sucked in a breath. Before I could turn to investigate, a familiar scent washed over me. Snowdrops and honey.

Wynnie.

I hadn’t thought the King would let her come. Perhaps he thought it was the only way I wouldpull myself together.

“Breathe, Little Sister.” Her arms came around me, so much warmer than the worthless fireplace. “I’m here now.”

All I wanted to do was collapse into her arms and let her comfort me the way she used to pull me from my nightmares,back when they were based on memories instead of my current reality.

But her arms were trembling.

Wynnie had never been afraid of anything. It was enough to pull me out of my panic, and I lifted my head to study her delicate features.

Though I had seen her less than an hour ago, it felt like a lifetime. Her face was several shades paler than its usual bronze hue, her dusting of freckles standing out sharply in contrast. Even her lively white-blonde curls seemed oddly subdued.

I forced a wan imitation of a smile, for her sake. “I’m not dead yet.”

“You will be if you marry him,” she whispered back, denial hardening the crystal blue eyes that were a mirror of mine.

Her entire being exuded the same fierce defense she had held for me from the day I stumbled into my father’s estate, bleeding and barefoot and half alive. After the male who sired me had coldly introduced me as her sister, she had pulled me to the fireplace and thrown a blanket over my shoulders, calling for a bowl of soup.

“My name is Noerwyn. But you can call me Wynnie. Papa says my mother used to call me that, and we’re family now.”

“Your mother?” I asked, looking around warily. I couldn’t imagine she would be happy to see me.

“She died,” she said simply. “Did your mother die, too? Is that why you’re here now?”

“I…” I started to tell her I didn’t know before realizing how complicated that story would be to tell. How exhausted I was, in every single way. “Yes. She’s dead, too.”

It was probably true, anyway.

“At least we have each other now.” Wynnie’s eyes had glowed with resolve as she hooked her pinkie around mine.

That had been true until it wasn’t. Until she was taken from me too, sold into a marriage on the other side of the kingdom, but at least she was here now.

Of course, that was its own kind of problem if I was discovered.

“I don’t have a choice,” I reminded her, looking pointedly around. “Just promise me that you’ll leave before the ceremony. I don’t know…how it works, if it needs mana from me…but you can’t be here if that happens.”

Her husband was a hermit, and my father would be eager to get back to his ladies of the night, so she wouldn’t face resistance from them.

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