Page 130 of Fated to the Frost King

Bait.Bait for the first attack.

They had come here on purpose. Lured the monsters here…with bait? Winter Fae? More children?

Acid churned in my gut, rising up into my throat. I didn’t get to my feet yet. Instead, I surreptitiously scanned the ground for anything I could use as a weapon. A branch I could stab him in the eye with. A discarded pitchfork from fighting the monsters. Shards, I would settle for a weighty rock.

Or, if all else failed, I could always claw his eyes out instead.

Then I could at least try to run instead of shivering in the snow while they took whatever it was they so clearly needed from me.

Apparently, I wasn’t subtle enough.

Tavrik made a tsking sound as he strode across the snow on eerily silent footsteps.

“That’s enough of that.” His tone was all false cheer, his wings bathing me entirely in his deadly shadow. “Of course we admire your spirit, but you’ll really only wind up hurting yourself.”

He gestured to the treeline, and three more shadows stepped forward just enough for me to make out their bows.

“So come on, there’s no need for us to be uncivilized. Stand up, or I can pick you up like the child you’re behaving as.”

Anger chased away a small amount of the panic, but not all of it. Since his threat was obviously sincere, I got to my feet, trying not to let him see me shiver.

“If you want to be civilized, you could start by not letting children be slaughtered by monsters or freeze half to death.”Or be tortured, I wanted to add. “So, just tell me what you want with me,” I spat, clenching my teeth so they didn’t chatter.

Because it was clear that they had come for me.

The pieces came together like the jagged edges of a puzzle. With the palace warded, guarded, and large enough that neither Draven nor I could ever be lured outside alone, they needed another access point.

So their Seer had told them to come here to my sister’s ruined home. Placed a child far enough away that an ordinary fae couldn’t hear his cry.

To what end? Not to kill me, or I would already be dead.

“The Thane just wants to talk to you. He believes you could come to a…mutually beneficial arrangement.”

I tried to breathe, but the cold burned too deep. I couldn’t even feel my toes anymore.

Whatever the hells a mutually beneficial arrangement was, I wanted no part of it. Not with their Thane. Not with any of them.

Just their proximity had panic rising up in my chest. Already my nails bit into my skin, fresh blood dripping into the snow to meld with all the rest.

“I regretfully decline,” I bit out.

Tavrik opened his mouth to speak again, but another voice cut him off.

“This is taking too long. Just grab her and go. She’s just a Hollow; it’s not like you have to be scared of her.”

Tavrik’s wings went rigid. “The Thane wants her to come willingly.”

“He’d rather her come at all, and we’ll lose any chance of that when her husband comes out. Or did you forget the Frostgrave King is sleeping two hundred feet away.”

I prayed to the Shard Mother that was true. That he was sleeping. That the ring didn’t wake him and send him here, into this trap.

One he would despise me for, even if he didn’t fall victim to it.

Another voice chimed in, female this time. “Perfect, two little Seelie birds with one stone.”

“You’re an idiot, Zerina. The only thing that will happen if King Frosty comes out is that we’ll all be frozen here looking at each other’s ugly faces for eternity. Just get the girl and go.”

“The only idiot here is you, though coward might be a better word,” she mocked. “The king spent all night blasting apart monsters, has wards up here, and there’s no way in the stars that he left his palace unguarded. He is powerful, but he is not the Shard Mother herself, so you can stop shaking in your heeled boots.”

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