Page 62 of Fated to the Frost King

Nausea rolled through me, and I clenched my fists to keep from shaking. I had prepared for death. But of all the terrible things Draven could have done in response,thiswas the one I should have been concerned about.

In so many ways, death would be preferable to the mages.

The force of my nails reopened the puncture wounds on my palms, and I used the pain to ground myself, sucking in a breath.

“No,” I bit out the word, and he slowly turned to face me.

His expression hardened even more than before. The sharp angles of features were more prominent as he worked his jaw.

“No?” he repeated, and it was less a question than a challenge.

Mirelda’s hasty footsteps echoed through the bedroom until she disappeared into the bathing chamber, shutting the door with a soft click. Even Batty crawled away to hide behind the pillow.

“What possible point could there be in going?” I hissed under my breath. “Your very own Heartstone just confirmed that I am, in fact, a Hollow.”

I kept my voice pitched low, conscious that Mirelda was on the other side of the door. Draven had no such concern. His voice was the same deep timbre as always when he responded.

“Whether either of us likes it or not, you are the queen of Winter. Fate would not have chosen someone without a shred of mana,” he reasoned, his fists clenching at his sides just long enough to let me know even he wasn’t sure about that.

There was no way Mirelda hadn’t heard him. Perhaps he trusted her explicitly then, or just didn’t care if the whole frost-damned palace heard about his magically defunct bride.

“Yet here we are,” I gestured sarcastically around us, not bothering to keep my voice down either now.

“Yes, here we are. And soon, here we will be at the Sanctum, finding a way to access your frost-blasted power.” His tone was solid authority made of chiseled ice.

I nearly laughed, disbelief swallowing my panic in the only defense I could dredge up for myself.

“Sure thing,” I said blithely, throwing the bedcovers to the side and rising to stand in front of him. “I’ll just close my eyes and think really hard until I can call upon all the mana Idon’t possess.” I took a deep, irritable breath. “You may control this kingdom, but even you do not control the Shard Mother. And you cannot simplywillmana into my veins when she has already refused it.”

Batty hissed at him from behind the pillow, and I appreciated the show of solidarity.

Draven stared down at me, his shoulders rising and falling in time with his breaths. He took another step closer, and I resisted the urge to back away.

Pure, unadulterated power rolled off of him in waves. The strength of his mana was so intense, so heady, it nearly crushed my lungs. And I wondered, just for a moment, if I was wrong. If he really was strong enough to will the Shard Mother into giving me the mana she had denied me until this point.

“You will find a way, or the mages will help you do so,” he said, his baritone rumbling through me.

“And when they can’t? I have been subject to mages before, and they have done more harm than good, so when you realize that history is repeating itself, what will be your grand plan then?”

“More harm?” He narrowed his eyes. “What could possibly be worse than being a Hollow?”

I reared back like he had slapped me. There was no way in all of the hells he didn’t know what methods the mages employed. A gust of wind didn’t blow through this palace without his permission.

Did he honestly think that a tortured, scarred child was an improvement over a healthy one without mana because at least they had tried to access the power they were denied?

“Well, marriage to you was certainly a start,” I spat, not about to give him a single other vulnerable piece of myself.

A muscle clenched in his jaw. “I feel exactly the same about you, Morta Mea. Regardless, you will go willingly or I will drag you behind the sledge, but one way or another, you will accompany me to Veilreach Sanctum.”

There was nothing I could say to that. He had all the power here, and as usual, I had none. No mana. No authority over him. Not even the paltry defense my dagger would have offered.

I refused to give him the satisfaction of nodding, but he must have felt my resignation all the same because he spun on his heel and left the room without bothering to make any more threats.

For as much as I had once begged the Shard Mother to get me out of that frost-forsaken palace, I was on the verge of begging her to return there now.

The sledge lurched like a drunken kelpie on ice, rattling over another unseen rut while the wind shrieked around us like it was trying to tear the world in two. Snow slammed against the windows in thick, blinding waves, and whatever road we were following had long since vanished under a sea of white.

We were crawling blindly through the mountain pass, and it felt like the storm was daring us to keep going.

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