Page 112 of A Bride for the Winter King
Breathing in the air I’m breathing, and talking with my lips.
Setting down roots…
“I knew you were the chosen one. The other queens were too weak to withstand my influence, but you were tailor-made for me. A Shadow huntress with the skills needed to do what I couldn’t,” she explains.
Get out of my mind! I won’t let you use my body.
“The curse made you so I could finally be made flesh again. I’m so grateful to you, sister.”
No!
Curses might have a mind of their own, but I refuse to believe that the gods made me to serve as a second-hand body.
Iris prods at my memories, stomping around my brain as though it’s hers for the taking.“Do you know how lonely mydeath has been? I can only appear to the Winter Queen as part of the inheritance she gets when she’s crowned. Except for you, of course. You could see and hear me well before Elio infected you with his ice.”
Wait a minute… you’ve been jumping from queen to queen ever since you fled Sara and the afterlife? You’re the one who’s been killing Elio’s wives, one after the other?
“Like I said. They were too weak, but I knew my patience would one day be rewarded. Lightbringer men only use and abuse their partners. I’ve had years to mull things over, and Ezra was as much of a coward as his brother. You think I’m the villain, but you weren’t there. Elio spent all his time playing the piano and moping around, desperate to suppress the power within him instead of embracing it. One day, you’ll thank me for sparing you a lifetime with him. You’ll see.”
Our emotions blur together, and for a moment, I’m gripped by a flash of hatred. My mouth is pasty and dry, my heart pounding as if it’s trying to escape my chest—or Iris’s influence.
“Elio only cared about stupid poems and silly traditions. He never gave a damn about me or how empty I felt under his rule. In this cold, sterile castle.”
Tears wet my cheeks, and Iris angrily wipes them away.
You lied to him and married him under false pretenses.
“I wanted to be immortal. And now I finally am. You and I are going to kill the Winter King, once and for all. And when it’s done, I’ll finally be aliveandfree.”
My knuckles clench around the edge of the duvet as I try to raise hell and warn Elio, but my eyelids are heavy, and a languid ache lulls me toward oblivion.
“Rest now, sister. I’ll take care of things for a while.”
The faint echoes of my heartbeat wane, creating a rhythmic thud that merges with the heavy silence dulling my senses. Icatch only distant, fleeting scents—cold and metallic, like damp iron.
I can feel myself slipping away into a tiny, drugging crevice within my body—a cell far worse than the Spring jail or Murkwood could ever be. A prison within myself. No ice. No warmth.
Nothing.
Chapter 46
Rotten to the Core
ELIO
Daylight blares through the tower window as I crack one eye open. I stir awake and reach out for the empty space next to me. “Lori?”
My lovely bride stands in front of the mirror, examining herself. The Winter crown Thanatos granted her during last night’s ritual is no longer resting on top of her loose, messy black waves, but the new power flowing in her veins makes her gray eyes appear white as snow in the reflection.
I roll out of bed, eager to hold her in my arms again. “You look…fucking beautiful, Your Highness.” I bow, coaxing a smile out of her.
She inspects her hands, cracking each finger one by one and rolling her wrists back and forth.
“Rough night?” I curl an arm around her frame and caress her smooth, bare thigh with my other hand.
“Not at all,” she answers. “It was wonderful, actually.”
The lull of sleep fades, replaced by a smoldering desire to make her mine again. I want to spend weeks with her in our bed. And in the hot springs. I want to take her through the provinces,just the two of us, and show her the wonders of our kingdom. We’ll take moonlit strolls under the stars, barefoot in the snow—preferably naked.
