Page 36 of A Bride for the Winter King
I crane my neck around to meet the gaze of the Summer bride at the back of the lot. She looks like she’s about to faint, and I arch a brow that says,“Sucks to be us, right?”
She discreetly motions for me to turn back around. On the other side of the fence preventing onlookers from crowding the shooting area of the dunk tank, a different line has formed for the snowballs meant to strike me down.
Daisy beams from the front of the line, waving cheekily at me. My best frenemy showcases the snowball with a devilish grin. Her pink nails dig into the surface as she squeezes it, ready to take her best shot, but the king slices through the crowd to stop her and interrupts her movement at the last possible second.
What the?—
Elio’s arrival sparks a wave of audible gossip in the crowd, the shortest courtiers stretching to their tiptoes. Daisy and Elio are too far away for me to hear their conversation, but I’m good at lip reading.
He leans toward her with a smile and opens his palm. “Can I?”
Daisy offers him a small, delighted bow before passing him the snowball. “Of course.”
They both turn in my direction with their eyes narrowed. I’m not sure which one is looking forward to my fall the most, but the king’s ball is swooped away by the wind. It careens off to the side and away from the bullseye. A smirk glazes my lips, and his failure emboldens me.
I cup my hands in front of my mouth to amplify my voice. “What was that? You throw like a little girl.”
Elio laughs and shouts loud enough for me to hear, “Seth. I don’t know where you are, but you fuck with my ball one moretime, and I’ll have them throw you out of my city.” An evil glint burns deep in his blue eyes as he summons a new snowball to his palm.
I search for Seth in the crowd but find a familiar midnight-blue cape instead. The woman I saw with Elio in the garden last night is here, blending in with the crowd. A big hood still masks her features, and I stretch my neck to see better.
Next thing I know, my breath is knocked out of me by the coldest water I’ve ever felt. By Morpheus and his darkest impulses! People who choose to do this for fun at the spa are absolutelunatics. My skin stings all over, and my pulse swirls. The pain takes me right back to the Shadow Court and the venomous spider bite that almost killed me.
Water seeps inside my ears and mouth like spider silk, and my eyes snap open. The blurry white and blue scenery becomes muddier as I spring up from the bottom of the tank and shoot upwards, but instead of breaking the surface, I slam my head. Hard.
“Careful,” the ice slurs. “He’s coming.”
A painful boom in my skull dizzies me, but I extend my arms to the sky and bump solid ice. Despite the small size of the pool, I can’t find the surface.
I slap the thick frozen wall above my head to no end, quite literally entombed. My lungs burn, and the hurtful boom in my chest tells me I need air, and soon.
My long dark hair snakes at the edge of my vision, and when I look up, I see a younger version of the Winter King gazing down at me through the ice. A soft smile glazes his lips as the lack of oxygen eddies my vision.
There is no air in this watery grave. Nowhere left to run. Only ice, and the promise of the cold, sweet embrace of death.
I’m drowning.
Chapter 15
Kiss the Girls
LORI
Death is nothing like I’d imagined. Blurry and cold, without a big light to walk toward or shiny golden gates to greet me. Definitely no fires of hell, either.
I’m numb all over, and my eyes are shut in acceptance when a thunderous sound echoes in my water-filled ears.
Boom. Boom. Crack.
Before I can form a conscious thought, unfamiliar hands skim my shoulders, trying and failing to get a grip. Someone on the other side of the ice is obviously trying to come to my rescue. So annoying… Can’t they let a girl rest in peace?
A wall of bubbles blurs my vision as someone jumps into the pool beside me. A strong pair of arms wrenches me out of the tank, shattering the silence. I’m not dead, and the realization comes with a butt-load of pain.
Elio’s pupils are dilated, his irises all black as he hauls me out of the pool, supporting my entire weight. Water drips from his fancy black wool coat, his hair soaked and disheveled. I suck in air, water still lodged in my throat, and the sudden, ungraceful gurgle jolts me out of my hypoxia-induced trance.
Elio’s coiled arms relax, and he shoots me the nastiest glare before his lids flutter shut. With a frustrated groan, he dumps me back inside the tank and climbs out.
A woman jumps in behind me and grabs my arm, and I use her as a crutch to grip the ice rim. A series of coughs rocks my body as I spring over it, tumbling stomach-first into the snow. I spurt out another mouthful of water, about to choke on the taste of my own fear. My body gives wild, violent shakes as the Winter bride that came to my aid skips out of the pool and twists the water out of her hair.
