Page 88 of Fates Fulfilled
The king’s eyes narrowed.
Lex squeezed Garrin’s arm. “We can’t go. It’s too dangerous.”
He slid his palm to hers, some wild emotion filling his face. “We’re outnumbered.”
“And going with your father is safer than staying? Let’s fight.”
“Don’t be a fool, Dark Prince,” Isle cried out. “Your father will destroy Lexandra just as he destroyed so many others.”
The wave of power that followed hit Lex so hard that she stumbled back. When she regained her bearings, her mother’s expression was frozen, entombed in ice.
Shock filled her, and then tears rushed to her eyes. “Mom!”
“Don’t do this!” Garrin shouted at his father.
Lex lurched toward her mother and slammed her fist against the ice, whirls of condensation floating up. Isle’s pale face was suspended in outrage.
“Remove it! Let her go!” Lex screamed, attempting to re-create Garrin’s power, as she’d done inside the alcove, and break her mother free. But her mind was filled with emotion, and nothing stuck.
“Now, now, Lexandra,” the king said. “Anger won’t help. You wish your mother free?”
Lex swiveled her head toward the king. “Let. Her. Go.”
A sickly smile spread across the king’s face. “Not until you come with me, child. Then I will set your mother free.”
Was “setting her free” some sort of euphemism for death?
Lex looked at Garrin, but he was staring at his father, the color leached from his face.
“It’s up to you, son. More of this”—the king gestured to Lex’s mom—“or we can return to my castle and discuss what I want from your future bride. If that is what she truly is to you.”
A sour taste filled Lex’s mouth. The king knew she wasn’t here to marry Garrin. Knew what Mertha had told Felix. And considering his reaction to Lex sensing Felix’s magic, he knew something of her ability too.
Garrin surged toward his father. “What do you want? Tell me!”
The soldiers surrounding the Dark King unsheathed their swords, protecting him in a starburst of metal. “The girl first,” the king said.
“Never!” Garrin roared. “You’ll never have her.”
“Have her? Son, I don’t wish to possess her. You have my word. Your bride is safe in my castle.”
Garrin’s chest rose and fell. He looked around the room at the dozens of soldiers standing behind his father. Likely more they couldn’t see beyond the cave entrance.
With only ten of them left.
He turned to her and cupped her jaw. “We must go.”
Lex shook her head. How had it come to this? They’d escaped the castle, made their way to the grave caves everyone feared, and were so close to escape. Or had they been? Had the king toyed with them all along?
Lex had never believed herself safe in the Land of Ice. But she’d felt invincible in Garrin’s arms. And now, even Garrin worried.
She couldn’t blame him. The power the Dark King wielded… Her mother hadn’t even time to close her eyes before she was enshrined.
Perhaps the king would honor his word and keep Lex safe, but would he give the same courtesy to his son? A son born out of wedlock, who might not be considered an heir?
Em shuffled over, her face red from crying, and handed Lex her coat.
The way the king had treated Em’s parents and Isle… Lex looked up at Garrin pleadingly. “We can’t agree to this.”
