Page 104 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

Leah almost asked if they shouldn’t wait until after she put on the dress, but she knew better and remained silent. She swallowed her anger, hurt, revulsion, swallowed all these words that were now living inside her, festering.

One day she would vomit back all these swallowed words, one day she would, even if she kept them all hidden under a smile—for now.

It made no sense for them to try to threaten her into submission. It was like raising a panther. But then, perhaps they trusted that their leash would never break. And indeed they were giving her a collar. She swallowed as the woman fastened the necklace.

“Venard, dear,” Celia said. “Come and close this. So it doesn’t come off.”

What? They were welding it so it wouldn’t come off? That would be awfully uncomfortable, not to mention how dirty it would get. It could even hurt her. Perhaps it was just for now. Leah didn’t even want to know, all she wanted was to leave that horrid castle and return home.

“Thank you.” Leah smiled again.

“Oh, dear, you’re a jewel who deserves jewels.” Celia smiled as if she really meant the words.

“It looks great.” It was Cassius who said it, and Leah stared at her plate. “You know what looks even better?”

She kept staring down, then felt her necklace getting warm.

“Look at me,” he said. “I’m talking to you.”

She raised her eyes to him, and the warm sensation in the necklace stopped. Cassius took two peaches. “These look better. Look delicious. And I can’t wait to try them. And you know why? Because I get everything I want.”

He stared straight at her, then licked one of the peaches. She couldn’t believe that he was doing that in front of his brother, his grandmother, but then, neither Venard nor Celia were even paying attention.

“Are you going to like it when I try them?” Cassius asked.

Murder and death. Those were the only two thoughts in her mind then. She was going to kill him, no matter what it took.

“Are you?” he insisted.

“Immensely,” she blurted. She hoped he’d choke to death.

Cassius smirked, satisfied.

Lady Celia chuckled and addressed the prince. “Since when are you taken with peaches?”

“Since I saw them.” He kept his eyes on Leah.

Venard was looking down, oblivious. No, he was too still. He was listening. Leah recognized something in him: fear. Like her, he kept his head down and didn’t speak unless spoken to. But it was fear that had turned him into a murderer, fear that kept him from changing anything, that kept him from being a decent person.

But then, here she was, accepting humiliation after humiliation in silence. Would she speak up for someone else? All she wanted was to kill them all. If her father saw her now, he’d be disappointed. Well, no. If he knew what was happening, perhaps he’d be the first to kill them. This was the part that Leah didn’t understand. How did the Ironholds imagine she would go home and everything would be fine? Unless they were so deranged that they thought the way they were treating her was normal. Well, they were deranged, so that likely explained it.

* * *

River wasin the Iron Citadel, profiting from a rare moment when he was unattended. His glamour allowed him to look like a guard, allowing him to move in the castle, and he could go through most doors—not that it was easy, as everything was so well guarded.

He’d been searching, searching, and still wasn’t anywhere close to finding what he was looking for. So much on his shoulders. For someone who once had wanted nothing to do with the duties of the kingdom, this was a big change. Perhaps it was a punishment. It was a punishment. Nobody should see that much death in their lives. His thoughts moved to the past.

20 years before

The good partwas that he was on a boat going to Fernick. The bad part was that he was among enemies. The biggest danger wasn’t being found out, although it was a possibility. The danger was no longer seeing them as enemies. He knew that it was an illusion. There had been hybrid human and fae villages in some kingdoms, and yet when war had broken out, many Ancients had been killed by their own neighbors. It wasn’t something he liked to think about.

River had used his persuasion to avoid doing any work. It wasn’t that he was lazy, although, to be fair, he was lazy. It was mostly that he didn’t know how to do any manual labor and certainly knew nothing about handling a ship. He’d been hired to save them from thieves or any other threat. That, he thought he could do well, as his magic could come in handy.

The ship was called Death Sails. The sea was full of sea-monsters, and the only reason there was a route to the continent was that the Umbraar king traveled here sometimes, spreading his magic, which was strong enough to keep the creatures at bay. Like most Umbraar ships, it was decorated with skulls and other symbols related to death, as they believed it would help keep the monsters away. Hopefully the king’s magic wouldn’t fail now. While River could definitely defend the ship from some thieves, he was thoroughly unqualified to face a gigantic sea serpent, let alone more than one.

While he’d been diligently avoiding work, he hadn’t managed to skip the card games in the quarters. He’d gotten the hang of them easily, and it was the third night he was sitting with Keller and Antonio. The bizarre part? He was starting to like the men. Keller was about sixty-five years old, his fair skin weathered from the sun. He had a wide smile despite having two of his front teeth missing, and spent a lot of his time working on a small wooden figurine, a little doll for his granddaughter, who lived in Formosa.

Antonio was twenty-five, and had dark brown skin and black hair. Soon to be married, he often talked about his fiancee to the point the other men were teasing him. River didn’t mind it. In fact, he saw something captivating in the man’s eyes full of hopes and dreams. Simple dreams, as if one person could hold them all.

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