Page 110 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

“I’m worried about so many more things. I need to get back before they find out I’m gone.”

He stared at her, an odd coldness in his eyes. “So you were lying down, then puff, you were here?”

“I was dreaming a little before.” She then remembered what she knew about Ironhold. “Fel, you have to be careful. Ironhold, they have ironbringers, more than just the royal family. Hundreds. I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

He sighed. “Hundreds? How?”

“They hide them. The princes have… lovers.”

“I am actually getting ready to fight ironbringers, I just had no clue it was that bad.”

“It is. But they have Ironhold soldiers in Frostlake. I think some of them could be ironbringers. If I don’t go back to the Iron Citadel, my parents could be in danger.”

“Oh, isn’t that a lovely family you picked?” He smirked. “At least your husband has two hands, right?”

She shouldn’t have said anything. Of course he was just going to use her words to humiliate her.

He was silent for some time, then said, “Listen. Did someone bring you anywhere, did you see anyone different?”

“No. I was in my room. Alone.”

He nodded. “And you’re afraid for your parents.”

“Yes.”

He picked a long brown leather coat that was lying over a chair and threw it at the bed, beside her. “Put it on. We’ll need to talk to my father.”

The humiliation. The shame. “No. Please. Nobody can know about this.” She hated to plead, but she had to.

He walked to her and took her hands in his, which were now gloved, and looked in her eyes. “Leah. It’s not your fault. You did nothing wrong. I won’t tell anyone what happened in this room, I promise. But I think you might have stepped in the hollow, like a deathbringer. Maybe it’s something to do with your necromancy, I don’t know. My father has death magic, he can help you. I can’t.”

If she weren’t worried about returning to Ironhold because of her parents, she would want to die right at that moment. Just imagining the humiliation was terrible enough. But she put on Fel’s coat, and it was torture because it smelled like him, and it should be a horrible smell, and all it did was make her wish they were still kissing. If he noticed that, he’d probably humiliate her even more.

She looked at him. “Do you promise? Promise you won’t tell?”

“I won’t. But we need to understand what happened, and my father will need to help hide you here.”

“Hide here?”

“If they’re threatening your family, you’re not going back to Ironhold.”

“I have to.”

He glared at her. “Let’s talk to my father.”

He opened the door and checked to see if there was anyone, then gestured for her to follow him. Hide here. It could be her escape. It would be her ruin, too. Fel didn’t want her. She would be putting her family in danger and ruining her reputation forever. But it could be her way to escape Ironhold—like a coward, only to be shunned and humiliated again, and to put her parents at risk.

They opened a thick wooden door and came to an office with maps on walls and a table with piles and piles of papers on them. King Azir sat behind a desk, across from a guard. Fel stepped in front of Leah, so that she was hidden from view.

“I need to speak with my father in private,” Fel said.

“Go,” King Azir told the man, who walked away.

When the king saw Leah, he looked between Leah and his son.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Fel said.

“You don’t even know what I’m thinking,” Azir replied.

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