Page 70 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

“Right.” Arry looked down.

“Fel!” A girl’s voice called him. He could recognise that sound anywhere, and now he wished he could disappear. It was quite unfair that he hadn’t inherited his father’s deathbringing.

Christine was then in front of him. “How was the gathering?”

“I’ll discuss it later with the concerned parties.” Not with her, he meant. He didn’t want to talk to her.

“I’m just asking. As a friend.”

Fel shrugged. “It was fine. I… have things to do. If you excuse me.”

He turned around and ran to the barracks. Christine. Not long ago, he’d fancied himself in love with her. She was beautiful, and had cute freckles on her face. Since she was Sivan’s daughter, Fel had ended up very interested in the manufacturing of weapons, and coming here a lot more often than he should.

Eventually he had kissed her—then it all crumbled away when she flinched. Just a flinch, and all his illusions of love were gone. A flinch when he touched her with his fake hand. If he had thought her voice was melodious, now he found it annoying. For some reason, his feelings turned into repulsion, and it got worse as she kept pursuing him.

That gave him hope. It meant that his illusions of love for Leah should also crumble soon, right? After all, that letter had been much worse than flinching. And yet it was taking too long. Way too long.

* * *

Monstrous,magnificent, horrid. The Ironhold castle was all these things at once, but if Leah were to pick one description, it would be monumental—or perhaps fearsome.

At a first glance, it looked like the peak of a mountain, but it was a silver peak, all made of some wrought iron, shining in the sun. That thing had to have at least some twenty floors, shaped like a steep hill, surrounded by what looked like a moat from a distance. Perhaps it was a mountain surrounded by the castle. She couldn’t believe that it would be just a building, couldn’t even fathom how they had erected such a thing. The enormity of that man-made structure made her shiver, such unnaturalness dominating the landscape as if to tell everyone that here humans were the ones who ruled over nature. Ironbringers.

Even then, how long had it taken for a family to build that colossal thing? She had never taken the Ironholds for hard workers, but perhaps they could do it fast. That explained why Venard had said Fel’s magic was pitiful. Fel. Just his name was a stab opening a pit of pain for something that would never be true. And yet, Venard didn’t exude that magic that the Umbraar prince did. Maybe it was just different. Or maybe it had been buried under their evil ways.

The truth was that any castle would be terrifying for someone arriving there with two horrible people who’d been threatening to hurt her. The very first hours with her new family didn’t bode well for her future. Leah had to find a way to undo this, to undo the wedding, to go back home. Lady Celia’s hard eyes on her reminded her that it wouldn’t be easy. Venard was again looking outside, as if Leah were none of his business.

Lady Celia smiled. “Impressed?”

Leah decided to be polite and play the game they wanted her to play. “A lot. It’s… majestic.” The word that had come to her mind at first had been monstrous, but she was glad she’d fixed it in time.

The woman’s smile was warm. “Your new home, darling. You’ll be majestic too.”

Leah nodded, then looked outside. Friendly Lady Celia managed to be unsettling.

“Look at me, girl,” the woman said. Leah turned to her. She still had that warm smile that didn’t even look fake. “From today on, you’ll also be my granddaughter. Everything I do, it’s because I care for you, because I want you to be truly a part of our family. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Yes. Of course.” Leah tried to smile, but she didn’t think the result was great.

“Well, then, behave and be a good girl, and you’ll have a lovely, happy life. It’s quite easy.”

Right. Except for the part where Leah would regret living if by any chance she were pregnant. Unless… could a kiss get someone pregnant? No, that would ruin a girl. It was something Fel had avoided. He had left her room so that nothing compromising would happen between them, so she couldn’t have gotten pregnant. He had seemed so respectful, so… It was better not to think about him, or that little glimpse of happiness would only make her current reality even gloomier. This reality where the next day he’d forgotten about Leah and had wished her good luck with her marriage prospects. Eerily similar to the story her mother had told her. The story Leah had thought would never happen to her. Yet here she was, the Iron Citadel looking more and more immense by the minute.

When they approached it, she realized that the castle wasn’t circled by a moat, but by a circular cliff, which also looked man made. It didn’t look so much like a hill from this distance, as she could see columns and sharp angles in that gigantic castle. A humongous bridge led to the front gate. Leah shivered, noticing that the bridge had no foundations. Instead, it stood suspended in nothingness, and a fall from that height would be deadly. Of course the bridge wasn’t going to fall, or it wouldn’t still be standing. But Leah avoided looking out the window as they crossed it, her stomach feeling cold and hollow.

Lady Celia had an amused smile. “Scared of heights?”

“A little,” Leah croaked.

“We’re getting there. Make the right choices, uh? I truly, truly want us to get along.”

“That’s also my wish,” Leah lied.

She wanted to toss that woman from the bridge. In fact, she was wondering if it would be terrible if the bridge broke. Leah didn’t want to die, but she wouldn’t mind seeing her husband and grandmother-in-law dead. Wild. She hadn’t spent a day with them and was already wishing them dead. Those were bad thoughts. Death wasn’t something for humans to decide or to wish. She knew that. And maybe all she wanted was to get out of this place, and then nobody would need to get hurt. Especially her.

The carriage stopped, and Leah shivered, now dreading what she was about to face. But then, perhaps it would be fine, perhaps it had been just a stern warning to scare her, perhaps she wasn’t going to be hurt or threatened anymore.

Venard was the first one out. He helped his grandmother out of the carriage, and only then extended his arm to Leah, who took it. In such little time, her feelings for him had turned from indifference and some curiosity to disgust and revulsion. But holding his arm wasn’t going to kill her.

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